U.S. Seeks to Grab $300 Million in Uzbek Telecom Bribe Probe
The Justice Department is seeking to seize $300 million claimed to be the proceeds of an international bribery conspiracy involving two Russian phone companies, as the U.S. joins a group of European nations in a telecom corruption probe. The U.S. claims VimpelCom Ltd., part-owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, and Mobile TeleSystems OJSC used […]
US teen facing 15 years in prison for Internet aid to IS
A tech-savvy US teen pleaded guilty Thursday to using social media to aid the Islamic State group, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison, the Justice Department said. Ali Shukri Amin, 17, a resident of Virginia, admitted to providing advice and encouragement to IS and its supporters, US prosecutors said. Under the […]
Hunting for Hackers, N.S.A. Secretly Expands Internet Spying at U.S. Border
WASHINGTON — Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency‘s warrant-less surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified N.S.A. documents. In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, […]
Wikipedia Sues NSA for Mass Internet Surveillance
Wikipedia is suing the NSA over surveillance programs that involve tapping internet traffic en masse from communications infrastructure in the U.S. in order to search it for intelligence purposes. The lawsuit argues that this broad surveillance, revealed in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, violates the First Amendment by chilling speech and the […]
Investigation finds 741 tax returns filed from single Belle Glade home
A small South Florida city has attracted the attention of federal investigators looking into tax refund fraud and identity theft, according to an independent watchdog agency that oversees the Internal Revenue Service. In Belle Glade, nestled along Lake Okeechobee, 741 tax returns worth more than $1 million in refunds were filed from a single address […]
Dutch bank hit with record fine for passing money through U.S. financial entities on behalf of Cuban and Iranian clients
In the largest fine ever assessed against a financial institution for violating U.S. sanctions on Cuba and Iran, Netherlands-based ING Bank will pay $619 million to the U.S. government, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. ING agreed to pay the fine for secretly moving more than $2 billion through U.S. financial institutions in 20,000 transactions from […]
Anti-SOPA Internet Society under fire for hiring MPAA executive
The Internet Society is hardly a fan of the Stop Online Piracy Act or the Protect IP Act. The venerable non-profit, which acts as the umbrella organization for the Internet’s key standards bodies, bluntly warns that the pair of copyright laws would end the “viability of the Internet.” Which is why ISOC’s decision this month […]
Indicted Fort Lauderdale brothers facing new federal fraud charges
Already charged with running one of Florida’s biggest investment scams, Fort Lauderdale brothers Joel Steinger and Steven Steiner were arrested again Wednesday in connection with a new fraud conspiracy. A federal prosecutor known as Steinger a “serial” prison for allegedly conspiring along with his brother to create dummy companies that bilked $three million from health […]
Vint Cerf: Internet access isn’t a human right
Although some countries around the world argue that Internet access is a fundamental right, one of the “fathers of the Internet,” Vint Cerf, doesn’t see it that way. “Technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself,” Cerf, who is also a Google’s chief Internet evangelist, wrote yesterday in an editorial in The New […]
Stop Online Piracy Act Vote Delayed
The House Judiciary Committee considering whether to send the Stop Online Piracy Act to the House floor abruptly adjourned Friday with no new vote date set — a surprise given that the bill looked certain to pass out of committee. The committee’s chairman and chief sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), agreed to […]