Posts Tagged ‘Authorities’

Chinese hacker school shut down – v3.co.uk – 8 Feb 2010

A report in the China Daily newspaper claims that the country’s biggest hacker training site has been shut down by the authorities.

The paper said that three people have been arrested, and that assets to the value of ¥1.7m (£160,000) have been seized, suggesting that the site was big business.

The Black Hawk Safety Net site was set up in 2005, and had some 12,000 members, all of whom may have paid up to ¥2,000 (£190) for training in hacking and other online criminal activities.

A further 170,000 people were registered on the site, but had not paid a fee and had received only low level hacking tips and tricks, according to the report.

The authorities seized a number of web servers, five computers and a car.

China’s recently created anti-hacking laws make it illegal to attack software and other computer programs.

However the country’s reputation has recently been tarnished by allegations that hackers from the region have been involved in cyber attacks on Google and UK businesses.

By David Neal

Allen Stanford trial set for 2011

The trial of alleged fraudster Allen Stanford will not take place until 2011, a judge has ruled.

Mr Stanford is accused of carrying out a $7 billion Ponzi scheme at his offshore bank in Antigua.

As he is deemed a flight risk by US authorities, he will spend the year before his January 2011 trial in custody.

The start date of the trial was a compromise between prosecutors, who wished to begin the trial in September 2010, while defence lawyers were pushing for a summer 2011 date in order to better prepare their case.

His chief financial officer James Davis has already pleaded guilty to fraud while Mr Stanford himself has denied all charges.

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Visa and MasterCard hit by Hungarian fine

Authorities in Hungary have fined Visa Europe, MasterCard and some of the country’s biggest commercial banks after ruling that they formed an illegal bank card fee cartel.

According to Reuters, GVH – the competition authority – found the three parties guilty of limiting competition by creating and maintaining an interchange fee structure.

MasterCard and Visa were hit with a combined fine of $2.6 million, while the country’s financial institutions were ordered to pay a total penalty of $5.25 million – of which $1.52 million was levied against OTB Bank, the largest institution of its kind in Hungary.

Chairman of the GVH ruling panel Tihamer Toth said at a news conference that “competition between the two card firms and the card-accepting banks was distorted and limited” as a result of the cartel.

However, all parties have denied any wrongdoing and Visa and MasterCard both stated that they plan to appeal.

The GVS was established in 1990 and aims to promote “fairness and freedom” in relation to competition in markets in Hungary.

US pair charged over ATM fraud

Authorities in the US have charged two men with running an $80 million Ponzi scheme.

US pair charged over ATM fraud

Vance Moore II and Walter Netschi have been accused of orchestrating the fraud through the use of a number of automatic teller machines (ATMs) placed in shops and hotels around the country.

The pair are said to have attracted investors by telling them they would make money from the charges levied for use of the cash dispensers, but they instead used the cash to “further the fraudulent scheme and to enrich themselves” rather than purchase ATMs.

It is alleged that over the course of the scheme – which ran from 2005 until January 2008 – the pair told investors that collectively they had bought around 4,000 cash machines.

However, approximately 90% of these either did not exist or were not owned by Moore and Netschi.

UBS and US government reach tax dispute deal

UBS has reached an agreement with the US government that will result in the Swiss bank settling a dispute over tax evasion out of court.

Stuart Gibson, US justice department lawyer, said that both parties have settled on the details of a contract.

However, Mr Gibson added that it will “take a little time for the agreements to be signed in final form”.

Details of the arrangement, such as how many names of the US customers that hold offshore accounts at UBS will be revealed to the government, were not divulged.

Florida-based tax lawyer William Sharp told the Associated Press that it is unlikely that such a move would have been made without a “substantial handover” of details.

He predicted that “at least several hundred, if not thousands” of names have been supplied to the authorities.

Shares in UBS fell earlier this week due to the ongoing negotiations, but have now rebounded on the news.

Julian Tzolov apprehended by Department of Justice

(Bloomberg) — Julian Tzolov, the fugitive former Credit Suisse Group AG broker who was charged with bail jumping, has been arrested, Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Daniel Spector said in a letter to court filed today. Authorities in Marbella, Spain have taken Tzolov into custody following an international manhunt after he disappeared in New York in May.

Tzolov, who’s accused of fraudulently selling clients subprime mortgages linked to auction-rate securities, was declared a fugitive in June.

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U.S. Financial Planner Arrested on Fraud Charges

A U.S. money manager who helped start a financial planning firm has been arrested on charges of defrauding clients of millions of dollars by stealing from their accounts, authorities said Wednesday.


NEW YORK – A U.S.

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FBI Investigates 2 SEC Attorneys

Two enforcement lawyers at the Securities and Exchange Commission are being investigated by federal prosecutors and the FBI for possible insider-trading violations, according to a report from the SEC’s inspector general.

The criminal investigation, which was disclosed to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro in a March 3 memo, came about after SEC Inspector General H.

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Indiana Money Manager Mentally Fit For Trial

A troubled Indiana money manager accused of trying to fake his death and escape financial ruin by parachuting before crashing his plane is competent for a June trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled Marcus Schrenker, 38, should face trial on charges of intentionally crashing the single-engine Piper Malibu on Jan.

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UK : Shocking increase in fraud levels

The Liberal Democrat’s treasury spokesman Vince Cable has claimed that the recent increase in fraud “is truly shocking”.

Speaking to the Times, the British politician said that there are a growing number of mortgage fraud cases being unveiled amid the economic downturn and warned regulators to be on their guard for people turning to financial crime as a result of the recession.

His comments were made following new research from the Times, which found that the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) had banned over 50 per cent more finance firms from practicing over the last year.

A total of 107 firms were prohibited from operating, 33 per cent of which were in the mortgages sector.

Mortgage brokers Peter and James Dean of Dorset became the latest firm to be banned by the FSA over regulatory failures last week.

Mr Cable claimed “it is essential that the authorities remain vigilant” to the potential fraud threat.

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