The Security Service of Ukraine or SBU has discovered and raided a cryptocurrency mining farm that allegedly stole electricity from the country's power grid. But instead of findings computers, the agency found racks with thousands of PS4 Pros stacked vertically side-by-side. As reported by Kotaku, the Ukrainian authorities confiscated over 5,000 gaming-related devices — 3,800 of which were consoles — from a warehouse right next to (and formerly owned by) the Vinnytsiaoblenergo energy distribution company. 

It's the largest cryptofarm the SBU has discovered so far, and the agency believes it's being operated by people living in the cities of Kyiv and Vinnytsia. Apparently, the operators used special electricity meters to prevent authorities from discovering the theft, which amounted to as much as US$257,000. "At the same time," the SBU wrote in its announcement, "the illegal withdrawal of electricity could lead to more global consequences — entire neighborhoods of Vinnytsia could be left without electricity." 

Vinnytsiaoblenergo denied any involvement in a statement sent to the Kyiv Post: "The equipment used for cryptocurrency mining has never operated on premises owned by our enterprise." It also said that it didn't find any evidence of electric theft and that the SBU's findings "does not correspond to reality." While it's unclear at the moment whether the facility truly stole electricity or not, the SBU has published images of the PS4 Pros it found at the warehouse, which you can see below. As Kotaku notes, 3,800 consoles mean an investment of around US$1,500,000, assuming all of them are PS4 Pros.

SBU

The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have charged a man they claim sold insider trading tips on the dark web. Apostolos Trovias allegedly used anonymizing software, pseudonyms (he is said to have gone by the nickname "The Bull") and bitcoin to mask his identity.

According to the complaint, Trovias sold stock information individually and on a subscription basis on defunct black market AlphaBay and other sites on the dark web. He's said to have styled himself as a “hedge fund insider” who worked in a trading branch as an office clerk.

In 2017, not long before authorities seized and shut down AlphaBay, Trovias allegedly sold an undercover Internal Revenue Service agent pre-release earnings report information for at least one publicly traded company. He is facing one count of money laundering (which has a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison) and one count of securities fraud, which could lead to a prison sentence of 25 years if Trovias is convicted.

The complaint was filed in February but kept sealed until after Trovias was apprehended. He was arrested in Peru in May, according to a filing spotted by PCMag, which notes the US Government was working on extraditing him.

Others have been charged or convicted in connection with AlphaBay activity. In February 2020, feds charged Larry Harmon for allegedly running a $300 million bitcoin money laundering scheme. Last September, Bryan Connor Herrell was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Herrell was a moderator for AlphaBay and resolved disputes between vendors and customers. He pled guilty to conspiring to engage in a racketeer influenced corrupt organization.

The mastermind behind what the government says is one of the largest cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes prosecuted in the US has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. While crypto scams have been getting increasingly common, Swedish citizen Roger Nils-Jonas Karlsson defrauded thousands of victims and stole tens of millions of dollars over a period that lasted almost a decade. He pleaded guilty to securities and wire fraud, as well as money laundering charges on March 4th. 

According to the Department of Justice, Karlsson ran his fraudulent investment scheme from 2011 until he was arrested in Thailand in 2019. He targeted financially insecure individuals, such as seniors, persuading them to use cryptocurrency to purchase shares in a business he called "Eastern Metal Securities." Based on information from court documents, he promised victims huge payouts tied to the price of gold, but the money they handed over wasn't invested at all. It was moved to Karlsson's personal bank accounts instead and used to purchase expensive homes and even resorts in Thailand.

To keep his scheme running for almost a decade, he'd rebrand and would show victims account statements in an effort to convince them that their funds are secure. Karlsson would then give them various excuses for payout delays and even falsely claimed to be working with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During the sentencing, US District Judge Charles R. Breyer ordered his Thai resorts and accounts to be forfeited. He was also ordered to pay his victims in the amount of $16,263,820.

Acting US Attorney Stephanie Hinds of the Northern District of California said:

"The investigation into Roger Karlsson’s fraud uncovered a frighteningly callous scheme that lasted more than a decade during which Karlsson targeted thousands of victims, including financially vulnerable seniors, to callously rob them of their assets and all to fuel an extravagant lifestyle surrounded by luxury condominiums and lavish international vacations. The court's decision to order a 180-month prison term reflects the fact that Karlsson’s cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme is one of the largest to be sentenced to date and ensures that Karlsson now will have plenty of time to think about the harm he has caused to his victims."

Netflix has purchased a documentary on the "Tinder Swindler," who tricked women he met on the dating app into giving him millions of dollars. The notorious con-man pretended to be Russian oligarch Simon Leviev, the son of Russian-Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev. He would take his victims — mostly Scandinavian women — on trips via private jets, stay with them in luxury hotels and treat them to expensive dinners. In truth, he's an Israeli man named Shimon Hayut, who fled to Europe twice to escape theft, forgery and fraud charges in his home country. 

Online dating scams have been fairly common these past years, with con-artists using every available outlet into finding potential victims. According to the FTC, losses to romance scams reached a record $304 million last year. And that's just for the scams Americans reported to the agency. The Tinder Swindler hit the headlines for living a jet set lifestyle, though, with previous victims funding his efforts into wooing his current ones. 

Hayut would spend months pretending to be in a relationship with his targets before he begins asking them for money, usually pretending to be in trouble to ask his current "girlfriend" for help. Norwegian publication VG spent six months tracking Hayut and got in contact with two of his most recent victims. One of the women it interviewed said she had to take out loans to help him out and ended up being scammed out of 2.1 Norwegian Krones (US$244,000). 

Netflix's documentary will be produced by the makers of Three Identical Strangers and Don't F*** With Cats, both of which are also available on the streaming platform. It will also be directed by Felicity Morris of Don't F*** With Cats. Variety says it will follow the women Hayut conned as they "uncover his true identity and bring him to justice." The Tinder Swindler was arrested by Greek police back in 2019 and was extradited to Israel, but he was released last year after only serving five months of a 15 month sentence. Half a year later, in December 2020, he allegedly pretended to be a paramedic to get a COVID—19 vaccine shot early — and then posted a video of the event on Instagram. 

It seems more and more law enforcement agents are trying to use online platforms' copyright-takedown measures to prevent videos that show them in a bad light from being shared online. A California police officer has tried to use the tactic on a BLM protestor at the Alameda Country courthouse by playing Taylor Swift's Blank Space, as reported by The Washington Post and Variety. His attempt failed, though, and it even backfired spectacularly: The video has almost 800,000 views on Twitter as of this writing, as well as 300,000 views on YouTube. 

The protestor was at the courthouse for the pretrial hearing of Jason Fletcher, the police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter for killing Steven Taylor, a Black man, inside a Walmart. In the video posted by the Anti Police-Terror Project, you'll hear the officer admit that he played the popular Swift song so that it gets a copyright strike on Google's video platform. "You can record all you want, I just know it can't be posted on YouTube," he said. 

When asked if there's an administrative regulation telling cops to play copyrighted music to prevent videos from being shared, the officer replied: "Not that I know of." Alameda County sheriff's office spokesperson Sgt. Ray Kelly told The Post that there's no policy barring what the officer did in the video, but that the office does not "condone" his behavior.

Back in February, several police officers in Beverly Hills had also been caught on video seemingly trying to get a prominent LA activist banned from Instagram by triggering is copyright filters. They kept playing songs while being filmed, including Sublime's Santeria and The Beatles' Yesterday. 

Chessie Thacher, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Northern California, told The Post that the tactic "does seem to be a trend right now." Thacher added: "People have the right to film the police, and efforts by the police to infringe on this right are unconstitutional. So if they're using copyright laws to prevent people from exercising their right — and amplifying what they’re seeing — then that's a real problem."

Maine has passed the strongest statewide law regulating government use of facial recognition to date. The state’s House and Senate voted unanimously in favor of rules that prohibit law enforcement from using the technology unless they have probable cause that an unidentified person in an image committed a serious crime. Once the law goes into effect later this year, it will also limit how police conduct facial ID searches. They won’t have direct access to the tech. Instead, they’ll need to go through the FBI and Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) in the few instances where they’re sanctioned to use it.

Additionally, the law affords citizens the right to sue the state if they believe a government agency has used the technology unlawfully. It also prohibits Maine from deploying facial recognition systems in schools, and mandates that both Maine State Police and the BMV will need to maintain public records of search requests from law enforcement.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the bill “stands in sharp contrast” to Washington state’s SB 6280, the only other statewide law in the US governing the use of facial recognition. That bill was sponsored and primarily written by a current Microsoft employee. It has also been criticized by privacy advocates for giving police too many opportunities to use the technology for surveillance purposes.