Earlier today, the U.S. government shut down Megaupload.com, one of the largest and longest running cyberlockers in the business.
Its founders and a handful of employees have been arrested, as well, and charged with copyright infringement.
The indictment and arrests come just one day after major websites including Wikipedia and Google staged anti-SOPA “blackouts.” SOPA was created to fight piracy, but has seen massive criticism due to its ability to shut down sites with very little appeal time, at the behest of media companies or other content owners.
Megaupload and its owners are accused of taking over $500 million from copyright holders due to piracy, and cashing in on $175 million in profits from ads and premium subscriptions.
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Result for: conspiracy
According to the Wall Street Journal an Apple employee has been arrested and charged with selling secrets to Asian suppliers in exchange for over $1 million in kickbacks.
Paul Shin Devine, who is one of Apple’s global supply managers, was charged “with offenses that include wire fraud, money laundering and unlawful monetary transactions,” which began in 2006.
Devine was charged in a federal grand jury indictment.
Says the Journal: “Devine came up with a scheme in which he supplied companies such as Cresyn Co. in South Korea, Kaedar Electronics Co. in China and Jin Li Mould Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. in Singapore with confidential information that would let them negotiate favorable contracts with Apple.”
“The indictment and civil suit claim that in return, Mr. Devine demanded payments, which were sent to bank accounts in his wife’s name in amounts that were small enough to avoid attention.”
The indictment also names Andrew Ang, who worked for one of Apple’s suppliers, and who is charged with wire fraud and conspiracy. Devine shared the kickback money with Ang, who brokered the deals between Jin Li and Apple.
Result for: conspiracy
Albert Gonzalez, the 28 year old hacker convicted of stealing and reselling over 170 million credit and ATM card numbers, has received 20 years in prison for his role in over 20 counts of identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud and conspiracy that led to $200 million in losses for banks, insurers and retail companies.
The hacker stole the credit card numbers using sql injection and packet sniffer malware software to create backdoors into the corporate systems of retailer chains TJX Companies, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority and Dave & Buster’s. Gonazalez and two other conspirators also used wardriving, hacking using accessible Wi-Fi in retail stores.
At the time of his arrest Gonzalez forfeited his Miami condo, a 2006 BMW 330i, thousands of dollars in jewelry and $2.7 million USD in cash.
