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Tag: Fraud

  • How to protect your small business from fraud – MoneySense

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    Last year, Jeff Brown, head of commercial solutions at Equifax Canada, saw a surge in digitally enabled scams in the construction industry. Criminals claiming to be a legitimate contractor would order supplies that could not be easily identified, such as lumber or plumbing parts, for delivery to a supposed job site — only there was no job site, and the orders were a scam. By the time the real contractor knew what was happening, the materials had been sold on the black market and the fraudsters had cleared out.

    “Business-to-business relationships tend to operate on net payment terms. What that means is you can have products delivered to a non-standard location and those products don’t have to be paid to the supplier for 30 days,” says Brown. “That buffer can operate as a getaway window for scammers.”

    Having worked a few times, the scam spreads. “When scammers see something they’re able to take advantage of, they double down and it becomes a trend that eventually can become a systemic issue,” says Brown.

    Why small companies are attractive targets for fraud

    Small businesses like contractors have particular attributes that can make them appealing targets for fraudsters, including:

    • They deal in bigger numbers than most consumers do. “The average working capital loan for a small business is around $40,000,” says Brown.
    • Small business owners are often unaware of their credit standing and may not be keeping track of their company’s credit reporting.
    • Business credit information is more readily available than personal credit information because it is less subject to privacy laws and businesses often want to demonstrate greater transparency to encourage others to work with them. “Businesses have to be spending money to make money. There needs to be an open network for businesses to be able to function,” Brown says. By looking at a company’s credit reports, fraudsters can find a company’s typical bank balance and who their largest suppliers are, for example.
    • Businesses usually have more points of egress than consumer accounts for criminals to attack. They can go through or impersonate not just the owner(s) but employees, too. “Businesses have a larger net of potential liabilities,” Brown says.

    Red flags for Canadian businesses to watch out for

    It’s hard to predict what form the next wave of small-business scams will take. Fraud constantly evolves and the tools that fraudsters use change often. Artificial intelligence (AI) has made the rapid collection and analysis of company information more accessible, while spoofing (creating fake) company images and videos can make it harder to spot what is real versus what is fake. Still, there are red flags for company owners and employees to watch out for:

    • Emails from organizations you don’t normally do business with, or emails that use unfamiliar or misspelled domain names.
    • Communications demanding quick approvals.
    • Callers saying they spoke to a named boss or colleague who approved a transaction that needs to be finalized. “A fraudster can easily obtain company managers’ names and titles online,” Brown notes.
    • Any offer that sounds too good to be true, and those with suspicious attachments, should be approached with caution.

    Larger businesses include anti-fraud protocols in their onboarding and ongoing training, something that small businesses can’t always offer. But it helps if employees are trusted and empowered to use their own common sense around potential threats.

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    Keep an eye on your credit reports

    One line of defence is to frequently check your company’s credit profile. It’s not as simple as a consumer credit report; it isn’t boiled down to a single score. Instead, it includes a business failure risk score that tells suppliers and financial institutions whether or not a company is a viable partner. It also has a delinquency score that relates to the company’s history of paying bills on time, in full, or not at all.

    Business credit reports will also enumerate a company’s financial obligations. “If you see a transaction you do not recognize on your company’s credit report, you can investigate and potentially dispute it. Conversely, if there are any long-time business relationships not indicated on the report, it may be in your interest to add them,” says Brown. “If you’ve had a relationship with a business for 10 years, having that history of good payments is going to help get you the best rates possible and the best products,” Brown says.

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    What if your business has been defrauded?

    From the fraudster’s perspective, the beauty of the construction scam is that it’s not readily apparent who is liable: the company whose name was used, the supplier, or the financial institution conducting the transaction. While the parties sort that out, the criminals get away.

    That’s why it’s important to take steps as soon as possible if you think your business may have been defrauded, including:

    • Checking your company’s credit report to see if an unauthorized transaction has taken place
    • Contacting the other parties to the transaction as soon as you notice anything strange
    • Reporting it to your local police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

    This article is sponsored.

    This is a paid post that is informative but also may feature a client’s product or service. These posts are written, edited and produced by MoneySense with assigned freelancers.

    Get free MoneySense financial tips, news & advice in your inbox.

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    About Michael McCullough


    About Michael McCullough

    Michael is a financial writer and editor in Duncan, B.C. He’s a former managing editor of Canadian Business and editorial director of Canada Wide Media. He also writes for The Globe and Mail and BCBusiness.

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    Michael McCullough

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  • Asia is ahead of the curve of using AI to fight fraud. Here’s what the rest of the world can learn from it

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    The financial sector is going through a rapid digital transformation, but cybercriminals are adapting just as quickly. Banks are forced to spend heavily to keep ahead of surging financial fraud. Across the Asia-Pacific region, 98% of financial institutions have had to scale up their compliance operations, driving costs above $45 billion. This surge reflects a shift toward integrated anti-fraud strategies, with governments and industries rolling out  targeted national responses to counter increasingly sophisticated threats.

    Hong Kong authorities have launched Scameter, a mobile fraud alert system that that notifies users of high-risk transactions. Singapore has introduced the Shared Responsibility Framework, which allocates scam loss responsibilities to financial institutions and telecommunication operators, encouraging the implementation of anti-scam measures. Similarly, Australia’s Scam-Safe Accord is a cross-industry initiative across banks, building societies, credit unions aimed at elevating the standard of customer protection to counter scams.

    These moves all represent a strong response to a growing regional threat, exemplified by Southeast Asia’s “scam compounds”: physical hubs where criminal syndicates orchestrate large-scale online scams, including identity fraud, phishing, fake investments and money laundering. Disguised as legitimate businesses, these sophisticated operations generate billions of dollars annually.

    What’s driving this evolution in financial crime? Increasingly, it’s artificial intelligence. Criminal networks use AI to create synthetic identities, launch massive phishing campaigns, and bypass traditional security systems—and do so with fewer resources and in record time. While scam compounds are concentrated in Asia, the threat of financial fraud is global.

    Yet as Asia’s crime syndicates make headlines, the region’s banks are quietly leading a shift in how to prevent fraud. Unlike other banks, which use AI for customers personalization and call center support, Asian banks are instead tapping AI to fight back against cybercriminals through fraud detection, identity verification, and anti-money laundering.

    Why APAC is outpacing in AI-driven fraud defense

    Asia’s greater focus on AI-powered fraud prevention is due to the region’s exposure to financial crime. Asian institutions are in the trenches when it comes to cybercrime, pushing them to rapidly adopt AI-driven strategies.

    The scale of financial loss is staggering. In 2024 alone, the Asia-Pacific region lost an estimated $688 billion to fraud, nearly two-thirds of the world’s total. Asians’ rapid adoption of digital wallets and payment platforms makes matters worse: By outpacing the rollout of strong consumer protections, this usage opens doors for cybercriminals and is putting banks on the front lines.

    Asian banks are leading the way in adopting ISO 20022, a new messaging standard that allows financial institutions to use AI to precisely detect anomalies and cut exposure to financial crime.

    Same tech, different playbooks

    Regional priorities are shifting as banks adopt AI. Asia-Pacific banks are focusing on fraud prevention and security, while European and U.S. institutions instead use AI to personalize products and customer service.

    According to our research, just over half of organizations in the UK want to use generative AI to enhance the customer experience. That reflects the UK’s hyper-competitive market, where user-friendly interactions are key to winning customer loyalty. The U.S. is splitting its AI focus between customers experience and operational automation, supporting both consumer demands for frictionless banking and internal goals for efficiency.

    In contrast, 58% of Asia-Pacific banks are focusing their AI investments on fraud detection and anti-money laundering, well above the global average. Asia-Pacific banks face a high-risk landscape where criminal networks use generative AI for identity fraud, phishing and financial scams. As a result, the region prioritizes cybersecurity, forging a sharper, security-focused AI strategy that views fraud prevention as a key competitive advantage.

    Importantly, AI is blurring the distinction between security and service. Growing cyber threats means customers expect their banks to not just protect their money, but also provide clear, accurate answers in times of uncertainty. Our work with clients reveals that AI-powered chatbots and authentication systems can speed up queries from banking staff by sourcing information for them 30-40% faster than before. This has in turn had a knock-on effect for customer satisfaction, with customers now rating their experiences with chatbots 25% higher than their previous conversations with human agents.

    What the next era of banking demands

    Fraud detection can’t be isolated in today’s threat landscape. It must be embedded within financial infrastructure. Whether that’s through cross-industry accords like Australia’s Scam-Safe Accord, or through the blend of service and security seen in AI-powered chatbots that both authenticate users and resolve queries in real time, APAC is demonstrating how integrated systems can turn raw data into actionable defenses, driven by AI and aligned with operational needs.

    Asia-Pacific’s experience highlights that financial security hinges on being proactive, not reactive. Faced with massive fraud losses and complex scam networks, Asian institutions have swiftly prioritized AI-driven fraud prevention. U.S. and European peers, on the other hand, treat fraud prevention as one possible AI application among many. That will be a mistake as AI-driven financial crime starts to spread globally.

    AI’s role in fraud will grow. Asia-Pacific’s strategy shows the value of acting quickly to counteract it, integrating fraud prevention into financial infrastructure. As global threats escalate, the world should look to Asia, not just as a regional leader, but as a role model for secure, seamless financial transactions.

    The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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    Ashish Thapar

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  • ‘Miss Kayla has a record for frauds’: Viral mystery shopper says she got Chicken Salad Chick worker fired for being ‘rude.‘ Then the internet comes for her

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    Secret shopping has become a popular topic of conversation on TikTok—and that’s largely due to a single woman: Kayla Sansom (@kaylalaughsoutloud).

    Over the years, she’s attracted a substantial following on the platform by sharing what she says are “secret shopping” trips. Typically, these videos involve going into a store, recording her interaction with the employees, then determining whether the store would pass or fail her secret shopper criteria.

    However, a recent video that she posted has the internet talking. In it, she fails a Chicken Salad Chick location on an apparent secret shopping run. Here’s why commenters are questioning the creator.

    In a now-deleted video, Sansom visits a Chicken Salad Chick location. After a relatively normal visit, Kayla declares that the restaurant “failed.”

    “They failed for a couple of reasons,” she explains. “It started off absolutely horrible and got a little bit better.”

    Among the issues claimed by Sansom are that she was not greeted upon entry, that she had to wait for “almost four minutes” before being greeted or helped, and that the manager was “very aggressive when she was taking my order.”

    While most of Sansom’s videos are met with warmth and understanding in the comments section, the comments under this one took a markedly different tone. Some users questioned Sansom’s judgment and others agreed with her.

    Seeing this, Sansom decided to make a follow-up video in which she alleges that the manager misgendered her and called her “sir.”

    She doubles down

    Commenters pushed back on this, insisting that the manager was simply saying “today” (perhaps with an intrusive “R”). However, Sansom countered that her assessment was correct regardless.

    “Let’s say on the sly chance she did not call me sir, and she said something else, maybe, just maybe I would have heard her more clearly if she actually looked at me and made eye contact and tried to give me, like, I don’t know, the smallest ounce of customer service instead of jabbing at the keys, not making eye contact with me and making me stand there for over 4 minutes before even acknowledging that I was in her restaurant,” she said.

    Furthermore, she stated that the person in the video “is no longer a general manager of this location.”

    This did little to quell the fury of commenters, who continued to insist that Sansom was wrong in her assessment.

    The Restaurant Responds

    Around the time Sansom posted her video and her follow-up, Chicken Salad Chick decided to post a slideshow on their TikTok page, seemingly in direct response to Sansom.

    In their slideshow, the company denies both that they had hired a secret shopper and that anyone lost their job as a result of a “recent viral video.”

    “There is no official ‘mystery shopper’ program affiliated with our brand,” wrote the store in the text overlaying the video. “And no, no one lost their job because of a recent viral video.”

    Sansom left a comment under this video claiming that she was hired by the store’s franchise owners, writing, “Your franchise owners hire us.” The chain responded simply, “The franchise owner did not hire mystery shoppers.” Sansom answered, “I have proof.” The Mary Sue was not able to find such proof at the time of writing.

    The Mary Sue reached out to multiple secret shopping networks to see if they could confirm that Sansom was, or ever had been, a member of their organizations. Most did not respond. However, the two organizations that did respond said that they never had, or no longer, worked with Sansom.

    In an email to the Mary Sue, Rich Bradley, a spokesperson for MSPA Americas, “the trade association representing the customer experience and merchandising industries throughout the Americas,” confirmed that the organization had “no records” of Sansom being a part of their database.

    “MSPA Americas offers free memberships for mystery shoppers to understand how to be successful in the industry, avoid scams, and learn more through webinars and official certification courses (and we offer paid memberships for additional benefits),” Bradley wrote.

    “But mystery shoppers can learn the basics of the industry and how to get projects from reputable company members through this association at no cost,” he continued. “We don’t recognize outside certifications (since we have no control over the content being relayed) and, honestly, don’t understand why anyone would seek information from any source other than the official trade association for the industry.”

    Another organization, Marketforce, did not provide an official comment, though they noted that Sansom has been banned from their platform for over a year.

    Still, some who have signed up for her course say that she is, in fact, a mystery shopper.

    Mystery shopping is a job that generally earns fairly little, “around $10-$20 for basic jobs,” per Bestmark. This led many to question how Sansom can make the $50,000 part-time she claims to make on her Facebook. Others shared their thoughts on Kayla’s experience and drama in their own TikTok videos. One example is from user Blk Desk Society (@blkdesksociety).

    @blkdesksociety Well, I bet Kayla is not laughing at the moment. Let’s get into it. #kaylalaughsoutloud #chickensaladchick #mysteryshopping #fruad #scammer ♬ original sound – Blk Desk Society

    Sansom Responds

    After all of this controversy, Sansom posted a follow-up video. In it, she says that she will be blurring the faces of workers during her mystery shops. Furthermore, she says she will begin marking whether a mystery shop is “paid” or “unpaid.” It is unclear what an “unpaid” mystery shop is.

    The Mary Sue emailed Sansom asking whether she could provide evidence that the CSC franchise hired her. We also asked whether she was presently or had been a member of any secret shopping organization. Additionally, we sought clarification regarding her new policy of “paid” versus “unpaid” secret shopping runs. 

    In response, Sansom stated that she would “appreciate” if The Mary Sue’s article wasn’t posted. She says she made this request “because we have lots of cease and desist letters going out very soon.” She expressed a desire to “clean up this mess the legal way.”

    When prompted again, Sansom responded, “All I’m allowed to say at this time is that I was indeed paid to do that mystery shop. I truly wish I could give you more but more will come out very soon.” No further information appears to have been released since Sansom sent this email.

    Sansom has limited the comments on her own videos. But comments in the videos about the drama—and posts on Reddit—have people sharing how they feel about her.

    First, many pointed out that Sansom has previously been arrested on multiple counts, including fraud.

    Second, others noted how Sansom has alleged to have shopped the same Chicken Salad Chick location several times before. This means that the CSC franchise had repeatedly hired her without corporate knowing. Or that Sansom was simply doing an “unpaid” mystery shop without being hired by the franchise or corporation. However, Sansom has not defined what exactly this means.

    Above all, commenters simply want clarity—about what happened, about how it happened, and about how exactly Sansom’s business works.

    “I thought the whole point of being a secret shopper was the anonymity,” wrote a commenter under one of the videos on the topic.

    “I’m a mystery shopper. I am an Executive Administrator at a Mystery Shopping Organization. We have been in business for 10 years. You can not break your ICA and name the client name, you have to be objective, absolutely cannot post any of your shop on social media (no MSC will approve this). Everything is confidential. That is why it is called SECRET Shopping,” declared another.

    Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

    Image of Braden Bjella

    Braden Bjella

    Braden Bjella is a culture writer. His work can be found in the Daily Dot, Mixmag, Electronic Beats, Schon! magazine, and more.

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    Braden Bjella

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  • Why FIs should invest in fraud detection

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    As quickly as financial institutions implement gen AI to speed manual back-end processes and consumer-facing operations, bad actors are using the technology to streamline fraud efforts.  Fraud within financial services is expected to rise 153% to $58.3 billion by 2030, up from $23 billion in 2025, according to a Juniper Research study released Aug. 18.  […]

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    Whitney McDonald

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  • Interpol cybercrime crackdown in Africa leads to the arrest of over 1,200 suspects

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    DAKAR, Senegal — A major cybercrime crackdown coordinated by Interpol has led to the arrest of 1,209 suspects across Africa and the recovery of nearly $97.4 million, the organization announced Friday.

    Dubbed Operation Serengeti 2.0, the operation took place between June and August. It brought together investigators from 18 African countries and the United Kingdom to fight harmful cybercrimes including inheritance scams, ransomware and business email compromise.

    Altogether, the scams targeted nearly 88,000 victims, the international police organization said in a statement.

    Interpol said that authorities in Angola dismantled 25 cryptocurrency mining centers where 60 Chinese nationals had been mining cryptocurrency. The operation resulted in the confiscation of equipment worth over $37 million; the government now plans to use the equipment to support power distribution in vulnerable areas.

    In Zambia, the operation dismantled an online investment scheme that defrauded more than 65,000 victims of an estimated $300 million through a fraudulent high-return cryptocurrency scam.

    “The scammers lured victims into investing in cryptocurrency through extensive advertising campaigns promising high-yield returns. Victims were then instructed to download multiple apps to participate,” Interpol said. It said that 15 people had been arrested and that authorities seized evidence including domains, mobile numbers and bank accounts.

    In locating the scam center in Zambia, authorities also disrupted a suspected human trafficking network, Interpol said.

    Interpol also said it dismantled a transnational inheritance scam in the Ivory Coast which had originated in Germany. Victims of that scam were tricked into paying fees to claim fake inheritances, causing $1.6 million in losses.

    “Despite being one of the oldest-running internet frauds, inheritance scams continue to generate significant funds for criminal organizations,” it said.

    Interpol, which has 196 member countries and celebrated its centennial last year, is the world’s largest international police network to combat international crime. Headquartered in Lyons, France, it works to help national police forces communicate with each other and track suspects and criminals in areas like counterterrorism, financial crime, child pornography, cybercrime and organized crime.

    In recent years it has grappled with new challenges including a growing caseload of cybercrime and child sex abuse, and increasing divisions among its member countries.

    Last year in the first Operation Serengeti, Interpol arrested over 1,000 people in operations that had targeted 35,000 victims.

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  • Funeral home owner who stashed decaying bodies set to be sentenced for corpse abuse

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    DENVER — It’s been two years since nearly 200 decaying bodies were discovered throughout a fetid, room temperature building in rural Colorado. On Friday, the man responsible, a funeral home owner, is set to be sentenced in state court for 191 counts of corpse abuse.

    Jon Hallford and his wife, Carie, ran a morbid racket for four years out of their Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs: assuring people they were handling their loved ones’ cremations only to stash the bodies in a bug-infested building and then giving them dry concrete resembling ashes.

    Jon Hallford is already headed to prison after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges. Friday’s sentencing hearing will focus on state charges related to mistreatment of the bodies. Family members will have the chance to describe the anguish of learning a loved one slowly decayed among piles of others.

    “To me it’s the heart of the case. It’s the worst part of the crime,” said Tanya Wilson, who is traveling from Georgia to speak at the sentencing. She hired the funeral home to cremate her mother and later discovered the supposed ashes the family spread in Hawaii weren’t from her mother’s body, which had been wasting away in the building in Penrose, a small town 35 miles from Colorado Springs.

    A plea agreement calls for Hallford to receive a 20-year prison sentence for the corpse abuse charges.

    Wilson said she and some other families want Judge Eric Bentley to reject the agreement because Hallford’s state sentence is expected to run concurrently with his 20-year federal sentence, meaning he could be freed many years earlier than if the sentences ran consecutively.

    “The scale of this is staggering. Why does the state believe they deserve a plea deal?” Wilson asked. “There needs to be accountability.”

    If the judge rejects the agreement, Hallford would not be immediately sentenced and the case would likely go to an arraignment, the first step toward a criminal trial, said Kate Singh with the Fourth Judicial District District Attorney’s Office.

    Colorado has struggled to effectively oversee funeral homes and for many years had some of the weakest regulations in the nation. It’s had a slew of abuse cases, including an estimated 20 decomposing corpses discovered this week at a funeral home in Pueblo.

    Carie Hallford is accused of the same crimes as her husband and also pleaded guilty. Her sentencing on the corpse abuse charges has not been scheduled.

    The couple was accused of letting 189 bodies decay. In two other instances the wrong bodies were buried. Four remains have yet to be identified, Singh said.

    The Hallfords got a license for their funeral home in 2017, and authorities said the bodies started piling up by 2019. Many languished for years in states of decay, some decomposed beyond recognition, some unclothed or on the floor in inches of fluid from the bodies.

    As the gruesome count grew, Jon and Carie Hallford were also defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 in COVID-19 era aid.

    With the money from families and the federal government, the Hallfords bought ritzy items from stores like Tiffany & Co., a GMC Yukon and Infiniti worth $120,000 combined, laser body sculpting and $31,000 in cryptocurrency.

    In 2023, a putrid smell poured from the building and the police turned up. Investigators swarmed the building, donning hazmat suits and painstakingly extracting the bodies. Hallford and his wife were arrested in Oklahoma, where Jon Hallford had family, more than a month later.

    Families learned that their cathartic moments of grief — spreading a mother’s ashes in Hawaii or cradling a son’s urn in a rocking chair — were tainted by a deception. It was as if those signposts of the grieving process had been torn away, unraveling months and years of working through their loved ones’ deaths.

    Some had nightmares of what their relatives’ decayed bodies must have looked like. Others were anguished by the fear their family members’ souls were trapped, unable to go free.

    A mother, Crystina Page, demanded to watch as her son’s body, rescued from the Return to Nature building, was cremated for real. Wilson, who had thought she already spread her mother’s ashes in Hawaii, said the family cremated her mother’s remains after they were recovered by authorities. She is waiting for the court cases to conclude before returning to Hawaii again to spread the ashes.

    The Hallfords pleaded guilty in the federal case to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Jon Hallford has appealed his federal prison sentence. Carie Hallford faces a December sentencing in that case.

    ___

    Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

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  • Ghanaian singer Shatta Wale questioned in US luxury car probe

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    DAKAR, Senegal — Ghanaian singer Shatta Wale was taken into custody in connection with a U.S. fraud investigation tied to his luxury vehicle, authorities said Thursday.

    Ghana’s Economic and Organized Crime Office, EOCO, said Wale voluntarily appeared for questioning Wednesday as part of a U.S. government request to investigate the origins of his 2019 Lamborghini Urus.

    He was released Thursday on bail.

    The investigation is part of a larger probe into a “$4 million crime that occurred in the U.S. involving some Ghanaians and the recovery of the crime’s proceeds,” EOCO said in a statement.

    The case centers on Nana Kwabena Amuah, a Ghanaian national, who was sentenced in 2023 to seven years in a U.S. federal prison for his role in a $4 million scheme to defraud the city of Lexington, Kentucky, by impersonating nonprofit organizations and tricking city officials into wiring money into a series of shell companies.

    U.S. authorities suspect Wale’s vehicle was purchased with the proceeds of the Kentucky case, according to EOCO.

    Wale has said he is unable to identify the individual he bought the car from.

    His legal team had previously said they are “fully engaged and actively working with the authorities to resolve this matter.”

    One of Ghana’s most influential artists, Wale gained international attention in 2019 after being featured on Beyoncé’s song “Already.”

    ____

    AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • Who will buy Infowars? Both supporters and opponents of Alex Jones interested in bankruptcy auction

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    Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars broadcasts could end next week as he faces a court-ordered auction of his company’s assets to help pay the more than $1 billion defamation judgment he owes families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

    Or maybe not.

    Both opponents and supporters of the bombastic internet show and radio host have expressed interest in bidding on the Infowars properties he has built over the past 25 years. They include Roger Stone, an ally of Jones and Donald Trump, and anti-Jones progressive media groups. If Jones supporters buy the assets, he could end up staying on Infowars.

    Up for sale are everything from Jones’ studio desk to Infowars’ name, video archive, social media accounts and product trademarks. Buyers can even purchase an armored truck and video cameras. For now, Jones’ personal social media, including his account on X, formerly known as Twitter, with 3 million followers, are not up for sale, but court proceedings on whether they should be auctioned are pending.

    The auctions resulted from Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, which he filed in late 2022 after the Sandy Hook families were awarded nearly $1.5 billion in damages in lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas over his claims that the school shooting was a hoax. Many of Jones’ personal assets also are being liquidated to help pay the judgment.

    The deadline to submit bids and nondisclosure agreements on the Infowars assets is Friday afternoon. After the bids are reviewed, prospective buyers deemed qualified will be invited to a live auction that could see multiple bidding rounds next Wednesday. Any items not sold will be put up at another auction on Dec. 10.

    Jones has expressed confidence that supporters — whom he did not name — will buy the assets of Infowars and its parent company, Free Speech Systems, allowing him to continue using its platforms. He also appears to be preparing for losing the brand because he has set up new websites and social media accounts and has been directing his audience to them.

    “There’s a lot of buyers, people that are patriots that want it and will come in,” Jones said on his show in August. “If not … we’ll work with somebody else, fire something up. And it’ll be a little bit of a hiccup for the crew, and things. But that will just make us bigger.”

    Email messages to Infowars and Jones’ bankruptcy lawyer were not returned.

    It’s not clear how much money the auctions might bring in. In court documents, Free Speech Systems listed the total value of its properties and holdings at $18 million. Proceeds from the sales will go to creditors including the Sandy Hook families, who have not yet received any money from Jones and his company.

    Confidentiality agreements and sealed bids generally are used in auctions to maximize bid amounts while preventing bidders from talking to each other and driving down the offers. The trustee in Jones’ bankruptcy case said in court documents that the procedures for the Infowars auction were designed to attract the highest possible bids.

    Christopher Mattei, a Connecticut lawyer representing the Sandy Hook families, called the auctions an important milestone in their yearslong fight to hold Jones accountable. He also said the families will be seeking a portion of all Jones’ future income.

    “From the beginning, the Connecticut families have sought to hold Jones fully accountable for his lies and to protect other families from him,” Mattei said. “Stripping Jones of the corrupt business he used to attack the families while poisoning the minds of his listeners is an important measure of justice.”

    The families sued Jones and his company for defamation and emotional distress for repeatedly saying on his show that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control.

    Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ hoax conspiracies and threats by his followers.

    Jones, who has since acknowledged that the shooting did happen, is appealing the judgments.

    Jones has made millions of dollars from his internet and radio shows, primarily through sales of nutritional supplements, survival gear, clothing and other merchandise.

    Stone, the Jones and Trump ally and a conservative commentator, said on his X account and on Jones’ show that he would like to put together a group of investors to buy Infowars. He did not return email and social media messages on Thursday.

    “I understand the importance of Infowars as a beacon of the truth, as a beacon of truthful information. And therefore, I would like to do whatever I possibly can to ensure, if possible, that Infowars survives,” Stone said on Jones’ show in September.

    People on social media also have urged billionaire Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and X, to buy Infowars, an idea Jones has backed but Musk has not publicly responded to.

    On the other side, Jones’ detractors have shown interest in buying Infowars, kicking Jones out and turning it into something else, such as a news site that debunks conspiracy theories or even a parody site. They include officials at two progressive media sites, The Barbed Wire and Media Matters for America.

    An opinion piece by The Barbed Wire in September by publisher Jeff Rotkoff had a headline that read, “Let’s Buy Infowars. Alex Jones used these exact materials to exploit his viewers, peddle conspiracy theories, and damage the lives of grieving parents. We want revenge.”

    Rotkoff urged readers to donate money to help put in bids, but he said Thursday that The Barbed Wire, based in Jones’ home state of Texas, was now unlikely to make any offers.

    “But we have talked to a number of similarly ideologically aligned bidders and we are certain we will be outbid,” Rotkoff said in an email. “We’re thrilled that there appear to be multiple well-resourced bidders who share our interest in undoing much of the damage to our country done by Alex Jones. We’ll be rooting for those folks to be successful.”

    He declined to say who the other potential bidders were.

    Who exactly has submitted bids so far has not been disclosed. Jeff Tanenbaum, president of ThreeSixty Asset Advisors, which is helping to run the auction along with Tranzon Asset Advisors, would only say there have been a large number of inquiries.

    If detractors buy up Infowars’ properties and Jones gets the boot, he should be able to build new platforms fairly quickly, said Melissa Zimdars, an associate professor of communication and media at Merrimack College in Massachusetts.

    “As long as there is an audience hungry for his content — and there is — he’ll be able to utilize X and various fringe social media platforms,” she said in an email.

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  • New Jersey man pleads guilty in smuggling scheme intended to aid Russia’s war effort

    New Jersey man pleads guilty in smuggling scheme intended to aid Russia’s war effort

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    NEW YORK (AP) — A New Jersey man who was among seven people charged with smuggling electronic components to aid Russia’s war effort pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other charges, authorities said.

    Vadim Yermolenko, 43, faces up to 30 years in prison for his role in a transnational procurement and money laundering network that sought to acquire sensitive electronics for Russian military and intelligence services, Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said in a statement.

    Yermolenko, who lives in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey and has dual U.S. and Russian citizenship, was indicted along with six other people in December 2022.

    Prosecutors said the conspirators worked with two Moscow-based companies controlled by Russian intelligence services to acquire electronic components in the U.S. that have civilian uses but can also be used to make nuclear and hypersonic weapons and in quantum computing.

    The exporting of the technology violated U.S. sanctions, prosecutors said.

    The prosecution was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency entity dedicated to enforcing sanctions imposed after Russian invaded Ukraine.

    Attorney General Merrick Garland said in statement that Yermolenko “joins the nearly two dozen other criminals that our Task Force KleptoCapture has brought to justice in American courtrooms over the past two and a half years for enabling Russia’s military aggression.”

    A message seeking comment was sent to Yermolenko’s attorney with the federal public defender’s office.

    Prosecutors said Yermolenko helped set up shell companies and U.S. bank accounts to move money and export-controlled goods. Money from one of his accounts was used to purchase export-controlled sniper bullets that were intercepted in Estonia before they could be smuggled into Russia, they said.

    One of Yermolenko’s co-defendants, Alexey Brayman of Merrimack, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty previously to conspiracy to defraud the United States and is awaiting sentencing.

    Another, Vadim Konoshchenok, a suspected officer with Russia’s Federal Security Service, was arrested in Estonia and extradited to the United States. He was later released from U.S. custody as part of a prisoner exchange that included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and other individuals.

    The four others named in the indictment are Russian nationals who remain at large, prosecutors said.

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  • Federal judge sets April 21 date for Mayor Adams’ trial, hears arguments on motion to toss bribery charge | amNewYork

    Federal judge sets April 21 date for Mayor Adams’ trial, hears arguments on motion to toss bribery charge | amNewYork

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    Mayor Eric Adams exits federal court following a Nov. 1 conference in his federal corruption case. District Court Judge Dale Ho set an April 21, 2025 trial date for Adams.

    Photo by Lloyd Mitchell