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Tag: larceny and theft

  • Dollar General shares tumble after it cuts forecasts, blaming a spending slump and theft | CNN Business

    Dollar General shares tumble after it cuts forecasts, blaming a spending slump and theft | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Dollar General slashed its sales and profit outlook for the year on Thursday, blaming headwinds including weaker consumer spending on non-essential purchases and increasing theft.

    Dollar General shares tumbled nearly 17% in pre-market trading Thursday.

    The discount store’s challenges are yet another sign of American consumers pulling back on shopping as inflation remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

    “One of the key reasons for this is because Dollar General’s core customers are feeling the acute pressure of the cost-of-living-crisis,” Neil Saunders, retail analyst and managing director at GlobalData, said in a report Thursday.

    “This has been exacerbated by cuts in SNAP payments as temporary pandemic benefits came to an end. As a result, lower-income shoppers are cutting back on non-consumable and indulgent purchases from the chain in a bid to save money,” he said. “Unfortunately, this dynamic will not change any time soon as, if anything, finances will tighten over the second half of the year.”

    The discount retailer now expects sales for the full year to rise between 1.3% to 3.3%, down from its previous forecast of a 3.5% to 5% increase. It expects full-year earnings to decline 22% to 34% from its previous estimate of a flat-to-8% decrease.

    The retailer said its same-store sales (or sales at stores open at least a year) are expected to range from a decline of about 1% to an increase of 1% for the year, compared to its previous expectation of a 1% to 2%. increase.

    For its second quarter, Dollar General logged a 1% drop in its same-store sales. It said weaker customer traffic to its stores hurt sales in the period, combined with budget-conscious shoppers pulling back on higher-priced discretionary purchases such as home items and clothing in favor of lower-priced everyday necessities.

    The Consumer Price Index rose 3.2% for the year through July, adding pressure on shoppers looking for bargains.

    In addition, food stamp recipients started to receive about $90 a month less in benefits, on average, starting in March, as a pandemic hunger relief program comes to an end nationwide three years after Congress approved it.

    Meanwhile, close on the heels of Dick’s Sporting Goods sounding the alarm on store theft eating into its profit this year, Dollar General also flagged an increase in product theft, among other factors, hurting its profit.

    The company said “an increase in expected inventory shrink for the second half of 2023” factored into its lower guidance. Shrink is an industry term encompassing inventory losses caused by external theft, including organized retail crime, employee theft, human errors, vendor fraud, damaged or mismarked items and other losses.

    Retailers large and small say they are struggling to contain an escalation in store crimes — from petty shoplifting to organized sprees of large-scale theft that clear entire shelves of products. Target warned earlier this year that it was bracing to lose half a billion dollars because of rising theft. It reported a large number of incidents of shoplifting and organized retail crime in its stores nationwide.

    At the same time, it’s not clear that store crime is growing significantly more serious. Within the industry, at least one major player has argued that the problem is being overhyped.

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  • Former IRS contractor accused of stealing Trump’s tax returns pleads guilty | CNN Politics

    Former IRS contractor accused of stealing Trump’s tax returns pleads guilty | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The former IRS contractor accused of leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax returns and stealing tax information on thousands of the wealthiest people in the US pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday.

    Prosecutors say Charles Littlejohn of Washington, DC, sent Trump’s tax returns and other data to two media outlets that “published numerous articles describing the tax information they obtained from the Defendant.”

    Littlejohn pleaded guilty to the one count of disclosing tax information, which he was charged with in late September.

    The contractor’s crime affected so many individuals that prosecutors plan to create a public website to notify the victims of any developments in the case.

    During the plea hearing, an attorney for Trump gave a victim impact statement, calling the crime “an egregious breach.”

    Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said that Trump’s returns were “kept in a vault at the IRS” and suggested that the leak may have cost Trump votes in the 2020 election.

    Habba said Trump was opposed to the plea deal and called for the maximum sentence of five years in prison for Littlejohn.

    Judge Ana Reyes, the federal judge overseeing the case, said she agreed “completely that anyone taking the law into their own hands is unacceptable.”

    “I cannot overstate how troubled I am by what occurred,” Reyes said. “Make no mistake, this was not acceptable.”

    A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for January 29.

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • San Francisco security guard will not be charged in fatal shooting of suspected Walgreens shoplifter | CNN

    San Francisco security guard will not be charged in fatal shooting of suspected Walgreens shoplifter | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The security guard who shot and killed a suspected shoplifter at a Walgreens in downtown San Francisco last month will not face criminal charges, the district attorney’s office announced Monday, saying the shooter acted in self-defense.

    The district attorney’s office under Brooke Jenkins released surveillance video and a written report Monday regarding Michael Anthony’s fatal shooting of Banko Brown on April 27.

    According to the report, the guard said Brown had repeatedly threatened to stab him prior to the shooting. Police did not find a knife in Brown’s possession, the report states, but prosecutors still determined his fear was reasonable.

    “Given the totality of the circumstances, including the threat that Anthony believed, and could reasonably believe, the evidence shows that Brown’s shooting was not a criminal act because Anthony acted in lawful self-defense,” the report states. “Thus, Anthony is not criminally liable for the death of Brown.”

    The San Francisco Board of Supervisors last week sent a letter asking District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to release the surveillance video showing the shooting after no charges were brought against the guard during the 72 hours he was in custody.

    The surveillance camera video released Monday shows Brown attempting to leave the store before being stopped by the security guard, identified by police as Anthony. Brown then shoves the guard, leading to a physical altercation.

    Brown is held on the ground by the guard but released after about a minute, the video shows. Brown starts to leave but appears to turn around and move toward the guard, who then shoots him, the video shows.

    The killing and lack of charges has led to protests in San Francisco connected to broader debates over crime, poverty, homelessness and criminal justice in the Northern California city.

    San Francisco has seen a marked exodus of middle class residents since the Covid-19 pandemic, and a series of brazen property crimes and rampant public drug use has created a sense of disorder, as CNN explored in the recent special, “What happened to San Francisco?”

    One such incident was a daytime theft at a Walgreens store in 2021 captured on video in which a suspect casually grabbed items from shelves, tossed them into a black bag and left the store, brushing past the store’s security guard and several onlookers. Walgreens said at the time this “blatant retail theft” was an ongoing problem at its stores, although a company executive said earlier this year “maybe we cried too much” about the issue.

    As part of the backlash, the progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin was recalled by a 55% vote last year. Jenkins was appointed to replace him and pledged to “restore accountability and consequences to our criminal justice system,” saying this was a moment to “take back our streets.”

    Surveillance camera video shows a portion of the encounter involving Banko Brown, left, and security guard Michael Anthony before Anthony fatally shot Banko.

    In his videotaped interview with police, the guard said Brown repeatedly threatened to stab him during the fight.

    “I felt like I was in danger. I felt like I was going to be stabbed,” Anthony said.

    According to the district attorney’s report, Brown was a transgender man. Anthony, using incorrect pronouns, further described his mental state the moment Brown moved toward him.

    “And I didn’t know what she was planning on doing, but, uh … turns out her intention was to … try to spit at me and by that reaction by her turning around and advancing towards me … that’s when I lifted it (motions with hands) and then shot once.”

    The district attorney’s report notes that self-defense applies when a person has a reasonable belief they are in imminent danger of being killed or suffering great bodily harm.

    “There is no evidence to contradict that Anthony’s fear was honest,” the report states.

    However, John Burris, an attorney representing Brown’s family, said he will move forward with filing a lawsuit in the case soon.

    “I’ve seen the tape and looked it over pretty closely and I believe this shooting death was unjustified,” he told CNN.

    “The family is very disturbed that no prosecution has taken place, particularly the father and the mother, and they would like the matter to be sent to the attorney general’s office for review.”

    San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin said he is asking the state attorney general and the US Department of Justice to review the case. He told CNN affiliate KGO he was troubled by the video.

    “There’s distance between them, Banko Brown is unarmed, Banko Brown is outside of the store,” he said.

    Walgreens issued a statement offering its condolences to Brown’s family.

    “The safety of our patients, customers and team members is our top priority, and violence of any kind will not be tolerated in our stores,” the company said. “We take this matter seriously and are cooperating with local authorities.”

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  • How to protect yourself from iPhone thieves locking you out of your own device | CNN Business

    How to protect yourself from iPhone thieves locking you out of your own device | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    A complex but concerning method of gaining control over a user’s iPhone and permanently locking them out the device appears to be on the rise.

    Some iPhone thieves are exploiting a security setting, called the recovery key, that makes it nearly impossible for owners to access their photos, messages, data and more, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. Some victims also told the publication their bank accounts were drained after the thieves gained access to their financial apps.

    It’s important to note, however, this type of takeover is hard to pull off. It requires a criminal essentially watching an iPhone user enter the device’s passcode – for example, by looking over their shoulder at a bar or sporting event – or manipulating the device’s owner so they’ll share their passcode. And that’s all before they physically steal the device.

    From there, a thief could use the passcode to change the device’s Apple ID, turn off “Find my iPhone” so their location can’t be tracked, and then reset the recovery key, a complex 28-digit code intended to protect its owners from online hackers.

    Apple requires this key to help reset or regain access to an Apple ID in an effort to bolster the user’s security, but if a thief changes it, the original owner will not have the new code and will be locked out of the account.

    “We sympathize with people who have had this experience and we take all attacks on our users very seriously, no matter how rare,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “We work tirelessly every day to protect our users’ accounts and data, and are always investigating additional protections against emerging threats like this one.”

    On its website, Apple warns “you’re responsible for maintaining access to your trusted devices and your recovery key. If you lose both of these items, you could be locked out of your account permanently.”

    Jeff Pollard, VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research, said the company should offer more customer support options and “ways for Apple users to authenticate so they can reset these settings.”

    For now, however, there are a handful of steps users can take to potentially protect themselves from having this happen to them.

    The first step is protecting the passcode.

    An Apple spokesperson told CNN people can use Face ID or Touch ID when unlocking their phone in public to avoid revealing their passcode to anyone who might be watching.

    Users can also set up a longer, alphanumeric passcode that’s harder for bad actors to figure out. Device owners should also change the passcode immediately if they believe someone else has seen it.

    Another step someone could consider is a hack not necessarily endorsed by Apple but one that’s been circulating online. Within an iPhone’s Screen Time setting, which allows guardians to set up restrictions on how kids can use the device, there is the option to set up a secondary password that would be required from any user before they could successfully change an Apple ID.

    By enabling this, a thief would be prompted for that secondary password before changing an Apple ID password.

    Finally, users can protect themselves by regularly backing up an iPhone – via iCloud or iTunes – so data can be recovered in the case an iPhone is stolen. At the same time, users may want to consider storing important photos or other sensitive files and data in another cloud service, such as Google Photos, Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon Photos or Dropbox.

    This won’t stop a bad actor from gaining access to the device, but it should limit some of the fallout if it ever should happen.

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  • Easily stolen Hyundais and Kias should be recalled, more than a dozen attorneys general say | CNN Business

    Easily stolen Hyundais and Kias should be recalled, more than a dozen attorneys general say | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    A coalition of attorneys general for 17 states and the District of Columbia on Thursday called for a federal recall of Hyundai and Kia vehicles that they say are unsafe and too easy to steal.

    The attorneys general called for the recall “following the companies’ continued failure to take adequate steps to address the alarming rate of theft of their vehicles,” a release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the coalition, said.

    In a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the coalition requested a recall of “unsafe” Hyundai and Kia vehicles manufactured between 2011 and 2022 “whose easily bypassed ignition switches and lack of engine immobilizers make them particularly vulnerable to theft.”

    The vehicles in question, 2015-2019 Hyundai and Kia models, such as the Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson and the Kia Forte and Sportage, when equipped with turn-key ignitions — as opposed to cars that only require a button to be pushed to start — are roughly twice as likely to be stolen as other vehicles of a similar age. Many of these vehicles lack some of the basic auto theft prevention technology included in most other vehicles, even in those years, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, an industry group that tracks insurance statistics.

    These models became the subject of a viral social media trend in which thieves filmed themselves and others stealing Hyundai and Kia vehicles and taking them for a drive. In some parts of the country, the problem became so bad that some insurance companies refused to write new policies on these Hyundai and Kia models in places where the thefts had become extremely common.

    The models in question don’t have electronic immobilizers, which rely on a computer chip in the car and another in the key that communicate to confirm that the key belongs with that vehicle. Without the right key, an immobilizer should do just that — stop the car from moving.

    “Hyundai and Kia announced that they will initiate voluntary service campaigns to offer software updates for certain vehicles with this starting-system vulnerability. Unfortunately, however, this is an insufficient response to the problem and does not adequately remedy the safety concerns facing vehicle owners and the public,” the letter to the NHSTA said.

    Hyundai and Kia did not immediately respond to CNN’s request comment.

    The two South Korean automakers have created a software patch to fix the problem, the automakers have said. Hyundai and Kia operate as separate companies in the United States, but Hyundai Motor Group owns a large stake in Kia, and various Hyundai and Kia models share much of their engineering.

    The patch will be installed free of charge on models that need it, with software that requires an actual key in the ignition to turn the vehicle on. The software will also block the car from being started after the doors have been locked using the key fob remote control. The vehicle will need to be unlocked before it can be started.

    The software also extends the length of the alarm sound from 30 seconds to a full minute. Hyundai dealers will also affix window stickers stating that the vehicle has anti-theft software installed.

    “The bottom line is, Kia’s and Hyundai’s failure to install standard safety features on many of their vehicles have put vehicle owners and the public at risk,” Attorney General Bonta said. “We now ask the federal government to require these companies to correct their mistake through a nationwide recall and help us in our continued efforts to protect the public from these unsafe vehicles.”

    Recalls are ordered by NHTSA or, much more commonly, undertaken by automakers to correct safety-related defects. The attorneys general’s letter asserts that the ease of theft of these Hyundai and Kia vehicles constitutes a safety hazard and the vehicles fail to meet federal standards for theft prevention.

    “Moreover, thieves have driven these vehicles recklessly, speeding and performing wild stunts and causing numerous crashes, at least eight deaths, and significant injuries,” the letter said.

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  • Whole Foods closes San Francisco flagship store after one year, citing crime | CNN Business

    Whole Foods closes San Francisco flagship store after one year, citing crime | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    An enormous Whole Foods in downtown San Francisco that opened just last year is temporarily closing. The company said rampant crime in the area forced it to shut down.

    The nearly 65,000-square foot location at Trinity Place in the city’s Mid-Market neighborhood shut its doors Monday to “ensure the safety” of its employees, a Whole Foods spokesperson said. Although Whole Foods did not share any additional information on the conditions that led to the store closing, the spokesperson added that it was a “difficult decision to close the Trinity store for the time being.” Affected employees will be transferred to nearby stores.

    The store at 8th and Market streets will not open Tuesday, the spokesperson said. The store’s website has also disappeared.

    Heralded as a “flagship store” following its March 2022 opening, the Whole Foods was one of the largest supermarkets in downtown San Francisco. The store sold 3,700 local products and was designed with “nods to classic San Francisco,” according to a news release.

    The San Francisco Standard, an independent news website, reported that this Whole Foods location had previously reduced operating hours last year because of theft and changed its bathrooms after employees found syringes and pipes.

    San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Matt Dorsey said on Twitter that he was “incredibly disappointed” by the closure.

    “Our neighborhood waited a long time for this supermarket, but we’re also well aware of problems they’ve experienced with drug-related retail theft, adjacent drug markets, and the many safety issues related to them,” Dorsey wrote.

    Property crimes in San Francisco have garnered national attention because of several attention-grabbing videos of thieves in action. Though still well below 2017 levels, the city saw a 23% increase in property crimes between 2020 and 2022, with spikes in burglary and theft headlining the surge, according to San Francisco Police Department data.

    Meanwhile, violent crime statistics in San Francisco have remained relatively steady in recent years. Preliminary police data reports 12 homicides in San Francisco this year, an uptick of 20% compared to the same period in the previous year. In total, there were 56 homicides in San Francisco in 2022, which is the same number of homicides the city saw in 2021.

    In recent months, national retailers have been complaining about thefts affecting locations. Chains took action by locking up everyday products such as deodorant and toothpaste and added extra security guards. However, a Walgreens executive recently admitted that the impact of the thefts may have been overblown.

    A San Francisco Cotopaxi store temporarily closed in October 2022, citing theft and employee safety, reopening in mid-November.

    Cotopaxi CEO Davis Smith, in a LinkedIn post, said at the time that the “large-scale theft and raiding” put the store’s employees at risk. But he also said he regretted that the store’s closure became the subject of a political debate about crime in San Francisco and other cities.

    “We had many jumping to our support, some who felt offended by my post, and a few who politicized our store’s closure (because these are the times we live in, unfortunately),” Smith wrote. “To be clear, I never anticipated that our decision to close our Hayes Valley store would become entangled in political discourse.”

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  • Inside the international sting operation to catch North Korean crypto hackers | CNN Politics

    Inside the international sting operation to catch North Korean crypto hackers | CNN Politics

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    Watch Alex Marquardt’s report on the sting operation on Erin Burnett OutFront on Monday, April 10, at 7 p.m. ET.



    CNN
     — 

    A team of South Korean spies and American private investigators quietly gathered at the South Korean intelligence service in January, just days after North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into the sea.

    For months, they’d been tracking $100 million stolen from a California cryptocurrency firm named Harmony, waiting for North Korean hackers to move the stolen crypto into accounts that could eventually be converted to dollars or Chinese yuan, hard currency that could fund the country’s illegal missile program.

    When the moment came, the spies and sleuths — working out of a government office in a city, Pangyo, known as South Korea’s Silicon Valley — would have only a few minutes to help seize the money before it could be laundered to safety through a series of accounts and rendered untouchable.

    Finally, in late January, the hackers moved a fraction of their loot to a cryptocurrency account pegged to the dollar, temporarily relinquishing control of it. The spies and investigators pounced, flagging the transaction to US law enforcement officials standing by to freeze the money.

    The team in Pangyo helped seize a little more than $1 million that day. Though analysts tell CNN that most of the stolen $100 million remains out of reach in cryptocurrency and other assets controlled by North Korea, it was the type of seizure that the US and its allies will need to prevent big paydays for Pyongyang.

    The sting operation, described to CNN by private investigators at Chainalysis, a New York-based blockchain-tracking firm, and confirmed by the South Korean National Intelligence Service, offers a rare window into the murky world of cryptocurrency espionage — and the burgeoning effort to shut down what has become a multibillion-dollar business for North Korea’s authoritarian regime.

    Over the last several years, North Korean hackers have stolen billions of dollars from banks and cryptocurrency firms, according to reports from the United Nations and private firms. As investigators and regulators have wised up, the North Korean regime has been trying increasingly elaborate ways to launder that stolen digital money into hard currency, US officials and private experts tell CNN.

    Cutting off North Korea’s cryptocurrency pipeline has quickly become a national security imperative for the US and South Korea. The regime’s ability to use the stolen digital money — or remittances from North Korean IT workers abroad — to fund its weapons programs is part of the regular set of intelligence products presented to senior US officials, including, sometimes, President Joe Biden, a senior US official said.

    The North Koreans “need money, so they’re going to keep being creative,” the official told CNN. “I don’t think [they] are ever going to stop looking for illicit ways to glean funds because it’s an authoritarian regime under heavy sanctions.”

    North Korea’s cryptocurrency hacking was top of mind at an April 7 meeting in Seoul, where US, Japanese and South Korean diplomats released a joint statement lamenting that Kim Jong Un’s regime continues to “pour its scarce resources into its WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and ballistic missile programs.”

    nightcap 031623 CLIP 2 hacker 16x9

    Here’s how to keep your passwords safe, according to a hacker

    “We are also deeply concerned about how the DPRK supports these programs by stealing and laundering funds as well as gathering information through malicious cyber activities,” the trilateral statement said, using an acronym for the North Korean government.

    North Korea has previously denied similar allegations. CNN has emailed and called the North Korean Embassy in London seeking comment.

    Starting in the late 2000s, US officials and their allies scoured international waters for signs that North Korea was evading sanctions by trafficking in weapons, coal or other precious cargo, a practice that continues. Now, a very modern twist on that contest is unfolding between hackers and money launderers in Pyongyang, and intelligence agencies and law enforcement officials from Washington to Seoul.

    The FBI and Secret Service have spearheaded that work in the US (both agencies declined to comment when CNN asked how they track North Korean money-laundering.) The FBI announced in January that it had frozen an unspecified portion of the $100 million stolen from Harmony.

    The succession of Kim family members who have ruled North Korea for the last 70 years have all used state-owned companies to enrich the family and ensure the regime’s survival, according to experts.

    It’s a family business that scholar John Park calls “North Korea Incorporated.”

    Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s current dictator, has “doubled down on cyber capabilities and crypto theft as a revenue generator for his family regime,” said Park, who directs the Korea Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. “North Korea Incorporated has gone virtual.”

    Compared to the coal trade North Korea has relied on for revenue in the past, stealing cryptocurrency is much less labor and capital-intensive, Park said. And the profits are astronomical.

    Last year, a record $3.8 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen from around the world, according to Chainalysis. Nearly half of that, or $1.7 billion, was the work of North Korean-linked hackers, the firm said.

    The joint analysis room in the National Cyber ​​Security Cooperation Center of the National Intelligence Service in South Korea.

    It’s unclear how much of its billions in stolen cryptocurrency North Korea has been able to convert to hard cash. In an interview, a US Treasury official focused on North Korea declined to give an estimate. The public record of blockchain transactions helps US officials track suspected North Korean operatives’ efforts to move cryptocurrency, the Treasury official said.

    But when North Korea gets help from other countries in laundering that money it is “incredibly concerning,” the official said. (They declined to name a particular country, but the US in 2020 indicted two Chinese men for allegedly laundering over $100 million for North Korea.)

    Pyongyang’s hackers have also combed the networks of various foreign governments and companies for key technical information that might be useful for its nuclear program, according to a private United Nations report in February reviewed by CNN.

    A spokesperson for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told CNN it has developed a “rapid intelligence sharing” scheme with allies and private companies to respond to the threat and is looking for new ways to stop stolen cryptocurrency from being smuggled into North Korea.

    Recent efforts have focused on North Korea’s use of what are known as mixing services, publicly available tools used to obscure the source of cryptocurrency.

    On March 15, the Justice Department and European law enforcement agencies announced the shutdown of a mixing service known as ChipMixer, which the North Koreans allegedly used to launder an unspecified amount of the roughly $700 million stolen by hackers in three different crypto heists — including the $100 million robbery of Harmony, the California cryptocurrency firm.

    Private investigators use blockchain-tracking software — and their own eyes when the software alerts them — to pinpoint the moment when stolen funds leave the hands of the North Koreans and can be seized. But those investigators need trusted relationships with law enforcement and crypto firms to move quickly enough to snatch back the funds.

    One of the biggest US counter moves to date came in August when the Treasury Department sanctioned a cryptocurrency “mixing” service known as Tornado Cash that allegedly laundered $455 million for North Korean hackers.

    Tornado Cash was particularly valuable because it had more liquidity than other services, allowing North Korean money to hide more easily among other sources of funds. Tornado Cash is now processing fewer transactions after the Treasury sanctions forced the North Koreans to look to other mixing services.

    Suspected North Korean operatives sent $24 million in December and January through a new mixing service, Sinbad, according to Chainalysis, but there are no signs yet that Sinbad will be as effective at moving money as Tornado Cash.

    The people behind mixing services, like Tornado Cash developer Roman Semenov, often describe themselves as privacy advocates who argue that their cryptocurrency tools can be used for good or ill like any technology. But that hasn’t stopped law enforcement agencies from cracking down. Dutch police in August arrested another suspected developer of Tornado Cash, whom they did not name, for alleged money laundering.

    Private crypto-tracking firms like Chainalysis are increasingly staffed with former US and European law enforcement agents who are applying what they learned in the classified world to track Pyongyang’s money laundering.

    Elliptic, a London-based firm with ex-law enforcement agents on staff, claims it helped seize $1.4 million in North Korean money stolen in the Harmony hack. Elliptic analysts tell CNN they were able to follow the money in real-time in February as it briefly moved to two popular cryptocurrency exchanges, Huobi and Binance. The analysts say they quickly notified the exchanges, which froze the money.

    “It’s a bit like large-scale drug importations,” Tom Robinson, Elliptic’s co-founder, told CNN. “[The North Koreans] are prepared to lose some of it, but a majority of it probably goes through just by virtue of volume and the speed at which they do it and they’re quite sophisticated at it.”

    The North Koreans are not just trying to steal from cryptocurrency firms, but also directly from other crypto thieves.

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    After an unknown hacker stole $200 million from British firm Euler Finance in March, suspected North Korean operatives tried to set a trap: They sent the hacker a message on the blockchain laced with a vulnerability that may have been an attempt to gain access to the funds, according to Elliptic. (The ruse didn’t work.)

    Nick Carlsen, who was an FBI intelligence analyst focused on North Korea until 2021, estimates that North Korea may only have a couple hundred people focused on the task of exploiting cryptocurrency to evade sanctions.

    With an international effort to sanction rogue cryptocurrency exchanges and seize stolen money, Carlsen worries that North Korea could turn to less conspicuous forms of fraud. Rather than steal half a billion dollars from a cryptocurrency exchange, he suggested, Pyongyang’s operatives could set up a Ponzi scheme that attracts much less attention.

    Yet even at reduced profit margins, cryptocurrency theft is still “wildly profitable,” said Carlsen, who now works at fraud-investigating firm TRM Labs. “So, they have no reason to stop.”

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  • A man was crushed to death while allegedly attempting to steal a catalytic convertor, police say | CNN

    A man was crushed to death while allegedly attempting to steal a catalytic convertor, police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A man was crushed to death while allegedly attempting to steal a catalytic convertor from vehicle at a Savannah, Georgia, car lot, police said.

    Officers were called on March 7 after the man, Matthew Eric Smith, 32, was found dead under a car, the Chatham County Police Department said in a release.

    “Evidence at the scene indicates that the man was killed while he was illegally removing a catalytic converter from the vehicle, and the vehicle fell on top of him,” the release read.

    Catalytic converter theft has skyrocketed around the nation in recent years, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, surging more than 1,200% since 2019.

    The converters, which reduce pollution and toxic gas from a vehicle’s emissions, are relatively easy to steal and contain valuable precious metals such as palladium, platinum and rhodium.

    Last year, federal, state and local law enforcement carried out a “coordinated takedown” of a multimillion-dollar network of catalytic converter thieves, dealers and processors that led to 21 arrests in five states, the Justice Department said in a November release.

    “Some of these precious metals are more valuable per ounce than gold and their value has been increasing in recent years,” the department said. “The black-market price for catalytic converters can be above $1,000 each, depending on the type of vehicle and what state it is from. They can be stolen in less than a minute.”

    Last year, according to police, 39 catalytic convertors were stolen from vehicles in unincorporated Chatham County.

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  • Suspect in Dallas Zoo animal thefts allegedly admitted to the crime and says he would do it again, affidavits claim | CNN

    Suspect in Dallas Zoo animal thefts allegedly admitted to the crime and says he would do it again, affidavits claim | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The man who faces charges stemming from a string of suspicious activities at the Dallas Zoo allegedly admitted to stealing two tamarin monkeys and trying to steal the clouded snow leopard last month, according to arrest warrant affidavits.

    Davion Irvin also told police that he wants to return to the zoo and take more animals if he gets out of jail, the affidavits claim.

    Irvin, 24, is currently charged with six counts of animal cruelty and two counts of burglary to a building after Dallas police arrested him last week. He is being held at the Dallas County Jail on $25,000 bond, according to inmate search records. CNN has been unable to determine if Irvin has retained an attorney at this time.

    His arrest warrant documents reveal new details about a peculiar case that has gripped the nation’s attention in recent weeks and triggered some concern among zoo staffers.

    Although the monkeys were eventually found at an unoccupied home in the Dallas area, their disappearance followed a series of suspicious incidents at the zoo involving a leopard, langur monkeys and a vulture’s death, leading to a hike in security, including more cameras, patrols and overnight staff.

    On January 13 during the early morning hours, Irvin allegedly entered the Dallas Zoo when it was closed to the public and intentionally cut the fenced enclosure for the clouded snow leopard, according to the affidavits. Irvin then allegedly entered the habitat to take the leopard, which is valued at $3,500 to $20,000, the documents say.

    Irvin allegedly told investigators he petted the leopard, but the 25-pound animal jumped up into the top of its closure, and he wasn’t able to catch the animal. He left the exhibit with the cut still in place, and the leopard escaped, setting off an hours-long pursuit later that morning when zoo officials realized the animal was gone.

    After a frantic search and police involvement, the leopard was found on zoo property that afternoon on January 13.

    Roughly two weeks later, an unknown suspect cut the exterior fencing to the tamarin monkey exhibit and entered the exhibit through an unlocked door before cutting the cages and taking two monkeys, according to the affidavits. This offense, committed on January 30, was not captured on camera.

    In the days leading up to the theft of the monkeys, a person matching Irvin’s description asked zoo personnel specific and “obscure” questions about how to care for the tamarin monkeys and other animals, the affidavits say.

    The suspect was also seen entering nonpublic areas around the monkey exhibit that day, according to investigators, and he was captured on trail cameras eating a bag of chips near the exhibit, according to investigators.

    Another animal habitat near the leopard and monkey habitats was also found to be cut, according to the affidavits. Unreported thefts from early January were also brought to the attention of detectives – such as theft of feeder fish, water chemicals, and training supplies from a staff-only area at the otter exhibit.

    Before Irvin was identified and named as a suspect in the case, police had released surveillance footage and a photo of the suspect on January 31.

    On that same day, police received a tip from a man whose father is a pastor of a church that owns a vacant house in Lancaster. The tipster said Irvin frequently visited the house, and the pastor provided consent for police to search the premises.

    Upon searching, police found the two tamarin monkeys inside the home but no people. Multiple cats and pigeons were also in the home, according to the affidavits, as well as items that went missing from the otter exhibit.

    Detectives said the home’s interior was “in extreme poor condition” with dead animals, suspected cat feces, and mold and mildew.

    Lancaster is about 15 miles south of Dallas.

    While Irvin was not inside the home, police found a pair of Nike shoes that matched the shoes Irvin was wearing in the images captured by zoo cameras, according to the affidavits.

    On February 2, Irvin was spotted at the Dallas World Aquarium and asked employees about the monkeys at their location, according to the affidavits. Aquarium employees recognized Irvin from the photo released to the public, and authorities were contacted. Police followed Irvin onto a commuter train and arrested him.

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  • Record $3.8 billion stolen in crypto hacks last year, report says | CNN Business

    Record $3.8 billion stolen in crypto hacks last year, report says | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    A record $3.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from various services last year, with much of those thefts driven by North Korean-linked hackers, according to a report Wednesday from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

    The increase in crypto heists, from $3.3 billion in 2021, came as the overall market for cryptocurrencies suffered significant declines. The value of Bitcoin, for example, fell by more than 60% last year.

    North Korea was a key driver for the surge in thefts, according to the report. Hackers linked to the country stole an estimated $1.7 billion worth of crytopcurrency through various hacks in 2022, up from $429 million in the prior year, Chainalysis said.

    Some of the biggest crypto hacks of the year have since been attributed to North Korea. The FBI has blamed hackers linked to the North Korean government for more than $600 million hack of video game Axie Infinity’s Ronin network in March and a $100 million Harmony, a cryptocurrency firm, in June.

    “North Korea’s total exports in 2020 totalled $142 million worth of goods, so it isn’t a stretch to say that cryptocurrency hacking is a sizable chunk of the nation’s economy,” Chainalysis noted in the report.

    US officials worry Pyongyang will use money stolen from crypto hacks to fund its illicit nuclear and ballistic weapons program. North Korean hackers have stolen the equivalent of billions of dollars in recent years by raiding cryptocurrency exchanges, according to the United Nations.

    In addition to hacking cryptocurrency firms, suspected North Koreans have posed as other nationalities to apply for work at such firms and send money back to Pyongyang, US agencies have publicly warned.

    In general, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols were the main target of hackers, accounting for more than 80% of all cryptocurrency stolen for the year, according to the report. These protocols are used to replace traditional financial institutions with software that allows users to transact directly with each other via the blockchain, the digital ledger that underpins cryptocurrencies.

    Of the attacks on DeFi systems, 64% targeted cross-chain bridge protocols, which allow users to exchange assets between different blockchains. Bridge services typically hold large reserves of various coins, making them targets for hackers. (The thefts on Axie Infinity and Harmony were both bridge hacks.)

    While crypto hacks continued to rise last year, there is some cause for hope. Law enforcement and national security agencies are expanding their abilities to combat digital criminals, such as the FBI’s recovery of $30 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen in the Axie Infinity hack.

    Those efforts, combined with other agencies cracking down on money laundering techniques, “means that these hacks will get harder and less fruitful with each passing year,” according to Chainalysis.

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  • Some auto insurers are refusing to cover certain Hyundai and Kia models | CNN Business

    Some auto insurers are refusing to cover certain Hyundai and Kia models | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Progressive and State Farm, two of America’s largest auto insurers, are refusing to write policies in certain cities for some older Hyundai and Kia models that have been deemed too easy to steal, according to the companies.

    Several reports say the companies have stopped offering insurance on these vehicles in cities that include Denver, Colorado and St. Louis, Missouri. The insurance companies did not tell CNN which cities or states were involved.

    The Highway Loss Data Institute released insurance claims data last September that confirmed what various social media accounts had been saying: Some 2015 through 2019 Hyundai and Kia models are roughly twice as likely to be stolen as other vehicles of similar age, because many of them lack some of the basic auto theft prevention technology included in most other vehicles in those years, according to the HLDI.

    Specifically, these SUVs and cars don’t have electronic immobilizers, which rely on a computer chip in the car and another in the key that communicate to confirm that the key really belongs to that vehicle. Without the right key, an immobilizer should do just that – stop the car from moving.

    Immobilizers were standard equipment on 96% of vehicles sold for the 2015-2019 model years, according the HLDI, but only 26% of Hyundais and Kias had them at that time. Vehicles that have push-button start systems, rather than relying on metal keys that must be inserted and turned, have immobilizers, but not all models with turn-key ignitions do.

    Stealing these vehicles became a social media trend in 2021, according to HLDI, as car thieves began posting videos of their thefts and joyrides and even videos explaining how to steal the cars. In Wisconsin, where the crimes first became prevalent, theft claims of Hyundais and Kias spiked to more than 30 times 2019 levels in dollar terms.

    “State Farm has temporarily stopped writing new business in some states for certain model years and trim levels of Hyundai and Kia vehicles because theft losses for these vehicles have increased dramatically,” the insurer said in a statement provided to CNN. “This is a serious problem impacting our customers and the entire auto insurance industry.”

    Progressive is also cutting back on insuring these cars in some markets, spokesman Jeff Sibel said in an emailed statement.

    “During the past year we’ve seen theft rates for certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles more than triple and in some markets these vehicles are almost 20 times more likely to be stolen than other vehicles,” he wrote. “Given that we price our policies based on the level of risk they represent, this explosive increase in thefts in many cases makes these vehicles extremely challenging for us to insure. In response, in some geographic areas we have increased our rates and limited our sale of new insurance policies on some of these models.”

    Progressive continues to insure those who already have policies with the company, he said. Progressive is also providing them with advice on how to protect their vehicles from theft.

    Michael Barry, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, said it was very unusual for auto insurers to simply stop writing new policies on a given make or model of vehicle.

    “They generally want to expand their market share depending on where they’re doing business,” he said.

    Hyundai and Kia operate as separate companies in the United States, but Hyundai Motor Group owns a large stake in Kia and various Hyundai and Kia models share much of their engineering.

    Engine immobilizers are now standard on all Kia and Hyundai vehicles, the companies said in separate statements. Both automakers also said they are developing security software for vehicles that were not originally equipped with an immobilizer. Kia said it has begun notifying owners of the availability of this software, which will be provided at no charge. Hyundai said its free software free update will be available next month.

    Hyundai also said it is providing free steering wheel locks to some police departments around the country to give local residents who have Hyundai models that could be easily stolen. Hyundai dealers are also selling and installing security kits for the vehicles, the company said.

    Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the cost of Hyundai security kits.

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  • Getty Images suing the makers of popular AI art tool for allegedly stealing photos | CNN Business

    Getty Images suing the makers of popular AI art tool for allegedly stealing photos | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Getty Images announced a lawsuit against Stability AI, the company behind popular AI art tool Stable Diffusion, alleging the tech company committed copyright infringement.

    The stock image giant accused Stability AI of copying and processing millions of its images without obtaining the proper licensing, according to a press release issued Tuesday. London-based Stability AI announced it had raised $101 million in funding for open-source AI tech in October and released version 2.1 of its Stable Diffusion tool in December.

    “Getty Images believes artificial intelligence has the potential to stimulate creative endeavors. Accordingly, Getty Images provided licenses to leading technology innovators for purposes related to training artificial intelligence systems in a manner that respects personal and intellectual property rights,” Getty wrote in the statement. “Stability AI did not seek any such license from Getty Images and instead, we believe, chose to ignore viable licensing options and long standing legal protections in pursuit of their stand-alone commercial interests.”

    Getty declined to comment further on the suit to CNN, but said that it requested a response from the AI firm before taking action. Stability AI did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

    AI art and traditional media suppliers have struggled to coexist in recent months as computer-generated images grow more available and advanced, using human-created images and art as data training.

    Once available only to a select group of tech insiders, text-to-image AI systems are becoming increasingly popular and powerful. These systems include Stable Diffusion and DALL-E, from OpenAI.

    Shutterstock, a Getty Images competitor and fellow stock image platform, announced plans in October to expand its partnership with OpenAI, the company behind DALL-E and viral AI chat bot ChatGPT, and enhance AI-generated content while launching a fund to compensate artists for their contributions.

    These tools, which typically offer some free credits before charging, can create all kinds of images with just a few words, including those that are clearly evocative of the works of many, many artists, if not seemingly created by them. Users can invoke those artists with words such as “in the style of” or “by” along with a specific name. Current uses for these tools can range from personal amusement and hobbies to more commercial cases.

    In just months, millions of people have flocked to text-to-image AI systems which are already being used to create experimental films, magazine covers and images to illustrate news stories. An image generated with an AI system called Midjourney recently won an art competition at the Colorado State Fair, creating an uproar among artists, who are concerned that their art can be stolen by these systems without due credit.

    “I don’t want to participate at all in the machine that’s going to cheapen what I do,” Daniel Danger, an illustrator and print maker who learned a number of his works were used to train Stable Diffusion, told CNN in October.

    Stability AI founder and CEO Emad Mostaque told CNN Business in October via email that art is a tiny fraction of the LAION training data behind Stable Diffusion. “Art makes up much less than 0.1% of the dataset and is only created when deliberately called by the user,” he said.

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  • Woman sentenced to three years in state prison for collecting $400,000 in viral GoFundMe scam | CNN

    Woman sentenced to three years in state prison for collecting $400,000 in viral GoFundMe scam | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A New Jersey woman has been sentenced to three years in state prison for her role in scamming more than $400,000 from GoFundMe donors, by claiming to be collecting money for a homeless man.

    Katelyn McClure, 32, is currently serving a 12-month and one day term in a federal prison in Connecticut for her involvement in the scheme, the Burlington County Prosecutor announced in a news release Friday.

    Her state sentence will run concurrently with her federal prison time, according to the prosecutor’s office. The judge also ruled McClure, who formerly worked at the state Department of Transportation, is “permanently barred from ever holding another position as a public employee,” the release said.

    In 2017, McClure claimed she ran out of gas and was stranded on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia. The homeless man, Johnny Bobbitt Jr., supposedly saw her and gave her his last $20 for gas.

    McClure and her then-boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, posted about the “good deed” on social media, including a picture of her with Bobbitt on a highway ramp. They also started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the homeless veteran, saying they wanted to pay it forward to the good Samaritan and get him off the streets.

    The story went viral and made national headlines, with more than 14,000 donors contributing. The scammers netted around $367,000 after fees, according to court documents.

    Prosecutors said the then-couple spent the money on a BMW, a New Year’s trip to Las Vegas, gambling in casinos, Louis Vuitton handbags, and other items.

    Bobbitt, who received $75,000 from the fundraiser, according to prosecutors, took civil action against D’Amico and McClure and the scam soon became public.

    An investigation revealed the real story. According to Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina, the couple first met Bobbitt at an off-ramp near a casino at least a month before the GoFundMe campaign went live. Investigators reviewed texts the couple sent discussing the scam and their money troubles, including one McClure sent to a friend which read, “Okay so wait the gas part is completely made up, but the guy isn’t. I had to make something up to make people feel bad.”

    D’Amico and Bobbitt were charged in 2018 alongside her for concocting the scheme, prosecutors said.

    McClure pleaded guilty to one count of theft by deception in the second degree in 2019, according to the Burlington County prosecutor.

    Bobbitt pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft by deception in 2019 and was sentenced to a five-year special probation period which includes drug treatment. D’Amico also pleaded guilty and agreed to a five-year term in New Jersey state prison, as well as restitution of GoFundMe and the donors, in 2019.

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  • ‘Maybe we cried too much’ over shoplifting, Walgreens executive says | CNN Business

    ‘Maybe we cried too much’ over shoplifting, Walgreens executive says | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Throughout the pandemic, major retailers have warned about surging theft and a rise in brazen shoplifting attempts. But a top Walgreens executive now says the freakout may have been overblown.

    “Maybe we cried too much last year” about merchandise losses, Walgreens finance chief James Kehoe acknowledged Thursday on an earnings call. The company’s rate of shrink — merchandise losses due to theft, fraud, damages, mis-scanned items and other errors — fell from 3.5% of total sales last year to around 2.5% during its latest quarter.

    Kehoe’s message is a notable shift from comments about theft from Walgreens and other retailers like Walmart and Target over the last nearly three years.

    Companies and retail industry groups have tried to draw attention to shoplifting and “organized retail crime” rings smashing windows and grabbing aisles full of merchandise off shelves, urging lawmakers to crack down. Incidents have certainly happened: Many political leaders and local and national news outlets, including CNN, have picked up on viral incidents of smash-and-grab robberies.

    So retailers took action. Some began locking up more products like deodorant and toothpaste, adding extra security guards and even shuttering stores.

    Last January, Walgreens

    (WBA)     said its shrink was up by more 50% from the year prior. The company blamed part of that spike on organized retail crime and closed five locations in the San Francisco area in 2021, claiming theft as the reason for their closure.

    “This is not petty theft,” Kehoe said last January. “These are gangs that actually go in and empty our stores of beauty products. And it’s a real issue.”

    But a year later, Kehoe said Thursday that the company added too much extra security in stores.

    “Probably we put in too much, and we might step back a little bit from that,” he said of security staffing. The company has found private security guards to be “largely ineffective” in deterring theft, so instead it’s putting in more police and law enforcement officers.

    Though Walgreens may have overblown the shoplifting threat over the last few years, it’s true that theft has always been a problem for retailers — and that it often spikes during recessions and other periods of economic hardship, when people are desperate and may feel the need to turn to petty crime to sustain themselves. What’s more, recent factors like shortstaffed stores and self-checkout can make it easier for thieves to steal.

    The National Retail Federation estimated that shrink cost retailers $94.5 billion in 2021, up from $61.7 billion in 2019 before the pandemic. Shoplifting often does not go reported to the police, but companies have said theft has worsened during the Covid crisis.

    “Along with other retailers, we’ve seen a significant increase in theft and organized retail crime across our business,” Target

    (TGT)     CEO Brian Cornell said in November.

    Walmart

    (WMT)     CEO Doug McMillon said last month on CNBC that “theft is an issue” and “higher than what it has historically been.” He warned stores could close if it continued.

    However, it’s not clear the numbers add up.

    For example, data released by the San Francisco Police Department does not support the explanation Walgreens gave that it was closing five stores because of organized retail theft, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2021.

    One of the shuttered stores that closed had only seven reported shoplifting incidents in 2021 and a total of 23 since 2018, according to the newspaper. Overall, the five stores that closed had fewer than two recorded shoplifting incidents a month on average since 2018.

    Similarly, a 2021 Los Angeles Times analysis of figures released by industry groups on losses due to organized retail crime found “there is reason to doubt the problem is anywhere near as large or widespread as they say.”

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  • South African President Cyril Ramaphosa resists calls to resign | CNN

    South African President Cyril Ramaphosa resists calls to resign | CNN

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    Johannesburg, South Africa
    CNN
     — 

    After days of speculation, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa looks set to fight calls for his resignation despite a damning report that found he could have covered up the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars at his private game farm.

    His spokesman Vincent Magwenya said Ramaphosa would not be resigning “based on a flawed report,” and “neither is he stepping aside.”

    “The President has taken to heart the unequivocal message coming from the branches of the governing party who have nominated him to avail himself for a second term of the leadership of the ANC (African National Congress),” Magwenya added.

    Prior to the release of the report, Ramaphosa was widely expected to win a second term as ANC leader. The ANC’s top leadership is expected to meet in the coming hours. Ramaphosa’s fate is likely to be top of the agenda.

    Ramaphosa himself has not made any public statements since the report was released.

    Ramaphosa was elected to root out corruption, but he is being probed in an ongoing scandal linked to the theft of more than $500,000 in cash from his private game farm in 2020. The cash was stuffed inside a leather sofa according to the panel investigation.

    The panel, led by a former chief justice, found that the crime was not reported to the police and that there was a “deliberate decision to keep the investigation secret.”

    Former South African spy chief Arthur Fraser alleged the theft occurred with the collusion of a domestic worker and claimed that the theft was concealed from police and the revenue service. Fraser, whose allegations were detailed in a report into the investigation, said Ramaphosa paid the culprits for their silence.

    Ramaphosa has maintained that the cash was from the sale of buffalo at his Phala Phala farm to a Sudanese businessman and that the theft was reported to the head of presidential security.

    The president also disputes claims by Fraser that the amount hidden at his farm was more than $4 million.

    “Some are casting aspersions about me and money. I want to assure you that all this was money from proceeds from selling animals. I have never stolen money from anywhere. Be it from our taxpayers, be it from anyone. I have never done so. And will never do so,” he said while addressing members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party in June this year.

    He is a well-known owner and trader of rare buffalo, cattle, and other wildlife, and has become a multi-millionaire through his private buffalo farm.

    The panel found that Ramaphosa’s submitted explanations were not yet sufficient and that he could have violated the constitution and his oath of office by having a second income as president.

    The ANC’s top leaders are set to discuss the report and while the party does have a “step-aside” rule for misconduct, the ANC’s national spokesman Pule Mabe told local television that it only applied to those that are “criminally charged.”

    Ramaphosa was recently feted at Buckingham Palace at the first state visit hosted by King Charles, but closer to home, the scandal threatens to end his political career, with speculation swirling around political circles in the country that he could step down.

    The ANC’s elective conference to choose its leadership is due to take place in mid-December, but is likely to be dominated by the President’s troubles.

    South Africa’s official opposition leader was quick to call for impeachment proceedings and early elections.

    “The report is clear and unambiguous. President Ramaphosa most likely did breach a number of Constitutional provisions and has a case to answer. Impeachment proceedings into his conduct must go ahead, and he will have to offer far better, more comprehensive explanations than we have been given so far,” said by John Steenhuisen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance.

    The panel was appointed by the speaker of parliament after a motion from a smaller opposition party.

    The National Assembly will consider the report and may institute impeachment proceedings – though the ANC does hold a majority of seats.

    Ramaphosa took office after his predecessor Jacob Zuma was forced to resign because of multiple allegations of corruption.

    A former trade union head and multi-millionaire from his business career, Ramaphosa has repeatedly said that fighting corruption is a priority for his presidency.

    But the ANC has, by all accounts, been fractured by factional politics during his tenure. Some allies of former president Zuma are now openly asking for Ramaphosa to step down.

    Soon after the report’s findings were released, Ramaphosa’s office reiterated his statement to the panel, “I have endeavored, throughout my tenure as President, not only to abide by my oath but to set an example of respect for the Constitution, for its institutions, for due process and the law. I categorically deny that I have violated this oath in any way, and I similarly deny that I am guilty of any of the allegations made against me.”

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  • New York Democrats are bracing for stunning Election Day losses, and they already have a fall guy | CNN Politics

    New York Democrats are bracing for stunning Election Day losses, and they already have a fall guy | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Democratic officials and strategists in New York tell CNN they are bracing for what could be stunning losses in the governor’s race and in contests for as many as four US House seats largely in the suburbs.

    With crime dominating the headlines and the airwaves, multiple Democrats watching these races closely are pointing to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, accusing him of overhyping the issue and playing into right-wing narratives in ways that may have helped set the party up for disaster on Tuesday.

    “He was an essential validator in the city to make their attacks seem more legit and less partisan,” said one Democratic operative working on campaigns in New York, who asked not to be named so as not to compromise current clients.

    Other Democrats argue this has it backwards. While they accuse Republicans of political ploys they call cynical, racist and taking advantage of a situation fostered by the pandemic, they insist candidates would be in better shape if they had followed Adams’ lead in speaking to the fear and frustration voters feel.

    But going into Election Day, New York Democrats worry about a double whammy from how they’ve struggled to address crime: Swing voters turned off by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and suburban House Democrats go vote Republican, while base Democrats in the city, dejected by talk of how awful things are, don’t turn out at all.

    “Crime today has been compared to the ’80s and the ‘90s, and the fact of the matter is that crime is lower now than it was then,” said Crystal Hudson, a Democratic New York City councilwoman from Brooklyn. “That’s emboldened the right to use crime as their narrative and put Democrats in a bad spot for these midterm elections.”

    Rep. Lee Zeldin, Hochul’s GOP opponent, has taken to regularly invoking Adams on the campaign trail, to the point that some Democratic operatives have grimly joked that Zeldin could just run clips of Adams talking about crime as his closing ads.

    There are national ripples: Democratic groups like the Democratic Governors Association are moving in millions of dollars to prop up Hochul in a deep-blue state instead of spending that on tight races elsewhere, with Vice President Kamala Harris flying in on Thursday in one of her own last campaign stops and President Joe Biden heading to Westchester County, north of New York City, on Sunday to rally with the governor. Republicans, meanwhile, are seizing opportunities to pad a potential House majority by targeting seats that Democrats had been counting on as backstops.

    Adams was elected mayor last year on a tough-talking, tough-on-crime message, then embraced as such a hero among many Democratic leaders that rumors circulated he might be eyeing a 2024 presidential run himself. In office, he’s often talked about the bad shape the city is in, including citing statistics he says demonstrate connections between the rise in crime and a 2019 progressive-led state law change that barred judges from setting cash bail for all but the most serious offenses.

    Multiple top Democrats argue that Adams could have used his credibility to buttress Hochul – whom allies point out is in a tricky political spot talking about crime in New York City as a 64-year-old White woman from Western New York – instead of loudly pushing the governor to call a special session of the legislature to roll back more of the new bail laws. Hochul also seemed to be caught surprised by the attacks and unsure of how to defend her record, with several elected officials and operatives saying she appeared to be balancing between different factions of the party rather than setting a firm agenda of her own.

    That’s fed an increasingly tense relationship in the campaign’s final weeks, though Adams recently appeared with Hochul at both an official government event announcing she’d allocate state money to pay for overtime for police patrolling the subways and at a campaign stop in Queens as she seeks to prove to voters that she’s taking crime seriously. Adams has also shifted to blaming the media for sensationalizing the crime problem.

    Appearing on “CNN This Morning” on Friday, Hochul said there’s never been a governor and mayor in New York with as strong a relationship as the one she has with Adams. While she acknowledged that violent crime is up and that the issue was rooted in voters’ sincere fears, she said Republicans were “not having a conversation about real solutions.”

    She cited her record of getting more cops and cameras on the street and help for the mentally ill, and Zeldin’s opposition to gun control.

    “Crime has been a problem,” she said. “I understand that. Let’s talk about real answers and not just give everybody all these platitudes.”

    Rep. Kathleen Rice, a retiring moderate Democrat from just outside New York City and a former Nassau County district attorney, said at first she was encouraged by Adams. As a former police officer, he understands the problem, she said, but “the general consensus is that he hasn’t shown he has focused on the issue enough for it to have made a difference.”

    Rice said she’s heard from constituents from just outside the city who are turned off by reports of Adams spending late nights at pricey private restaurants juxtaposed with stories about murders on the subways and other horrific incidents.

    “People want to feel safe first before they go to a club,” Rice said.

    Rice’s seat is one of two Democratic-held seats on Long Island now seen at risk. Democrats are also in danger of losing two seats north of New York City – one held by Rep. Pat Ryan and the Lower Hudson Valley district of Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

    “It is an issue for voters, but it is not because they have personally experienced crime in the Hudson Valley or their neighbors are talking about crimes committed in the Hudson Valley as much as it is the narrative pushed by the industrial fear machine at Fox and the New York Post describing New York City as a lawless hellscape,” Maloney said in an interview. “That, understandably, is raising concerns among suburbanites.”

    Months ago, Maloney warned other House Democrats, in conversations and in a March memo sent around by the DCCC and obtained by CNN, to be ready to respond and rebut attacks for being weak on crime. The guidance started with telling candidates to be firmly against calls to “defund the police” but also to talk about the more than $8 billion Democratic lawmakers had secured for law enforcement in bills such as the American Rescue Plan.

    Maloney pointed to his votes for legislation to fund programs for body cameras and plate reading technology for local police departments in his district, as well as for the gun control measures enacted over the summer.

    He also stood by a remark he made last July – catching several Democratic operatives’ attention at the time – when he stood with Adams on the steps of the Democratic National Committee headquarters and called him “a rock on which I can build a church.”

    “What I meant is that I like his combination of respecting good policing and understanding the need for public safety with a genuine passion for justice and fairness in our system,” Maloney said in an interview. “He may not get everything right, and it may not be everything I would do. But he recognizes that we’re not where we should be. And I support his efforts to clean it up.”

    Others have not been convinced.

    “The concern over crime is real. It is acute,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones, a progressive Democrat who lost a primary to represent parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn after Maloney opted to run for a redrawn suburban seat that also included parts of Jones’ district. “But once this election is over, I hope people have an honest conversation about how Democrats like Eric Adams have validated a hysteria over crime that is uninformed and that has been debunked.”

    Conversations about crime in New York are bound up in the debate over reforming the bail laws, and in well-worn internal political power struggles among officials. In phone calls and meetings at the beginning of the year, Adams urged top officials in Albany to change the laws, warning them that crime would likely be a major political liability in the fall, according to people familiar with the conversations.

    Legislative leaders have already passed two partial rollbacks, including one supported by Hochul earlier this year. But they have resisted doing more, despite warnings from suburban members.

    Adams has charged that the “insane broken system” of bail laws now puts criminals back on the street who then tend to get back to committing crimes. According to figures from the New York Police Department, in the first half of the year, 211 people were arrested at least three times for burglary and 899 people were arrested at least three times for shoplifting, increases of 142.5 percent and 88.9 percent, respectively, over the same period in 2017. The mayor’s office also pointed to statistics that show double-digit jumps in recidivism for felony, grand larceny and auto theft.

    Still, crime statistics don’t tell as simple a story as what shows up in political ads. Suburban counties are reporting safer streets and communities – a report in February by the Westchester County executive from just north of New York City, for example, showed a 26.5 percent drop in its crime index.

    Murders and shootings are down in the city from last year, but rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft are all up, by over 30 percent from 2021 in several categories, according to New York Police Department data.

    But those are the stories which play on the same local news – and campaign ads during the breaks – that reach into the homes of suburban voters who may not have been crime victims themselves, or even spent much time in the city for years. And that’s left Hochul and Democratic House and state legislative nominees leaching support in Long Island, Westchester and the northern New York City suburbs.

    “A lot of the story that’s being told is of New York City crime,” said Democrat Bridget Fleming, a former prosecutor who’s been endorsed by police unions in the House race for much of the area Zeldin currently represents on Long Island. “We’re making sure law enforcement is supported – and other than gun crime, we’re keeping crime down here.”

    Evan Roth Smith, a pollster working on several local races, said Adams “may be a drag on Democratic trustworthiness on crime.”

    But Adams spokesman Maxwell Young said the mayor’s job isn’t to put a rosy spin on things in a way that could benefit Hochul’s or any of the other candidates’ campaigns.

    “We can’t, and won’t, ignore the reality,” Young said. “Those who claim we aren’t making progress or, conversely, that we’ve been crying wolf aren’t paying attention and have no idea what they’re talking about.”

    Evan Thies, a top Adams political adviser, said he wished other Democrats had taken lessons from the mayor’s win last year.

    “You have to convince people you’re worthy to lead by following their lead on issues and meeting their urgency, not by disagreeing with them,” Thies said. “The mayor became mayor by listening to and advocating for people in high-crime communities – he’s not going to abandon them now.”

    Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat, whose district covers Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, points to how many systemic, as well as larger societal and economic issues, are involved in making a real impact on crime – and that Adams has only been on the job for 10 months.

    “He’s really trying hard. This is not easy,” Espaillat said. “It’s going to take some time.”

    Biden had his own bromance with Adams, from hosting him in the White House weeks after he won his mayoral primary to offering him half of his peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich as they rode together in the limo in February during a presidential visit to New York to talk about gun violence. White House chief of staff Ron Klain praised Adams for tapping into the same coalition of pragmatic, working-class and African American voters, which won Biden the 2020 Democratic nomination.

    Through an aide, Klain did not respond to questions about how he and the president view Adams these days.

    But what many Democrats are left with as they approach the end of campaigning in New York is a potentially devastating example of failing again to break a decades-long paradigm of Republicans capitalizing on calling them soft on crime.

    “The paradox here is: Crime is high in some of the reddest parts of the country where they have the weakest gun safety laws. We needed to tell that story and done so loudly to neutralize the issue. You can’t sit idly by and wish it away,” said Charlie Kelly, a political adviser to former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s gun safety group Everytown and former executive director for the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC.

    In New York and beyond, some Democrats are already hoping for a post-election recognition and realignment that pushes their party both toward a tougher attack on Republicans and a more forceful deflection of their own left flank.

    “We can’t dismiss people’s concerns,” said Justin Brannan, a New York City councilman from a moderate district in Brooklyn. “It’s another thing to be a Republican, to say, ‘If you go outside, you’re going to die.’”

    “It’s both true that crime is down from the 1990s and that it has been increasing and that people feel uncomfortable,” said Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president. “Democrats have to be able to talk about that and offer real solutions.”

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  • Binance-linked blockchain hit by $570 million crypto theft | CNN Business

    Binance-linked blockchain hit by $570 million crypto theft | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Binance, which describes itself as the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, is the latest company to be impacted by a major theft this year.

    A Binance-linked blockchain was involved in a $570 million hack late Thursday, a company spokesperson confirmed to CNN Business on Friday.

    Binance temporarily suspended its blockchain network, BNB Smart Chain, “due to irregular activity,” the company tweeted Thursday. The company said Friday that hackers had stolen two million BNB cryptocurrency tokens – which are issued by Binance – worth about $570 million at the time.

    Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao initially tweeted that an estimated $100 million worth of crypto had been stolen.

    “Your funds are safe,” Zhao tweeted on Thursday night. “We apologize for the inconvenience.”

    The company said $100 million worth of tokens remain “unrecovered” and moved off chain by the hacker. The remaining funds have been frozen on the BNB Chain.

    In order to carry out the theft, the hackers targeted what’s called a cross-chain bridge. Bridges, increasingly the targets of hackers in recent months, are the infrastructure that allow users to exchange crypto assets between different blockchains.

    Bridge services typically hold large reserves of various coins. These coin reserves are attracting the attention of hackers and turning blockchain bridges into prime targets for heists, according to blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.

    Some $1.83 billion has been stolen from bridges as of August, with the majority of that ($1.21 billion) taking place just this year, according to Elliptic. Some of the largest thefts this year include $190 million stolen from cryptocurrency bridge provider Nomad in August, California-based firm Harmony’s $100 million loss in late June, and Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge $625 million hack in March.

    This latest attack put the BNB blockchain offline for about nine hours. In order “to stop the incident from spreading,” the chain ecosystem contacted each of the chain’s validators, who verify transactions on the blockchain as legitimate, BNB wrote in a company post.

    The chain was back up and running around 2:30 a.m. ET. according to a company tweet.

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  • The real-life ‘Inventing Anna’ could be released from jail soon. She’s still fighting deportation | CNN

    The real-life ‘Inventing Anna’ could be released from jail soon. She’s still fighting deportation | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A judge has ruled that Anna Sorokin, the fake heiress Netflix’s “Inventing Anna” is based on, can be released from jail on bond while she fights deportation – if certain conditions are met.

    According to court records, Immigration Judge Charles Conroy found this week that Sorokin can be released on $10,000 bond from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. But he also ruled that she must remain confined 24 hours a day at a residential address and refrain from accessing any social media platform either directly or through a surrogate while her case continues.

    “This ruling does not mean that Anna will get a free pass. She will continue to face deportation proceedings and her release will be closely monitored by ICE and the State of New York,” attorney John Sandweg, a former acting director of ICE who’s one of Sorokin’s attorneys, said in a statement Thursday. “As the Court found, however, the evidence clearly demonstrated that any risks can be more than adequately mitigated by appropriate supervision.”

    The judge’s ruling also says ICE may use an ankle monitor to keep tabs on Sorokin once she’s released.

    As of Thursday afternoon, the 31-year-old Sorokin remained in ICE custody, a spokesman for the agency said.

    She’s been in ICE custody for 17 months, according to her attorney – mostly at the Orange County Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

    Sorokin was found guilty of stealing more than $200,000 from banks and friends while scamming her way into New York society, the Manhattan District Attorney said after her 2019 conviction.

    Her case drew widespread attention after a 2018 New York magazine article.

    That article became the basis of Shonda Rhimes’ “Inventing Anna,” a dramatization that released on Netflix in February and quickly became one of the streamer’s most popular shows. Actress Julia Garner, best known for her Emmy-winning role as Ruth on “Ozark,” played Sorokin.

    The show ends with Sorokin’s conviction. But in real life, the drama has continued.

    Sorokin was released from jail in February 2021 after serving nearly four years on theft and larceny charges. But it wasn’t long before she ended up back behind bars.

    ICE took custody of Sorokin on March 25, 2021. In November, the Board of Immigration Appeals granted an emergency stay in her case, according to ICE. She’s been fighting her deportation – and also joined a group of plaintiffs suing the agency earlier this year, alleging they’d requested and been denied Covid booster shots while in custody. They dropped their lawsuit in March after receiving the shots, according to court records.

    While she’s been detained, frequent posts have been made on Sorokin’s social media accounts. Recently they’ve featured Sorokin’s artwork, which was featured in a New York show in May.

    Earlier this year an attorney representing Sorokin told NBC News that he feared her deportation when he couldn’t reach her, but word later emerged that she was still in ICE custody.

    Soon afterward, Sorokin spoke out from behind bars, telling the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that she never claimed to be a German heiress.

    “I was from Germany, which was true, but nobody ever asked me about my job,” Sorokin said. “Nobody asks who are your parents and how much money do they make. It’s just outrageous.”

    She told host Alex Cooper that she never “told any senseless lies.”

    But she admitted – sort of – to lying about her status and background.

    “I guess I did,” she said. “I mean, I cannot tell an exact instance, but I’m sure.”

    Sorokin also said she was surprised by the public’s fascination with her story.

    “It was just really a surprise to me that people would be, like, so interested in the way I went about the things, because it just made so much sense to me,” she said.

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  • Stolen in 1917, this 1,000-year-old manuscript was just returned to its rightful owners | CNN

    Stolen in 1917, this 1,000-year-old manuscript was just returned to its rightful owners | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A 1,000-year-old manuscript looted during World War I has been returned to the Greek monastery from where it was stolen more than a century ago.

    The manuscript is one of the oldest handwritten gospels in the world, according to a news release from the Museum of the Bible, which acquired it in 2014.

    The document was written in a Greek monastery in southern Italy during the late 10th to early 11th centuries, says the Museum of the Bible. But sometime between the 14th and 15th centuries, it moved to the Kosinitza Monastery, also known as the Theotokos Eikosiphoinissa Monastery, in northern Greece.

    When the Bulgarian Army invaded Greece during World War I, soldiers looted the monastery, stealing over 400 precious manuscripts as well as other books, objects, and cash. Some of the manuscripts were sold in Europe – and eventually ended up in American museums.

    The Eikosiphoinissa Manuscript 220 was sold by Christie’s in 2011, says the museum, and then purchased by the Green Collection of Oklahoma City, which donated it to the Museum of the Bible.

    In 2015, the Greek Orthodox Church had asked several American institutions that held manuscripts from Kosinitza to voluntarily return them to the monastery. The museum started researching its Greek New Testament manuscripts in 2019, leading scholars to realize the document had been stolen from the Kosinitza Monastery. And in 2020 the museum reached out to Eastern Orthodox leaders to express its desire to return the manuscript.

    The manuscript was finally returned to the monastery in a formal ceremony on Thursday, says a joint statement from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the Museum of the Bible.

    “When the Museum of the Bible discovered that this text was illegally and rapaciously taken from the Monastery, it moved quickly, responsibly and professionally to see to its restoration and repatriation,” said Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, who represented His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew during the return ceremony, according to the statement.

    “We cannot express enough our gratitude to the Green Family and the Museum for their Christian and professional service,” he said. “You have set an example for others to follow, and we pray that they do.”

    Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the Eastern Orthodox church, loaned three other manuscripts to the Museum of the Bible as a “gesture of gratitude for the gospel manuscript’s return,” says the statement.

    George Tsougarakis, general counsel at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, told CNN that he hopes the return prompts other institutions to return manuscripts stolen during the Bulgarian invasion.

    Repatriation is “recognition of the inequities and the injustice that these areas went through back then, which led to the removal of these priceless artifacts,” he said. “And it’s a way of, sort of making the world right again.”

    He noted that copies of the manuscript can allow academics to continue to study it from afar. But for the monks who venerate the manuscript, the physical document represents a powerful connection to the monks who came before them and to the religious tradition itself.

    “There is something to say about touch,” Tsougarakis said. The ability for the monks to say, “‘I touched the page that my predecessor touched’ – it means something, it’s a community.”

    And the Museum of the Bible has set a compelling example for other institutions that have manuscripts stolen from Kosinitza, he added.

    “We urge them to do the right thing,” he said. “There’s only one right answer here. And we hope that they follow suit.”

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  • Pentagon watchdog finds some Western weaponry sent to Ukraine was stolen before being recovered last year | CNN Politics

    Pentagon watchdog finds some Western weaponry sent to Ukraine was stolen before being recovered last year | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Criminals, volunteer fighters and arms traffickers in Ukraine stole some Western-provided weapons and equipment intended for Ukrainian troops last year before it was recovered, according to a Defense Department inspector general report obtained by CNN.

    The plots to steal the weaponry and equipment were disrupted by Ukraine’s intelligence services and it was ultimately recovered, according to the report, titled “DoD’s Accountability of Equipment Provided to Ukraine.” CNN obtained the report via a Freedom of Information Act request. Military.com first reported the news.

    But the inspector general report noted that after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, the Defense Department’s ability to track and monitor all of the US equipment pouring into Ukraine, as required by law under the Arms Export Control Act, faced “challenges” because of the limited US presence in the country.

    According to the report, which examined the period of February-September 2022, the Office of Defense Cooperation-Kyiv “was unable to conduct required [end-use monitoring] of military equipment that the United States provided to Ukraine in FY 2022.”

    “The inability of DoD personnel to visit areas where equipment provided to Ukraine was being used or stored significantly hampered ODC-Kyiv’s ability to execute” the monitoring, the report added.

    The report is dated October 6, 2022. In late October, the US resumed on-site inspections of Ukrainian weapons depots as a way to better track where the equipment was going. The department has also provided the Ukrainians with tracking systems, including scanners and software, the Pentagon’s former under secretary of defense for policy, Colin Kahl, told lawmakers in February.

    But the report underscores how difficult it was in the early days of the war for the US to track the billions of dollars worth of weapons and equipment it was sending to Ukraine.

    Republicans have criticized the Biden administration over what they view as a lack of accountability over the billions of dollars of aid going to Ukraine. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said earlier this year that he supports Ukraine but doesn’t “support a blank check.” The same sentiment has been shared by Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

    CNN reported in April 2022 that the Biden administration was willing to take the risk of losing track of weapons supplied to Ukraine despite a lack of visibility, as they saw it as critical to Ukraine’s defeat of Russian forces.

    “We have fidelity for a short time, but when it enters the fog of war, we have almost zero,” a source briefed on US intelligence told CNN at the time. “It drops into a big black hole, and you have almost no sense of it at all after a short period of time.”

    US European Command tried to alleviate the issue last year by requesting and maintaining hand receipts from the Ukrainians, which the Ukrainians made a “good faith effort” to provide, the report says, citing EUCOM personnel. The personnel did not provide the IG with corroborating paperwork by the time the investigation concluded, however, the report notes.

    The Office of Defense Cooperation-Kyiv also asked the Ukrainian government for expenditure, loss, and damage reports for US-provided equipment, the report says, and they “made efforts to prevent illicit proliferation of defense material provided by the United States.”

    Still, criminal organizations managed to steal some weaponry and equipment provided by the US and its allies, the report says.

    In late June 2022, an organized crime group overseen by an unnamed Russian official joined a volunteer battalion using forged documents and stole weapons, including a grenade launcher and machine gun, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, the report says. Ukraine’s intelligence service disrupted the plot, according to the report.

    That same month, Ukraine’s intelligence services also disrupted a plot by arms traffickers working to sell weapons and ammunition they stole from the frontlines in southern Ukraine, as well as a separate plot by Ukrainian criminals posing as aid workers who stole $17,000 worth of bulletproof vests, the report says.

    And in August 2022, Ukraine’s intelligence services discovered a group of volunteer battalion members who stole 60 rifles and almost 1,000 rounds of ammunition and stored them in a warehouse, “presumably for sale on the black market.”

    The report does not specify whether the weapons and equipment were American, but the anecdotes are outlined in a highly redacted section that deals with Ukrainian tracking of US-provided weaponry.

    The Pentagon inspector general wrote that some larger items like missiles and helicopters were easier to track through intelligence mechanisms. Smaller items, like night-vision devices, however, were harder to monitor.

    The report ultimately does not make any recommendations, noting that the Defense Department “has made some efforts to mitigate the inability to conduct in-person” monitoring.

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