7 charged in $6B online money laundering case - WSJ.com
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Calling it perhaps the biggest money laundering scheme in U.S. history, federal prosecutors charged seven people Tuesday with running what amounted to an online, underworld bank that handled $6 billion for drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals around the globe.
The case was aimed at Liberty Reserve, a currency transfer and payment processing company based in Costa Rica that authorities say allowed customers to move money anonymously from one account to another via the Internet with almost no questions asked.
U.S. officials said the enterprise was staggering in scope: Over roughly seven years, Liberty Reserve processed 55 million illicit transactions worldwide for 1 million users, including 200,000 in the U.S.
The network "became the bank of choice for the criminal underworld," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in announcing the unsealing of an indictment against the defendants, including Liberty Revenue founder Arthur Budovsky, an American who renounced his U.S. citizenship after deciding to set up in Costa Rica.
Liberty Reserve allowed users to open accounts using fictitious names, including "Russian Hacker" and "Hacker Account." An undercover investigator was able to register using the name "Joe Bogus" and the address "123 Fake Main Street" in "Completely Made Up City, New York," and then conduct transactions he recorded as "ATM skimming network" and "for the cocaine."
"The coin of the realm was anonymity," Bharara said. "It was the opposite of a know-your-customer policy."
The network charged a 1 percent fee on transactions through middlemen known as exchangers, who converted real currency into virtual funds and then back into cash.
In the indictment, prosecutors called the network "one of the principal means by which cyber criminals around the world distribute, store and launder proceeds of their illegal activity ... including credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography and narcotics trafficking."
Bharara said it was possibly "the largest international money laundering case ever brought by the United States."
Budovsky and another defendant, identified as Azzeddine el Amine, were arrested Friday at a Madrid airport while trying to return to Costa Rica, according to a Spanish court official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because court policy forbids him from speaking on the record. They were ordered jailed while they await a hearing on extradition to the U.S.
Two other men, including Liberty Reserve co-founder Vladimir Kats, were arrested last week in New York City. There was no public record of their arraignments on Friday night, and there was no immediate response to phone messages left Tuesday with their attorneys.
Of the three remaining defendants, one was in custody in Costa Rica and the others were at large there.
A notice pasted across Liberty Reserve's website Tuesday morning said the domain "has been seized by the United States Global Illicit Financial Team." Attempts to reach Liberty Reserve by phone and email were unsuccessful.
Budovsky and Kats have previous convictions on state charges related to an unlicensed money transmitting business, according to court papers. After that case, they decided to move their operation to Costa Rica, the papers said.
In an online chat captured by law enforcement, Kats admitted Liberty Reserve was illegal and noted that authorities in the United States knew it was "a money-laundering operation that hackers use."
While authorities described Liberty Reserve as being rife with criminals, the site's ease of use, low fees and irreversible transactions that deterred fraud also attracted legitimate users.
Mitchell Rossetti, whose Houston-based ePayCards.com was one of several mainstream merchants that accepted Liberty Reserve's online-only currency, said his business still had about $28,000 tied up in Liberty Reserve accounts.
"The irony of this is I went to them because of the security," Rossetti said. "All sales were final."
He acknowledged that the currency was being used by scammers but said Liberty Reserve funds were just like any other currency: "The U.S. dollar can be donated to a church or it can pay a prostitute."
Liberty Reserve appears to have played an important role in laundering proceeds from the recent theft of some $45 million from two Middle Eastern banks, according to documents made public by U.S. authorities earlier this month. In that scheme, thieves stole debit card information and then used it to drain cash from thousands of ATMs around the world in a matter of hours.
As part of the Liberty Reserve investigation, authorities raided 14 places in Panama, Switzerland, the U.S., Sweden and Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, investigators recovered five luxury cars, including three Rolls-Royces. Bharara said authorities also seized Liberty's computer servers in Costa Rica and Switzerland.
The businesses that were raided in Costa Rica on Friday as part of the investigation into Liberty Reserve are dedicated to Web hosting services, website development and Internet business consulting.
In Costa Rica, all online businesses are legal and there aren't any laws regulating them, so the country has been attracting entrepreneurs setting up Internet-based companies that do everything from e-commerce to gambling banned in other countries.
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Satter reported from London. Alan Clendenning and Jorge Sainz in Madrid and Javier Cordoba in San Jose, Costa Rica, contributed to this report.
—Copyright 2013 Associated Press
Experts question role of gold as safe asset after current fall - BS
Gold prices have stabilised in recent days after a steep fall on selloffs globally. The metal is currently trading above $1,400 an ounce in the global market and is a little above Rs 26,000 per 10g here. Consumers in the two biggest markets for gold, India and China, have since rushed to buy jewellery.
Does this mean the market has stabilised? Many entities in the market say they don't rule out a further fall in prices in the coming weeks or months.
Some analysts say gold was never a safe asset and the bubble was waiting to burst as fund advisors globally started going underweight on it and reduced the proportion of gold as a part of their portfolios.
In fact, such a warning was around for two years but had few takers. Even when billionarire investor George Soros said a few quarters earlier that he had a bearish view on gold, many didn't think so. However, the fall in gold and silver since last week was sharp and historically big enough to scare investors.
Gold prices haven't also benefited even after aggressive monetary stimulus by Japan, a nuclear threat from North Korea and downbeat economic numbers from the US, in typical bear market behaviour.
Says Amit Bhartia, portfolio manager for GMO's emerging markets equity team, "The notion of gold as a hedge against systemic risks is flawed. We believe the concept of gold's role as an insurance policy needs to be narrowed significantly."
On the recent bull run, he said, "The key driver of the significant rise in gold prices since 2000 has been the emerging markets' consumer. Between 2000 and 2010, consumers in emerging markets accounted for 79 per cent of total demand."
Now, since the economies of the major contributors to the gold demand, China and India, are in a downcycle of growth, gold demand will also be affected. He said, "Gold prices not only have extensive exposure to China and India but their exposure to these countries is pro-cyclical by nature. Given both the cyclical and structural challenges the Chinese and Indian economies are facing, we believe the risks to gold prices today are particularly high."
Analysts believe gold prices could fall another 10 per cent from here, below $1,300 an ounce.
Merrill Lynch said in an April 16 report, when gold was at $1,350, that it could fall further but the downside to the price might be limited to an additional $150/oz.
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Wax Tendulkar greets fans at SCG
Sachin Tendulkar has made an unscheduled appearance at the Sydney Cricket Ground as a life sized wax figure of the Indian batsman was unveiled in front of a throng of cricket fans.
Local Indian cricket fans, known as the Swami Army, cheered and sang Indian chants as the "LittleMaster" was unveiled at the SCG before becoming a permanent attraction at Sydney's Madame Tussaud's wax museum.
The addition of the waxwork is the latest honour bestowed on Tendulkar in Australia. Late last year he received the Order of Australia for his contribution to international cricket.
Tendulkar, who turns 40 on Wednesday, is currently in India representing the Indian domestic T20 league side the Mumbai Indians. Speculation persists that Tendulkar could soon retire from test cricket as well, ending a 23-year international career.
Idea Aurus 2 officially launched at Rs. 6,490
Idea has put forth its first Jelly Bean offering naming it Aurus 2, even as the network operator has heated up the competition in this category by pegging the device at an affordable price. In spite of being marked with a retail value of Rs. 6,490, which is comparatively less than its predecessor, the smartphone has slightly better components to proffer.
For instance, the Idea Aurus 2 takes a major leap over its older sibling’s Gingerbread OS and adopts Jelly Bean, as mentioned earlier. It bears a similar 3.5-inch capacitive HVGA touch screen, but it has been embellished with a 3.2MP camera as opposed to the first generation entry-leveldevice’s 5MP snapper. Inclusion of Wi-Fi and 3G complement the integrated VGA front-facing webcam while facilitating video conferences.
At the given asking amount, the phone’s onboard 1GHz single core processor can be counted as a fairly good deal, although the make and company of the CPU hasn’t been revealed yet. In addition to 4GB of internal storage capacity, the embedded microSD card will allow expansions of up to 32GB. Speaking of memory, there exists 512MB of RAM lying inside the device’s frame.
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| Idea Aurus 2 officially launched at Rs. 6,490 |
Even though the Idea Aurus 2 has received official recognition, details regarding some of its components haven’t been revealed yet. For instance, the company has still to make a statement spilling out information pertaining to the incorporated battery and the operation time it renders to 2G as well as 3G users.
Although the carrier has stated that the Idea Aurus 2 is available in stores across India, at present there is no e-retailer who has stocked or has stated its intentions to welcome the device either. Whenever the phone arrives, users will find it clubbed with the service provider’s data plan worth Rs. 261. This happens to be the sixth smartphone belonging to the carrier’s 3G Android portfolio, with the Zeal, the Ivory, the ID918 and the Blade being some of the initial introductions.
81% people don’t want to Friend their boss on Facebook - mobiletor
The results are flying in, votes are being counted – 81% of people don’t want to be friends with their boss on Facebook. So out of the numerous acquaintances users befriend on the social networking site, ‘the big guy’ in the office is not someone employees want to be familiar with on a personal level.
The poll we’re referring to is being conducted by SodaHead as well as feedback website, YouTell. We’re talking about it in the present continuous tense because the voting is still open and at the time of writing this post, 727 people had expressed their ‘Aye’ or ‘Nay’ on the subject of whether they would want their superior in their list of pals on the SNS. Out of those who answered in the affirmative, 20% respondents were male, while 17% were female.
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| 81% people don’t want to Friend their boss on Facebook - mobiletor |
With regards to gender, there’s also a separate column for the ‘Unknown and Private’ chunk of the population which had 23% of respondents checking the ‘Yes’ box. If we were to go by age, 30% of people in the 25 – 34 years age bracket seemed open to making friends with their superior on the SNS, while a very low 11% in the 65 years and higher age group appeared to be in favor of the idea. But we don’t know if those in higher management positions actually ought to take this personally.
Social networks already offer easier visibility into users’ private lives than ever before. A normal person might find it hard to keep track of posts or photos being shared online by their pool of buddies and most may be afraid about their work performance or attitude being appraised based on what they do outside the office. We mean, who wants their managing head to catch a glimpse of their partying excesses on one random Sunday and be judged on that when it comes to performance reviews?
It’s already a well known fact that a lot of companies spy out potential employees’ online escapades nowadays. So the need to exercise a little caution can hardly be laughed at. Meanwhile, all those who want to make their opinion count in favor of or against becoming friends with their boss on Facebook, can hit up this link to cast their vote.
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