A Los Angeles man was sentenced this week to 240 months in federal prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that raised at least USD650 million with bogus claims that investor money would be used to acquire licensing rights to films that HBO and Netflix purportedly had agreed to distribute abroad.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) has today withdrawn charges against Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Limited (Citigroup), Deutsche Bank AG and four senior banking executives.
Stefan Cassella, principal of Asset Forfeiture Law LLC in the USA has produced a fascinating list of cases in which the USA, at a federal level, has used civil forfeiture in relation to proceeds of criminal conduct and assets used in the commission of offences. Many of the cases are in rem. The USA is not the only country to pursue such assets but it is unusually active in the use of in rem (i.e. against the asset compared with against the person) actions in doing so. The list demonstrates an extraordinary range of criminal conduct and of assets forfeited (isn't that a much better description than "recovered"?)
It is difficult to understand just how morally bankrupt the world has become. Some may blame "the internet" but that's just stupid. It's users that are dangerous and or manipulative. When a mail arrives from "Kidnapping" and a headline of "Your wife looks easy" it is already threatening.
Read the mail below but be aware that it's an advert, not a demand. It's racist and ironic (you'll see why as you read it).
You have almost certainly not have heard of this case, in which judgment was handed down on 10th January while the world's media was in a sordid frenzy over a relatively minor case in New York.
It needs a hashtag so let's use #themtoo.
A case in the English High Court follows on from the conviction of a man for the persistent sexual abuse of boys over whom he had influence for a period of years.
While the world's press fascinated itself, and therefore the world, with a handful of late teenage girls and the rich and famous, this case slipped beneath the radar.
