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Chinese Woman Convicted After 'World's Biggest' Bitcoin Seizure

3 weeks 4 days ago
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: A Chinese national has been convicted following an international fraud investigation which resulted in what's believed to be the single largest cryptocurrency seizure in the world. The Metropolitan Police says it recovered 61,000 bitcoin worth more than $6.7 billion in current prices. Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, pleaded guilty on Monday at Southwark Crown Court of illegally acquiring and possessing the cryptocurrency. A second person appeared in court on Tuesday to admit to their role in the scheme. Malaysian national Seng Hok Ling, of Matlock, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court of entering into a money laundering arrangement on or before April 23, 2024. According to the charge, he had been dealing in cryptocurrency on Qian's behalf, "knowing or suspecting his actions would facilitate the acquisition or control of criminal property by another." Between 2014 and 2017 Qian led a large-scale scam in China which involved cheating more than 128,000 victims and storing the stolen funds in bitcoin assets, the Met said in a statement. It said the 47-year-old's guilty plea followed a seven-year probe into a global money laundering web which began when it got a tipoff about the transfer of criminal assets. Qian had been "evading justice" for five years up to her arrest, which required a complex investigation involving multiple jurisdictions, said Detective Sergeant Isabella Grotto, who led the Met's investigation. She fled China using false documents and entered the UK, where she attempted to launder the stolen money by buying property, said the Met. "By pleading guilty today, Ms Zhang hopes to bring some comfort to investors who have waited since 2017 for compensation, and to reassure them that the significant rise in cryptocurrency values means there are more than sufficient funds available to repay their losses," said Qian's solicitor Roger Sahota, of Berkeley Square Solicitors. "Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used by organised criminals to disguise and transfer assets, so that fraudsters may enjoy the benefits of their criminal conduct," added deputy chief Crown prosecutor, Robin Weyell. "This case, involving the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the UK, illustrates the scale of criminal proceeds available to those fraudsters."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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California lawmakers pretend to regulate AI, create a pile of paperwork

3 weeks 4 days ago
LLM makers have to file a steady stream of reports in the name of transparency

A year after vetoing a tougher bill, California Gov Gavin Newsom has signed the nation's first AI transparency law, forcing big model developers to publish frameworks and file incident reports, but critics argue it's more paperwork than protection.…

Brandon Vigliarolo

OpenAI's New Social Video App Will Let You Deepfake Your Friends

3 weeks 4 days ago
Alongside its updated Sora 2 AI video generator, OpenAI has launched an iPhone-only social app called Sora that lets users consent to have friends create deepfake-style cameos of them. The invite-only app works a lot like TikTok with short remixable videos but enforces restrictions on public figures and explicit content. The Verge reports: In a briefing with reporters on Monday, employees called it the potential "ChatGPT moment for video generation." The Sora app is currently only available to US and Canada users, with other countries set to follow, and when someone receives access, they also get four additional invites to share with friends. There's no word on when an Android version might be released. Sora users can give their friends -- or, if they're feeling bold, everyone -- permission to create "cameos" with their own likeness using the new video model, which is dubbed Sora 2. The person whose likeness is being generated is a "co-owner" of that end result, OpenAI employees said, and they can delete it or revoke access to others at any time. Like TikTok, OpenAI's Sora app allows you to interact with other videos and trends using a "Remix" feature, but it only allows for the generation of 10-second videos for now.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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One line of malicious npm code led to massive Postmark email heist

3 weeks 4 days ago
MCP plus open source plus typosquatting equals trouble

A fake npm package posing as Postmark's MCP (Model Context Protocol) server silently stole potentially thousands of emails a day by adding a single line of code that secretly copied outgoing messages to an attacker-controlled address.…

Jessica Lyons