Financial crimes

A scam that defrauded Apple out of millions of dollars’ worth of iPhones has led to the convictions of two of the perpetrators, with each facing up to 20 years in jail. Haotian Sun, 33, and Pengfei Xue, 33, both Chinese nationals, were found guilty by a federal jury on Tuesday for participating in what the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia described as a “sophisticated” scheme that tricked Apple into replacing fake phones with the genuine article. Between May 2017 and September 2019, Sun, Xue, and…

The amount of funds crypto projects lost to hackers has declined by about half to around $1.7 billion so far this year, amid improved security measures and an uptick in law enforcement actions. Even with any additional hacks in December, this year will likely “finish with significantly lower totals than 2022,” according to TRM Labs, which helps clients detect financial crimes. Last year's tally of $4 billion from crypto hacks included a number of large thefts, such as a $600 million-plus attack on a blockchain network…

The trial against ex-OpenSea product manager Nathaniel Chastain is set to begin later this week, nearly a year since he was arrested in New York City for wire fraud. Chastain’s arrest came on the tail-end of an FBI investigation into his non-fungible tokens (NFT) dealings, which alleged he had secretly bought NFTs and resold them for two to five times their original value.What Motivated Simone Giertz To Build Her Own Tesla Pickup Truck? | Gizmodo TalksProsecutors claim Chastain used the business information at OpenSea to…

Edward Constantinescu standing alongside Daniel Knight and a third, unknown individual back in 2021. This image was used in charges filed against the pair along with five other financial influencers in what the SEC alleged was a large-scale pump and dump scheme.Photo: Zack Morris/TwitterIf you have ever heard the words “this is not financial advice” or “this is not stock advice” when scrolling through TikTok or YouTube, you can be sure the next several minutes will be devoted to doing exactly that. Now federal law…