US authorities charged 38 people on May 19 with stealing names, Social Security identification numbers, credit card data and other information from unsuspecting Internet users as part of an international cyber-crime ring.
The alleged fraud includes charges of phishing – soliciting information for illegal use via email – and ‘smishing’ – soliciting information for illegal use via mobile-phone text messages. The scams, based in Romania, sought to rip off thousands of American consumers and hundreds of financial institutions, according to indictments unsealed in Los Angeles, California, and New Haven, Connecticut.
New Russian president Dmitri Medvedev ordered a cleanup of the country’s courts on May 20, one day after he announced he would fight ‘systemic corruption’ in Russia.
Medvedev said that courts free of influence would be the major thrust of his new strategy to fight corruption, at a meeting with senior judicial officials in Moscow Tuesday.
“(Unjust) decisions, as we all know, do happen and come as a result of different kinds of pressure, like telephone calls and — there's no point in denying — offers of money,” Medvedev said.
The Balkans, a region synonymous with violence and crime during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and the transition from communism, is now one of the safest regions in Europe, according to a UN report out May 29.
“Some of you will be surprised by the key findings,” said Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, which compiled the report. “In general if you look at conventional crime…the levels of these crimes across the region are by far lower than they used to be, particularly at the beginning of the 1990s.”
The US wants to question more employees of BAE Systems after already questioning two senior executives in a corruption probe, the UK’s largest defense firm said on May 20.
“The company confirms that last week the (US Department of Justice) issued a number of additional subpoenas in the US to employees of BAE Systems plc and (its US subsidiary) BAE Systems Inc as part of its ongoing investigation,” the company said in a statement. “The company has been and continues to be in discussion with the DoJ concerning the subpoenas served in the course of its investigation.”
Under a new strategy to fight international organized crime, nine federal law enforcement agencies in the United States and the Department of Justice (DoJ) will begin sharing information and intelligence, officials said this week.
The strategy the DoJ unveiled Wednesday (April 23) also foresees U.S. law enforcement identifying and focusing on the most significant international organized crime threats, and cooperating with partners abroad to go after international criminals.
Azerbaijan may have the reputation as one of Central Asia’s most corrupt countries, but its justice minister says the country has an excuse: its stupendous economic growth rate, an estimated 31 percent in 2007.
“Such growth brings an increase of corruption crime in the country,” said Azeri justice minister Firket Mammadov at an international corruption conference in the capital Baku on April 3.
Germany may be known for producing fine vehicles like Mercedes Benz, and decorations like porcelain and Plauener lace, but now organized-crime fighters in the country say that Germany has also become a producer – rather than a mere consumer – of high-grade cannabis-related drugs.
A Bulgarian author who specialized in organized crime was fatally shot on Monday afternoon in Sofia, news agencies reported.
Georgi Stoyev, 56, a former bodyguard and gang member who had written non-fiction books on the beginnings of the Bulgarian mafia and organized crime operations, was shot in the head by unknown gunmen outside a Sofia hotel at around noon on Monday. He was hospitalized in critical condition and died of his wounds following brain surgery. His attackers escaped in heavy downtown traffic.
Elusive PM finally meets about alleged cigarette smuggling
The Italian news agency ANSA is reporting that Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic was in Italy Friday afternoon talking to Bari prosecutors who are looking at Djukanovic's role in cigarette smuggling. It quotes officials close to Djukanovic, who said the Prime Minister requested the meeting with prosecutors in the Italian city who have been investigating his issue of a license to import cigarettes into Montenegro to a Swiss man. The cigarettes allegedly were then shipped illegally across the Adriatic in boats from Italy.
Thai police have arrested Viktor Bout, 41, among the world's best known illegal arms merchants. Known as the "Merchant of Death", Bout is suspected of having provided sophisticated weaponry to groups and governments around the world, including the Taliban, Al Qaeda and dozens of insurgent armies.
Bout was caught in a sting operation orchestrated by US law enforcement officials and Thai police. Agents of the US Drug Enforcement Agency lured Bout from his home in Moscow under the ruse that they were buying arms for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a long running insurgency group. He was arrested at a luxury hotel in Bangkok and is being held until formally charged.
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