On June 13, 2016, the U.S. Attorneys’ Office filed a complaint in the Western District of Washington against the City of Seattle and its department Seattle City Light. In United States of America v. City of Seattle, the complaint revealed that the FBI had been installing covert video surveillance…
Articles Posted in Criminal
A 1961 Illinois eavesdropping law "likely violates the First Amendment's free speech-speech and free-press guarantees," a federal appeals court ruled. The 69-page decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit blocks enforcement of an Illinois criminal law that made it a felony to make audio recordings of…
If you think that texting is so '90s, guess again. A new criminal case against former BP employee Kurt Mix is an important reminder that, while social networks like Facebook and Twitter may be all the rage, deleting work-related text messages from your mobile phone might get you in trouble…
The Second Circuit overturned the conviction of programmer Sergey Aleynikov, who was found guilty of violating the National Stolen Property Act (19 USC 2314) and the Economic Espionage Act (18 USC 1832). US. v. Aleynikov (Apr 11, 2012, 2nd Cir.) The defendant was a software programmer at Goldman Sachs who…
According to court documents (see below), the FBI and federal prosecutors got help from hacker Hector Xavier Monsegur a/k/a 'Sabu' a/k/a 'Xavier DeLeon' a/k/a 'Leon' to build cases against other alleged members of Anonymous, LulzSec, Internet Feds, and AntiSec hacker groups. U.S. authorities charged five accused hackers with federal criminal…
Silicon Valley-based solar panel giant SunPower sued five former employees and competitor SolarCity today, contending that shortly before they left SunPower, the employees connected USB drives to the company's computer network, "and used them to steal tens-of-thousands of computer files" with confidential and non-confidential proprietary information. In addition to civil…
Doug Whitman, the head portfolio manager at Whitman Capital, LLC, was indicted by a New York federal grand jury on insider trading and criminal securities fraud charges (read the indictment below). The indictment alleges that in 2006 and 2007, Whitman's firm made $900,000 in illegal profits by trading Google and…
In pre-Super Bowl style, prosecutors charged a Michigan man with criminal copyright violations for allegedly operating nine (9) websites chock full of pirated sports broadcast videos (read the complaint below). Separately, federal agents also seized a purported $4.8 million in knock-off Super Bowl merchandise imported into the U.S. The U.S.…
Facebook and Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna filed lawsuits today (see below) accusing affiliate marketer Adscend Media, LLC along with company co-founders Jeremy Bash and Fehzan Ali of engaging in 'likejacking' a/k/a 'clickjacking' to deceive and trick users into giving out their personal information. "Likejacking" describes the sleazy practice…
You would think that Silicon Valley giants would compensate their employees well, support their professional growth, and know that a time will come when they leave for greener pastures. C-level execs at Apple, Google, Adobe, Pixar, Intel, Intuit, and Lucasfilm apparently thought, acted, and communicated differently, however, according to newly…