US charges British man over ‘hack-to-trade’ scheme

US charges British man over ‘hack-to-trade’ scheme
A British man has been arrested and charged by U.S. authorities with hacking into the computers of five companies to obtain details about their expected earnings and making $3.75 million of illegal profit by trading before results were released. (AP/File)
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Updated 27 September 2024
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US charges British man over ‘hack-to-trade’ scheme

US charges British man over ‘hack-to-trade’ scheme
  • The US Department of Justice will seek the extradition of Robert Westbrook, 39, of London, to face securities fraud, wire fraud and five computer fraud charges
  • Westbrook was arrested this week in the United Kingdom, and also faces related US Securities and Exchange Commission civil charges

WASHINGTON: A British man has been arrested and charged by US authorities with hacking into the computers of five companies to obtain details about their expected earnings and making $3.75 million of illegal profit by trading before results were released.
The US Department of Justice will seek the extradition of Robert Westbrook, 39, of London, to face securities fraud, wire fraud and five computer fraud charges contained in a criminal indictment made public on Friday.
Westbrook was arrested this week in the United Kingdom, and also faces related US Securities and Exchange Commission civil charges. His lawyer could not immediately be identified.
The companies were not identified by name in court papers filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey.
Financial and stock price details in the SEC complaint suggest the companies are food container maker Tupperware, general contractor Tutor Perini, software provider Guidewire Software, gas station operator Murphy USA and telecommunications equipment maker Lumentum Holdings.
Authorities said Westbrook’s “hack-to-trade” scheme involved gaining access to executives’ email accounts between January 2019 and May 2020, and using material nonpublic information to buy stocks and options prior to at least 14 earnings announcements.
On several occasions, Westbrook allegedly implemented rules to have content from executives’ email accounts automatically forwarded to his own accounts.
Jorge Tenreiro, acting chief of the SEC’s crypto assets and cyber unit, called Westbrook’s activity a “sophisticated international hacking,” including the use of anonymous email accounts, VPN services, and bitcoin to conceal wrongdoing.
None of the five companies was accused of wrongdoing.
The securities fraud and wire fraud counts each carry a maximum 20-year prison term, while each computer fraud count carries a maximum five-year term.


US announces new $500m military aid package for Ukraine

US announces new $500m military aid package for Ukraine
Updated 46 min 54 sec ago
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US announces new $500m military aid package for Ukraine

US announces new $500m military aid package for Ukraine

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday announced a new $500 million package of military aid for Ukraine, as Washington races to bolster Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
“The United States is providing another significant package of urgently needed weapons and equipment to our Ukrainian partners as they defend against Russia’s ongoing attacks,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, with the aid to be drawn from US military stockpiles.
Trump’s November election victory has cast doubt on the future of American aid for Ukraine, providing a limited window for billions of dollars in already authorized assistance to be disbursed before he is sworn in next month.
The Republican has said his incoming administration will “probably” reduce aid to Ukraine, which Washington has been steadfastly backing since its invasion by Russia nearly three years ago.
The package announced Thursday includes ammunition for precision HIMARS rocket launchers, artillery ammunition, drones, armored vehicles, and equipment to protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks, along with other equipment, the statement said.
It follows a $988 million security assistance package and a separate $725 million package, both announced earlier this month.
The outgoing US administration is working to get as much aid as possible to Ukraine before Trump — who has repeatedly criticized US assistance for Kyiv and claimed he could secure a ceasefire within hours — takes over.
As President Joe Biden has “made clear, we’re going to continue to provide additional packages right up to the end of this administration,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said earlier Thursday.
Trump’s comments have triggered fears in Kyiv and Europe about the future of US aid, and Ukraine’s ability to withstand Russian attacks in the absence of further American support.
The United States has spearheaded the push for international support for Ukraine, quickly forging a coalition to back Kyiv after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022 and coordinating aid from dozens of countries.
Ukraine’s international supporters have since then provided tens of billions of dollars in weapons, ammunition, training and other security aid that has been key to helping Kyiv resist Russian forces.


White House releases strategy to counter anti-Muslim, anti-Arab hate

White House releases strategy to counter anti-Muslim, anti-Arab hate
Updated 13 December 2024
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White House releases strategy to counter anti-Muslim, anti-Arab hate

White House releases strategy to counter anti-Muslim, anti-Arab hate

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Thursday released a long-awaited strategy for countering anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate, up sharply since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, calling for urgent, continued work to reduce discrimination and bias.
The 64-page document comes weeks before the inauguration of former President Donald Trump, who imposed a travel ban on people from some majority Muslim countries during his first term that Biden rescinded on his first day in office.
It mirrors a comprehensive strategy to fight antisemitism released by the White House in September 2023, and comes more than a year after death of six-year-old boy Wadea Al-Fayoume, stabbed by a man who targeted him and his mother because they were Palestinian-American.
In a foreword to the strategy, Biden called the attacks on the Chicago boy and his mother “heinous acts” and noted a spike in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes, discrimination and bullying that he called wrong and unacceptable.
“Muslims and Arabs deserve to live with dignity and enjoy every right to the fullest extent along with all of their fellow Americans,” Biden wrote. “Policies that result in discrimination against entire communities are wrong and fail to keep us safe.”
The Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, called the strategy “too little, too late” and faulted the White House for not ending a federal watchlist and “no-fly” list that includes many Arab and Muslim Americans.
The Trump transition team had no immediate comment on the strategy or whether it would support it.
Trump, who won support from some Muslim voters angry about Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, has said he will ban entry to the US of anyone who questions Israel’s right to exist and revoke visas of foreign students who are “antisemitic.”
Tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups surged on some US campuses after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, with human rights advocates warning of rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate. 


Police say suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing wasn’t a client of the insurer

Police say suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing wasn’t a client of the insurer
Updated 13 December 2024
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Police say suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing wasn’t a client of the insurer

Police say suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing wasn’t a client of the insurer
  • Mangione’s arrest came five days after the caught-on-camera killing of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel

NEW YORK: The man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was never a client of the medical insurer and may have targeted it because of its size and influence, a senior police official said Thursday.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York in an interview Thursday that investigators have uncovered evidence that Luigi Mangione had prior knowledge UnitedHealthcare was holding its annual investor conference in New York City.
Mangione also mentioned the company in a note found in his possession when he was detained by police in Pennsylvania.
“We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest health care organization in America. So that’s possibly why he targeted that that company,” said Kenny.
Mangione remains jailed without bail in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested Monday after being spotted at a McDonald’s in the city of Altoona, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of New York City. His lawyer there said he hasn’t seen any evidence yet linking him to the crime.
Mangione’s arrest came five days after the caught-on-camera killing of Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel.
Police say the shooter waited outside the hotel, where the health insurer was holding its investor conference, early on the morning of Dec. 4. He approached Thompson from behind and shot him before fleeing on a bicycle through Central Park, then heading to a bus depot.
Mangione is fighting attempts to extradite him back to New York so that he can face a murder charge in Thompson’s killing. A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 30.
The 26-year-old, who police say was found with a ” ghost gun ” matching shell casings found at the site of the shooting, is charged in Pennsylvania with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police. His lawyer, Thomas Dickey, said his client is not guilty.
Mangione is an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family. On Wednesday, police said investigators are looking into an accident that injured Mangione’s back and sent him to an emergency room in July 2023. They’re also looking at his writings about the injury and his criticism of corporate America and the US health care system.
Kenny said in the NBC interview that Mangione’s family reported him missing to San Francisco authorities in November.


Trump says automation causes more harm to longshoremen than it’s worth

Trump says automation causes more harm to longshoremen than it’s worth
Updated 13 December 2024
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Trump says automation causes more harm to longshoremen than it’s worth

Trump says automation causes more harm to longshoremen than it’s worth

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday the money saved by automation in the workplace is not enough to justify the harm it causes to workers, especially longshoremen.
Trump made the comment in a post on Truth Social after a meeting with International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett and Executive Vice President Dennis Daggett.


Panama asks Trump to maintain US aid for deporting migrants

Panama asks Trump to maintain US aid for deporting migrants
Updated 13 December 2024
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Panama asks Trump to maintain US aid for deporting migrants

Panama asks Trump to maintain US aid for deporting migrants

PANAMA CITY: Panama’s president appealed to US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday to maintain the aid Washington gives his central American country for deporting US-bound migrants.
The United States has contributed $1 million toward the cost of deporting over 1,000 migrants who tried to cross the Darien jungle from Colombia into Panama since July.
“I believe it must be maintained under the Trump administration,” said the right-wing Jose Raul Mulino, who was elected in May on a promise to end the migrant transit through Panama.
His government has organized some 30 deportation flights to Colombia, Ecuador and India.
Mulino has not however deported Venezuelans — who account for the bulk of the migrants crossing the jungle — because Panamanian planes have been barred from landing in Venezuela.
Caracas instituted the ban on Panama and several other Latin American countries after they criticized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s claim to have won re-election.
The Darien jungle is a key route for the smuggling of South American migrants trying to reach the United States through Central America.
In 2023, more than half a million migrants braved fast-flowing rivers, wild animals and criminal gangs as they crossed the jungle.
So far this year, nearly 300,000 people have crossed the Darien, 41 percent less than in the same period of 2023, a decrease which Mulino attributed partly to the deportation flights.
Trump has threatened to carry out the largest deportation of migrants in US history when he becomes president on January 20.
His transition team has reportedly drawn up a list of countries, including Panama, to which it wants to deport undocumented migrants when their home countries refuse to take them back.
But Panama has stressed it will only take back its own citizens.