Spanish media outlets are reporting that the country’s courts have been “inundated” with crypto scam-related cases. The most notorious of the bunch is an alleged pyramid scheme originating in Tenerife, centering around a firm named Arbistar 2.0. Police claim that the alleged scam has sucked in as many as 32,000 investors. As previously reported, prosecutors last month pressed aggravated fraud, organized crime continued crime, and commercial document manipulation charges against the reported masterminds. The alleged pyramid is thought to have accumulated up to USD 122m worth of backing. The National Court (known locally as the Audiencia Nacional), a centralized court that deals with terrorism, financial fraud, and currency forgery cases, is now dealing with cases of “thousands of affected people” who have seen “hundreds of millions of euros evaporate in [suspected] pyramid schemes,” per the news agency EFE (via 20minutos) and Faro de Vigo. One of these cases centers around the Algorithms Group, a crypto investment company supposedly based in London, which prosecutors think may have left over 3,000 investors out of pocket to the tune of just under USD 343m. A Spanish man named Javier Biosca, his eponymous company, his wife and son are believed to have masterminded the scheme, which promised investors weekly returns of up to 25% on their stakes. Biosca, reported Expansion, appears to have gone missing. The media outlets added that other high-profile cases also include the likes of the Malta-based Nimbus platform, which may have duped 4,000 investors, many of whom were Spanish, out of some USD 166m. The Nimbus affair appears to have involved an Italian individual named Andrea Zanon, a former risk consultant with the World Bank and an advisor to former United States President Bill Clinton. Last month, El Pais reported that Zanon had seemingly made “USD 137m disappear,” via his Madrid-based operations. Zanon, who El Pais claimed had dropped off the radar suddenly last month, deleting social media accounts, had fronted what he claimed was a crypto trading platform that promised monthly returns of up to 15% and boasted that the platform protected clients’ funds from losses using a special computer program

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news. ____ Investments news Banking giant BNY Mellon is reported to be creating a new Dublin-based unit that will offer digital assets to their clients as part of their Digital Innovation Hub. The company will act as the custodian for all sorts of assets, including cryptoassets, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Nasdaq-listed Chinese online brokerages Tiger Brokers and Futu intend to expand into crypto trading outside mainland China in order to “make investing more efficient and enjoyable for investors,” the South China Morning Post reported. Tiger Brokers said they would not offer services to Chinese citizens due to the ongoing crackdown on crypto, while both brokers have added that they are applying for “relevant licenses.” Makara, a US Securities and Exchange Commission-registered cryptoasset robo-advisor, today announced the launch of its service and mobile app in the App Store. Following its initial announcement, Makara has seen demand for the service exceed more than 20,000 waitlist sign-ups, with as many as 600 new waitlisters in one day, they claimed. Exchange-traded fund (ETF) and exchange-traded product (ETP) sponsor WisdomTree has launched its physically-backed bitcoin and ethereum ETPs on Euronext exchanges in Paris and Amsterdam, per an emailed statement. Both instruments are already listed on Germany’s Boerse Xetra and the Swiss Stock Exchange. Regulation news Governor of Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, said that cryptoassets are unlikely to dodge regulatory oversight. “When something gets big enough, things like consumer interests and money laundering come into play,” Stefan Ingves was quoted as saying. “So there’s good reason to believe that [regulation] will happen.” Activities related to decentralized finance (DeFi) projects which involve digital coin issuance may require a license from the regulator in the near future, Bangkok Post reported, citing "the first official announcement on DeFi" by the Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission. South Korea’s main opposition party has accused the government of fostering “anarchy” in the crypto sector. Per Chosun, a meeting of crypto experts and MPs from the opposition People’s Party claimed that “until the government introduces a transparent and manageable system that can prevent damage and protect victims” of crypto-related fraud, scams, and hacks,” it had “no business collecting taxes” from crypto investors. The group was referencing much-maligned plans to launch crypto taxes at a flat rate of 20% on trading profits from January 1 next year – and claimed again that Seoul had neglected the plight of the nation’s crypto investors while seeking to line the Treasury’s pockets with tax revenues. Mining news US-based Bitcoin mining firm Marathon Digital Holdings said that its mining pool, MaraPool, will no longer censor transactions. Once a planned update is completed over the coming week, the pool will begin validating transactions in a manner consistent with all other miners who use the standard node, they added. Exchanges news Creditors who lost their funds in the Mt Gox crash in 2014 can now vote on the Draft Rehabilitation Plan on the online rehabilitation claim filing system, said the announcement. The deadline for voting is October 8, and creditors can see the extent of their voting rights on the system—and may even receive their restitutions through the same system, so everyone who lost funds on Mt Gox is encouraged to register here. Germany’s first regulated trading venue to add support for digital assets, Boerse Stuttgart, said it has launched a crypto trading app for both iOS and Android systems. The app has all the functionalities of the desktop version, and it is run in accordance with the German Banking Act, making it fully compliant with the law, they said. BitMEX has announced they’ve extended the grant for Bitcoin developer Calvin Kim until 2022, giving him a total of USD 150,000 in a partnership with the Human Rights Foundation. Kim has been working on Utreexo, a Bitcoin scaling solution, since 2019 and had previously received a USD 30,000 grant from BitMEX in 2020. M&A news Blockchain solutions provider OIO Holdings said it has acquired Asia’s "second-largest" staking business Moonstake. Moonstake had USD 900m in staking assets at the time of the purchase and is “expanding rapidly,” they said in an emailed announcement. Crime news More “high-yield” alleged crypto scams have been busted in South Korea, with some operators reportedly claiming to offer access to a secret, as-yet-unlisted “Amazon” and “Alibaba” token. Per KBS, prosecutors are gearing up to charge a group of four South Korean people in their 50s of duping investors out of some USD 1.3m by claiming they had access to a token co-developed by Amazon and Alibaba. At least 63 victims have been identified, reported NoCut News, which added that the operation appears to have been based in South Gyeongsang province. KBS also reported that another group of some 20 investors is seeking to recover funds from a Daegu-based operator who claimed to be representing a Japan-based crypto project. The operator had said that the tokens could be used to buy cut-price goods on duty-free sales platforms. NFTs news Five Japanese crypto and blockchain firms have formed a non-fungible token (NFT)-themed partnership. The companies – the yen-pegged stablecoin operator JPYC, the NFT and app consultancy SmartApp and the blockchain gaming firms CryptoGames, LiberalChain and double jump.Tokyo – stated they would form a joint initiative that would help Japanese content creators to sell and distribute NFTs to global customers, offering “high-quality NFT business consulting and NFT marketplace business management.” They claimed the new initiative will “leverage the strengths of each of its members.” Major League Baseball announced a long-term agreement with digital collectible company Candy Digital — headlined by a Lou Gehrig NFT that will be released on July 4. Candy Digital is a joint venture being launched by Fanatics chairman Michael Rubin, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk.

Crypto miners fleeing China’s latest mining-focused crypto crackdown may turn to a nearby nation in a bid to continue doing business – with Kazakhstan increasingly looking set to provide a new home for those looking to set up shop outside Mainland China. Per Kaktus Media, the number of mining operations in the country is “increasing,” while mining “entrepreneurs are getting richer” – with the state happy to take a share of the profits. Last year, Kazakhstan’s Economy Ministry announced that the nation would begin taxing miners at a rate of 15% in a bid to help it mitigate the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the media outlet noted that according to Ministry of Digital Development figures, the crypto mining industry in Kazakhstan is now worth some USD 216m - USD 300m per year – although this only takes into account the revenues of large-scale industrial miners. With smaller-scale setups becoming more widespread, the real number could be higher – particularly if reports of Chinese mining operations relocation to the country are true. Quoting token data and rating agency TokenInsight data, the media outlet reported that Kazakhstan is one of the world’s top five mining countries, with only China, the USA, and Russia boasting more mining revenue. The nation’s government has fostered the mining sector and until 2019 was still talking about allowing miners to operate on a tax-free basis, spending some USD 200m on mining and crypto infrastructure-elated projects that have thus far seen 17 mega crypto farms become operational in Kazakhstan. Also, last week, Cryptonews.com reported that the Chinese mining firm BIT Mining has formed a partnership with an unnamed Kazakhstan-based company. The duo will jointly invest in a crypto mining center to be built on Kazakh territory, with BIT Mining footing 80% of the expenses. Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post reported that “large” Chinese “Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies” are “looking at moving to North America and Central Asia” as the Mainland crackdown intensifies. The media outlet quoted major crypto exchange Huobi as stating that its mining operations would now “focus on the expansion” of its “overseas presence” rather than the Mainland, while it also quoted Jiang Zhuoer, the founder of the BTC.TOP mining pool, as stating that he was thinking of moving his pool’s machines to North America and Central Asia. The BTC.TOP chief added: “North America has the best security and political environment for mining, but the cost is high. Central Asia is close to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.” Xinjiang shares a large land border with Kazakhstan to the north and Kyrgyzstan to the northwest. However, Kaktus Media reported that in Kyrgyzstan, a temporary block has been placed on mining after electricity shortages. Regardless, illegal mining ventures appear to be flourishing. The Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security has shuttered six large illegal mines operating in industrial facilities and has seized more than 2,000 pieces of mining equipment in recent months.

As South Korea’s general elections draw ever nearer, the nation’s provincial governors appear to have grown bolder – and are looking to strengthen their political positions by taking on Seoul over its crypto policy. While last week it was the turn of the Governor of the province of Jeju Island, the crypto-owning Won Hee-ryong, who declared his wish to debate the former Prime Minister about crypto among other things, this week the Governor of Gyeonggi Province has spoken out on the increasingly thorny issue of crypto tax. Seoul had originally planned to start taxing crypto trading profits of USD 2,100 or over at a flat rate of 20% from October this year, but after pleas from exchanges decided to delay the launch of taxes until January 1, 2022. However, the plans have been the subject of bitter criticism from mainly younger South Koreans – who happen to make up the bulk of the ruling Democratic Party’s support. This criticism has led many in the ruling party to hint that a tax U-turn is not impossible, even at this late stage. And per Hanguk Kyungjae and WowTV, Lee Jae-myung, the Gyeonggi Province Governor and one of the two leading candidates for the Democratic Party presidential candidate nomination, has called for a one-year delay to the launch of the tax. Lee Jae-myung, the former mayor of Seongnam, is around 5% points behind his major challenger for the nomination, but media reports claim the gap is closing fast. He stated that delaying the tax by a year would allow the new levy to launch in sync with a revised stock trading tax law that is set to promulgate in January 2023. Under Lee Jae-myung’s governorship, a number of local stablecoin projects in the province – which surrounds Seoul, is the nation’s richest and is also home to most of the country’s biggest tech and electronics giants – have expanded rapidly. Meanwhile, the Jeju Governor Won, reported Yonhap last week, also fancies a tilt at the presidency – and called for a “crypto debate” with Lee Nak-yon, the former Prime Minister. Lee Nak-yon is now the leader of the Democratic Party and also one of the crypto sector’s fiercest critics. Won has gone on the record as stating that he bought some USD 900 worth of bitcoin (BTC) and other coins in a bid to better understand the viewpoints of the crypto-keen youth – and was challenged by the former PM on the sagacity of his decision. Won claimed in retaliation that Lee Nak-yon and the government were guilty of “neglecting” the crypto sector and knew “nothing about the crypto trading market.”

There's a paradigm shift from pure speculation to tactical allocation in the crypto market as investors are locked in an accumulation phase and are holding their positions with a medium- to long-term view, according to digital asset investing firm CoinShares. "This trend is also highlighted by the amount of coins left on exchanges, a metric which is experiencing an accelerating downtrend," Jean-Marie Mognetti, CEO of the company, said in the company’s annual report for 2020. He argued that the trend is observable not only in the global media, but also on the blockchain itself, "where its immutability comes in very handy,” as unspent transaction output (UTXO) analysis enables the mapping of the maturation of the global coin supply. Moreover, this year, the "investor landscape is very different with a blend of financial services companies to catch up with the growth of the digital asset ecosystem and other corporates exploring digital asset exposure in response to monetary inflation," the CEO said, noting that the previous bull market cycle, in 2017, was led first and foremost by retail investors. Per Mognetti, the market is sending "some interesting indications" that digital assets are in the early phases of a 12-24 month bull market cycle, itself part of a bigger, longer, multi-decade supercycle. For 2020, the company’s CEO forecasts two major trends: the "grand awakening" from global investors and corporate treasurers to the role of digital assets in a portfolio; a "more avant-garde" trend which will see high alpha generator bets at the edge of innovation (decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Web3.0, identity and prediction markets). CoinShares also said that their total comprehensive income doubled last year, reaching GBP 18.4m (USD 26m), while total assets held by the company hit GBP 1.96bn, showing an increase of approximately 290% over the year. Meanwhile, Mognetti’s claims seem to be backed by the latest available data released by on-chain market intelligence provider Glassnode. The analysis offers some observations related to the recent bitcoin (BTC) price dip, and explores the average spent output lifespan (ASOL) metric which provides insight into the average age of all UTXOs spent on a given day. What it found is that during this latest selloff, ASOL "fell dramatically" and back to levels below the BTC accumulation range seen between USD 50,000 and USD 60,000. "This indicates [that long-term holders] did not panic sell and capitulate and instead primarily HODLed through the dip," according to the analysts. "As seen in ASOL, the total amount of lifespan that is being spent has actually fallen at or below 2020 pre-bull market levels. This confirms that old coins are holding onto their stack, and the majority of spending is by holders of relatively young coins. What these three metrics indicate is that older hands are not rushing for the exit," they said. A similar conclusion was reached last week by Phillip Gradwell, Chief Economist at on-chain analytics and intelligence firm Chainalysis, who said that at least USD 3.2bn worth of bitcoin was sold during the selloff, constituting the largest one-week USD loss of all time. Almost all of this loss was incurred by bitcoin held between 4 and 13 weeks prior to being sent, meaning that most of the sellers were recent investors. At 14:17 UTC, BTC trades at USD 37,077 and is up by almost 2% in a day, trimming its weekly losses to less than 4%. The price is down by less than 36% in a month and is still up by 293% in a year.

Adult entertainment company The Score Group has asked Google to remove dozens of Wikipedia entries from its search results. Some of these pages document the history of popular pirate sites. However, the DMCA notice also targets Wikipedia's own Wikipedia entry, as well as those of TorrentFreak, Netflix, Reddit, The Gutenberg Project, and many others. Over the past several years, copyright holders have asked Google to remove billions of links to allegedly pirated content. Most of these DMCA notices are pretty accurate. However, we keep stumbling on glaring errors, which are often hard to explain. The Score Group Misses Today we have another example. Late last month, adult entertainment distributor The Score Group sent Google a takedown notice identifying more than 300 copyright infringing URLs. A quick glance at the request indeed shows that the notice includes several problematic links. However, it also lists more than two dozen Wikipedia pages. This includes the Wikipedia entries of well-known pirate brands such as YIFY, BTDigg, and KickassTorrents. These Wikipedia pages don’t list or link to any infringing material. They clearly shouldn’t be removed but, in a way, it’s understandable since these URLs were probably caught up in an automated keyword filter. Unfortunately, however, it doesn’t stop there. For reasons unknown, the list of ‘copyright infringing’ Wikipedia entries also includes TorrentFreak and other news sites such as The Verge and The Financial Times. The same is true for the movie review sites IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. Targeting Wikipedia’s Wikipedia Entry… And it goes on. The Wikipedia entries for Domino’s Pizza and Project Gutenberg were also marked, and just when we thought we’d seen it all, we spotted the Wikipedia entry for Wikipedia itself. It remains a mystery how these links ended up in the takedown notice. None of these sites or their Wikipedia entries have a clear connection to the adult entertainment company and they are perfectly legal. Good and Bad News The good news is that Google spotted all of these errors. This means that the links haven’t been removed from its search results. The same is true for the IMDb pages for “Iron Man 2,” “Elmo’s World: Reach for the Sky,” and “Ernest Scared Stupid” which The Score Group tried to take offline with a separate DMCA notice. The company even went after the American Bar Association, which should be able to confirm that this isn’t how the DMCA law is supposed to work. It is worth keeping an eye on these types of mistakes. While Google is great at spotting overbroad takedown notices, it occasionally misses some as well, which results in perfectly legal URLs being removed.

Fifteen years ago today The Pirate Bay was raided by dozens of Swedish police officers. The entertainment industries hoped that this would permanently shut down the site, but that was not the case. Instead, the police action inadvertently helped to create one of the most resilient and iconic websites on the Internet. There are a handful of traditions we have at TorrentFreak, and remembering the first raid on The Pirate Bay is one of them. Not only was it the first major story we covered, it also had a significant impact on how the piracy ecosystem evolved over the years. It also changed the lives of the site’s co-founders, who were eventually convicted. While a lot has changed over the years, The Pirate Bay is still around and there are no signs that this will change anytime soon. What many people may not realize, however, is that without a few essential keystrokes in the site’s early years, the site would be a distant memory today. This is what happened. May 31, 2006, less than three years after The Pirate Bay was founded, 65 Swedish police officers entered a datacenter in Stockholm. The Swedish police had instructions to shut down the Pirate Bay’s servers as part of a criminal probe, following pressure from the US Government. As the police were about to enter the datacenter, Pirate Bay co-founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij knew that something wasn’t quite right. In the months prior, both men noticed they were being tailed by private investigators, but this time their servers were the target. At around 10:00 in the morning, Gottfrid told Fredrik that there were police officers at their office. He asked his colleague to get down to the co-location facility and get rid of the ‘incriminating evidence’ although none of it – whatever it was – was related to The Pirate Bay. A Crucial Backup As Fredrik was leaving, he suddenly realized that the problems might be linked to their torrent tracker. Just in case, he decided to make a full backup of the site. When he later arrived at the co-location facility, those concerns turned out to be justified. There were dozens of police officers floating around taking away dozens of servers, most of which belonged to clients unrelated to The Pirate Bay. Footage from The Pirate Bay raid In the days that followed, it became clear that Fredrik’s decision to create a backup of the site was probably the most pivotal moment in the site’s history. Because of this backup, Fredrik and the rest of the Pirate Bay team managed to resurrect the site within three days. “The Police Bay” Of course, the entire situation was handled with the mockery TPB had become known for. Unimpressed, the site’s operators renamed the site “The Police Bay”, complete with a new logo shooting cannonballs at Hollywood. A few days later this logo was replaced by a Phoenix, a reference to the site rising from its digital ashes. Logos after the raid Instead of shutting it down, the raid propelled The Pirate Bay into the mainstream press, not least due to its swift resurrection. The publicity also triggered a huge traffic spike for TPB, exactly the opposite effect Hollywood had hoped for. The US Pushed Sweden Although the raid and the subsequent criminal investigation were carried out in Sweden, the US Government played a major role behind the scenes. For many years the scale of that involvement was unknown. However, information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request in 2017 helped to fill in some blanks. The trail started with a cable sent from the US Embassy in Sweden to Washington in November 2005, roughly six months before the Pirate Bay raid. The Embassy wrote that Hollywood’s MPA met with US Ambassador Bivins and, separately, with the Swedish State Secretary of Justice. The Pirate Bay was one of the top agenda items. “The MPA is particularly concerned about PirateBay, the world‘s largest Torrent file-sharing tracker. According to the MPA and based on Embassy’s follow-up discussions, the Justice Ministry is very interested in a constructive dialogue with the US. on these concerns,” the cable read. From the US Embassy Cable The Embassy explained that Hollywood would like Sweden to take action against a big player such as The Pirate Bay. “We have yet to see a ‘big fish’ tried – something the MPA badly wants to see, particularly in light of the fact that Sweden hosts the largest Bit Torrent file-sharing tracker in the world, ‘Pirate-Bay’, which openly flaunts IPR,” the cable writer commented. Fast forward half a year and indeed, 65 police officers were ready to take The Pirate Bay’s servers offline. While there is no written evidence that the US officials were actively involved in planning the investigation or raid, indirectly they played a major role. TPB Takedown Award This is also backed up by further evidence. In a cable sent in April 2007, the Embassy nominated one of its employees, whose name is redacted, for the State Department’s Foreign Service National (FSN) of the year award. Again, The Pirate Bay case was cited. “REDACTED skillful outreach directly led to a bold decision by Swedish law enforcement authorities to raid Pirate Bay and shut it down. This was recognized as a major achievement in Washington in furthering U.S. efforts to combat Internet piracy worldwide.” We don’t know if the employee in question received his or her award. In hindsight, however, the raid did very little to deter piracy. The Aftermath The swift and deviant comeback turned the site’s founders into heroes for many. The site made headline news around the world and in Stockholm, people were waving pirate flags in the streets, a sentiment that benefited the newly founded Pirate Party as well. The raid eventually resulted in negative consequences for the site’s founders. It was the start of a criminal investigation, which led to a trial, and prison sentences for several of the site’s key players. This became another turning point. Many of the people who were involved from the early days decided to cut their ties with the site, which was handed over to a more anonymous group. The outspokenness of the early years is gone today and it’s a mystery who currently pulls the strings. What we do know is that The Pirate Bay is still seen as a piracy icon by many. And the current operator will probably do everything he can to keep the site online, just like on May 31, 2006.

Last December music publisher BMG found itself at the center of a major copyright dispute after offending the entire Jehovah's Witness religion. According to the lawsuit, BMG illegally used a song owned by the group in a for-profit Christmas album, featuring songs from other faiths, which were set to be sung in cathedrals. Five months later, the warring parties have agreed to stand down. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society is the supervising body and publisher for the Jehovah’s Witness religious group. As such, it is building quite a reputation for targeting those that infringe its copyrights. Watch Tower’s targets are often smaller players who publish its songs and videos on platforms such as YouTube and Facebook without permission, sometimes when the stated aim is criticism or parody. However, last December the powerful organization took on a more heavyweight adversary. Target: Music Publishing Giant BMG Music publisher BMG is also well known for its litigious nature, having aggressively pursued ISP Cox Communications through the legal system after the ISP allegedly failed to disconnect so-called repeat infringers. That matter ended with Cox paying an undisclosed but substantial settlement to BMG. Last December, however, the hunter became the hunted after BMG took the decision to release a Christmas album featuring Welsh singer Aled Jones. The album (titled “Blessings”) aimed to be religiously inclusive by bundling songs associated with Christians, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, Quakers and Jehovah’s Witnesses into one package. Unfortunately for BMG, Watch Tower didn’t appreciate being included. The problem was the addition of the song “Listen, Obey and Be Blessed” and it wasn’t particularly difficult to see why. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas and don’t allow their copyrighted works to be exploited commercially. They also reject all other religions, quite the problem in an all-inclusive religious Christmas album that they played no part in. Watch Tower subsequently filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in a New York district court, noting that they had contacted Aled Jones’ manager to say no permission had been granted to use the song. BMG UK said that it had been given permission to use the song by German rights society GEMA, itself known for copyright infringement lawsuits. But Watch Tower rejected any use of its song, demanded an injunction, and sought statutory damages for BMG’s infringement. This Battle Won’t Take Place in Court After being filed on December 22, 2020, the lawsuit proceeded largely as expected but then, on January 19, 2021 – the date by which BMG was required to enter a response – the publisher wrote to the Court seeking more time. “The parties are engaged in ongoing good-faith settlement discussions, and extending the deadline to respond to the Complaint will allow the parties to focus on settlement efforts,” BMG wrote. “BMG makes this request without waiver of and specifically preserving BMG’s right to assert any and all defenses in this matter, including but not limited to lack of personal jurisdiction and other jurisdictional defenses.” The next day the Court granted an extension but in March BMG was back again, asking for more time, a request that was repeated again in April. The Court granted another 30 days on April 21 but told the parties there would be no more extensions. Right on the button, on May 20, 2021, the parties informed the Court that a settlement had been reached. “We write to inform the Court that the parties have entered into a confidential settlement agreement resolving the claims set forth in the Complaint,” the letter reads. “In light of the parties’ settlement, Defendants would like to avoid the cost associated with responding to the Complaint, and request (with the consent of counsel for Plaintiff) that no default be entered prior to June 4, 2021.” With no answer to the complaint set to be presented to the court, it’s impossible to know how BMG would’ve structured its defense but with a settlement having been reached, the matter is already over. That was finally confirmed last week when Watch Tower filed a notice of voluntary dismissal with the Court. “Please take notice that, pursuant to Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Plaintiff Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania hereby voluntarily dismisses this action against all Defendants with prejudice,” the notice reads. The argument in the case could have proven of interest to observers but perhaps wisely, both parties have agreed to settle their differences in private. There are, however, some public signs of concession by BMG. The song “Listen, Obey and Be Blessed” has now been removed from the digital download version of the album available on Amazon, reducing the available tracks from 14 to 13. How one also makes right any offense caused to a religion’s standards is unclear but since Watch Tower previously demanded damages, money may also be part of the deal.

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Wrath of Man' tops the chart, followed by ‘Cruella'. 'Army Of The Dead' completes the top three. The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. These torrent download statistics are meant to provide further insight into the piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources. This week we have three new entries in the list. “Wrath of Man” is the most downloaded title. The most torrented movies for the week ending on May 31 are: Movie RankRank Last WeekMovie NameIMDb Rating / Trailer Most downloaded movies via torrent sites 1(…)Wrath of Man7.3 / trailer 2(…)Cruella7.5 / trailer 3(1)Army Of The Dead6.0 / trailer 4(3)Mortal Kombat6.4 / trailer 5(…)The Unholy5.0 / trailer 6(4)Godzilla vs. Kong6.7 / trailer 7(6)Zack Snyder’s Justice League8.4 / trailer 8(2)Those Who Wish Me Dead6.1 / trailer 9(5)Nobody7.5 / trailer 10(7)Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse

The Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is one of the biggest dangers pirated websites face today. This anti-piracy coalition is going after all kinds of illegal portals, threatening them with legal action if they don't stop their activity. Now, they are going against the operators of 23 pages of pirate IPTV and torrent downloads . The MPA, whose members also control the ACE, have gone to court in the United States against 23 websites with the aim of discovering the names of the owners of those websites. All of them use Cloudflare services to distribute traffic to their websites, so their objective is to make the CDN grant them the name through the courts. 25 websites that want to close due to piracy The complete list of the websites is as follows: Uvod.tv, We-play.tv, Bilutvs.net, Moviesrulz.net, Watchserieshd.tv, Tamilblasters.me, Isaidubb.co, goojara.to, onionflix.me, onionplay.co, ecouchtuner.club, teforo.com, kremok.com, afzor.com, Verpeliculasultra.com, pelismart.com, repelisplus.vip, kerob.xyz, poorflix.com, Vizer.tv, Filmesonlinegratisbr.com, futemax.gratis and multicanais.com. As we can see, among them there are at least three Spanish portals: verpeliculasultra.com, pelismart.com and repelisplus.vip . One of them, despite the funny name it has (poorflix.com), is not Spanish, but Portuguese. Among all the portals, it is estimated that they have between 75 and 80 million visits per month . The websites allow you to view streaming content , but others also allow you to download the content in torrent. To these portals we must add two more: Comandotorrents.org , accused of illegally distributing the film Joker, owned by Warner Bros .; and also IPTorrents, accused of allowing illegal viewing of Mulan and Mortal Kombat. The mention of IPTorrents , which has been operating for more than a decade, and which has been blocked by various countries over the years is curious . The portal also has limited access only for those who are registered. Among the information that ACE wants Cloudflare to provide are names, physical addresses, IP addresses, phone numbers, emails, payment information, account updates, and user account history. Cloudflare will have to provide user data With all this information they want to obtain any data that is real and that allows them to identify the operators of those web pages, since some of this data, such as the name, may be false. With the IP address, if they have not used a VPN , they can then contact the operator to identify them. The request was accepted by the judge this week, which means that Cloudflare will have to provide the data the ACE requests to identify the hackers. From there, with all the information they collect, they will go after the operators of the web pages, so they will close once they begin to receive personal legal threats. It is also curious that the ACE goes after portals that are not among the largest, but that still continue to receive millions of monthly visits. Their efforts to go after big websites like The Pirate Bay or 1337 are useless as they always find new domains or places to stay. The only thing that has worked against these websites is to prevent them from appearing in search engines, as well as to block them nationally as is done in Spain with all kinds of piracy websites.

GlobalBlock, a London-based cryptocurrency brokerage, announced today that the company has agreed to a business combination with Helix Applications, a blockchain technology company listed in Canada. According to an official announcement shared with Finance Magnates, Helix has acquired £32 million worth of shares in GlobalBlock. The latest acquisition of shares is subject to regulatory and stock exchange approval. Looking Forward to Meeting You at iFX EXPO Dubai May 2021 – Making It Happen! GlobalBlock highlighted that Helix has been in discussions with the company since March 2021. According to the latest deal, Helix will change its name and the company will provide cryptocurrency trading services through GlobalBlock’s digital asset trading platform and mobile app under the new entity. Suggested articles Borussia Dortmund Secures its Place in the Champions League!Go to article >> Commenting on the latest announcement, David Thomas, Director and Co-Founder of GlobalBlock, said: “Ever since we established GlobalBlock in 2018 we have been serving individuals and businesses with a secure platform to trade cryptocurrencies via our personalized telephone service, digital asset trading platform and mobile app. We believe that we are still at the beginning of the evolution of the digital asset industry. With our already established brokerage business and this business combination with Helix, we are very well placed to capitalize on a rapidly growing sector.” During the latest announcement, the cryptocurrency broker highlighted significant growth in 2021 amid a rise in the popularity of digital currencies. The company saw record trading volumes as clients traded more than 80 digital assets. Portfolio Diversification GlobalBlock mentioned that the company is planning to expand its services through the latest partnership with Helix to facilitate clients in portfolio diversification. The company’s client base includes individual and institutional clients who wish to diversify into digital assets. “Having founded and built successful customer-centric businesses in the investment and trading industry and now the cryptocurrency space, we are very excited about combining GlobalBlock with Helix. Our aim is to propel our growth and become a leader in the provision of digital asset trading services. We take customer service and protection incredibly seriously, understanding the value of focusing on a hand-holding approach for our clients, especially as we are still at an early stage of digital asset adoption,” Karl Thompson, Co-Founder of GlobalBlock mentioned in the press release.

Futu Holdings, a Chinese online brokerage platform with 14 million global users, is preparing to launch crypto trading services in international markets in the second half of 2021. Robin Li Xu, Futu’s Senior Vice President, revealed in the Tencent-backed company’s Q1 earnings call that it has already started to apply for licenses required for digital currency services in the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong. Looking Forward to Meeting You at iFX EXPO Dubai May 2021 – Making It Happen! However, Xu did not elaborate on the exact nature of these licenses or the services the company is planning to offer. In addition, the company clarified that no services related to cryptocurrency will be launched in its native Chinese markets. “What we know for sure is that we will not offer digital currency trading services to mainland China users,” Xu said. Suggested articles Borussia Dortmund Secures its Place in the Champions League!Go to article >> The clarification came with the latest reiteration of the Chinese government along with the country’s banking and internet association about the illegal nature of cryptocurrency transactions. Though China already banned crypto-related services in 2017, these fresh announcements had likely triggered the crypto crash earlier this week. A Fast-Growing Chinese Investment Startup Futu, which is seen by many as the Chinese version of Robinhood, is aggressively growing. With a year-over-year jump of 349.4 percent in Q1 of 2021 at $283.6 million, the company registered the fifth straight quarter of triple-digit growth. It added 273,000 net paying clients in the first three months of 2021 when the trading volume soared to $289 billion. 70 percent of Futu’s fresh clients were added from Hong Kong, Singapore and other overseas markets, which also strengthened its decision to add cryptos. Moreover, the Chinese startup opened its regional headquarters in Singapore and rolled out a Gen-Z-focused investment platform. “We are encouraged by what we have achieved in Singapore so far and are confident that Singapore and the broader Southeast Asian market offers a huge runway for growth,” said Leaf Hua Li, Futu’s Founder, Chairman and CEO.

B2BinPay, a well-known cryptocurrency payments firm, announced today that the company has launched version 2.0 of its payment solution with the addition of new tokens and blockchains. According to the official press release shared with Finance Magnates, the new version includes a wide range of innovative features along with the company’s existing offering. B2BinPay aims to fulfill cryptocurrency transaction requirements through the latest feature enhancements of version 2.0. Looking Forward to Meeting You at iFX EXPO Dubai May 2021 – Making It Happen! B2BinPay is offering crypto processing solutions to merchants and enterprise clients. The company is enabling businesses around the world to send, receive, exchange and store cryptocurrency payments in a secure environment. “As crypto payments further infiltrate into the business world, offering an additional payment method is one of the best ways to get new clients on board, with the added benefit of boosting company profits. Integrating B2BinPay provides users with the best crypto payment processing technology available. With the addition of the latest features, new blockchains and tokens, together with an attractive new pricing structure, B2BinPay v2.0 is an all-around better solution, as well as a more cost-effective one for clients,” the company mentioned in the press release. Suggested articles Borussia Dortmund Secures its Place in the Champions League!Go to article >> B2BinPay is currently supporting various tokens including ETH, NEO, and NEM. Moreover, the company is providing a stable crypto gateway to support clients. Features B2BinPay highlighted that the latest version has significant feature enhancements including cutting-edge technology for blockchains. Some of the key benefits include automatic withdrawals, secure fund storage, full white-label integration and the ability to monitor suspicious activity. In addition, clients can see detailed statistics including transaction history. The payment page is available in more than 20 languages. “B2BinPay has emerged as one of the market leaders in an industry where speed and low costs are an absolute must. The solution is easy to integrate and simple to use, giving businesses access in just minutes and the chance to enjoy the benefits of one of the most trusted and fast-growing cryptocurrency payment gateways around,” the company added. The Full list of features and benefits are: Coins, StableCoins and Tokens Automatic withdrawals Reach API Multilingual Interface 24/7 technical support Advanced security Notification System Secure fund storage Alerts system Authorisation logging DDoS protection Address book Suspicious activity monitor Full white-label integration Detailed statistics

Cryptocurrency assets saw extreme volatility over the weekend as Bitcoin touched a low of approximately $31,000. The overall market cap of digital currencies dropped below $1.3 trillion for the first time since February 2021. The latest drop in the cryptocurrency market accelerated liquidations during the last 24 hours. According to the latest data published by crypto firm, bybt.com, $1.53 billion worth of cryptocurrency positions got liquidated within a single day. Looking Forward to Meeting You at iFX EXPO Dubai May 2021 – Making It Happen! Approximately $1.1 billion worth of long cryptocurrency positions were liquidated as BTC, ETH, XRP and DOGE lost significant value. Bybt mentioned that 296,000 traders got liquidated during the latest market volatility. Suggested articles Borussia Dortmund Secures its Place in the Champions League!Go to article >> The cryptocurrency market posted a recovery of nearly $150 billion in the last few hours and that triggered liquidation of more than $400 million worth of short crypto positions. Bitcoin crossed $35,000 on Monday, which is a jump of nearly 15% from the recent low. Ethereum is currently trading near $2,100 after posting a spike of more than 20% in the last few hours. Last week, Finance Magnates reported about the liquidation of more than 300,000 crypto traders amid extreme market volatility. Impact of China and Tesla on Cryptocurrency Market Recently, Reuters reported about China’s strict crypto measures. The country banned financial companies from services related to cryptocurrency payments. Additionally, Asia’s largest economy introduced restrictions regarding crypto mining in the region. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla remained vocal about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets during the last few days. In a Tweet, Musk called Bitcoin a highly centralized cryptocurrency and mentioned that BTC mining companies are controlling the market. “A single coal mine in Xinjiang flooded, almost killing miners, and BTC hash rate dropped 35%,” Musk said in a tweet. The latest announcements by China and Musk have had a negative impact on the cryptocurrency market as the total market cap of digital currencies lost nearly 45% of its value in just two weeks. As of writing, the crypto market cap stands at around $1.45 trillion

Crypto markets have lost roughly 30 percent off of their total market capitalization over the past seven days. As crypto prices continue to tumble, and traders scramble to close their volatile holdings, the stablecoin market is surging: according to CoinTelegraph, the total stablecoin supply has grown by roughly 190% over the past 90 days. However, not all stablecoins are created equal. Amidst the valuation bloodbath, centralized stablecoins are performing better than ever–Tether (USDt) and Centre’s USD Coin (USDC) are respectively #3 and #10 in CoinMarketCap’s list of largest coins by market cap. Data from CoinGecko shows that together, the two coins hold roughly 80% of all stablecoin market capitalization. Looking Forward to Meeting You at iFX EXPO Dubai May 2021 – Making It Happen! Top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap via CoinMarketCap.com (2021-05-24 at 11.32.33). While these centralized stablecoins are performing well amidst the crypto market crash, algorithmic stablecoins are another story. Algorithmic stablecoins hold their value by automatically increasing or decreasing their own supply or the supply of the asset to which they are pegged. However, according to CoinTelegraph, some of these coins have lost their pegs. “This Too Shall Pass”? For example, TerraUSD (UST), which is tied to the LUNA coin, was sitting around $0.95 at press time, having fallen as low as $0.92 on Sunday, May 23rd. The Twitter account associated with decentralized liquidity protocol, THORChain said that the asset was being ‘stress-tested’, and urged followers to ‘Back the builders’. Terra founder Do Kwon and “team/backers have their fingers on the pulse and are moving fast,” THORChain wrote. Do Kwon said in a tweet on May 23rd that while the Terra economy was experiencing stress “none of the fundamentals in [the Terra ecosystem] have changed. asserting the project has been. “The ecosystem is significantly de-risked for having survived one of the worst market crashes in crypto,” he wrote. “Building pure, unbiased and decentralized money is the long game,” Kwon said. The Terra Twitter account wrote that: ”Our community will emerge stronger from this ephemeral market turmoil. This too shall pass.” However, not everyone is convinced. One Terra follower wrote that: “What is scaring me is that $UST has not retained its peg to the dollar. It keeps peaking below a dollar and falling back down. Any explanations?? (sic)” Still, another user explained that: “it’s because it’s an algorithmic stablecoin, it has to constantly burn/mint UST/LUNA to keep its peg. I’ve always seen it come back to a dollar tho, so not worried. (sic)” Other algorithmic stablecoins are even further away from their $1 target pegs. CoinTelegraph reported that Ampleforth (AMPL) fell to $0.48 on May 23rd, its lowest level in an entire year. On the other hand, the Ether-backed RAI algorithmic stablecoin has managed to stay relatively close to its target peg of $3 throughout the market crash.

Shalom Lior A, the suspected mastermind of a criminal group laundering money for drug cartels having ties with one of the biggest crypto exchanges, was brought to Poland from the Netherlands last week. According to multiple local media reports, the Israeli national laundered around PLN 1.4 billion (more than $380.6 million) for Columbian drug cartels. This is the largest sum of this kind ceased by the Polish prosecutors. Looking Forward to Meeting You at iFX EXPO Dubai May 2021 – Making It Happen! “On May 20, with the use of extraordinary security measures, the head of an organized crime group was brought from the Netherlands to Poland, which washed away 1.4 billion zlotys from drug trafficking,” the Polish authorities said in a press statement (translated quote). Crypto Capital Links Lior was arrested in Amsterdam last October with an international arrest warrant. He has been extradited to Poland after a Dutch court ruled in favor of it. Suggested articles Borussia Dortmund Secures its Place in the Champions League!Go to article >> Moreover, the money laundering case attracted international attention as Crypto Capital, the payment processing company serving crypto exchange Bitfinex and now-defunct QuadrigaCX, was in the center of it. The seized assets by the Polish authorities include $850 million of Bitfinex, which the crypto exchange entrusted to the payment processor. The exchange ran into trouble with New York prosecutors as it was forced to open a credit line with its sister company, Teher and hide its losses. Both the crypto companies settled the case for a fine. Lior is only one of five suspects in the money laundering case. The Polish police have already arrested Crypto Capital’s President, Ivan Manuel Molina Lee in connection with the case in 2019. The Polish prosecutors are now charging Lior for leading an organized crime group, money laundering and drug trafficking with a value of at least PLN 3.4 billion. He is looking at a maximum prison time of 12 years.

American billionaire Hedge Fund Manager, Ray Dalio recognized on Monday that he holds Bitcoin and praised the cryptocurrency’s role as a better inflation hedge asset than bonds, implying a turnaround on his skeptic stance on the industry. During CoinDesk’s annual Consensus conference, the investor talked about the virtual currency amid rising inflationary concerns. “I have some Bitcoin,” Dalio said, who also added that he personally has the cryptocurrency than a bond. When referring to a possible regulatory’s stricter environment for the near-future during the surging investor demand, the billionaire commented: “I think Bitcoin’s biggest risk is its success.” Looking Forward to Meeting You at iFX EXPO Dubai May 2021 – Making It Happen! “One of the great [risks]… is the government having the capacity to control almost any of them—Bitcoin or [other] digital currencies. They know where they are, and they know what’s going on,” the hedge fund manager added. The optimistic comments in Bitcoin’s future came in the middle of discussing a pessimistic view regarding the US dollar. Suggested articles Borussia Dortmund Secures its Place in the Champions League!Go to article >> In November 2020, the chairman of Bridgewater Associates did not have such a favorable stance on cryptos. “Bitcoin and other cryptos are too volatile to be considered an effective store of wealth. That volatility also hurts bitcoin’s use transactionally because vendors won’t know how much they’re getting,” Dalio said at that time. Furthermore, in a tweet, the billionaire said: “I might be missing something about Bitcoin so I’d love to be corrected.” Regulatory Uncertainty The regulatory concerns among the crypto industry came again into the spotlight following the strain of news coming from China, which helped to fuel the current prices’ meltdown. Bitcoin mining firms like Huobi Mall and BTC.TOP have suspended their activities in the Asian giant due to the uncertainty regarding the country’s regulatory environment. Other countries with a lesser share in the crypto mining Global Hash Rate like Iran had also recently launched crackdown campaigns on unauthorized mining farms.

The china-based listed Bitcoin mining company, BIT Mining Limited (NYSE: BTCM) announced on Monday that it has entered into a binding investment sheet with a Kazakhstan-based firm to invest in a cryptocurrency mining data center in Kazakhstan jointly. Per the announcement, BIT Mining Limited will allocate $9.33 million to build and run the Kazakhstan Mining Data Center operations, whose total power capacity is expected to be at 100 MW. The Shenzhen-based company will have an 80% equity interest, while their partners will hold the remaining 20%, although they did not disclose the name of the Kazakhstan-based firm. Looking Forward to Meeting You at iFX EXPO Dubai May 2021 – Making It Happen! Furthermore, operation managers located in the forthcoming data center will provide on-site hosting, broadband network support, security monitoring, server management and maintenance. Suggested articles Borussia Dortmund Secures its Place in the Champions League!Go to article >> With such arrangement, BIT Mining Limited expects to widen its total power capacity dedicated to crypto mining in Kazakhstan to reach as high as 60 MW, said the press release. Currently, the Chinese company is the owner of the entire mining pool operated under BTC.com, including the domain name and its cryptocurrency wallet service. Its total Hash Rate capacity sums up approximately 1,031.6 PH/s, as they run three hydroelectric virtual currency data centers. In terms of the deadline, the China-based listed crypto mining firm expects to have access to the total power capacity of 20 MW starting from July 1, 2021. Chinese Crypto Miners in Limbo The binding investment term sheet news joins the strain of events happening within the crypto sphere in China, as the uncertainty is a hot topic due to the recent announcement. Finance Magnates has reported that Chinese Bitcoin mining companies are putting their eyes on other crypto mining-friendly nations, as some cryptocurrency companies have been suspending their operations in the Asian giant. Overall, China is a big player in the crypto mining industry, accounting for nearly 70% of the global Hash Rate as of press time.

Bitcoin energy usage FUD has been on the rise for the last few weeks. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, criticized Bitcoin recently for the usage of energy and called BTC a highly centralized cryptocurrency. However, China’s recent announcement of a crackdown on BTC miners in the country and crypto restrictions have opened a new door for the crypto mining industry in North America. According to a Tweet on Monday, Musk met executives of leading Bitcoin mining firms in North America and discussed sustainability and energy usage transparency during the meeting. “Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They are committed to publishing current & planned renewable usage. Potentially promising,” Musk tweeted. Looking Forward to Meeting You at iFX EXPO Dubai May 2021 – Making It Happen! Michael Saylor, CEO of the US-based business intelligence firm, MicroStrategy, hosted the meeting. Saylor expressed his optimism regarding a transparent and standardized reporting of Bitcoin energy usage. Suggested articles Borussia Dortmund Secures its Place in the Champions League!Go to article >> “Yesterday I was pleased to host a meeting between Elon Musk & the leading Bitcoin miners in North America. The miners have agreed to form the Bitcoin Mining Council to promote energy usage transparency & accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide. Leading executives were present & decided to establish an organization to standardize energy reporting, pursue industry ESG goals, & grow the marketplace,” Saylor said. Bitcoin Energy Usage FUD Earlier this month, Tesla announced the suspension of Bitcoin payments citing environmental concerns. The world’s largest cryptocurrency took a major hit and dropped significantly in the following days. The latest announcement of a potential crackdown on Bitcoin mining facilities in China by the government caused a crash in BTC and other digital currencies. Chinese BTC miners expressed uncertainty due to the recent action by the government and that provided North American crypto miners an opportunity to take a lead in the global crypto mining industry. “Eventually, China will lose crypto computing power to foreign markets (including North America and Europe),” Jiang Zhuoer, Founder of China’s crypto mining company BTC.TOP, mentioned in a blog post on Weibo.

Cryptocurrency investment products reported net outflows of approximately $97 million last week. Despite the overall outflows, cryptocurrency assets like Cardano and Polkadot posted a significant jump in institutional inflows. According to the latest digital asset fund flows report published by CoinShares, cryptocurrency investment products saw outflows for the second consecutive week after Bitcoin, the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency, and it reported $111 million worth of outflows in the last week. Looking Forward to Meeting You at iFX EXPO Dubai May 2021 – Making It Happen! Ethereum-related investment products have seen minor outflows of nearly $12.6 million after record-breaking inflows of $924 million since the start of 2021. Cryptocurrency Polkadot has reported inflows of $5.5 million in the last week. Suggested articles Borussia Dortmund Secures its Place in the Champions League!Go to article >> “Digital asset investment products saw net outflows for the second consecutive week totaling US$97m, another new record for outflows. The outflow remains low, representing only 0.2% of total assets under management (AUM). All other cryptocurrency assets (coins other than Bitcoin) saw continued positive sentiment with inflows across the board totaling US$27m. Cardano saw the largest inflows of US$10m, which may represent investors actively choosing proof of stake coins based on environmental considerations,” CoinShares mentioned in the report. CoinShares is one of the largest cryptocurrency asset managers around the world. The company’s ETPs reported record trading volumes on 19 May 2021, amid a significant jump in volatility across the crypto market. Cryptocurrency Correction The overall market cap of digital currencies has experienced a significant dip in the last few days. The cryptocurrency market cap touched an all-time high of approximately $2.5 trillion on 12 May and reached a low of nearly $1.25 trillion on 24 May. The latest correction in the cryptocurrency market triggered massive liquidations. However, the market has stabilized since yesterday. As of writing, the overall value of digital currencies stands at around $1.63 trillion, which is a jump of 12% in the last 24 hours. Cardano is up by more than 10% while Polkadot gained approximately 17% within a single day. Furthermore, Bitcoin is currently trading near $38,000 with a market cap of over $700 billion.

Over the course of six months, Interpol has intercepted about $83 million of stolen money from flowing into the scammers’ accounts. The coordinated operation named HAECHI-I was started last year to demolish the various cyber crimes happening in the Asia-Pacific region. Over the course, Interpol has made hundreds of arrests and bank accounts frozen. Interpol in Action The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) has reportedly seized a large cybercrime operation. From September 2020 to March 2021, Interpol has intercepted about $83 million of stolen funds from transferring into fraudsters’ bank accounts. In HAECHI-I, a group of over 40 law enforcement officers has worked together to spot and seize cybercrime in the Asia-Pacific region, specifically in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Over the course of more than six months, the Interpol team has made 1,400+ investigations and closed 892 of them already. While the rest being investigated, the current progress has significant results – making over 585 arrests worldwide and freezing over 1,600 bank accounts belonging to the cybercrime fraudsters. These illicit activities include romance scams, money laundering associated with illegal online gambling, voice phishing, investment fraud, and online sextortion. Talking about the current operation’s progress, Interpol’s Director of Organized and Emerging Crime, Ilana de Wild, said, “The results of Operation HAECHI-I demonstrate that online financial crime is fundamentally global and that only through close international cooperation can we effectively combat these criminals.” Interpol has constantly warned its member countries about the potential cybercrimes on rising and recommended effective solutions to thwart them. One among them is the dating apps fraud luring victims into investing in fake trading apps. Also, Interpol has advised victims to react immediately to any financial crimes by blocking the transfers into scammers’ accounts.

Continuing the spree of takedowns, MPA has now obtained major permission to takedown at least two dozen pirate sites. The rights association, after asking in a US court, has been given the subpoena requested. This would help MPA to ask Cloudflare to disclose the details of over two dozen pirate site operators, who’re found to be allegedly sharing the pirate links of movies under MPA’s makers. Cloudflare is Ordered to Share Details The Motion Picture Association, representing the studios under Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, has been so successful during recent years. The agency has managed to take down some of the infamous sites. Now, it’s continuing this by obtaining rather big permission (1,2,3,4) from one of the courts in the USA. As MPA identified that some important pirate sites are using Cloudflare as their CDN, forcing the intermediary can help its takedown actions be simpler. Thus, as per reports, the MPA has obtained a subpoena to direct Cloudflare to disclose the identifying details of the following sites; Uvod.tv, We-play.tv, Bilutvs.net, Moviesrulz.net, Watchserieshd.tv, Tamilblasters.me, Isaidubb.co, goojara.to, onionflix.me, onionplay.co, ecouchtuner.club, teforo.com, kremok.com, afzor.com, Verpeliculasultra.com, pelismart.com, repelisplus.vip, kerob.xyz, pobreflix.com, Vizer.tv, Filmesonlinegratisbr.com, futemax.gratis and multicanais.com. These sites are allegedly having a monthly visitors count of more than 70 million, thus being targeted. And the details they have asked for our names, physical addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, payment information, account updates, and account histories of the users operating the websites. Also, MPA has been permitted to track down the Comandotorrents.org and IPTorrents to maintain torrents of some famous movies like Mulan, King vs. Godzilla, Mortal Kombat, etc. As the Cloudflare was similarly dictated earlier to comply, which made MPA’s task easier, it shall do the same now to make it takedown too.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says that cybercrime gangs are using search results and search engine ads to lure victims on phishing sites for financial institutions in order to collect their login credentials. “The schemes resulted in illicit ACH transfers amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial losses,” the FBI said in a private industry notification (PIN) send to the US private sector on Tuesday. The PIN alert, which The Record cannot share due to TLP sharing restrictions, describes a particular phishing campaign mimicking the brand of an unnamed US-based financial institution. “The cyber actors conducted two versions of the scheme,” the FBI said. In the first version, the threat actor used search engine ads, while in the second version, they relied on the phishing site appearing in organic search results on its own. In both versions of the scheme,the spoofed portal prompted customers to enter account credentials and telephone numbers,and to answer security questions.These actions failed to grant access, at which point the account holder would receive a telephone call from the cyber actor who falsely claimed to represent the financial institution. While this individual occupied the customer in a lengthy process purported to restore account access, an associate would access the financial institution’s legitimate portal using the customer’s stolen credentials and initiate wire transfers from the account. Victims subsequently learned about the illicit transfers from the financial institution or when they eventually logged into the correct portal. FBI PIN alert 20210511-001 Scheme has become very popular since at least last year While the FBI said this particular campaign has been taking place since at least March 2021, this reporter has been looking into this new tactic since at least mid-2020. A FireEye malware analyst who did not want his name shared for this article because he was not authorized to speak for the company told this reporter over the winter that placing search engine ads linking to malicious sites has become a go-to tactic for multiple groups and not just those looking to steal funds from bank accounts. Threat actors also used similar search engine ads to draw users to phishing sites mimicking cryptocurrency-related portals and to sites peddling malware-laced downloads. Benoit Ancel, a security researcher at the CSIS Security Group and one of today’s leading malware hunters, has also previously noted this trend in a series of tweets last September. While threat actors have used search ads in previous years, the trend has gained momentum over the past year, especially after malware distribution channels like exploit kits and email spam started to lose their efficacy in recent years as web browsers and email service providers have gotten better at spotting abuse.

India’s SBI Card and HDFC Bank have sent warning emails to their customers dealing with cryptocurrencies. As shared on Twitter, the warning email cites a blanket ban regulation from RBI in 2018, which India’s apex court later struck down. Yet, customers are warned of blocking banking services if they continue. Indian Banks Hesitate to Support Cryptocurrencies Just as we saw a couple of years ago, Indian banks are warning and blocking services to those who’re dealing in cryptocurrencies. The latest comes from HDFC Bank and SBI Card customers, where they inform on Twitter about receiving warning emails for dealing in cryptocurrencies. Both the HDFC Bank and SBI Card have cited the same notice of RBI’s ban from June 2018, where it warned and recommended cutting banks to cut off from those providing cryptocurrency services. Some of the cryptocurrency exchanges shut down, while others introduced a peer-to-peer system for transactions. The RBI’s decision was turned over by India’s Supreme court in March 2020, as they have failed to explain what degradation these virtual tokens are doing to the financial economy. While this resumed the banking services to cryptocurrency exchanges, banks are still reluctant to offer support for them. And this continues even today, as we see top financial service providers – HDFC Bank and SBI Card warning customers on dealing with cryptocurrencies. In the email sent out by HDFC Bank, it said, “To comply with the regulatory guidelines (RBI vide guidelines DBR.No.BP.BC.104 /08.13.102/2017-18 dated April 06, 2018), the Banks are advised to exercise due diligence by closely examining the transactions carried out in the account on an ongoing basis.” Similarly, customers of SBI Card received emails stating, “Please note, usage of credit card for transactions on virtual currency merchant platforms may lead to suspension/cancellation of your SBI Credit Card in terms of the Cardholder Agreement.” This comes as a surprise to many as the RBI notice cited by their banks was overturned but wasn’t considered. Also, earlier this month, we’ve seen many cryptocurrency exchanges took offline the option to deposit INR through IMPS, RTGS, and NEFT due to issues with partner banks. This forced them to switch back to the peer-to-peer model once again.

A married couple are to face trial over "dodgy box" illegal TV streaming in Dublin and Meath. Alison, 42, and Michael McGrane, 44, from Johns Wood Drive, Ashbourne, Co. Meath had books of evidence served on them when they appeared before Judge Miriam Walsh at Dublin District Court today. They have been charged with possessing crime proceeds and infringing copyright. The Director of Public Prosecutions directed trial on indictment. Judge Walsh made a trial order and told the couple they were being sent forward for trial to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court where they will face their next hearing on 15 April. Mrs McGrane is charged with having €13,232 and $3,436 in crime proceeds in PayPal from 29 September 2017 until 11 September 2018, contrary to money laundering legislation. She is also charged with possessing a "protection defeating device" at her home address on 11 September 2018. This offence is contrary to Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000. Mr McGrane faces six charges. He is accused of selling a protection defeating devices on three dates in 2017 and 2018 via a website. He is also charged with having crime proceeds of €70,568 in a Co. Meath branch of Permanent TSB and £114,529 in a PayPal account. He is also accused of unlawful use of a computer contrary to the Theft and Fraud Act. Judge Walsh told them they must notify the prosecution within 14 days if they intend to use an alibi in their defence. They have not yet indicated how they will plead. Legal aid was granted following a request from defence solicitor Tony Collier. An order was made for copies of their garda interviews to be furnished to the solicitor. Two co-defendants are to appear at the district court in March to have books of evidence served.