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LCD price fixing probe nets ninth Taiwanese executive – Computerworld

October 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A long-running price-fixing probe into the LCD panel business has netted its ninth indictment against a Taiwanese executive, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.

The indictment charges that Wang Hsin-tsung was part of a conspiracy from 2001 to 2006 to fix prices of LCD panels, which are used in products ranging from LCD TVs and computer displays to smartphones and more.

Wang was a vice president of sales and marketing at Chi Mei Optoelectronics at the time. Chi Mei last December agreed to plead guilty and pay US$220 million for its part in the price-fixing conspiracy. At least four other former Chi Mei executives have plead guilty to price fixing charges and agreed to serve time in jail.

Chi Mei was bought by rival Innolux last year and became Chimei Innolux.

via LCD price fixing probe nets ninth Taiwanese executive – Computerworld.

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Italian executive extradited to US for bribing Indian firms-Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times

July 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

An Italian citizen has been extradited to the US from Germany for participating in an alleged conspiracy to secure contracts by paying bribes to officials of foreign state-owned companies in India and several other countries.

Flavio Ricotti, 49, a former executive of California-based valve company Control Components Inc. (CCI), was arrested Feb 14 in Frankfurt, Germany, and arrived in the US July 2, 2010, the Department of Justice announced.

Ricotti and five other former executives of CCI were charged April 8, 2009, in a 16-count indictment for their alleged roles in the foreign bribery scheme in connection with CCI projects in India, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Qatar and various other countries around the world.

via Italian executive extradited to US for bribing Indian firms-Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times.

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Arrested Russian Spies Used Steganography To Hide Data – Privacy and Identity Theft

June 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

11 alleged Russian spies have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States by not registering with the attorney general. 9 of these individuals have also been charged with money laundering. Details on the people arrested are here. One couple is based in Cambridge, MA.

The FBI says that these spies not only used encryption to protect data on their laptops and USB flash drives, but that they also are suspected of using proprietary Russian-build steganography software to hide data inside images and other files on their computers.

Steganography is the technique of hiding information inside other documents or data, so that it cannot be detected. Combining steganography with cryptography can create systems of communications and data protection that are incredibly difficult to detect and to crack.

via Arrested Russian Spies Used Steganography To Hide Data – Privacy and Identity Theft.

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Arrested Russian Spies Used Steganography To Hide Data – Privacy and Identity Theft

June 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

11 alleged Russian spies have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States by not registering with the attorney general. 9 of these individuals have also been charged with money laundering. Details on the people arrested are here. One couple is based in Cambridge, MA.

The FBI says that these spies not only used encryption to protect data on their laptops and USB flash drives, but that they also are suspected of using proprietary Russian-build steganography software to hide data inside images and other files on their computers.

Steganography is the technique of hiding information inside other documents or data, so that it cannot be detected. Combining steganography with cryptography can create systems of communications and data protection that are incredibly difficult to detect and to crack.

via Arrested Russian Spies Used Steganography To Hide Data – Privacy and Identity Theft.

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Technip to Pay $338 Million to Settle Bribery Case – BusinessWeek

June 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Technip SA, Europe’s second-largest oilfield-services provider, will pay $338 million to avoid U.S. prosecution and resolve civil claims that it bribed Nigerian officials to win $6 billion in construction contracts.

The Justice Department charged Technip with conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying more than $182 million in bribes related to liquefied natural gas plants. Prosecutors will drop charges in two years if Technip pays a $240 million fine and makes reforms. The Paris-based firm will pay $98 million to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission civil claims.

Technip “participated in a scheme to authorize, promise, and pay tens of millions of dollars in bribes to Nigerian government officials,” the company said today in federal court in Houston. The firm was in a joint venture with Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., which pleaded guilty in February 2009 and agreed with its former parent, Halliburton Co., to pay $579 million to resolve U.S. criminal and regulatory charges.

via Technip to Pay $338 Million to Settle Bribery Case (Update1) – BusinessWeek.

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Video: Digital forensics shows Oswald photo was not faked

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dartmouth Computer Scientist Hany Farid has new evidence regarding a photograph of accused John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Farid, a pioneer in the field of digital forensics, digitally analyzed an iconic image of Oswald pictured in a backyard setting holding a rifle in one hand and Marxist newspapers in the other. Oswald and others claimed that the incriminating photo was a fake, noting the seemingly inconsistent lighting and shadows. After analyzing the photo with modern-day forensic tools, Farid says the photo almost certainly was not altered.
“If we had found evidence of photo tampering, then it would have suggested a broader plot to kill JFK,” said Farid, who is also the director of the Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth. “Those who believe that there was a broader conspiracy can no longer point to this photo as possible evidence.” Farid added that federal officials long ago said that this image had not been tampered with, but a surprising number of skeptics still assert that there was a conspiracy.
The study will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Perception.
Farid and his team have developed a number of digital forensic tools used to determine whether digital photos have been manipulated, and his research is often used by law enforcement officials and in legal proceedings. The tools can measure statistical inconsistencies in the underlying image pixels, improbable lighting and shadow, physically impossible perspective distortion, and other artifacts introduced by photo manipulators. The play of light and shadow was fundamental in the Oswald photo analysis.
“The human brain, while remarkable in many aspects, also has its weaknesses,” says Farid. “The visual system can be quite inept at making judgments regarding 3-D geometry, lighting, and shadows.”

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2009/11/05.html

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US judge doubts single conspiracy in bribery case | Reuters

February 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A federal judge cast doubt on the U.S. government’s assertion that 22 people were part of a single conspiracy when they allegedly tried to bribe someone they believed to be an African defense minister.

The 22, including a former Secret Service agent and a Smith & Wesson Holding Co (SWHC.O) sales executive, were arrested after a two-and-a-half year FBI investigation that was part of a bribery probe.

The defendants were accused in 16 separate indictments of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, conspiracy to violate the FCPA, and conspiracy to commit money laundering tied to the sale of guns, body armor and other equipment.

Prosecutors said they collectively conspired together, but did not charge them together.

“I read all 16 indictments and I didn't see it,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said during a hearing on Wednesday. “I have zero sense that there was an omnibus grand conspiracy.”

via US judge doubts single conspiracy in bribery case | Reuters.

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US judge doubts single conspiracy in bribery case | Reuters

February 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A federal judge cast doubt on the U.S. government's assertion that 22 people were part of a single conspiracy when they allegedly tried to bribe someone they believed to be an African defense minister.

The 22, including a former Secret Service agent and a Smith & Wesson Holding Co (SWHC.O) sales executive, were arrested after a two-and-a-half year FBI investigation that was part of a bribery probe.

The defendants were accused in 16 separate indictments of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, conspiracy to violate the FCPA, and conspiracy to commit money laundering tied to the sale of guns, body armor and other equipment.

Prosecutors said they collectively conspired together, but did not charge them together.

“I read all 16 indictments and I didn't see it,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said during a hearing on Wednesday. “I have zero sense that there was an omnibus grand conspiracy.”

via US judge doubts single conspiracy in bribery case | Reuters.

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ABB Entangled In Corruption Case – Forbes.com

December 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The Swiss electrical engineering company ABB has been implicated in a conspiracy to pay bribes to Mexican government officials to secure $81 million of contracts from the Mexican state electricity monopoly, according to legal documents filed by the U.S. government.

John O’Shea, the 57-year-old former general manager of the Texas unit of ABB, was arrested last week for his alleged role in a conspiracy to bribe Mexican government officials and get business from the Comision Federal de Electricidad, or CFE. An indictment filed by federal prosecutors charges O’Shea with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

According to the indictment, O’Shea arranged for CFE officials to get payments totaling as much as 10% of the revenue ABB received from CFE. In one deal, O’Shea allegedly got 1% of the contract revenue as a kickback payment.

via ABB Entangled In Corruption Case – Forbes.com.

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