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Across the United States and Canada, thousands of auto dealers suffered disruptions to their software and data services due to cyberattacks. CDK Global, a service provider to more than 15,000 retail locations, was targeted in two attacks on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. The attack caused CDK to shut down its systems to prevent the loss of customer data and allow for testing and other measures to restore its services. The outage disrupted auto dealers’ sales and forced them to seek alternative methods to produce necessary documents to finalize sales.  The disruption comes at a critical time of the year, as many car dealerships are preparing 4th of July promotions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/business/cyberattack-car-dealers-cdk.html

In 2017 the U.S. Treasury hit billionaire Dan Gertler with sanctions for alleged corrupt dealings in Congo retaining lucrative royalty streams from three mining projects there. Under a new proposal, the Treasury would provide Gertler with special licenses to sell the three royalty streams back to the Congolese government which would grant him a license to regain access back to the U.S. financial system. While there is no official deal yet, US officials expect Gertler to receive around $300 million for the mining projects. At least four US Congress members and civil society groups are criticizing this proposal because they think lifting the restrictions would undermine the credibility of the U.S. sanctions regime. In a letter to Janet Yellen, Treasury secretary, Congress members wrote, “We fear that if sanctions are removed, Mr. Gertler will profit massively off his ill-gotten assets to the detriment of the Congolese people.”

https://www.ft.com/content/d55f9e63-a49d-47f5-967c-6a5730c67ded

Art dealer, Douglas Christmas, was convicted in Los Angeles on three counts of embezzling money from his business Ace Gallery. In 2013, his business filed for bankruptcy protection and prosecutors say that Christmas embezzled around $260,000 from Ace’s bankruptcy estate while acting as a trustee and custodian. These funds were directed to his own private Museum in 2016. This is Christmas’ first criminal conviction, although he has faced previous claims of questionable business practices, like selling artwork he didn’t own, mismanaging his gallery’s revenue, selling forged or illicitly acquired artworks, and not paying artists. Christmas, who is 80 years old, will be sentenced on September 9, and faces up to 15 years in federal prison. 

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/doug-chrismas-convicted-2496543

Keith Gill, an American investor known for his big investment in GameStop, returned to social media recently tweeting out cryptic memes and revealing the size of his GameStop position. Due to Gill’s major influence, this brought speculation about whether he is single handedly moving the stock price higher. Lawyers believe it is unlikely that the SEC will bring a suit against Gill because there is nothing clearly deceptive about Gill’s tweeting memes and the size of his positions. According to Daniel Hawke, former head of the SEC’s market-abuse unit, “He is using his celebrity and influence to draw people to buy the stock. The rules that exist do not permit the SEC to prosecute that conduct unless there is an element of deception.” On the other hand, Matt Stoller, director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project says, “This is obviously market manipulation. I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation.” https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/keith-gills-gamestop-trades-pose-conundrum-for-market-cops-70cc5301

MLB pitcher Michael Kelly made a bet less than three years ago that would significantly cost him financially. In October 2021, Kelly illegally wagered a total of $99.22 on MLB games. At the time, Kelly was a minor league pitcher in the Houston Astros organization and has since reached the major leagues as a relief pitcher for the Oakland Athletics. Recently, MLB has cracked down on its players gambling, which led to Kelly’s year long suspension along with the suspension of three other players and a lifetime on another. As a result, Kelly will lose out on this year’s salary of $740,000. 

https://www.wsj.com/sports/baseball/michael-kelly-mlb-gambling-suspension-132bf5e3?page=1

Financial institutions’ increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) creates opportunities for efficiency and productivity gains. But along with those gains comes increased fraud risks. The power of AI allows criminals to create lifelike identities which technology struggles to identify. Financial institutions are struggling in finding solutions for AI fraud due to the rapidly evolving technology.  The first step in identifying fraud is analyzing online activity patterns of groups and individuals. But experts note that one step is not sufficient to identify and mitigate AI fraud.  Ari Jacoby, CEO of Deduce and AI fraud expert states, “By layering solutions, utilizing massive data sets to identify patterns, and more accurately analyzing trust scores, this type of fraud can be better mitigated.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/financial-institutions-rising-threat-sophisticated-ai-fraud

In December 2023, American Lidar, an affiliate of China based Hesai group, made Michigan its new home. Although the move may not seem irregular, Hesai Group rebranded after the U.S. labeled the company a security concern. This follows a similar path that Chinese companies take when targeted as a security concern. Although there is nothing illegal with companies rebranding, it does frustrate regulators ability to determine company ownership. Shortly after moving to the U.S., Hesai was added to the Defense Department list which designates companies as Chinese military entities operating in the U.S.  Experts, however, note that the singling out individual Chinese companies invites rebranding and obfuscation and that a more effective methodology would be to sanction technology sectors. 

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/url-chinese-companies-rebrand-us-8a0c3872

Mexican businessman, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, is at the center of bribing a Texas Democrat, Henry Cuellar. U.S. Federal prosecutors say that Banco Azteca, a Mexican bank owned by Pliego, channeled $238,000 in bribes disguised as consulting fees to Cuellar. The intent of the bribes was to further the bank’s interests in Washington by influencing U.S. anti-money-laundering legislation. According to the indictment, Cuellar agreed to advance the interests of Banco Azteca in exchange for monthly payments of thousands of dollars to his wife via shell companies. 

https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/the-mexican-bank-behind-alleged-bribes-to-a-texas-democrat-4cf4cc17

The DOJ has charged Seven Chinese nationals with hacking American and foreign targets for over 14 years as part of a group backed by the Chinese government. The DOJ alleges that the defendants sent malicious emails to over 10,000 victims, compromising networks and stealing information, from journalists, government officials, and companies. The defendants also targeted critics of the Chinese government, including activists. The indictment emphasizes China’s aggressive cyber espionage and the need for observance in cybersecurity, especially during elections. The defendants face charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/seven-hackers-associated-chinese-government-charged-computer-intrusions-targeting-perceived

A new INTERPOL assessment highlights how the increased use of technology enables organized crime groups to better target victims around the world. Crime groups are utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI), large language models (LLM), and cryptocurrencies combined with phishing and ransomware as a service business models resulting in more sophisticated and professional fraud campaigns.  For example, the use of cryptocurrency allows criminals to use ‘pig-butchering’ scams, which combine romance and investment frauds. The assessment also found that the most prevalent global fraud trends are investment fraud, advance payment fraud, romance fraud, and business email compromise which are carried out all over the world in regions such as Africa, America, Asia, and Europe.

https://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-Events/News/2024/INTERPOL-Financial-Fraud-assessment-A-global-threat-boosted-by-technology