An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: The operator of a popular pirate sports streaming site in Argentina has gone from spending time in jail with murderers to landing a new high-profile job a month later. Alejo "Shishi" Warles, the 25-year-old operator of Al Angulo TV, was arrested on August 20 in a LaLiga-backed crackdown. After his release on bail, he was hired by professional esports team 9z Globant, a partnership involving Argentine tech unicorn Globant. [...] The team is the result of a partnership between 9z Team and Argentinian tech unicorn Globant. Somewhat ironically, Globant previously worked with LaLiga to monitor the live-streaming user experience. Warles welcomed himself to 9z Globant via the team's social media account, referring to himself as an idol, genius, and GOAT. Lucia Quinteros, the main social media manager at the esports team, informed Entre Rios that after considering their new hire's history, they believe that he can add value to the team. "We hired Alejo, not the person who set up that project (Al Angulo TV). Of course, we evaluated what happened, but we believe that, from now on, Alejo can pursue a different career path," Quinteros said. According to Warles himself, he was hired because he's the best. Like many of his comments, this bravado should not be taken too seriously, but nevertheless sits in stark contrast to the typical pirate site operator facing criminal charges.

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Pirate sports streaming site Streameast has quietly reclaimed the Streameast.xyz domain after U.S. authorities allowed it to expire, despite having seized it under a federal warrant in 2024. TorrentFreak reports: While researching both old and newly-seized Streameast domains recently, we noticed that Streameast.xyz expired earlier this year. Apparently, it was not renewed by those who controlled it, as the seizure banner was gone. Instead, the domain appeared to have been reclaimed by the original Streameast team. While it is not listed as an official mirror site, Streameast.xyz points to content from the original site once again. And indeed, the original Streameast team confirms that the domain is theirs. It is not clear why the U.S. authorities lost control of the domain or whether it was intentional. Other domain names covered by the same seizure warrant were renewed recently, including Streameast.io. The Streameast team might view this as a significant symbolic victory. After all, they effectively reclaimed a federally seized domain name without having to mount a legal challenge. In the grander scheme, one domain name is not going to make a massive difference. However, the U.S. government went through the trouble to obtain a federal warrant, so it's ironic to see it controlled by pirates once again.

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In 2015 Kim Dotcom answered questions from Slashdot's readers. Now CBS News reports on "the latest chapter in a protracted 13-year battle by the U.S. government" to extradite Finnish-German millionaire Kim Dotcom from New Zealand: A New Zealand court has rejected the latest bid by internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom to halt his deportation to the U.S. on charges related to his file-sharing website Megaupload. Dotcom had asked the High Court to review the legality of an official's August 2024 decision that he should be surrendered to the U.S. to face trial on charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering... The Megaupload founder had applied for what in New Zealand is called a judicial review, in which a judge is asked to evaluate whether an official's decision was lawful. A judge on Wednesday dismissed Dotcom's arguments that the decision to deport him was politically motivated and that he would face grossly disproportionate treatment in the U.S... New Zealand's government hasn't disclosed what will happen next in the extradition process or divulged an expected timeline for Dotcom to be surrendered to the United States Dotcom "has been free on bail in New Zealand since February 2012," the article points out — and "One of his lawyers, Ron Mansfield, told Radio New Zealand that Dotcom's team had 'much fight left in us as we seek to secure a fair outcome,' but he didn't elaborate..." The article notes that the latest decision "could be challenged in the Court of Appeal, where a deadline for filing is October 8."

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Streameast, the most popular and largest illicit live sports streaming network, was shut down following a coordinated law enforcement action conducted by Egyptian authorities last month, an antipiracy coalition of entertainment companies announced Wednesday.

Egyptian authorities seized infrastructure powering Streameast and arrested two operators at their residences in El-Sheik Zaid, Egypt, a spokesperson for the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment told CyberScoop.

Streameast operated 80 domains and logged more than 1.6 billion visits during the past year, driving more than 136 million monthly average visits, according to the association of about 50 entertainment companies, film and TV studios.

A team of 22 Egyptian police officers participated in the Aug. 24 raid, confiscating three laptops and four smartphones that were used for Streameast’s operations. Authorities also seized 10 Visa cards containing about $123,000 in funds, the spokesperson said.

Streameast offered pirated access to major live sports broadcasts, including Europe’s top soccer leagues, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer. The network also ran sites for pay-per-view boxing matches, mixed martial arts and motorsports.

“With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide — and our global alliance will stay on the field as long as it takes to identify and target the biggest piracy rings across the globe,” Charles Rivkin, chairman of ACE and chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association, said in a statement. 

Pirated networks, similar to other digital crime enterprises, are difficult to keep offline. New sites crop up often and operators can regroup after disruptions and reconstitute under new domains and infrastructure. 

“It’s not uncommon for copycat operations to appear following the takedown of a notorious piracy site, and it’s difficult to predict to what extent this might happen,” the spokesperson for ACE said. “ACE remains actively engaged with Egyptian authorities and we continue monitoring the landscape.”

The majority of Streameast’s traffic originated from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and Germany.

ACE claims global digital piracy impacts the U.S. economy to the tune of $29.2 billion and 230,000 jobs lost annually. The coalition said more than 2,500 illegal sites are taken down daily.

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Streameast -- the world's largest illegal sports streaming platform -- has been shut down after a year long investigation, according to a leading United States-based anti-piracy organisation. From a report: The network of 80 unauthorised domains generated 1.6billion combined visits over the past year, providing free access to global sports fixtures, including Europe's top football leagues and competitions, such as the Premier League and Champions League, as well as the NFL, NBA and MLB. The Athletic has been informed by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) -- a coalition of 50 media and entertainment organisations including Amazon, Apple TV+, Netflix and Paramount -- that an operation alongside Egyptian law enforcement officials took place on Sunday August 24 to disrupt Streameast's dominant position in the illegal streaming market. Traffic to the site reached 136million average monthly visits, with domains primarily originating from the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and Germany.

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Anthropic reached a settlement with authors in a high-stakes copyright class action that threatened the AI company with potentially billions of dollars in damages. From a report: In a Tuesday filing in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, both sides asked the court to pause all proceedings while they finalize the deal. The parties signed a binding term sheet on Aug. 25 outlining the core terms of a proposed class settlement to resolve litigation brought by authors. "This historic settlement will benefit all class members," said the authors' counsel, Justin Nelson of Susman Godfrey LLP. "We look forward to announcing details of the settlement in the coming weeks." The case is one of several copyright actions brought against AI developers in courts around the country. Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California had allowed the class action to proceed for authors whose books were contained in two pirate databases Anthropic downloaded.

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French authorities extradited a 39-year-old Nigerian national to the United States Monday for allegedly hacking into tax preparation businesses and participating in a years-long conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and state tax agencies.

Chukwuemeka Victor Amachukwu and his Nigeria-based co-conspirators, including Kinglsey Uchelue Utulu, are accused of obtaining about $2.5 million in fraudulent tax refunds from 2019 to 2023, the Justice Department said Tuesday. The conspirators sought fraudulent tax refunds of at least $8.4 million, according to prosecutors.

“Amachukwu allegedly operated multiple illicit fraud schemes — identity theft, computer intrusions via spearphishing, and false investments — profiting at the costs of others,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia said in a statement.

Prosecutors accuse Amachukwu and his co-conspirators of accessing computer systems of tax preparation businesses in New York, Texas and other states via spearphishing emails. The cybercrime crew allegedly filed false tax returns with federal and state authorities using identities stolen from the victim organizations. 

In one of those attacks, in May 2021, members of the conspiracy sent a spearfishing email to an employee of a New York-based tax preparation business, which infected the firm’s computer systems with malware, according to an unsealed indictment.

Authorities said Amachukwu and his co-conspirators also used the stolen identities to file fraudulent claims with the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, obtaining at least $819,000 in payouts.

Amachukwu faces up to 47 years in prison for multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

“Amachukwu also allegedly took part in a separate fraud scheme that promised his victims valuable investments that did not in fact exist,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. Officials said Amachukwu stole millions of dollars of his victims’ money from this scheme.

The FBI, Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Marshals Service assisted the investigation, which led to Amachukwu’s arrest and extradition from France.

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