eCrimeBytes.com

eCrimeBytes S 1, Ep 11, Pt 2: The Mann Behind The Curtain: How Michael Mann’s Ponzi Scheme Crashed And Burned

This is part 2!  You will want to listen to part 1 first!
How much would it take for you to lose your job, and your career, if you helped your friends make millions defrauding financial companies?  Did you say $11,300 in Amazon gift cards?  No?  Well that's what one criminal settled for from his "friends" in this scheme!
This week we look at a group of fraudsters that netted millions in loans between 2013 and 2019 using nothing more than fake paperwork and a handful of shell companies.  How were they able to go unnoticed for 3 years?  Why was a payroll company not able to pay 1000’s of their clients’ employees? We will look into these questions and more in this week’s episode #11 of eCrimeBytes.
Photo Credit: Will Waldron / Times Union
The crime ring:
If you cannot see the images in your podcasting app, you can view them here:
https://ecrimebytes.podbean.com/e/ecrimebytes-s-1-ep-11-pt-1-the-mann-behind-the-curtain-how-michael-mann-s-ponzi-scheme-crashed-and-burned
Sources:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/09/mypayrollhr-ceo-arrested-admits-to-70m-fraud/ 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16240561/cachet-financial-services-v-mypayrollhr/ 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16415208/parties/southwest-payroll-service-inc-v-pioneer-bancorp-inc/ 
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-agents-raid-home-ceo-connected-payroll-processing-fraud-n1055591 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16241232/united-states-v-mann/ 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17436704/united-states-v-mann/ (More info)
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/minnesota-man-pleads-guilty-conspiring-michael-mann-defraud-financing-companies 
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/michael-mann-charged-bank-fraud 
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/valuewise-ceo-michael-mann-sentenced-144-months-prison-100-million-fraud 
https://dailygazette.com/2021/08/20/third-person-indicted-in-connection-with-manns-payroll-scheme/ 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16808173/united-states-v-steiner/ 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60330998/united-states-v-schwartz/
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Michael-Mann-sentenced-to-12-years-in-prison-in-16363029.php

eCrimeBytes Nibble #19: Deepfake It Till You Make It: Man With Fragile Ego Sentenced For Deepfaking Sexual Images Of Underaged Girls

This case demonstrates that it is difficult to protect yourself from someone with time, no morals, and criminal creativity on their side. You could have posted nothing but G rated face only pictures and someone like Patrick Carey can still find a way to exploit you.
 
Patrick Carey used public G rated pictures of at least 14 underaged victims from a local high school to create fake pornography through deepfake technology. If you don't know what deepfake technology is, don't worry. Just think of it in this case as having a very convincing realistic pornographic rendition of someone's G rated pic, generated through computer applications.
Carey then went one step further than just posting these deepfake porn files. Carey doxxed his victims' by adding their contact information to the deepfake pornography he created. This would open Carey's victims up to additional forms of mental and physical abuse.
Facing what reads as a lot of evidence, Carey plead guilty and was sentenced. Carey's sentence was 6 months incarceration with 10 years probation. His sentence includes significant sex offender restrictions. Hopefully Carey's deepfake material will disappear from the internet before he is finished with his probation in a decade, but given the internet has a long memory it looks unlikely.
 
More Reading: https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/05/02/deepfake-it-till-you-make-it-man-with-fragile-ego-sentenced-for-deepfaking-sexual-images-of-underaged-girls-ecrimebytes-nibble-19/
#ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #deepfake #pornography #porn #humor #funny #comedy

eCrimeBytes Nibble #18: Officer Jones Takes His Work Home (Literally)

Move over, Ocean's Eleven.
 
Officer Jones (no relation) allegedly stole his internal affairs file and computer towers from his police department. He hid some of the computer at his and his in-laws' houses.
It takes some serious guts to steal from the police department, and even more guts to stash the stolen goods in your own home and your in-laws' place. I can only imagine the awkward family dinners when the topic of the stolen police files come up.
But hey, who can blame Officer Jones for wanting to keep his personnel and internal affairs files close to home? After all, you never know when you might need to refresh your memory on those pesky disciplinary actions about yourself.
And let's be real, those computer towers are just taking up valuable office space. It's better to put them to good use in your own GTA-themed gaming setup instead!
More Info: https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/03/13/breaking-news-officer-jones-takes-his-work-home-literally-ecrimebytes-nibble-18/
#ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #lawenforcement #humor #funny #comedy

eCrimeBytes Nibble #17: The Siren Call Of Debt And Facebook Messenger

Looks like Officer Riggs, a Maryland State Trooper, just couldn't resist the siren call of a hefty debt and a juicy secret. But hey, who needs to worry about pesky things like ethics when you've got Facebook Messenger to do all the talking for you?
 
Officer Riggs provided law enforcement only information to a drug suspect for approximately $1,800 cash. The officer's payment was left behind a dumpster at a Red Roof Inn in Hagerstown, MD:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.527890/gov.uscourts.mdd.527890.7.0_1.pdf
Facebook Messenger was the communication method of choice in this case. Because when you're trying to be sneaky, nothing screams 'under the radar' quite like using a social media platform.
More Reading: https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/03/13/maryland-state-trooper-falls-to-the-siren-call-of-debt-and-facebook-messenger-ecrimebytes-nibble-17/
#ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #lawenforcement #humor #funny #comedy

eCrimeBytes Nibble #16: Pompompurin And BreachForums

Forget the usual suspects. It's always the ones with cute and innocent-sounding usernames that you have to watch out for. Lesson learned, Pompompurin.
But you know what they say, never judge a cybercriminal by their username.
"Pompompurin", boss of "BreachForums", was arrested by the FBI. This case has been all over the news lately and will probably turn into a full eCrimeBytes episode after it winds its way through the court system.
BreachForums was a well known meeting spot for the underground to sell and purchased hacked databases. It was reportedly a new version of RaidForums, which was disabled by the FBI in 2022.
Authorities were reportedly tipped off to Pompompurin's identity by his excessive use of the phrase 'such a good boy' in his forum posts. It seems even cybercriminals can't resist the allure of praising man's best friend.
But here's the kicker: Pompompurin didn't even try to deny his involvement in the whole mess. He gave the FBI his real name, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, and admitted to being the owner and administrator of BreachForums.
What was also interesting was that Fitzpatrick had a long history of causing issues for the FBI. From SPAM blasting a fake email about a fake investigation from official FBI email addresses to housing partner data exfiltrated from the breached FBI InfraGard program, this wasn't the first time Fitzpatrick and the FBI have crossed paths.
He's like a cybercriminal's version of a recurring villain. Will he ever learn his lesson? I doubt it.
Pompompurin's BreachForums may be shut down, but I'm sure he's already working on his next big cybercrime scheme. Maybe next time he'll use a more intimidating name.
Remember: always watch out for those cute and innocent-sounding usernames. They might just be the ones causing all the trouble.
More Reading: https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/04/27/pompompurin-the-good-boy-gone-bad-for-running-breachforums-ecrimebytes-nibble-16/
#ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #pompompurin #breachforums #humor #funny #comedy

eCrimeBytes S 1, Ep 11, Pt 1: The Mann Behind The Curtain: How Michael Mann’s Ponzi Scheme Crashed And Burned

How much would it take for you to lose your job, and your career, if you helped your friends make millions defrauding financial companies?  Did you say $11,300 in Amazon gift cards?  No?  Well that's what one criminal settled for from his "friends" in this scheme!
This week we look at a group of fraudsters that netted millions in loans between 2013 and 2019 using nothing more than fake paperwork and a handful of shell companies.  How were they able to go unnoticed for 3 years?  Why was a payroll company not able to pay 1000’s of their clients’ employees? We will look into these questions and more in this week’s episode #11 of eCrimeBytes.
Photo Credit: Will Waldron / Times Union
The crime ring:
If you cannot see the images in your podcasting app, you can view them here:
https://ecrimebytes.podbean.com/e/ecrimebytes-s-1-ep-11-pt-1-the-mann-behind-the-curtain-how-michael-mann-s-ponzi-scheme-crashed-and-burned
Sources:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/09/mypayrollhr-ceo-arrested-admits-to-70m-fraud/ 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16240561/cachet-financial-services-v-mypayrollhr/ 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16415208/parties/southwest-payroll-service-inc-v-pioneer-bancorp-inc/ 
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-agents-raid-home-ceo-connected-payroll-processing-fraud-n1055591 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16241232/united-states-v-mann/ 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17436704/united-states-v-mann/ (More info)
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/minnesota-man-pleads-guilty-conspiring-michael-mann-defraud-financing-companies 
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/michael-mann-charged-bank-fraud 
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/valuewise-ceo-michael-mann-sentenced-144-months-prison-100-million-fraud 
https://dailygazette.com/2021/08/20/third-person-indicted-in-connection-with-manns-payroll-scheme/ 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16808173/united-states-v-steiner/ 
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60330998/united-states-v-schwartz/
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Michael-Mann-sentenced-to-12-years-in-prison-in-16363029.php
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
6:01 Music
7:10 Threesomes And Hitmen! Updates
12:51 Meet Michael T. Mann
15:09 How This Crime Worked
27:32 How Much Was Their Haul?
50:40 Identity Theft Too?
55:53 Steiner's Real Haul
59:24 Conclusion?
 

eCrimeBytes Nibble #15: Crypto Cash for Classified Cache

Well, well, well, looks like Jareh Sebastian Dalke wanted to play James Bond and sell classified information to a foreign government. From June 6, 2022, to July 1, 2022, he was an Information Systems Security Designer at the NSA, but apparently, that wasn't exciting enough for him.
With a thirst for adventure and a mountain of debt, Dalke decided to dip his toes into the high-stakes world of espionage. He stole classified documents like a boss, and then asked a "foreign nation" (wink, wink) to deposit some sweet cryptocurrency into his wallet for the goods. What could go wrong, right? Well, turns out it was actually his friendly neighborhood FBI office who deposited the funds.
According to the articles in the links listed at the end of this post, Dalke also tried to reach a Russian government website on the Tor network.
More information:
https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/04/25/crypto-cash-for-classified-cache-ecrimebytes-nibble-15/
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-GWNw5rvGgjjV0OaOqcdfQ?sub_confirmation=1
#ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #nsa #classified #humor #funny #comedy

eCrimeBytes Nibble #14: Police Officer’s Lies Were Bench Pressed Out Of A Job

Welcome to eCrimeBytes Nibble #14!
Jonathan Andino formerly from the New Haven, CT police department was sentenced to 2 years for computer crime. Andino was found guilty of providing information from investigative database about a DEA target, to that target.
More information:
https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/04/24/police-officer-sentenced-to-two-years-for-computer-crime-ecrimebytes-nibble-14/
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-GWNw5rvGgjjV0OaOqcdfQ?sub_confirmation=1
#ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #dea #lawenforcement #law #enforcement #humor #funny #comedy

eCrimeBytes Nibble #13: State Trooper Shares Investigation Info With GF’s Ex, Because Who Needs Job Security Anyway?

More information:
https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/04/21/ct-state-trooper-accused-of-giving-girlfriend-access-to-law-enforcement-investigation-databases-then-she-shared-data-with-her-ex-a-target-ecrimebytes-nibble-13/
#ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #love #triangle #law #enforcement #humor #funny #comedy

eCrimeBytes Nibble #12: SIM Swapping: The Hobby That Could Cost You Your Freedom (and $200k)

More information:
https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/04/20/sim-swapper-kidnapped-and-held-for-200k-ransom-ecrimebytes-nibble-12/
#ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #simswapping #humor #funny #comedy