Article: Taiwan Calls on U.S. to Suspend Currency Manipulation Criteria

Article - Media, Publications

Taiwan Calls on U.S. to Suspend Currency Manipulation Criteria

Miaojung Lin and Samson Ellis, 18 April 2021

Taiwan urged the U.S. to temporarily ease its monitoring of trading partners for currency manipulation during the ongoing Covid pandemic.

The U.S. Treasury should suspend its three criteria for designating major trading partners currency manipulators while the world battles the coronavirus, Taiwan’s central bank said in a statement on its website Sunday in response to the latest U.S. foreign-exchange policy report.

The U.S. refrained from labeling any economy a currency manipulator in the Biden administration’s first report published Friday, despite acknowledging that Taiwan, Switzerland and Vietnam all met the threshold. Continue reading “Article: Taiwan Calls on U.S. to Suspend Currency Manipulation Criteria”

Article: Russian Cybercriminal Gets 9 Years for Online Fraud Website

Article - Media, Publications

Russian Cybercriminal Gets 9 Years for Online Fraud Website

Associated Press, 27 June 2020

A Russian computer hacker who facilitated $20 million in credit card fraud and ran a sophisticated clearinghouse for international cybercriminals was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison.

Prosecutors say Aleksei Burkov of St. Petersburg, Russia, filled a unique niche in the world of cybercrime, describing his Direct Connection website as “the most exclusive criminal forum on the web.” Would-be participants had to put up a $5,000 bond and have three existing members vouch for them. Once inside, members could buy and sell stolen credit-card numbers, hacking services and malware, and criminals with different skill sets could join forces to launch schemes.

“You’ve made it as a criminal once you get on Direct Connection because you have access to the best criminals in the world,” prosecutor Kellen Dwyer said at Friday’s sentencing hearing. Continue reading “Article: Russian Cybercriminal Gets 9 Years for Online Fraud Website”

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