Crime

Ars Technica reports: Alex Mashinsky, the disgraced founder of the Celsius Network cryptocurrency bank who deceived hundreds of thousands into losing billions with the catchy slogan “unbank yourself”—was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday. In December, Mashinsky pleaded guilty to securities fraud and commodities fraud. Federal prosecutors slammed him for reaping $48 million in profits while causing billions …

404 Media reports: An AI avatar made to look and sound like the likeness of a man who was killed in a road rage incident addressed the court and the man who killed him: “To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances,” the AI avatar of Christopher …

The Guardian reports: A South Carolina firing squad botched the execution of Mikal Mahdi last month, with shooters missing the target area on the man’s heart, causing him to suffer a prolonged death, according to autopsy records and his attorneys. As shots were fired, Mahdi cried out and his arms flexed, and after roughly 45 seconds, he groaned twice, the …

Orlando’s ABC affiliate reports: A Sanford pastor had been arrested following allegations of inappropriate conduct, and sexually touching and assaulting two underage females. Yersson David Solarte Basto, 34, is charged with sexual battery and lewd and lascivious molestation. On April 10. police received a report of an inappropriate relationship between Solarte and two juvenile victims. According to a news release, …

The Star Observer reports: Victoria Police confirmed that 35 individuals—mostly males aged 13 to 20—have now been arrested in the past eight months. Police allege that the perpetrators used fake profiles on dating apps to lure men to locations where they were then assaulted, robbed, and subjected to homophobic abuse. In some cases, the attacks were filmed and shared online. …

The Baptist Press reports: A mental health counselor for two counseling services in Metro East St. Louis has been charged with five counts related to sexual exploitation of a minor. Matthew S. Cuppett of Collinsville was charged May 5. One count of grooming and two counts of exploitation of a minor under age 17 are felony charges. The alleged victim …

Goldsboro, North Carolina’s CBS affiliate reports: A children’s ministry pastor at a Raleigh church was arrested Tuesday following an investigation into the distribution of child sexual abuse material in Wake Forest, police said. According to the Wake Forest Police Department, detectives with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force executed a search warrant at a home on Thornrose Way. The …

Bloomberg News reports: The Trump administration is “decommissioning” a Department of Justice unit that has long been at the center of dismantling transnational organized crime networks, drug cartels and human trafficking rings. Leaders of the unit, called the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, or OCDETF, were told they had until Sept. 30 to shut down operations, people familiar with …

ABC News reports: Jury selection starts Monday in the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, beginning the first courtroom test of whether one of hip-hop’s most important figures used power and wealth amassed in the music, clothing and spirits industries to sexually abuse, coerce and exploit alleged victims for decades. Combs, who once proclaimed himself “Bad Boy for Life,” …

USA Today reports: An Illinois landlord convicted of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in a hate-fueled attack days after the Israel-Hamas war broke out in 2023 will spend 53 years in prison, according to local reports. Joseph Czuba, 73, received the sentence on May 2 for the murder of kindergartener Wadee Alfayoumi and wounding his mother, Hanaan Shaheen. …

The Delco Times reports: The mysterious “Delco Pooper” was identified and charged Thursday with indecent exposure and related offenses. She is accused of defecating on a car hood during a dispute with another driver this week in Prospect Park. Christina Marie Solometo, 44, of the 700 block of East Chester Pike in Ridley Park, is also charged with disorderly conduct, …

NBC News reports: British comedian and actor Russell Brand was granted bail after appearing in a London court Friday on charges of rape and multiple counts of sex assault. Brand, who was charged last month, has always denied having non-consensual sex since the allegations about him were first aired two years ago. Brand’s appearance Friday came ahead of the first …

MAGA outlet Florida’s Voice reports: Self-employed process server and former Port St. Lucie GOP chair Kenneth Ford Nail was arrested over the weekend after deputies said he tried to smuggle contraband into a state prison under the guise of serving legal documents. He allegedly tried to serve an inmate with a set of documents that had the paperwork glued together …

Law & Crime reports: A Pennsylvania funeral home director allegedly bilked some 6,500 people out of more than $650,000 by promising to cremate their cats and dogs, but instead dumping the animal carcasses in a landfill and giving the pet owners fake ashes. Patrick Vereb, 70, is charged with several felony counts, including theft by deception, receiving stolen property and …

Politico reports: A complaint filed on Monday reveals more details about the suspects accused of snatching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse from a restaurant in Washington, D.C. last weekend. The United States Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department arrested the primary suspect, 49-year-old Mario Bustamante Leiva, a Chilean national, in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. According to the complaint, …

Green Bay’s ABC affiliate reports: The Catholic school teacher Appleton Police arrested Wednesday has now been formally charged with 14 counts of various child sex crimes. Collin Killoren was charged Friday with 7 counts of Child Sexual Exploitation and 7 counts of Possession of Child Pornography. The court set his cash bond at $15,000 and he was ordered to surrender …

The Associated Press reports: A Brooklyn woman said she feared for her life as she was chased, kicked, spit at and pelted with objects by a mob of Orthodox Jewish men who mistook her as a participant in a protest against Israel’s far-right security minister. The assault, recorded by a bystander, unfolded Thursday near the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch …

CTV News reports: Murder charges have been laid against the man accused of driving an SUV into a crowd celebrating at a Filipino community street festival Saturday. The attack killed 11 people, the youngest of whom was only five years old. The suspect, 30-year-old Vancouver resident Kai-Ji Adam Lo, has been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder. Charge assessment …

Boise’s ABC affiliate reports: Gregory Wayne Jones, a director of operations at a daycare, preschool, and after-school center in Mountain Home, was arrested on Friday, April 25 by deputies with the Elmore County Sheriff’s Department on charges of “human sex trafficking” and “sexual penetration with a foreign object.” His bail is currently set at $5 million. According to a police …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump’s nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, was arrested on fraud charges in 2010 and faced lawsuits in two states for writing $2 million in bad checks to casinos, according to government records and court filings. Isaacman is a billionaire pilot and astronaut who founded the Shift4 Payments company as a teenager and commanded the first …