Defense contractor agrees to pay United States $7.8 million to settle False Claims Act investigation

Through its investigation under the False Claims Act, the United States determined that Arena Americas paid Military Training Solutions to bid on and obtain small business contracts that ultimately would be performed by Arena Americas. MTS previously entered into a settlement agreement with the United States to resolve its liability under the False Claims Act, and MTS owner Robert Obradovich pled guilty to one felony count of receiving unlawful kickbacks in a similar scheme. read more »

$60 Million Commodities Fraud and Spoofing Conspiracy

Three former commodities traders of a New York-based financial services firm (“Trading Firm A”) were charged yesterday for their alleged participation in an over $60 million commodities fraud and spoofing conspiracy that was perpetrated through the U.S. commodities markets.  Two of these traders have agreed to plead guilty for their respective roles in the criminal conspiracy. read more »

Facebook Says Hackers Stole Detailed Personal Data From 14 Million People

Facebook Inc. said intimate information, including search results, recent locations and hometowns, were stolen from 14 million users by attackers in a major hack of the social network disclosed two weeks ago.

The company said the cyber-attack, one of the worst to hit Facebook, affected 30 million people rather than about 50 million the company first reported Sept. 28. While the total number of accessed accounts was smaller than initially thought, the personal data taken from about half of the affected accounts was extensive.

For about 14 million people the hackers accessed information such as the last 10 places that person checked into, their current city and their 15 most-recent searches, the company said Friday in a blog post. For 15 million, the cyberthieves only accessed name and contact information. The attackers didn’t take any information from about 1 million people whose accounts were vulnerable. read more »