Happy Halloween Eve! Between finishing up a Lame Excuse Books catalog and getting ready for Halloween, time for the LinkSwarm has been squeezed this week, but I think we’ll muddle through. And I’m still dealing with discontents from the new template (Twenty Ten) necessitated by the PHP upgrade. My first attempt to comment out the PHP block for automatically putting the author bio below posts result in an error, so I haven’t made any progress on that front. And I’m not wild about the italics for blockquotes.
Crypto hacked, Ukraine Storm Shadows a bunch of Russian petrochemical and semiconductor plants, more illegal alien voting fraud, another Swalwell-related raid, and an adorable canine jailbreak artist.
It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
Binance suspended transactions Thursday as the exchange investigates the biggest cyber heist in history.
“It does look like a hack on Binance,” Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder, said in a post on the social-media platform X. “User funds are safe.”
Binance said late Thursday that the hack totaled around $6.3 billion.
Zhao, who no longer leads the world’s biggest crypto exchange but remains its largest shareholder, added that stablecoin providers Tether and Circle had moved quickly to freeze some $1.7 billion in stolen assets. Binance later revised that number to $3 billion across several different assets.
Cybersecurity research firms TRM Labs and Pangolin Intelligence said the heist appears to have been conducted by North Korea’s TraderTraitor hacking group, which has been behind many of the largest crypto hacks in recent memory. “This was absolutely North Korea,” said Nick Carlsen, a senior investigator on the Global Investigations team at TRM, who told the Journal he worked with Pangolin Intelligence to correlate hackers’ blockchain activity with information they gathered on other DPRK-linked attacks.
Binance said it has suspended all deposits and withdrawals as its team conducts security checks, freezes funds and works with law enforcement.
This is evidently not just the biggest crypto heist, but the biggest heist of all time by value, period.
Somehow a whole lot of that “super secure” crypto seems to disappear every year, making it seem less secure than boring old fiat currency. And it may not be hardened enough to survive the AI era. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
The Trump administration continues to investigate and arrest illegal immigrants accused of unlawfully registering to vote or voting in American elections.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced on Thursday that it had arrested dozens of illegal immigrants for alleged voter fraud, including many accused of actually casting a ballot illegally.
“These arrests, carried out in coordination with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, are the result of careful, methodical investigations,” acting ICE Director David Venturella said in a press release. “American elections must be conducted in accordance with the law, and allegations of illegal voting deserve our undivided attention. When the facts support criminal charges, we pursue them. Every eligible voter deserves an election process that follows the law.”
ICE provided 18 examples of illegal immigrants it has arrested on voter fraud charges, including many who not only voted illegally but also have been arrested for other crimes as well.
Aden Hassan Aden, an illegal immigrant from Somalia, allegedly voted in the 2020 federal election and has convictions for domestic violence, drug possession, and larceny. Mai Tran, an illegal immigrant from Vietnam, allegedly voted in the 2024 federal election and, according to ICE, has been convicted of fraud, drug possession offenses, burglary, larceny, and illegal use of credit cards.
Phath Vorn, an illegal immigrant from Cambodia, is accused of voting in the 1992 federal election and again, according to ICE, has convictions for assault with intent to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and possession of a weapon.
Sheila McDonald, 46, of Pittsburgh, worked at the Lehigh County Assistance Office in Allentown, where she was responsible for safeguarding EBT cards.
Prosecutors accuse her of taking 48 of the cards and carrying out more than 270 unauthorized transactions that drained $20,558.61 in benefits …
An unidentified man told investigators he repeatedly received EBT cards and their PINs from McDonald as payment for crack cocaine, authorities said.
He suspected McDonald had gotten the cards through her work at the welfare office, authorities said.
Every week a new instance of fraud pops up because the federal government is finally looking for welfare fraud. Under President Autopen, they weren’t, mainly because so much of the fraud was flowing into Democrat pockets.
Abdullahi Ahmed, the Somali-born assistant superintendent for student, family and community partnerships at Portland Public Schools, proposed changes to the district’s policy on dogs and other animals, citing Islamic beliefs about ‘ritual purity.’
I have a better idea: Let’s hand your ass a pink slip and change our policies on letting unassimilated Muslims immigrate to the United States.
Miguel Alonso Maldonado Sorianom, illegal migrant from Mexico residing in the US, has been officially charged after battering a replica of the Iwo Jima flag-raising statue near the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia. One of the figures on the statue was beheaded before police apprehended the man.
Prince William County Circuit Court Chief Judge Petula Metzler granted Soriano a $2,500 secured bond. Conditions include GPS monitoring, alcohol/drug testing, remaining in Virginia, and completing a mental health evaluation (plus any recommended treatment). A preliminary hearing is set for January.
However, ICE has lodged a retainer, and if the suspect posts bond they plan to take him into custody. Meaning, Soriano will not be escaping with a slap on the wrist. A General District Court judge initially tried to grant the migrant cashless bail until prosecutors objected (another example of the two tier legal system which has long given illegal migrants special treatment).
Jail him and deport him. Then deport any of his illegal alien family and friends.
Federal prosecutors in Boston on Wednesday charged six people with running an alleged decade-long sham-marriage ring, with illegal immigrants purportedly paying between $38,000 to $40,000 per wedding to gain legal status.
Jennifer Gonzalez, 43, of Fall River, Mass., allegedly ran the business, collecting money from illegal immigrants to arrange sham marriages so they could obtain immigration status, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts announced this week. Court documents allege that Gonzalez paid four U.S. citizens – Erica Daniels, 29; Chreise Alejandro, 39; Jessica Tavares, 31; and Jaylin Hill, 26 – to marry one or more illegal immigrant “customers.” Amara Pugh, 31, another U.S. citizen, allegedly worked as the “secretary” for the sham-marriage business, federal officials said. Those arrested have not entered pleas, yet.
Alani Bankhead, a Montana Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, says a Democratic senator offered her a job with the Democratic National Committee if she agreed to drop out of the upcoming midterm election and cede the field to an independent candidate who the party believes has a better chance of besting Republican Kurt Alme.
If the exchange occurred as Bankhead described, the lawmaker responsible would be guilty of violating state law.
The “independent” the DNC is “allegedly” pressuring Bankhead to back is Seth Bodnar. We previously covered Bodnar’s toes to Democrats here.
Federal authorities raided a California mansion belonging to billionaire Stephen Cloobeck on Tuesday morning, Fox News has learned.
The FBI targeted Cloobeck’s Beverly Hills mansion in connection with an investigation into disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. Swalwell resigned from Congress and withdrew from the California gubernatorial race earlier this year after facing multiple accusations of sexual misconduct.
Snip.
The raid was linked to a sex worker reportedly connected to the investigation.
Cloobeck is a longtime supporter of Swalwell’s political campaigns.
Also this tidbit: “Cloobeck was arrested earlier this year in an unrelated case, in which he faced charges of attempting to influence witnesses in a criminal case against his fiancée.” Most curious.
Job cuts and downsizing announcements across corporate America have gained momentum, a trend we featured in a report last week titled “Tech Layoffs Surge As Corporate America’s AI Blitz Raises Fears The Worst Is Yet To Come.”
Days later, Bloomberg reports that Microsoft will offer voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees while spending heavily on artificial intelligence and data center expansion.
“This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support,” Chief People Officer Amy Coleman wrote in a memo earlier today.
The memo cited by the outlet says workers on selected units in the US, Canada, India, and the UK at the vice president level and below will be eligible for the voluntary buyouts.
Some employees in data centers, sales, and marketing are excluded. Benefits will match a standard severance package, according to the report.
Bloomberg data shows Microsoft employed 223,000 people at the end of June and has cut thousands of jobs in recent years. The Big Tech firm’s total workforce began to plateau in 2022.
The cynical part of me wants to guess that 60,000 is the number of non-Indian employees they have left. Given how much Microsoft’s own devs complained about Copilot being inferior to other AI coding offerings, it looks like they’re going all-in on a “using AI is better than employing people” strategy, and I suspect that will be their undoing. Letting that much institutional memory walk out the door, especially for a company whose products are infamously kludgy, seems like a recipe for disaster.
Major companies have finally stopped using the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate groups” list to decide who qualifies for corporate giving programs.
1792 Exchange has asked companies to drop SPLC since the DOJ finally exposed the “anti-hate” group as a fraud. Officials alleged SPLC funneled $3 million to white hate groups.
One boss faces accusations of funneling $1.2 million to her informant lover in a neo-Nazi group.
I mean, SPLC wouldn’t exist without hate!
1792 Exchange announced these nine companies removed the SPLC filter:
- BlackRock
- Salesforce
- Mastercard
- Texas Instruments
- AT&T
- NVIDIA
- Microsoft
- American Express
- DoorDash
This is good news for freedom, and bad news for those running fake racism scams. And given BlackRock’s agreement to back away from their previous ESG stance, they seem like a company repenting of their woke madness.
Tesla’s proposed $10 billion “Project Crystal Sun” solar factory in Texas could get up to 35 years of local tax breaks on its equipment, according to the four agreements Fort Bend County commissioners approved on Thursday.
“Project Crystal Sun”sounds like the third installment in a science fiction video game franchise.
The vote was 4-0. And Tesla still hasn’t committed to building the plant in Texas.
Tesla applied for a 10-year school property tax limitation under the state’s JETI program, through Lamar CISD and the Texas Comptroller. The plan is a vertically integrated solar plant near Richmond, southwest of Houston, that would make everything from silicon ingots to finished modules, with commercial production targeted for Q1 2029.
Lamar CISD approved the school tax piece in September. The county was next.
On October 22, the commissioners court approved items 25A to 25D on its agenda: a Chapter 312 tax abatement, a Chapter 381 incentive agreement, a foreign trade zone agreement with a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT), and a “true up” PILOT agreement. Interim County Judge Daniel Wong abstained because his engineering firm has worked with Tesla.
Each agreement covers a different slice of Tesla’s tax bill, and together they run for decades.
The Chapter 312 agreement abates 100% of county property taxes on Tesla’s equipment and other tangible personal property at the plant for 10 tax years. The clock starts in tax year 2029 by default, but Tesla can move it to the first year after production starts, as late as 2031 without needing the county’s approval.
Tesla’s JETI application splits the $10.1 billion into $1.52 billion of real property and $8.6 billion of personal property, mostly production equipment.
Land and buildings aren’t part of the deal.
It’s not a done deal, but just think if California hadn’t locked down so hard, and Democrats didn’t suffer from Musk Derangement Syndrome, you’d have to think California would have been a possibility to locate a solar plant…
Five noncitizens, including one illegal alien, have been charged in the Southern District of Texas for “unlawfully voting in federal elections, lying on immigration documents, or falsely claiming American citizenship.”
According to the announcement, 33-year-old Trinidad and Tobago native Ali Khan was charged with “voting by an alien in a federal election” for illegally voting in 2024. Khan had been illegally residing in La Porte near Houston prior to his arrest. It is unclear when Khan first entered the United States, though the announcement reports that he had been a DACA recipient.
The four legally present noncitizens charged were 61-year-old Mohammed Omar Hassan of Nigeria, 29-year-old Diego Benavides Rodriguez, 51-year-old Jose Vasquez-Mendoza, and 37-year-old Karen Hinojosa-Martinez. Rodriguez, Vasquez-Mendoza, and Hinojosa-Martinez are all citizens of Mexico residing in South Texas.
Better get this one out of the way now because, knowing Democrats, we’re going to be dealing with hundreds of much larger voting fraud cases next week…
I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.
