Ubiquiti Breach an Inside Job, says FBI and DoJ
The recent unsealing of a grand jury multi-count indictment for Nikolas Sharp provides a unique and convoluted series of criminal events. It seems Sharp undertook to put approximately $2 million into his pocket via a data theft and extortion effort, with a twist of “whistleblower” claims thrown in to confuse investigators in an attempt at self-exoneration.
According to Sharp’s LinkedIn page, he had the role of “cloud lead” for Ubiquiti from August 2018 to March 2021. By all accounts, he was a trusted member of the Ubiquiti team.
Former Dai-ichi Life Official Suspected of Stealing ¥38 Million from Customer
A former official of Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. is suspected of fraudulently acquiring about ¥38 million yen from an elderly customer, the major Japanese insurer announced Thursday.
According to the company, the former official in the latest case guided the customer to cancel an insurance contract between 2018 and August this year, when she worked at the company’s branch in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture.
She is suspected of using the customer’s cash card to withdraw about ¥38 million from the customer’s account to which money related to the cancellation was transferred.
Pizza Dough Trade Secrets Case Pits Schwan’s Against Conagra
Minnesota-based Schwan’s is taking on food conglomerate Conagra in court, accusing Conagra of swiping trade secrets on the making of frozen pizza dough after Conagra hired away one of its employees.
According to court documents, the case started in November 2017 when Rongxuan Cai, the principal research scientist for Schwan’s, accepted a job from Conagra. At Schwan’s, Cai had done research on yeast and flour for dough for use in pizza crusts and frozen pies.
It was not until Friday, Dec. 15, 2017, that Cai resigned from Schwan’s. The following Monday, Schwan’s learned that Cai was leaving to work for Chicago-based Conagra, a competitor to Schwan’s in the frozen food business. Schwan’s immediately fired Cai, and escorted him from the building.
Ex-SoftBank Worker Pleads Not Guilty to Stealing 5G Tech
A former SoftBank Corp. employee pleaded not guilty Tuesday on charges of stealing information related to 5G technology from the Japanese wireless company.
According to the indictment, Aiba connected to a SoftBank server in December 2019 from a personal computer at his home and emailed to himself a file containing SoftBank’s intellectual property.
Jury Convicts Former AT&T Employee of Conspiracy, Fraud, and Identity Theft
In October 2017, Williams was introduced to Anthony Jamison, a resident of Hamlet, North Carolina. Jamison was named as a co-conspirator in the indictment and previously pleaded guilty in this matter. Between October 2017 and January 2018, Williams and Jamison conspired to establish AT&T cellular accounts with the stolen personal identifying information (PII) of unwitting victims in North Carolina and South Carolina for the purpose of obtaining thousands of dollars’ worth of high-end cell phones for resale on the black market.
Former University of Guam Professor and Co-Defendants Sentenced in Bid-Rigging Scheme
From November 2014 to June 2015, Thomas E. Marler conspired with John Hobart Lawrence and Jayanika Lawrence to rig bids for federally-funded project work pursuant to cooperative agreements between the federal government and the University of Guam (UOG). During this time, Marler was a Professor at UOG as well as the Principal Investigator for certain federally-funded cooperative agreements where his responsibilities included bidding out and awarding project work in compliance with UOG’s procurement process. However, instead of soliciting bids from the Guam community, Marler produced fictitious bids in order to make the procurement process appear legitimate and awarded the project work to Isla Paraiso, a company controlled by Marler, and to Sansar Consulting, a company owned by Jayanika Lawrence and operated with the help of John Lawrence, Marler’s longtime friend and associate. During the time of the conspiracy, the defendants fraudulently obtained over $200,000 in project work.