WebProNews

Tag: prison

  • Aurora Shooter James Holmes Islam Conversion Rumored

    Earlier this month, Aurora shooter James Holmes appeared in court sporting a huge beard. Now, rumors have begun to surface claiming that the man has converted to Islam.

    According to a report in the Daily Mail, the rumor first surfaced in the tabloid publication The National Enquirer. An unnamed “prison source” allegedly told the Enquirer that Holmes has converted to Islam, prays five times a day, eats only halal food, and studies the Koran. The source is quoted as saying Holmes now believes his shooting rampage was part of “his own personal jihad.” The rumors also hold that Holmes’ fellow muslim inmates are not happy with his alleged conversion, as they don’t want the religion to be associated with his crimes.

    Holmes is currently on trial for the shooting that took place at an Aurora, Colorado movie theatre in July 2012 during a showing of the move The Dark Knight Rises. He allegedly entered the theatre wearing a gas mask and shot canisters of tear gas into the crowd. He then shot into the crowd with a shotgun, semi-automatic rifle, and handgun. 12 people died and 58 others were injured.

    The rumors of Holmes’ religious conversion sound a bit sketchy. If true, though, they could be an indication of Holmes’ mental health, which has been called into question. Of course, the rumors could just be false, or Holmes could simply be trolling everyone.

  • Day Z Developers to be Released From Greek Prison

    The Czech media is reporting that Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar will be released on bail and allowed to return to their home in the Czech Republic. The video game developers have been imprisoned in Greece since September 2012 on charges of espionage. The two were vacationing in Greece and were arrested for allegedly photographing military installations on the Greek island of Lemnos.

    The developers will have to pay 5,000 Euros each for bail. Reports state that the families of Buchta and Martin are prepared to pay the money. That doesn’t end the court case, however. Greek judges are currently on strike, and the Greek justice system is in disarray, so the case has not been formally resolved.

    Buchta and Pezlar are developers employed by Bohemia Interactive, the developer of the Arma series. Arma 2 became one of the best-selling PC games of 2012 when a mod for the game called DayZ was released. Day Z features a large sandbox map in which player must survive during a zombie outbreak by foraging for food and supplies and by avoiding, killing, or teaming up with other players.

    A standalone version of Day Z is currently being developed by Bohemia, but has been delayed. One cause of the delay is that Buchta is the lead designer of the map used in Day Z. His release could mean development on the standalone could speed up.

  • Disgraced Newspaper Magnate Conrad Black Released from Prison

    Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, the Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords, was released from the minimum security Federal Correctional Institution in Miami, where he was serving out a sentence for fraud obstruction of justice. He is presently U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in lieu of a possible deportation to Canada, after serving an additional 13 months tacked on to his original sentence of 29.

    Black once controlled Hollinger International, Inc. which published major newspapers including The Daily Telegraph (UK), Chicago Sun Times (U.S.), Jerusalem Post (Israel), National Post (Canada), and hundreds of small community papers across the U.S. Black was convicted of defrauding Hollinger out of roughly $60 million , along with partner David Radler, and was originally sentenced to 6.5 years in prison.

    Black, 67, has said in the past he seeks to move to Toronto to be with his wife, Barbara Amiel, and was granted a year-long permission for entry into the country effective May 1st, after previously renouncing his citizenship in 2001. Though, Canadians don’t appear to be too excited about Lord Black’s return – NDP leader Thomas Mulcair recently denounced the Canadian government for allowing “the British criminal Conrad Black” back in.

  • Russia Auditing ISP’s That Host Illegal Content

    Russia has established itself as a bit of a haven for cybercrime. One can quite easily buy illegal web traffic from vendors in that country, and some have recently speculated that the only reason the creators of the Carberp Trojan were arrested was because their malware was directed at Russian Nationals, instead of exclusively at outsiders, a practice the Russian government has historically seemed to let fly. Though, its evident that things are about to change. The Russian Interior Ministry now says it plans to go after Russian ISP’s who host customers that share illegal and copyrighted material.

    The Interior Ministry’s cybercrime department is currently auditing internet service providers on a country-wide level, and will likely have results no later than mid-May. The new effort will go after not only users, but the providers who host any illegal content they’re found with as well. Head Director of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Moscow region Seralinov Jannat has said that there will be penalties for the distribution of pirated movies and pornography distributed to minors, both punishable by prison terms of up to 6 years. Some have speculated that the stricter rules concerning hosting are indicative of some of the latest presidential amendments to the Civil Code, mapped out last week in the State Duma. President Dmitry Medvedev suggested that these changes take effect in September.

    No ISP’s in Russia have yet reported any monitoring of their networks regarding this extension of infringement liability, and while it must be proven that Russian ISP’s knowingly distributed illegal content, 6 years in that country’s penal system is no joke. Picture the lands north of The Wall in HBO’s Game of Thrones series to get an idea of a Siberian prison.

  • Pirate Bay Founders in Three Separate Jails

    With a new criminal investigation of the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay recently confirmed, its founders, who were convicted in 2009 of copyright infringement, have learned where they’ll be spending their sentences.

    pirate bay

    Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm will be held in three separate prisons in Sweden, even though Sunde’s lawyer had mentioned that their might be an appeal. It was also revealed yesterday that Carl Lundström, the millionaire who provided hosting for the Pirate Bay via his company Rix Telecom/Port80, will spending 4 months in a Swedish apartment with an electronic monitor, only being able to venture out to report to a government-assigned job.

    Neij, Sunde and Svartholm will all be housed in ‘Category 2′ prisons. According to Chief Officer of Probation Helena Lundberg, “We (Sweden) have three levels of security and we have put them in institutions with normal security.” Neij, a.k.a TiAMO, will spent 10 months Kirseberg prison in Malmö, which holds 131 inmates and has 170 staff members. Svartholm, a.k.a Anakata, will spend 1 year in Mariefred prison near Stockholm, which holds 112 inmates and 90 staff. Though according to Sunde, Svartholm might be dead, as it was last reported that he was spending time in Cambodia, becoming a member of that country’s metal scene. Allegedly, Svartholm had injured himself headbanging. Right on. Sunde, a.k.a brokep, will serve out his 8 months in Västervik Norra, which has 262 inmates and 250 staff. Below is a shot of Kirseberg prison:

    prison

    The founders were also fined $6.78 million dollars in damages, but Swedish authorities were only able to recover $33,149 from Lundström. The trio had always stated two things – that Hollywood and IFPI would get nothing from them, and that the Pirate Bay would never be taken offline. Regardless of the short sentences, it would appear the three delivered on their promises.

  • Insurance Agent Sentenced to do 6 Years After Stealing $1 Million from Clients

    After stealing over one million dollars from her elderly clients, the former Issaquah insurance agent could spend up to six years and three months in the can.

    Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim was arrested last March in Kent by State Patrol troopers and investigators from the Office of the Insurance Commissioner. Kassim was desperate to leave the country after the big take and raised some red flags as she attempted to liquidate her assets by selling her house in a short sale.

    Kassim was charged with 21 first degree counts of theft. This clever con artist was able to swindle the million from only five elderly residents by earning their trust and presenting herself as one of the nicest women they had ever met.

    (image)

    Her process for obtaining the big score was to have her clients endorse checks to her teenage daughters’ names and proceed to bounce those checks into her own account. Kassim told her victims that she was investing their money for them and that she was not a thief.

    One of her prey, an 81-year-old Bellevue man, died knowing that he got scammed out of $130,000. He passed away in January of 2011 and never got to see Kassim brought to justice.

    In December 2009, the son of the Bellevue man contacted the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) to file a complaint against Kassim. Three days later, 92 year old Dorothy King also filed a complaint against her. Kassim returned $25,000 to her in an effort to convince the woman of her innocence.

    The act of cashing her clients’ annuity checks was what eventually got this cold-hearted monster caught. That and the fact that she started doing irrational things with the money like donating $20,000 to the Online Psychic Network website in January of 2009.

    Because her victims were viewed as extremely vulnerable (they were 74-90 years of age) prosecutors pushed for an exceptional sentence of five years, eight months and got more than they originally asked for; the standard sentence range is three years, seven months to four years, nine months.

  • Jail Birds Pass Time With Facebook

    Jail Birds Pass Time With Facebook

    Facebook is quickly becoming one of the best ways to pass time during incarceration. In the past two years alone, over 350 people have been caught using Facebook from their cells. Depending on what county and state you are in, it is a crime to possess a cell phone while serving time, but despite that law, popularity is increasing.

    In 2009 California corrections officers confiscated over 9000 cell phones from prisoners. How are these phones getting into the prison system? They are being smuggled in by family and friends who come to visit, they are being sold to prisoners by guards, and in some cases, they are tossed over fences or fired in via potato cannons.

    One inmate from a Georgia prison claims, “Almost everybody has a phone. Almost every phone is a smartphone. Almost everybody with a smartphone has a Facebook”.

    Some prisons are working with technology providers to develop solutions that could block reception from the confinement areas. In direct opposition to those efforts are developers who create technology to override the measures. Hal Goldstein, the publisher of iPhone Life magazine says, “It’s a pure business opportunity…People outside of prison become addicted to their phones, imagine if you had nothing but time on your hands?”

    David Fathi, director of the National Prison Project at The American Civil Liberties Union has different ideas about inmates using cell phones. He believes that staying connected to reality via smartphones and other communication devices helps prisoners more easily assimilate back into society after long periods of incarceration.

    Fathi explains,“It shows that even if they are closed institutions, prisons are still part of the larger society….they can’t be forever walled off from technological changes”.

    While some believe it may be a good idea to let prisoners stay connected to society via smartphones and social networking sites like Facebook, there is also reason to argue against it.

    Jean Taylor of Families fighting for Justice claims, “These perpetrators should not be able to have access to mobile phones in prison, they are getting away with torturing their victims. The social networking sites should police this much more closely!”

    Javed Khan, a Victim Support representative adds, “Offenders using Facebook from prison makes a mockery of the idea that they are being punished.”

    Colin Gunn, one of Britain’s most infamous gangsters was caught using Facebook to threaten his enemies from prison. In one posting he wrote:

    “I will be home one day and I can’t wait to look into certain people’s eyes and see the fear of me being there”.

    “It’s good to have an outlet to let you know how I am, some of you will be in for a good slagging and some have let me down badly and will be named and shamed ***ing rats.”

    In another case, a young man who killed a shopkeeper during a robbery posted a series of pictures featuring gang signs, apparently celebrating his crime on Facebook.

    A representative of Facebook comments on their stance:

    “If something is happening which violates our use policy we will be very active and robust in removing it.”

  • Facebook Prison Escape!

    Facebook Prison Escape!

    This is 19 year-old Kyle Leslie Lynch, of Hobart, Tasmania.

    That photo is his Facebook profile picture. On January 5, Kyle Lynch’s relationship status changed from “single” to “in a relationship”.

    He added dozens of friends.

    And, finally, his Facebook status was updated to read:

    “Kyle Leslie Lynch is getting out sooner than yas think boys. Its gonna be on!”

    You see, Kyle Leslie Lynch was in a Tasmanian prison when all that activity took place. And, with that January 5 status update, he announced to those 57 people that he was leaving prison.

    And, on Saturday, January 21, that’s exactly what he did.

    Lynch and another man, 22-year-old James Peter Sampson, were noticed missing at regular check at 6:45 PM on Saturday. A statewide manhunt is underway.

    Prison officials say that no prisoner has access to Facebook from within the prison. There are two prevailing theories about Lynch’s Facebook access. One is that Lynch had someone open the Facebook account for him, and that person posted the status update. The other is that someone smuggled a smartphone into the prison for him and he did the updates, friend requests/accepts, etc. himself.

    It is difficult, but not impossible, for someone to smuggle a phone to a prisoner. But, one way that is not uncommon is for the phone to have been bought from a prison guard.

    In late 2010, inmates at seven Georgia corrections facilities in the United States staged major, nonviolent strikes in protest of prison policies about work. Those strikes were coordinated within and between prisons using cell phones that were both smuggled in and bought from prison guards. Inmates reported buying $20 cell phones off guards for $400.