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PANAMA LEAKS: SIT TO INVESTIGATE INDIANS OVER BLACK MONEY 

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on the black money today said it will investigate thoroughly the reported secret list of about 500 prominent Indians including actors, politicians and businessmen who have allegedly stashed money in offshore entities in tax haven Panama.

"Investigations are being carried out. We are going to investigate it (the list) thoroughly," SIT Chairman Justice (retd) M B Shah told PTI.

Asked if the SIT had any information on these names, he said the panel got it today.

"No. We got the information just now," he said.

The Vice Chairman of the panel, Justice (retd) Arijit Pasayat, said they have asked agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, IT Department and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to make an assessment of the list and prepare a report in this regard.

"We want to know what is the truth behind these. The SIT did not have these reports. Maybe, the investigative agencies had. So, once they submit a report to us then we can take the required action," Pasayat said.

The list has been brought by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in collaboration with news publications across the globe including India and pertains to offshore investments made by Indians between a period of 1977 and 2015.

The latest list, after similar ones came in the the past like 'Swiss leaks' and the HSBC-list related to Indians, claims it has sourced data in connection to millions of documents which show heads of state, criminals and celebrities using "secret hideaways" in tax haven country of Panama.

However, ICIJ adds a disclaimer that there are also "legitimate uses for offshore companies".

"The Panama papers expose the internal operations of one of the world's leading firms in incorporation of offshore entities, Panama-headquartered Mossack Fonseca. The 2.6 terabytes of data that make up the Panama Papers files were obtained by German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and shared with ICIJ and more than 100 media partners...

"ICIJ will release the full list of companies and people linked to them in early May," the ICIJ said on its web portal as it called the leaks "The Panama Papers"

YouTube SnoopaVision (Beta)

 

I've talked a lot over the last few months about how virtual reality is the future. There are still a lot of technological hurdles to overcome, but today we take a leap forward, thanks to Google. It turns out that the answer to our full immersion needs has been here all along, and his name is Snoop.

A little while back, Google had the brilliant idea to help push VR immersion into the next level. The idea was that you could take a celebrity such as Snoop Dogg, and integrate him into your videos. That way you could sit back and chill with a guy that you're rarely going to encounter in real life. Well, when they contacted him, they had no idea that he was an absolute genius when it comes to programming and integrating virtual technologies.

Snoop personally wrote most of the code that goes into the new SnoopaVision. He brainstormed with the YouTube team to make the most realistic versions of himself that could be integrated into everything from the Double Rainbow Songto a guy doing a Crazy Mountain Biking POV. Go ahead and give them a shot, these are some of the first working SnoopaVision-enabled videos.

All you need to do to activate SnoopaVision is click on the icon of Snoop's head next to the Settings button on any YouTube video. Then you'll find yourself in a theater watching the video with none other than the D. O. Double G. He'll give you a little commentary on the video, and sometimes, if you're lucky, he might even bring the video's creator along into your virtual world. All SnoopaVision videos are 360-degree videos. So be sure look around while you're inside.

Like everything new from Google, SnoopaVision is currently in beta. It is scheduled to go live on September 19, 2126..

Truecaller bug could expose details of millions of users: Report

  BEWARE  THE BUG IN THE WORLDS LARGEST CALLER ID TURECALLER

could expose personal details of millions of users worldwide, claim security researchers from the Cheetah Mobile Security Research Lab.

According to the researchers, "This vulnerability allows anyone to steal Truecaller users' sensitive information, potentially opening doors for attackers. Overall, more than 100 million Android users who have downloaded this app on their smartphones are in danger."

"The researcher found that Truecaller uses devices' IMEI as the only identity label of its users. Meaning that anyone gaining the IMEI of a device will be able to get Truecaller users' personal information (including phone number, home address, mail box, gender, etc.) and tamper app settings without users' consent, exposing them to malicious phishers," says the Beijing headquarter-based company in a blog post.

According to Cheetah Mobile, by exploiting the flaw, the attackers can steal users's personal information like account name, gender, e-mail, profile pic, home address, etc; modify a user's application settings, disable spam blockers; add to a black list for users; or delete a user's blacklist.

Cheetah Mobile Security Research Team claimed that it notified Truecaller about this vulnerability as soon as they discovered the loophole. Truecaller on its part has addressed the issue and released an update on March 22, but users still need to update to the app's latest version.

Gilbert Chikli: How a con man used China to make millions

But he had a problem. He couldn't spend the money. A tangle of banking rules designed to stop con men like him stood between Chikli and his cash. He needed to find a weak link in the global financial system, a place to make his stolen money appear legitimate.

He found it in China.

"China has become a universal, international gateway for all manner of scams," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Because China today is a world power, because it doesn't care about neighboring countries, and because, overall, China is flipping off other countries in a big way."
A visionary con man, Chikli realized early on — around 2000, the year before China joined the World Trade Organization — the potential that lay in the shadows of China's rise, its entrenched corruption and informal banking channels that date back over 1,000 years. He told the AP he laundered 90 percent of his money through China and Hong Kong, slipping it into the region's great tides of legitimate trade and finance.

Today, he is in good company.

Criminals around the world have discovered that a good way to liberate their dirty money is to send it to China, which is emerging as an international hub for money laundering, an AP investigation has found. Gangs from Israel and Spain, North African cannabis dealers and cartels from Mexico and Colombia are among those using China as a haven where they can safely hide money, clean it, and pump it back into the global financial system, according to police officials, European and US court records and intelligence documents reviewed by the AP.
China's foreign ministry, central bank and police all refused repeated requests for comment.

Chikli is widely credited in France with inventing a con that has inspired a generation of copycats. Chikli's scam, called the fake president or fake CEO scam, has cost companies around the world $1.8 billion in just over two years, according to the FBI. And the damages are rising fast.

Security cameras poke over the high wooden fence that encircles Chikli's property, a sleek, three-story home in Ashdod, a port city on the Mediterranean. Beyond that, a swing set, pink-and-purple tricycle and orange ball jumble his lawn. And then there is Chikli himself, tan and smiling at his massive front door. He was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison by a French court last year and remains a wanted man, but here in Israel, he lives openly and talked about his criminal exploits with pride during four hours of interviews with the AP.

"It's the power of persuasion," he said. "It's not easy to turn the head of a bank president."
Dirty money has long washed through China, but has been viewed primarily as a domestic problem. Now, mounting evidence shows that non-Chinese criminals are learning to tap entrenched, sophisticated Chinese systems to move money illegally — largely beyond the reach of Western law enforcement.

China's underground financial systems are of rising concern to top policymakers there, who are struggling to stem massive capital flight as the economy slows. Despite strict currency controls, a record net $711 billion gushed out of China last year, not counting foreign direct investment, according to estimates by Fitch Ratings.

A lot of that money leaks out illegally. Corporations undervalue exports or overvalue imports to move capital abroad, for example. Money changers and underground banks routinely help mainland Chinese slip cash out of the country in excess of the official $50,000-a-year limit. Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-DC non-profit, ranks China as the world's largest exporter of illicit money.

"Wherever I go in the world, there is a growing Chinese presence," said John Cassara, a former financial intelligence agent at the U.S. Treasury Department. "It's only natural that the Chinese are going to bring their financial systems with them — their above-board financial systems and their underground systems."

"It's completely off the radar screen," Cassara said. "No one knows about it."

But Chikli knew.