Google took months to pull crypto scam app, lawsuit says
Google took three months to remove a scam crypto app that stole $5 million and targeted at least six users, a Florida woman has claimed in a proposed lawsuit.
Maria Vaca filed a complaint against the tech giant in the California Superior Court of Santa Clara County on Aug. 13 — pending jury trial — claiming Google made “false and misleading representations” about the “authenticity, safety, and security” of apps on its app store.
The suit is seeking $5 million in monetary losses Vaca claims she lost in an app called Yobit Pro, which marketed itself as a crypto wallet but was actually run by cyber criminals.
Vaca said she deposited $4.6 million into the app between February and July last year. She went to withdraw when her holdings reached $7 million — but Yobit Pro claimed she needed to deposit $500,000 “for taxes.”
Vaca sent the additional funds, but the app again claimed she needed to post another $2 million for verification. She refused and claimed she soon received messages from “unidentified cyber-criminals threatening to kill her if she did not make a deposit.”
The lawsuit claimed Vaca detailed the saga in a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which forwarded it to Google the same day. Vaca alleged Google took action around three months later which resulted in at least five others having a similar experience to Vaca.
In April, Google sued two people it alleged were distributing and advertising fraudulent and malicious crypto apps.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
YouTuber Ian Balina can appeal SEC win in SPRK token suit
A Texas federal judge has allowed crypto YouTuber Ian Balina to appeal a ruling that he promoted unregistered securities in the United States through Sparkster (SPRK) tokens, with an appeals court to decide if the alleged promotion occurred within the country.
In an Aug. 16 order, Judge David Alan Ezra said the question of whether Balina’s conduct happened in the US could see the case dismissed entirely — and erase the need for a trial — if an appeals court finds it took place outside the country.
“This is so because the determination of whether the defendant’s conduct was domestic will effectively resolve the litigation as extraterritoriality issues encompass each of these alleged violations of the Securities Act,” the order stated.
In May, Judge Ezra partially sided with the SEC finding Balina’s alleged SPRK promotions target US investors and, in turn, US securities laws.
Balina argued in a summary judgment bid that the SEC had no sway as the sales happened overseas, which Judge Ezra knocked back.
Malaysian cops nab 7 for illegally mining Bitcoin: Report
Malaysian authorities reportedly arrested seven people on suspicion that they were running an illegal Bitcoin (BTC) mining operation near the country’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Police in the Sepang district, south of Kuala Lumpur, seized 52 Bitcoin mining rigs along with vehicles, laptops and mobile phones with a total estimated value of around $57,000 (250,000 Malaysian ringgit), local news outlet The Star reported on Aug. 18.
Related: Crypto mixer founder argues 30-year prison sentence is ‘unwarranted’
Three Malaysian nationals and four foreign nationals aged between 30 and 74 were detained.
Sepang district police chief Wan Kamarul Azran Wan Yusof said all of those arrested “have no prior criminal records” and a police operation “aimed to detect illegal Bitcoin mining activities that involve electricity theft.”
Other news
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund boosted its indirect Bitcoin exposure to $144 million, but K33 Research’s senior analyst Vetle Lunde said it’s “unlikely to stem from an intentional choice to amass exposure.”
The US Marshals Service is “almost certainly” selling Bitcoin from the shuttered online black market Silk Road after US government-linked wallets moved 10,000 BTC worth over $593 million on Aug. 15, said finance lawyer Scott Johnsson.
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