Samuel Rubenfeld (he/him)
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srubenfeld.bsky.social
Samuel Rubenfeld (he/him)
@srubenfeld.bsky.social
1.5K followers 410 following 3.9K posts
senior reporter, financial crime and corruption, MLex.

Talk for hours, I hardly know ya
But I, I'm listening

https://www.mlex.com/mlex/financial-crime
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srubenfeld.bsky.social
Smartmatic asked a US judge for a hearing to discuss a delay of at least six months to its April 2026 trial on corruption charges related to an alleged bribery scheme in the Philippines.

www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
Voting-machine producer Smartmatic has asked a US judge to hold a hearing in December to discuss a new trial date after it was named as a defendant in a superseding indictment in a corruption case. Smartmatic is scheduled to go to trial in April 2026 alongside co-founder Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez and former executive Jorge Vasquez. A delay of more than six months for the trial may be necessary, Smartmatic said in its filing.
November 26, 2025 at 5:28 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
A New York State judge denied a request to stay Smartmatic's $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox based on federal corruption charges against the voting machine company.

Smartmatic has pleaded not guilty to those federal charges.

www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
A New York state judge on Monday denied a request to stay Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox based on federal corruption charges against the voting machine company. Smartmatic, which is charged with conspiracy to violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money laundering over its alleged role in a bribery scheme in the Philippines, has pleaded not guilty.
November 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
deeply weird framing given that the bigger scheme concerned Low's effort to get out of a corruption investigation (during the Trump administration) related to his alleged embezzlement of $4.5 billion from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
November 21, 2025 at 8:24 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
A corruption scandal involving one of Ukraine's major energy companies comes at a time when the war-torn nation is attempting to improve its economic-crime record and preparing to join the OECD's Working Group on Bribery.

By @coylester10.bsky.social

www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
A bribery scandal involving one of Ukraine's major energy companies comes at a time when the war-torn nation is attempting to improve its economic-crime record and preparing to join the OECD's Working Group on Bribery in International Business. It is unclear to what extent the issue might affect its invitation to join, but its active investigation of the matter should count in its favor.
November 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
A UK crime network bought a bank in Kyrgyzstan to evade sanctions on Russia and finance the war on Ukraine, UK investigators said. By @coylester10.bsky.social

www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
A "billion-dollar" money-laundering network active in the UK bought a bank in Kyrgyzstan to evade sanctions on Russia and finance Moscow's Ukraine war effort, UK investigators said on Friday. They were reporting on a second phase of an international operation that had earlier seen UK police uncover two money-laundering networks that swapped cryptocurrency for cash and supported Russian efforts to evade sanctions.
November 21, 2025 at 2:41 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
Pras Michel, a member of the Fugees, received a 14-year prison sentence Thursday after he was found guilty of acting in the US as an unregistered foreign agent of Malaysian financier Jho Low, and of the Chinese government. Low, the reputed mastermind of the 1MDB corruption scheme, is a fugitive.
Rap artist Prakazrel “Pras” Michel was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison after he was found guilty of acting in the US as an unregistered foreign agent of Malaysian financier Jho Low, and of the Chinese government. Low, who was charged alongside Michel in the unregistered foreign lobbying case, is a fugitive.
November 20, 2025 at 10:13 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
As TD Bank cooperated with US authorities amid an investigation into suspected money laundering, the Canadian lender began to enforce its compliance program in a way that "intentionally targeted and disproportionately impacted" Chinese and Chinese-American employees, according to a new lawsuit.
As TD Bank cooperated with US authorities amid an investigation into suspected money laundering, the Canadian lender began to enforce its compliance program in a way that “intentionally targeted and disproportionally impacted” its Chinese and Chinese-American employees, according to a new lawsuit. “Their Chinese heritage, once used by TD Bank to garner trust in the Chinese community, now became a target for TD,” the lawsuit said.
November 20, 2025 at 7:20 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
John Christopher Polit, the son of a convicted former Ecuadorian government official, was sentenced in the U.S. to 40 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he helped launder bribes paid to his father.

www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
November 19, 2025 at 11:56 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
Samourai Wallet co-founder William Lonergan Hill was sentenced to 48 months in prison for developing the cryptocurrency mixing service and helping its users launder their money.

www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
November 19, 2025 at 11:51 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
Ziff Davis is seeking to amend its copyright lawsuit against OpenAI for the second time, saying new evidence — including redacted internal OpenAI communications — support its allegations of nefarious data scraping.

www.mlex.com/mlex/artific...
Ziff Davis, the online publisher of websites such as Mashable and LifeHacker, is seeking to amend its copyright lawsuit against OpenAI for the second time, saying new evidence — including redacted internal OpenAI communications — support its allegations of nefarious data scraping.
November 18, 2025 at 11:08 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
Iurii Gugnin, the founder of cryptocurrency payments firm Evita, is engaged in plea talks with the US government over allegations that he laundered more than $500 million on behalf of sanctioned Russian banks and other foreign clients.

www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
Iurii Gugnin, the founder of cryptocurrency payments firm Evita, is engaged in plea talks with the US government over allegations that he laundered more than $500 million on behalf of sanctioned Russian banks and other foreign clients.
November 18, 2025 at 4:42 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
Julian Aires, a California man who worked in the aviation industry, was sentenced to a year of home confinement over his role in a scheme to bribe South African officials on behalf of a services supplier with whom his company had a joint venture.

www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
Julian Aires, a California man, was sentenced to a year of home confinement over his role in a scheme to bribe South African officials on behalf of a services supplier with whom his company had a joint venture.
November 17, 2025 at 5:35 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
British billionaire investor Joe Lewis, whose family trust owns Tottenham Hotspur, has received a pardon from Trump after his 2024 insider trading conviction, according to statements from him and a source close to his family.

www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
November 13, 2025 at 3:56 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
In mid-2012, the head of legal for a Guatemalan subsidiary of Millicom began receiving deliveries of cash by helicopter.

The money was meant for bribes.

The helicopter deliveries stopped after one had to make an emergency landing at a military base.

Inside a widespread Guatemalan bribery scheme:
Comunicaciones Celulares, the Millicom subsidiary that did business as TIGO Guatemala, reached a deferred prosecution agreement with US authorities and agreed to a $118 million penalty. The agreement, unsealed Wednesday in Miami federal court, included a statement of facts that detailed what the government called a “widespread and systematic” bribery scheme involving monthly cash payments to “numerous Guatemalan lawmakers” in exchange for their support for legislation that benefited the company.
November 13, 2025 at 2:06 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
The US government on Wednesday announced the launch of a task force focused on protecting Americans from scam centers based in Southeast Asia. Americans lost at least $10 billion last year to Southeast Asia-based online scam centers.

www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
The US government on Wednesday announced the launch of a task force focused on protecting Americans from scam centers based in Southeast Asia. Americans lost at least $10 billion in 2024 to Southeast Asia-based online scam operations, a 66 percent increase from the prior year, the State Department said in a statement.
November 12, 2025 at 9:28 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
When US authorities announced illegal gambling cases involving professional basketball and baseball players, officials said the betting companies that processed the bets were victims. But the platforms' offerings appear to have made the schemes possible.

My analysis: www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
When US authorities announced a massive illegal gambling bust in October that involved professional basketball players, officials said at a press conference that the sports betting companies that had processed the bets were victims. When prosecutors announced charges against two Major League Baseball players for allegedly rigging individual pitches for corrupt bettors, the betting companies were again cited as being defrauded by their users. But the gambling platforms’ offerings, including the ability for users to bet on a player’s performance in what are known as “prop bets,” appear to have made both alleged schemes possible in the first place.
November 11, 2025 at 5:15 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
A subsidiary of Millicom International Cellular has agreed to pay $118 million to resolve a US investigation into bribery of Guatemalan officials, the Luxembourg-based company said.

www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
A subsidiary of Millicom International Cellular agreed to pay $118 million to resolve a US investigation into bribery of Guatemalan officials, the Luxembourg-based company announced late Monday. The deferred prosecution agreement will be in place for two years and Millicom is not required to hire a corporate monitor, the company said.
November 11, 2025 at 1:52 AM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
A US judge declared a mistrial late Friday after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict in the trial of two brothers charged with stealing $25 million in cryptocurrency in 12 seconds by exploiting a vulnerability in the Ethereum blockchain.

www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
A US judge declared a mistrial late Friday after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict in the trial of two brothers charged with stealing $25 million in cryptocurrency in 12 seconds by exploiting a vulnerability in the Ethereum blockchain.
November 10, 2025 at 8:51 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
The US government formally suspended an export controls rule, largely aimed at China, for a year as part of a trade deal negotiated during President Donald Trump's recent trip to Asia.

The rule imposes restrictions on any entity majority owned by a party on the Commerce Department's Entity List.
The US government formally suspended an export-controls rule, aimed largely at China, for a year as part of a trade deal negotiated during President Donald Trump’s recent trip to Asia. When in effect, the rule has significant implications for companies operating in high-risk jurisdictions such as China, experts recently told MLex.
November 10, 2025 at 8:40 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
Kenneth Leech, the former chief investment officer of Western Asset Management will receive more details from US prosecutors about the allegedly unlawful trades at the center of his cherry-picking fraud case.

www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
Kenneth Leech, the former chief investment officer of Western Asset Management, will receive more details from US prosecutors about the allegedly unlawful trades at the center of his cherry-picking fraud case.
November 7, 2025 at 7:53 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
Keonne Rodriquez, a co-founder of Samourai Wallet, received a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison after pleading guilty in the US to assisting users of the cryptocurrency service with laundering their money.

www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
A co-founder of Samourai Wallet received a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison after pleading guilty in the US to assisting users of the cryptocurrency mixing service with laundering their money.
November 6, 2025 at 7:36 PM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
The U.S. kept criminal corruption charges against a former Goldman Sachs banker under seal until his arrest due in part to concerns about his connections to senior officials in Ghana, an FBI agent testified Wednesday during an evidentiary hearing.

www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
November 6, 2025 at 2:41 AM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
Two brothers carried out an old-school bait and switch when they stole $25 million in cryptocurrency in 12 seconds by exploiting a vulnerability in the Ethereum blockchain, prosecutors said at the close of their trial.

Their defense lawyers said it was a legitimate trading strategy.
November 5, 2025 at 2:17 AM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
A US federal appeals court was skeptical of claims made Tuesday by a lawyer for FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried that his conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges had stemmed from an unfair trial.

www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
A US federal appeals court was skeptical of claims made Tuesday by a lawyer for FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried that his conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges stemmed from an unfair trial. “From my reading of the record, [the government] had very substantial evidence of guilt,” Judge Barrington Parker said.
November 5, 2025 at 1:02 AM
srubenfeld.bsky.social
Fox has asked a New York State judge to stay a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic until US corruption charges against the voting machine company are resolved.

www.mlex.com/mlex/financi...
Fox has asked a New York state judge to stay a defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic until US corruption charges against the voting machine company are resolved. Smartmatic was charged in October in a superseding indictment over its alleged role in a scheme to bribe a Philippine official for $182 million in contracts to provide voting machines and related services for that country’s 2016 national elections.
November 3, 2025 at 10:44 PM