Two engineers for Russian Metro system under investigation after
covertly stealing electricity to mine cryptocurrency at work
22 Jul, 2021 15:34
The chief engineer of a Russian Metro system has handed in his resignation after being caught using the subway’s electricity grid substation to mine for bitcoin, consuming thousands of dollars of energy at the company’s expense.
That’s according to MUP Metroelectrotrans, the company that powers the Kazan Metro. Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan, a city around 800km (500 miles) east of Moscow.
The resignation comes after a report on Thursday from the Tatarstan Investigative Committee, which revealed that it had opened a criminal case against two employees of the Metro for abuse of official powers. They are suspected of unauthorized installation of cryptocurrency mining equipment at a power substation, consuming electricity worth 352,000 rubles ($4,700).
They have both admitted to the crime, it was reported.
Cryptocurrency mining uses electricity and high-powered computers to solve computational math problems. The solutions are so complex that they are impossible to be solved by hand and would even be difficult for regular computers to successfully complete.
Once a problem is solved, the computer owner is rewarded with a cryptocurrency coin, such as bitcoin. The two Kazan Metro employees were found to be stealing electricity for their high-powered devices, and they, therefore, could have potentially made a lot of money.
While bitcoin is not legal tender in Russia, a bill signed by President Vladimir Putin last summer allowed for cryptocurrency assets to be counted on a par with physical assets, enabling Russian citizens to legally own virtual money from the start of 2021. Before then, currencies such as bitcoin were in a legal ‘grey zone,’ having been neither legalized nor prohibited.
$21,000 per bed: State hospital workers arrested in Peru
for charging desperate Covid patients to access ICU
22 Jul, 2021 10:55
Nine people have been arrested in Lima for having allegedly illegally profited from patients suffering from the deadly coronavirus. The state hospital workers are suspected of selling access to intensive care unit (ICU) beds.
Arrests have been made following a raid on Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen public hospital, in the Peruvian capital, on Wednesday, local police said. According to a prosecutor, administrators of the hospital that provides free care are among the alleged criminal network that illegally charged their seriously ill patients, local media reports.
There are 80 beds in the hospital’s ICU, and many patients have had to be added to the unit’s long waiting list due to a lack of capacity. However, in a suspected scam scheme, the family of people severely ill with Covid have allegedly been asked to pay as much as 82,000 soles (around $20,800) to gain access to an ICU bed. A patient’s relative tipped off the police after making the payment to skip the line for a family member in need of urgent care. The patient, who had been the 20th on the waiting list, had not been transferred to the ICU even after his relative paid the money, and subsequently died.
Speaking to the press following the arrests, Peruvian Health Minister Oscar Ugarte called the case “totally reprehensible” and said no one would get away with it.
The Latin American nation has registered the world’s highest fatality rate among Covid-19 patients per capita. More than 195,000 people have died, and more than two million Covid cases have been recorded among the nation’s 32.5 million-strong population. During pandemic peaks, when there has been a shortage of beds in state-run hospitals, many have paid large sums to access Covid treatment at private clinics.
While the virus has been raging worldwide, various corruption scandals have emerged. A similar scam involving hospital beds was recently uncovered in India. An official in Bengaluru claimed beds had been allocated to Covid patients in exchange for bribes, after an “artificial shortage” had been created, local media reported in May. According to the official, hospital care had been provided to asymptomatic patients, while those who were severely ill and needed urgent treatment had been denied it. Those asking for payment had since been arrested, he claimed. Meanwhile in Uganda, a different Covid-related scam has been uncovered, with hundreds having been injected with “more water than anything else,” instead of real vaccines.
Tunisian president accused of launching 'coup' after sacking PM,
freezing parliament
Kais Saied's moves come as Tunisia grapples with an economic, COVID-19 crisis
Thomson Reuters ·
Posted: Jul 25, 2021 4:52 PM ET
Tunisian President Kais Saied is seen on TV announcing the dissolution of parliament and Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi's dismissal on Sunday. (Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images)
Tunisia's president dismissed the government and froze parliament on Sunday in a dramatic escalation of a political crisis. Huge crowds filled the capital in his support, but his opponents labelled the moves a coup.
President Kais Saied said he would assume executive authority with the assistance of a new prime minister, in the biggest challenge yet to a 2014 democratic constitution that split powers between president, prime minister and parliament.
Crowds of people quickly flooded the capital's streets, cheering and honking car horns in scenes that recalled the 2011 revolution that brought democracy and triggered the Arab Spring protests that convulsed the Middle East.
However, the extent of support for Saied's moves against a fragile government and divided parliament was not clear and he warned against any violent response.
"I warn any who think of resorting to weapons... and whoever shoots a bullet, the armed forces will respond with bullets," he said in a statement carried on television.
People celebrate in Tunis following Saied's announcement on Sunday. (Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images)
Years of paralysis, corruption, declining state services and growing unemployment had already soured many Tunisians on their political system before the global pandemic hammered the economy last year and COVID-19 infection rates shot up this summer.
Protests, called by social media activists but not backed by any of the big political parties, took place on Sunday with much of the anger focused on the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, the biggest in parliament.
'A new page in history is turning': Polls suggest political outsider Kais Saied winner in Tunisia election
"We have been relieved of them," said Lamia Meftahi, a woman celebrating in central Tunis, speaking of the parliament and government.
"This is the happiest moment since the revolution," she added.
Ennahda, banned before the revolution, has been the most consistently successful party since 2011 and a member of successive coalition governments.
Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, head of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, speaks to supporters during a rally in opposition to Saied in Tunis on Feb. 27. (Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters)
Its leader Rached Ghannouchi, who is also parliament speaker, immediately labelled Saied's decision "a coup against the revolution and constitution" in a phone call to Reuters.
"We consider the institutions still standing, and the supporters of the Ennahda and the Tunisian people will defend the revolution," he added, raising the prospect of confrontations between supporters of Ennahda and Saied.
Disputes over constitution, economic reforms
Saied said in his statement that his actions were in line with Article 80 of the constitution, and also cited the article to suspend the immunity of members of parliament.
"Many people were deceived by hypocrisy, treachery and robbery of the rights of the people," he said.
The president and the parliament were both elected in separate popular votes in 2019, while Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi took office last summer, replacing another short-lived government.
Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi is seen in Tunis in September 2020. (Riadh Dridi/The Associated Press)
Saied, an independent without a party behind him, swore to overhaul a complex political system plagued by corruption. Meanwhile, the parliamentary election delivered a fragmented chamber in which no party held more than a quarter of seats.
Disputes over Tunisia's constitution were intended to be settled by a constitutional court. However, seven years after the constitution was approved, the court has yet to be installed after disputes over the appointment of judges.
The president has been enmeshed in political disputes with Mechichi for over a year, as the country grapples with an economic crisis, a looming fiscal crunch and a flailing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Violent demonstrations broke out on Sunday in several Tunisian cities as protesters expressed anger at the deterioration of the North African country's health, economic and social situation. (Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters)
Under the constitution, the president has direct responsibility only for foreign affairs and the military, but after a government debacle with walk-in vaccination centres last week, he told the army to take charge of the pandemic response.
Tunisia's soaring infection and death rates have added to public anger at the government as the country's political parties bickered.
Meanwhile, Mechichi was attempting to negotiate a new loan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that was seen as crucial to averting a looming fiscal crisis as Tunisia struggles to finance its budget deficit and coming debt repayments.
Disputes over the economic reforms seen as needed to secure the loan, but which could hurt ordinary Tunisians by ending subsidies or cutting public sector jobs, had already brought the government close to collapse.
Senior cardinal of Roman Catholic Church and former close ally
of Pope Francis goes on trial in $412mn fraud case
27 Jul, 2021 12:40
FILE PHOTO. Vatican. © AFP / Andreas SOLARO; (inset) Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu.
© AFP / ANDREAS SOLARO
The trial of 73-year-old former Cardinal Angelo Becciu over allegations he fraudulently spent $412 million of church money began in a special Vatican courtroom on Tuesday, months after he was removed from his post by Pope Francis.
The court case marks the culmination of a two-year investigation that discovered the cardinal had been involved in spending €350 million ($412 million) to purchase a property on Sloane Avenue in the posh London neighborhood of Chelsea that went awry.
Prior to his dismissal in September, Becciu was in charge of donations at the Vatican office that handles Church funds. He had been a close ally of Pope Francis and is the most senior Vatican official to stand trial for financial misconduct. The crimes he is accused of include funneling donations to businesses run by his brothers on the Italian island of Sardinia. Becciu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Alongside the cardinal, nine other defendants, who all deny wrongdoing, are on trial for extortion, embezzlement, money laundering and abuse of office. The case is being heard in a special courtroom set up in the Vatican Museums that has the space required to conduct the trial in a Covid-safe setting.
Two hearings will be held this week before the trial is expected to be adjourned until October. The case is set to last for several months before a judgment will be rendered. It comes after Pope Francis announced in April that he will allow lay judges to oversee cases involving cardinals and bishops, rather than it being handled by cardinals, as had been tradition.
“I think this trial marks a turning point that can bring about greater credibility of the Holy See in financial areas,” Father Juan Antonio Guerrero, the Vatican’s newly appointed finance chief said. He pledged to make the Church’s financial matters more transparent.
If you are shocked by this revelation, you need to read David Yallop's In God's Name.
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