Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 71

This is another one of those articles that I never thought that I would be writing, but Martin Shkreli who is better known as "Pharma Bro" has had his one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album seized and sold by the Department of Justice.

Pharma Bro purchased the only copy ever made of Wu-Tang Clan album "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" back in 2015 for $2 million, but the US Department of Justice cashed in on it, selling it for an undisclosed amount of money. But whatever they sold it for, it has cleared the "Forfeiture Money Judgment" that Shkreli had (around $7.4 million) which with the sale of the one-of-a-kind album, Pharma Bro has now fully paid off.

The DOJ used the sale of the album as a "substitute asset" and as a "forfeiture money judgment" towards Shkreli's debts.

Elon Musk is no stranger to making headline-creating comments, this time he has tweeted about his worries of population collapse being the greatest risk to the future of the human civilization. At the end of the article, I've got a great video that compiles the many times Musk has talked about population collapse.

The Wall Street Journal penned a piece titled "US Population Growth, an Economic Drive, Grinds to a Halt" -- Musk shared the article and then added: "Population collapse is potentially the greatest risk to the future of civilization". Well, I guess we're all doomed -- especially if you've watched the TV show "Utopia".

Things begin to make sense when you consider Musk wants off this planet ASAP, and wants to colonize Mars. This isn't the first time that the SpaceX and Tesla founder has talked about his concerns over population collapse, where two weeks ago on July 15, he tweeted: "I'm trying to set a good example! Population collapse is a much bigger problem than people realize and that's just for Earth".

An app launched in 2016 called Vigilante, but was quickly removed from the iOS App Store -- returning as Citizen, and is paying Americans to live stream crime scenes and emergencies -- and they pay really, really well.

Citizen is hiring "field team members" with offers of $200 to $250 per day if they can find, and live stream events in their areas. These events can include children going missing, house fires, or "anything else". Citizen would like you to interview witnesses and police officials, too.

The company is posting job listings, which state: "You will need to be very quick on your feet, not only in terms of going live during moments that provide value to its users and support the app's mission, but being able to locate and incorporate interviews on-the-fly that contribute to the live stream".

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russian military forces are authorized to carry out what he describes as an "unpreventable strike" if required.

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is capable of detecting any underwater, above water, or airborne enemies. Putin continued and said that "if required," the Russian navy will "carry out an unpreventable strike against it [detected enemies]". Putin dropped this warning on Sunday during a navy day parade in St Petersburg.

These heavy words from the Russian president come only weeks after Russia said that it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship that was in Crimea waters. However, the British military said that all of the shots fired were a pre-announced Russian "gunnery exercise" and that there were no bombs dropped at all. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

A gender reveal party sparked a Southern California wildfire that killed a leader of an elite firefighting team.

Authorities announced on Tuesday that the couple has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and has pleaded not guilty. CBS Los Angeles reports that the couple is facing up to 20 years behind bars if the court convicts them of their many charges. The wildfire was sparked on September 5 when the couple decided to have a baby gender reveal at El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains.

According to Cal Fire, the wildfire was ignited by a "smoke generating pyrotechnic device, used during a gender reveal party." The wildfire raged on for many weeks and was eventually put out on November 16 after it had burned 22,680 acres throughout the Oak Glen/Yucaipa Ridge area. On September 16, firefighters were caught in a remote area where they were cutting fire breaks. Unfortunately, Charlie Morton, the 39-year-old leader of the Big Bear Interagency Hotshot Squad, was caught in the blaze and was killed.

At least 12 people are dead, countless are missing and trapped, in massive flooding that has swept through Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province. There are some people trapped on trains down in the subway, in water that is up to their necks... scary footage, check it out:

The massive floods demolished roads, railways, airports, highways, buildings, subway systems, and everything in between. It swept away cars, buses, people, with some videos showing a father getting to his son in the flood, and then they were swept away in the flood. I haven't attached that video, but you'll be able to find it online if you search for it.

We don't know how many people are trapped in the city's subway, but the numbers should be large given there's 7 lines and 148 stations. The video above shows people stuck in water that is up to their shoulders, which is horrifying and I can only imagine what those people went, and are still going through.

An absolutely gigantic explosion in China has rocked the area, with an aluminum alloy unit in Dengfend Power Group Co Ltd in China's central Henan province exploding due to "flooding water" entering the plant.

There are massive floods in China right now, with a river close to the plant exceeding the warning water level -- once that occurred, a factory wall was collapsed. Dengfeng Power Group Co Ltd shut the power off immediately, evacuated everyone out of the plant, but at 6AM local time water entered the high-temperature solution and then kaboom.

The plant itself houses an annual capacity of 60,000 tonnes of alloy rods, high-silicon aluminum alloy, and titanium products. The company says that no one was hurt or killed in the blast -- shockingly -- with the Chinese government performing a safety inspection afterward.

China has taken a few steps closer to the abyss, with the US and its allies in the UK, EU, and other countries have accused China of a global cyberespionage campaign.

Microsoft servers have been victims of purported cyberattacks from China earlier this year, and now a new joint effort between NATO members including the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and others are joining forces to stop Chinese state-sponsored cyberattacks. This is all happening barely a week from the World Economic Forum-led Cyber Polygon 2021 event.

On top of this, we have the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a new advisory list. On this list are 50 tactics, techniques, and producers that Chinese state-sponsored hackers use.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has begun his first day in court defending himself against a lawyer representing Tesla's own board members.

Musk entered a lawsuit with board members over Tesla acquiring SolarCity back in 2016. The lawsuit alleges that Musk strong-armed "Tesla's board of directors into depleting the company's assets with the $2.6 billion all-stock deal for SolarCity," per Reuters. At the time the deal was struck between SolarCity and Tesla, Musk held a 22% stake in the company, which has led some shareholders to claim that Musk's true intention behind acquiring SolarCity was to just bail himself out of the company.

Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Musk forced Tesla to pay more for SolarCity and "misleading shareholders about the company's deteriorating financial health." Musk defended himself in court and stood by his decision to acquire SolarCity (which later became Tesla's solar power division, Tesla Energy) by saying that his benefit from the deal was negligible as there was no cash exchange and that the merger was merely to add SolarCity's sustainable energy to Tesla's batteries.

On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called a lawyer representing Tesla shareholders that he was a "bad human" and that some of his questions were "tricky and deceptive."

Musk appeared on trial to defend Tesla's acquisition of SolarCity in 2016, a solar power company that was founded by Musk's cousins, which later became Tesla's solar power division, Tesla Energy. Tesla shareholders filed a lawsuit against Musk in 2017, claiming that Musk had pressured Tesla board members to effectively bail out SolarCity in a $2.6 billion deal. Reuters reports that at the time, Musk held a 22% stake in the firm.

According to CNBC, Musk has denied that he benefited from the deal, saying, "Since it was a stock-for-stock transaction and I owned almost exactly the same percentage of both, there was no financial gain." During the court session, Musk frustrated opposing attorney Randall Baron who said to Musk that he was holding up the trial by giving long responses to his questions. Musk replied by saying, "I think you are a bad human being", to which Baron asked Musk if he was being "derisive".