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Tag: crime
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“FBI True” takes viewers inside deadly 2014 Oregon standoff
“FBI True” takes viewers inside deadly 2014 Oregon standoff – CBS News
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Why the Menendez Brothers case is back in the spotlight, decades after their conviction
Why the Menendez Brothers case is back in the spotlight, decades after their conviction – CBS News
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accused of sexual assault of 6 people, including a minor, in new lawsuits
NEW YORK – A new wave of lawsuits filed Monday accuses Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping women, sexually assaulting men and molesting a 16-year-old boy.
At least six lawsuits were filed against the hip-hop mogul in federal court in Manhattan. They were filed anonymously, two by women identified as Jane Does and four by men identified as John Does.
The accusers are part of what their lawyers say is a group of more than 100 alleged victims who are in the process of taking legal action against Combs in the wake of his sex trafficking arrest last month.
Man claims Diddy molested him when he was 16
One of the John Does, a man living in North Carolina, alleges that Combs fondled his genitals when he was 16 at one of the rapper’s famous white parties in Long Island’s Hamptons in 1998.
The man alleges that during a conversation about possibly breaking into the music industry, Combs abruptly ordered the then-teen to drop his pants.
According to the man’s lawsuit, Combs explained to him that it was a rite of passage to becoming a music star, at one point asking the then-teen: “Don’t you want to break into the business?”
The man said he complied out of fear, anxiety and power imbalance he felt with Combs, only realizing later that what had happened was sexual assault.
Until Monday’s lawsuit, Combs had only been accused in civil cases and his criminal indictment of sexual activity with adults.
Combs’ lawyers and other representatives did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. When the planned lawsuits were announced Oct. 1, a lawyer said Combs “cannot address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus.”
Combs has pleaded not guilty
Combs, 54, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges alleging he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Combs’ lawyers have been trying unsuccessfully to get the Bad Boy Records founder freed on bail. He has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his Sept. 16 arrest.
Two judges have concluded that Combs would be a danger to the community if he is released from the Metropolitan Detention Center, a facility that has been plagued by violence and dysfunction for years. At a bail hearing three weeks ago, a judge rejected a $50 million bail package, including home detention and electronic monitoring, after concluding that Combs was a threat to tamper with witnesses and obstruct a continuing investigation.
On Friday, an appeals court judge denied Combs’ immediate release from jail while a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals weighs his bail request.
“You better not tell anyone about this”
The other lawsuits filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan include allegations of rape, forced oral sex and drugging to incapacitate victims.
One of the Jane Does suing Combs alleges he raped her in a locked hotel room in 2004 after he invited her and a friend there for a party, gave them drinks and told them to snort cocaine.
The woman, a college freshman at the time, alleges Combs also forced her friend to perform oral sex on him and said he would have them both killed if they didn’t comply with his demands.
The other Jane Doe alleges Combs violently attacked and raped her in a bathroom in 2005 at a party for the late rapper Biggie Smalls’ music video, “One More Chance.”
According to the woman, Combs brought her into the bathroom to talk privately and then started kissing her unexpectedly. When she tried to pull away, she alleges, he slammed her head against the wall, causing her to fall to the floor. The woman said she tried to escape, but Combs hit her again and raped her.
Afterward, according to the woman, Combs nonchalantly adjusted his clothing and told her: “You better not tell anyone about this, or you will disappear.”
In another John Doe lawsuit, a man working as a security guard at Combs’ Hamptons white party in 2006 alleges the star gave him an alcoholic beverage that he came to believe was laced with a drug that made him feel extremely ill. The man alleges that Combs then pushed him into a van, held him down and sexually assaulted him.
In the other lawsuits filed Monday, Combs is accused of forcing a man to perform oral sex on him in the stockroom of Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan’s Herald Square in 2008 and sexually assaulting a man at a party in October 2021. The latter man, who suspects a drugged beverage left him unable to fight back, recalls multiple men assaulting him and distinctly recalls seeing Combs above him, naked, at one point during the assault, his lawsuit said.
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Ozempic underworld: Inside the black market of obesity drugs
BOULDER, COLO. — Not far from the majestic Rocky Mountains is an ordinary suburban neighborhood, a tree-lined street and a modest light gray home.
It’s not the kind of place you’d imagine an investigation into black market Ozempic would lead. But it did.
A CNBC investigation into counterfeit weight loss drugs revealed an international illegal marketplace where criminals either brazenly alter the drugs or ship the real product from overseas — what’s known as drug diversion and against federal law.
The operations mainly involve phony or illegal versions of Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic and its obesity drug Wegovy as well as Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound. All four drugs are in a class of wildly popular weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s. The skyrocketing demand for the treatments has led to criminal schemes attempting to capitalize on the surge.
CNBC bought a drug marketed as Ozempic from a company called Laver Beauty, which on its website and corporate documents listed its address on that quiet residential street in Boulder. The drug cost $219 for a month’s supply, a fraction of the list price of $968 for a month’s supply of Ozempic in the U.S.
The owners of the home in Boulder say they have no connection to the company — though they’ve received mail and a 1099 IRS tax form addressed to Laver Beauty.
The drug CNBC purchased was shipped via DHL from an office building in Shijiazhuang, China, about a four-hour drive from Beijing. The package that arrived at CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, was a plain cardboard box with no refrigeration except for two melted ice packs. Ozempic is supposed to be stored refrigerated. The drug packaging, which appeared authentic, featured Chinese writing and the Novo Nordisk logo.
In an email, Novo Nordisk said the drug appeared to be “diverted legitimate product that was produced for, and distributed to, the Chinese market during late ’23 and early ’24. Therefore, it would be unauthorized/unapproved for the US market.”
The company added that it “cannot confirm the sterility, which may present an increased risk of infection for patients who use the counterfeit product.”
Law enforcement sources told CNBC that the Ozempic received from China is part of a larger ongoing federal investigation into Ozempic packages being shipped to the U.S.
Laver Beauty did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment, but a person who identified himself as a company representative told CNBC in a WhatsApp chat, “All our products are genuine. We don’t sell fake ones.” The person acknowledged that the product CNBC purchased was intended for the Chinese market.
The representative also messaged that the Boulder address “is the previous address of our U.S. warehouse.” A day after CNBC inquired about the Boulder address, it was removed from the company’s website.
Counterfeit medication
The Ozempic that CNBC purchased is considered an illegally diverted drug. A separate but related growing problem is the rise of counterfeit drugs — fake products purporting to be the real thing.
In the United Kingdom, authorities last year seized hundreds of counterfeit Ozempic pens — insulin pens that had been relabeled as Ozempic.
“We saw that the demand increased and quite often as it happens in these situations, criminals try and fill a gap where the supply and demand aren’t balanced for a particular product, and we started seeing real counterfeit versions of the Ozempic product on the market,” said Andy Morling, deputy director of criminal enforcement for the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
Andy Morling, deputy director of criminal enforcement for the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, holds up a real and fake Ozempic pen.
CNBC
Morling spoke to CNBC from a warehouse outside London where the counterfeits are stored. A total of 869 Ozempic counterfeit pens were seized in 2023.
Counterfeit weight loss drugs have serious health risks, according to the pharmaceutical companies and federal officials. In some cases they could be fatal to someone using them.
Eli Lilly, the maker of Mounjaro and Zepbound, said it is actively fighting the counterfeits.
“We have a very elaborate and rigorous system to test medicines before they’re allowed to be used in patients. But unfortunately [counterfeits] don’t go through that system at all,” said Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, Eli Lilly’s chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Labs.
Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, Eli Lilly’s chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Labs, shows samples of real and counterfeit Mounjaro.
CNBC
He showed CNBC a sophisticated fake that was labeled as Mounjaro but that contained a different medication entirely — one for Type 2 diabetes that doesn’t cause weight loss.
“It looks to all the world like Mounjaro, comes in a box that’s labeled as Mounjaro,” he said. “And it has pens that are labeled as Mounjaro. But it’s not Mounjaro at all.”
Counterfeiters are already trying to cash in on a weight loss drug that the company hasn’t even put on the market yet: retatrutide. CNBC found it’s being sold online.
“We’re testing it in Phase 3 clinical trials today. We don’t know yet, but I hope to get those results next year and we’ll find out,” Skovronksy said.
Asked about sites selling what they claim is retatrutide, Skovronksy said, “Yeah, that’s crazy … Even the real retatrutide is not ready for patient use outside of clinical trials.”
Port seizures rising
Finding fake or diverted Ozempic and other obesity drugs is common at the sprawling international mail facility located on the grounds of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. More than 60,000 seizures of counterfeit and illegal goods were made last year at the facility.
Seized Ozempic, Wegovy and other weight loss drugs at JFK International Mail Facility.
CNBC
“I am not surprised, unfortunately, any of these new type of drugs that we’re seeing, whether it be weight loss drugs or other drugs,” Sal Ingrassia, the port director overseeing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at JFK, told CNBC. “We’ll see them either diverted, counterfeited or illegally shipped through this facility.”
According to CBP, since Jan. 1 the agency has made more than 198 seizures of medication labeled as Ozempic. Nine shipments of medication labeled as Wegovy were also seized, as well as one shipment labeled as Mounjaro.
The CBP seizures data doesn’t specify how much of that medication was real and diverted to the U.S. or counterfeit.
Sal Ingrassia is the port director at JFK for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
CNBC
CNBC showed Ingrassia the Ozempic that it purchased from Laver Beauty, the package lacking the required refrigeration, and he said it was clear the shipment had “broken the legal supply chain.”
“This to me, is something that if we see, we are going to intercept and take action on. This is a dangerous product,” he said.
Ingrassia said he expects the number of interceptions of weight loss products to double this year over last.
And what happens to the seized items? Unless they’re part of an active investigation by the FDA, Ingrassia said, U.S. Customs isn’t allowed to destroy them, because the injection pens are categorized as medical devices. They are then sent back to the foreign supplier.
Illegal websites crackdown
Ingrassia said that for the most part, diverted products are ordered online or via social media.
“These are mostly individuals that are ordering this, going online and looking for a deal. And obviously taking a big risk by doing that. But we’ve also seen these products being ordered by doctors’ offices,” he said.
To go after the sellers of counterfeit or illegally diverted drugs, the pharmaceutical industry has teamed up with BrandShield, a cybersecurity company.
BrandShield CEO Yoav Keren showed CNBC various sites that the company flagged and that ultimately got shut down, including a Facebook account and a TikTok account that impersonated GLP-1 makers and sold versions of the drug.
Spokespeople for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok said their platforms do not allow the sale of prescription drugs and that the companies take action to remove those listings.
A Meta spokesperson in an email to CNBC said, “This is a challenge that spans platforms, industries, and communities which is why we work with law enforcement, regulators, and private industry to combat this problem. We continue to invest resources and further improve our enforcement on this kind of content.”
Keren said 250 sites identified by BrandShield as related to bogus weight loss products were removed last year, eight times the number in 2022.
“It’s kind of a whack-a-mole, but we’re on them. We’re chasing them, this is our technology, we find them very quickly,” he said.
The Turkey connection
Counterfeit Ozempic has been reported in 15 countries, according to the World Health Organization, which issued a global alert in June warning of the health risks of purchasing fake products.
For the U.S. government, it’s a big problem.
“We are seeing a lot of diverted medicines coming in from Europe and South America,” said Nicole Johnson, national program manager for the Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, which fights counterfeiting. “But for counterfeits, a lot of what we’re seeing currently in the United States is just the reuse of old Ozempic pens — so people can actually just take the original packaging and fill it with saline.”
Nicole Johnson is National Program Manager for the Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center.
CNBC
Johnson said the top countries where counterfeits and diverted drugs originate are India, China, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Turkey. In Turkey, she says, government-subsidized pharmaceuticals have fueled the counterfeit drug market.
Istanbul may be known for the beauty of the Bosphorus, surrounded by stunning palaces and mosques. But it’s also one of the epicenters of the lucrative counterfeit drug trade, according to U.S. authorities who track counterfeit drugs.
“What the criminals normally do is they find something to exploit to make more money. So the pharmaceuticals were then bought up, and then sold throughout the world — something that was supposed to help people, and it’s being exploited,” Johnson said.
Last fall, the Turkish National Police conducted raids throughout Istanbul as part of a coordinated international crackdown.
Maziar Mike Doustdar, executive vice president of international operations for Novo Nordisk, agreed that Turkey has become a hot spot for pharmaceutical crime.
Maziar Mike Doustdar is Executive Vice President of Novo Nordisk’s international operations, based in Zurich.
CNBC
Counterfeiters have acquired sophisticated packaging equipment that is “on par with the original company equipment,” Doustdar said.
“They source the equipment from pretty much the same place as we or our competitors are sourcing it. So, they make the packaging look very, very, similar to the original product,” he said.
Direnc Bada, an Istanbul-based attorney who represents major pharmaceutical companies in Turkey, pointed to “an increasing amount of online channels promoting these products … and it’s forbidden in Turkey actually to sell these through online channels.”
Direnc Bada is an attorney who represents pharmaceutical companies in Turkey.
CNBC
FDA alert, complaints
In the U.S., the FDA announced in an alert in December that it had seized “thousands of units of counterfeit” Ozempic in the “legitimate U.S. supply chain.”
Asked about the status of the investigation into the counterfeit Ozempic, an FDA spokesperson said there were no updates to the original alert.
The risks in purchasing counterfeit drugs can be high. Given the delicate nature of the formulation and the specific shipping requirements for the drugs, consuming illegal versions can be dangerous to a person’s health.
“It’s one thing to counterfeit a luxury bag. It’s a very, very different thing when you counterfeit a medicine,” Doustdar said.
Reports of issues with weight loss drugs containing semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, or tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro, have seen a sharp rise since 2019.
“This is a very serious problem for us as a pharma company, as an industry, because patient safety is our license to operate. And you’re playing with people’s safety,” Doustdar said.
“There is no good counterfeit,” he said.
— CNBC’s Eunice Yoon and Paige Tortorelli contributed to this report.
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Nevada Supreme Court orders dismissal of Nathan Chasing Horse sex abuse case
The Nevada Supreme Court has ordered the dismissal of a sprawling sex abuse indictment against Nathan Chasing Horse, while leaving open the possibility of charges being refiled in a case that sent shockwaves throughout Indian Country and led to more criminal charges in the U.S. and Canada.
The full seven-member court’s decision, issued Thursday, reverses earlier rulings upholding the charges by a three-member panel of the high court and a state judge. Proceedings in the 18-count criminal case have been at a standstill for more than a year while the former “Dances with Wolves” actor challenged it.
Kristy Holston, the deputy public defender representing Chasing Horse, had argued that some evidence presented to the grand jury, including an improper definition of grooming that was presented without expert testimony, had tainted the state’s case. Holston said prosecutors also failed to provide the grand jury with exculpatory evidence, including inconsistent statements made by one of the victims.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP
The high court agreed.
“The combination of these two clear errors undermines our confidence in the grand jury proceedings and created intolerable damage to the independent function of the grand jury process,” the court said in its scathing order.
Holston declined to comment further. Prosecutor Stacy Kollins did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
The ruling directs the judge overseeing the case in Clark County District Court to dismiss the indictment without prejudice, meaning the charges can be refiled.
“The allegations against Chasing Horse are indisputably serious, and we express no opinion about Chasing Horse’s guilt or innocence,” the order says.
Chasing Horse’s lawyer had also had argued that the case should be dismissed because, the former actor said, the sexual encounters were consensual. One of his accusers was younger than 16, the age of consent in Nevada, when the alleged abuse began, authorities said.
The 48-year-old has been in custody since his arrest last January near the North Las Vegas home he is said to have shared with five wives. Inside the home, police found firearms, 41 pounds of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, and a memory card with videos of sexual assaults, CBS News previously reported. Police said that at least two of the women were underage when he married them: One was 15, police said, and another was 16.
Ty O’Neil / AP
Chasing Horse is best known for portraying Smiles A Lot in the 1990 film “Dances with Wolves.” But in the decades since starring in the Oscar-winning movie, authorities said, he built a reputation as self-proclaimed medicine man among tribes and traveled around North America to perform healing ceremonies. An arrest warrant stated that he is believed to be the leader of a cult called “The Circle,” whose followers believe he can communicate with higher powers, CBS News previously reported.
He is accused of using that position to gain access to vulnerable girls and women starting in the early 2000s.
He also faces criminal sexual abuse charges in at least four other jurisdictions, including U.S. District Court in Nevada and on the Fort Perk Indian Reservation in Montana.
Tribal leaders voted to ban him from the Montana reservation in 2015, citing alleged trafficking and accusations of drug dealing, spiritual abuse and intimidation of tribal members.Las Vegas police arrested Chasing Horse in January 2023. The arrest helped law enforcement agencies in two countries corroborate long-standing allegations against the former actor. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that police in southern Alberta have been investigating his possible connection to past sexual assaults.
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Gilead Sciences alleges dangerous drug-counterfeiting operation at two NYC pharmacies in lawsuit
Gilead HIV prescription bottles seized at Best Scripts pharmacy.
Courtesy: Gilead Sciences
Gilead Sciences says it uncovered a dangerous drug-counterfeiting operation in which its HIV medications were tampered with and improperly resold before reaching patients.
The scheme, allegedly run out of two New York City pharmacies, identified Peter Khaim, a twice-convicted medical fraudster, as the mastermind, according to court documents unsealed this month. The company described Khaim as one of the most brazen and largest manufacturers and sellers of counterfeit Gilead medications in the country.
Gilead sued Khaim along with the pharmacies, 71st RX and Best Scripts, both located in Queens, and others it claims were connected to the counterfeiting scheme. Gilead’s complaint said Khaim controlled the two pharmacies.
“The defendants and their co-conspirators manufactured and trafficked these counterfeit Gilead-branded HIV medications to pharmacies and patients in at least New York and New Jersey, putting untold numbers of patients’ health and safety at risk,” the lawsuit, filed by attorney Geoffrey Potter of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, said.
Gilead says in its complaint that counterfeiters used its authentic prescription bottles, but tampered with the actual medication or associated documentation.
“In some cases, the bottles had their contents emptied, were refilled with the wrong medication, and then were re-resealed using a different material than Gilead’s authentic tamper-evident seals,” the complaint said. “The co-conspirators then sold the counterfeit bottles with counterfeit patient information documents, counterfeit caps, and/or counterfeit pedigrees or invoices.”
The majority of the Gilead HIV medications seized in the case were Biktarvy and Descovy.
Victims include both “patients living with HIV who are preyed upon by Defendants and convinced to give up taking their prescribed medication,” and “patients who go to their neighborhood pharmacy and, unbeknownst to them, are dispensed a sealed, authentic-looking bottle,” but instead receive a counterfeit, Gilead said in the complaint.
Gilead attorneys and private investigators, accompanied by deputies from the New York City Sheriff’s Office, conducted seizures at the two pharmacies and Khaim’s home in July, taking more than $750,000 of suspected counterfeit medication, the court filing said.
An attorney for Khaim declined to comment.
Lighter fluid found with Gilead medications during the seizure at Best Scripts pharmacy.
Source: Gilead lawsuit exhibit
The case is the second major civil complaint by Gilead against Khaim in connection with counterfeit HIV medications in the legal supply chain. Gilead sued Khaim and others in 2021 and obtained an injunction prohibiting him from selling Gilead-branded products. In that case, according to Gilead, Khaim made more than $38 million selling counterfeit Gilead medications to distributors and directly to pharmacies.
Despite the injunction, Khaim continued to oversee a counterfeiting operation from the two Queens pharmacies, the latest complaint says.
In unrelated criminal schemes, Khaim received 96 months in prison on a medical fraud case and 15 years on a separate insurance fraud scheme. He was wearing a court-ordered GPS ankle monitor while awaiting sentencing in the medical fraud case and also while he was operating the pharmacies and selling the counterfeit medication, according to documents in the case file.
“This lawsuit is another clear demonstration of our ongoing commitment to put patient safety first and protect individuals from criminals who are trying to sell counterfeit and illicit versions of Gilead’s medicines,” Gilead said in a statement to CNBC. “In addition to this lawsuit, we continue to work closely with the FDA, OIG, FBI and prosecutors to dismantle counterfeiting networks, deter fraudsters, and thwart illegal pharmaceutical distribution.”
Last year, a CNBC investigation revealed the shadowy world of counterfeit drugs and how Gilead was fighting to stop criminals from altering its packaging and medications.
In many cases, according to Gilead and law enforcement officials, counterfeiters obtain medications from patients who sell them for cash. The labels are typically removed with lighter fluid and the bottles resealed and dispensed to other patients. In this most recent case against Khaim, lighter fluid was found at the pharmacies during the seizures, court documents said.
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Taylor Swift concerts canceled after 2 arrested in Vienna for alleged terrorist attack plans
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour shows in Vienna, Austria, have been canceled after government officials confirmed an alleged ISIS-linked terrorist plot to attack large events, organizers said Wednesday.
“With confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety,” Barracuda Music, the concerts’ organizer, said in an online post.
The announcement came shortly after two suspected extremists were arrested in Austria on Wednesday, one of whom appeared to be planning an attack on a major event in the Vienna area such as Swift’s concerts over the weekend, authorities said.
Austrian authorities said that the two individuals are tied to ISIS.
Guenther Iby/SEPA.Media /Getty Images
The 19-year-old main suspect was arrested in Ternitz, south of Vienna, and the second person in the Austrian capital.
Swift’s concerts had been scheduled to take place at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of her massively successful Eras Tour. The shows’ ticket vendor in Austria said that all tickets would be refunded within 10 business days.
Franz Ruf, the public security director at Austria’s interior ministry, said that authorities became aware of “preparatory actions” for a possible attack “and also that there is a focus by the 19-year-old perpetrator on the Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna,” the Austria Press Agency reported. Ruf said the concerts would have attracted audiences of up to 65,000, with thousands more expected to congregate outside the stadium.
A “targeted raid was carried out this morning,” coordinated by various state and city law enforcement offices, Ruf said.
Thomas Niedermueller/TAS24/Getty Images
The Austrian Interior Ministry said that both suspects had become radicalized on the internet and made “concrete preparations for a terrorist attack.” Ruf said the 19-year-old Austrian citizen had pledged an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State group in July.
Ruf also said that chemical substances were seized from the main suspect’s home and were being evaluated. He didn’t give more details.
Prior to the cancellation announcement, Provincial Police President Gerhard Pürstl had said officials would step up security measures for the concerts to include the deployment of police officers in both civilian clothes and uniform, video surveillance, a police dog unit and other special law enforcement units.
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AT&T, other phone companies sued over stolen nude images could face liability after court ruling
Wireless providers including T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon have faced a string of lawsuits in recent years from women who allege retail employees stole intimate images or videos from their phones while helping them with in-store data transfers.
The cases are routinely dismissed when the companies argue they weren’t aware of the staffer’s actions and aren’t liable because the employees were acting outside the scope of their duties. But that could soon change after a recent court ruling, legal experts told CNBC.
Now, the companies — not just the store workers — could face liability in future litigation, which could lead them to address the hiring, training and data safety practices that victims argue led to the violations, the experts said.
The latest lawsuit against AT&T was filed Monday in California state court. A woman identified as Jane Doe alleged that an employee at a Los Angeles store stole her nude images and distributed them in February after she upgraded her iPhone and he helped her with transferring her data.
That case, filed by attorneys from the C.A. Goldberg law firm, now has a better chance of surviving and making it to trial after an April court ruling against T-Mobile involving a similar incident in Washington that was brought by the same law firm. Judge Stanley Bastian, the judge overseeing the T-Mobile case, ruled it could move forward after the company sought to have the lawsuit dismissed.
T-Mobile, like other phone carriers, had argued it wasn’t aware of the employee’s actions and said he was acting outside the scope of his duties. But the judge decided the company could potentially be liable and ruled the case should proceed.
The ruling, described by the law firm as a “landmark” decision, is the first of its kind against a wireless carrier accused of negligence for hiring employees alleged to have stolen sensitive customer data, the firm said. It could affect the fate of future cases, including the lawsuit filed against AT&T on Monday, legal experts said.
“That decision sets important precedent and we intend to continue to try to hold phone companies accountable for situations like this where their employees violate customer privacy during phone trade-ins or other transactions at the stores,” said Laura Hecht-Felella from C.A. Goldberg, one of the lead attorneys behind both the T-Mobile and the new AT&T case. “There’s a lot of different ways in which they can try to prevent this from happening and it’s clear whatever they’re currently doing is not adequate.”
Carrie Goldberg, the firm’s founder, added that the “hope really is not to attract more cases” but to encourage the companies to have better safeguards in place.
“That’s what litigation does. It says you can be held responsible for your negligence,” said Goldberg. “And presumably that will induce the phone companies to innovate on their safety and privacy protections for consumers at their stores.”
In response, an AT&T spokesperson condemned the incident.
“We were appalled to learn of the behavior allegedly exhibited by an employee of a third-party retailer,” the spokesperson told CNBC. “We hold the vendors who work on our behalf to high standards and we do not tolerate the behavior alleged here. The vendor has assured us the employee allegedly involved no longer works for them, and they were working to resolve this matter with the customer.”
T-Mobile declined to comment.
Mounting allegations
In the case against AT&T, the woman filed a police report, which remains under investigation, according to the lawsuit.
At least six other similar accusations have been levied against AT&T in the past either in civil lawsuits or police reports, according to the complaint. The dispositions of those cases are unclear. The cases mirror at least a dozen more alleged to have happened at other providers, such as T-Mobile and Verizon, according to news reports.
Juyochi | Istock | Getty Images
Goldberg says she suspects the cases that have been made public are “just the tip of the iceberg,” and there are likely more that customers never detected.
“We suspect that the phenomenon of theft at cellular phone stores is bigger than we can comprehend,” said Goldberg.
“As a society, we trust these cellular providers with all of our most private information,” said Goldberg. “And really there’s no limit to what their employees can steal off of our phones and then share with the world.”
She added that her firm has received “case after case after case” where customers allege phone store employees stole their data. Goldberg said the issue cuts across companies, making it an “industry-wide” concern.
Andrew Stengel, a New York attorney who specializes in cases involving the nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images, better known as revenge porn, reviewed the T-Mobile Washington decision for CNBC. He said future cases, such as the AT&T lawsuit, now have a better chance of surviving motions to dismiss and progressing because the attorneys will be able to point to that precedent in their arguments.
“It should make judges think twice or three times before they dismiss a claim,” said Stengel, who has brought a similar case against T-Mobile in the past but isn’t involved in the current litigation. “It should be able to give judges not only pause, but ammunition to agree.”
If lawsuits against wireless carriers related to the theft of intimate images are allowed to proceed, they move into discovery, which Stengel likened to the “crown jewels” of a legal case.
During discovery, defendants are required to turn over documents that are relevant to the case, which could reveal damning and implicating information.
“There could be information that the cellphone companies would be required to disclose that will increase liability in the future,” said Stengel. “If I were their attorney, I’d be very concerned about that.”
Stengel cautioned that while the Washington decision may be “exciting,” it’s not binding and judges in other jurisdictions can choose to ignore it.
Still, Goldberg expects the decision to be “influential.” She said it could impel phone companies to finally make changes to prevent these sorts of abuses.
“We think that the cellular providers are going to be a lot less arrogant about what they can get away with,” said Goldberg. “If you’re a company that is consistently hiring rando pervs that steal consumers’ most private, intimate pictures, then, it’s the company’s fault.”
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A Silicon Valley executive had $400,000 stolen by cybercriminals while buying a home. Here’s her warning
Real estate, with its large transaction sizes and frequent use of bank wires, has proven to be an especially lucrative target for cybercriminals.
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