National Roundup

California
5 charged with running massive movie piracy ring
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles federal grand jury has indicted five men who allegedly ran an international piracy ring that offered hundreds of stolen movies and TV shows online, including “Fifty Shades of Grey,” ‘“Godzilla” and “The Walking Dead.”

Wednesday’s indictment alleges the men hacked computer systems used by Hollywood film production companies to steal digital files; recorded movie theater screenings and obtained copies of movies sent to industry professionals.

The ring allegedly had a server in France that contained 25,000 files including stolen movies, trailers, TV episodes and audio tracks.

The men are charged with conspiracy, computer hacking, ID theft and copyright infringement. They live in the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. None are in U.S. custody but the UK resident awaits trial on similar charges there.

Massachusetts
Report: Hackers steal $1M from Save the Children charity
BOSTON (AP) — The Save the Children charity says hackers stole nearly $1 million from the nonprofit through a sophisticated email scam.

The Boston Globe reports that scammers hacked into the email of a worker at the Fairfield, Connecticut-based charity last year, posed as an employee, and created false invoices and other documents to fool the charity into sending nearly $1 million to a fraudulent entity in Japan.

Scammers claimed the money was needed to purchase solar panels for health centers in Pakistan, a country where Save the Children has worked for decades.

The Save the Children Federation , the U.S. affiliate of the international relief organization, said its insurance reimbursed all but $112,000 of the stolen funds.

The charity has since tightened its cybersecurity and bank transfer protocols to prevent fraud.

Nevada
Vegas bank ­robber with fake bomb sentenced to prison
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 65-year-old bank robber who made off with $500 during a holdup with a fake bomb in Las Vegas has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson sentenced Robert Dufloth of Las Vegas on Wednesday to 46 months in prison and five years’ probation. His 10 prior felony convictions dating to 1972 include a 1980 bank robbery.

Federal prosecutors say Dufloth told the manager of the weekly rental complex where he lived he planned to rob the nearby bank so he could pay the rent for his apartment.

Police say he handed a note to a Wells Fargo teller on Howard Hughes Parkway in January, suggesting a red button in his hand could trigger an explosive device. They say the teller put $536 in an envelope and Dufloth fled with the money.

Alabama
Judge sets ­additional ­hearing on ­prisons’ ­mental care
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge considering whether to hold Alabama prisons in contempt of court for failing to provide inmates with adequate mental health care told attorneys Wednesday to be in court next month for a hearing that could decide the issue.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued an order setting a hearing for Jan. 7 to hear evidence about staffing levels for mental health workers in state lockups. The Department of Corrections has until Dec. 21 to explain in court filings why it should be held in contempt, a move that could result in sanctions and additional demands from the court.

The decision came after a Tuesday hearing in which, the Montgomery Advertiser reported, testimony showed a contractor hired to provide medical and mental health care for more than 20,000 inmates isn’t complying with its contract.

The state prison system has only about three-quarters of the number of mental health workers that it’s supposed to have, testimony showed. Corrections officials say they don’t have enough funding and have denied providing unconstitutional care.

The judge previously ruled that psychiatric care in Alabama prisons was “horrendously inadequate.” Thompson ruled that the situation created unconstitutional conditions in state prisons.

Elaine Gedman, chief administrative officer and executive vice president for Wexford Health Sources, the contractor hired to provide health care by the state, testified that she was unaware if Wexford had been involved in negotiations about paybacks for failing to meet staffing benchmarks in a $360 million contract signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in March.

Maria Morris, a Southern Poverty Law Center attorney representing inmates, has said the state wants to amend or vacate Thompson’s order and has asked for specific ways to count the number of staff members in prisons.

The class-action lawsuit filed by the law center and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program in 2014 led to a trial over inmates’ claims of inadequate mental health care. An inmate who was the first to testify killed himself in prison days later.

In the 2018 fiscal year, which prison officials use to report its data, seven people were killed and six died by suicide. Nearly 40 inmates attempted suicide.


Minnesota
Federal jury ­convicts 5 in Thai sex trafficking trial
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Five people on trial for an alleged ring that prosecutors said sold Thai women for sex in the U.S. were convicted Wednesday on sex trafficking charges.

A federal jury in Minnesota found all five guilty of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and other charges, the Star Tribune reported. Jurors returned their verdict just a day after receiving the case.

The defendants were Michael Morris, 65, of Seal Beach, California; Pawinee Unpradit, 46, of Dallas; Saowapha Thinram, 44, of Hutto, Texas; Thoucharin Ruttanamongkongul, 35, of Chicago; and Waralee Wanless, 39, of Colony, Texas.

Prosecutors alleged during the six-week trial that the defendants, along with 34 co-conspirators, ran a sex trafficking operation that lasted more than a decade and crossed borders.

Government attorneys called it a case of “modern day sex slavery,” with Thai women forced to have sex with multiple men daily to pay off “bondage debts” owed to traffickers for help coming to the U.S. Some victims testified during the trial.

Prosecutors said the victims were misled about how much they owed. The women were threatened if they tried to leave the business, prosecutors alleged.

Defense attorneys for all five contended the women were willful participants.

Paul Engh, an attorney for Thinram, predicted all five defendants will appeal.