Peanut butter and jelly : Tech and crime
Plus: a lot going on this weekend!
the true crime that's worth your time
Welcome to today’s issue, a roundup of tech-related true crime properties and cases ripe for the true crime treatment. It’s a matter that feels even more timely with the collapse this morning of Silicon Valley Bank, which relied on profits generated by loans to startups. Apparently, those profits didn’t come.
It’s a weird time here in the Bay Area, one of the epicenters of the world’s technology business. It smells like 2001 in here, and that’s not a good thing — but as companies, fortunes and ambitions crumble, we can expect to see more and more stories like the ones we have here today. Turns out that tech industry desperation does not make for great behavior from many of our titans of industry. Who knew?
But before we get to that, a quick spin through some of the most notable true crime options before us this weekend. As always, your own weekend picks are welcomed in the comments, as well as your commentary on any of the shows you’ve already watched:
Who Killed Robert Wone? [Peacock]
This Peacock docuseries dropped yesterday and is about a DC lawyer found fatally stabbed at a friends’ house in 2006; The Washingtonian had a great longread about the case in 2010. An important part of the story here is that Wone was gay, as were his friends — and even though 2006 wasn’t that long ago, the casual homophobia demonstrated in a lot of the daily/broadcast coverage is the sort of thing that wouldn’t fly as easily today. (Don’t get me wrong, it would still fly, but one of the positive aspects of the current social media age is that it would be called out more decisively.)
BuzzFeed has a good piece that covers the case, the series and how gross the cops were as they investigated the slaying, it also gives away pretty much every beat one might expect from the series so if you’re worried about real world spoilers, don’t click.
The Torso Killer Confessions [A&E]
I tried with the first part of this show, which is about the 1967 slaying of Mary Ann Della Sal. It felt like a product of another age to me: as it says on the box, this is about the confession “elicited” by retired cop Robert Anzilotti from Richard Cottingham, and while the subject matter interests me, a show that centers a cop and uncritically presents an “elicited” confession from an incarcerated serial killer isn’t something I have to consume in our peak true crime era. This NY Post article gives you the show’s facts and vibe, so reading it might do ya.
Sin Eater: The Crimes of Anthony Pellicano [FX and Hulu]
This New York Times-driven two-parter drops “tonight,” and I didn’t get a screener so no comment from me on quality. What I will say is that I’m curious if there’s any unintended fallout as a new audience learns of some of the morally-compromised PI’s cases. The Chris Rock rape allegations! The Michael Jackson serial child rape case! Whatever the fuck this was with Joel Silver!
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Times doc producer Liz Day says the show asks “is Hollywood still above the law?” Day’s no dummy and that question is clearly rhetorical, but for fans of inside industry baseball dirt, this show could be a solid bet.
Your turn! What true crime are you reading/listening to/watching this weekend?
And now, let’s get techy!
Alex Gibney Working on Elon Musk Documentary [The Hollywood Reporter]
”Where’s the crime, Eve?” you might be asking at this, as other than transgressions of decency, taste and reason Musk isn’t a true crime figure (yet). But there’s a longstanding allegation against Musk that is important, I think, to get straight: is the root of his wealth an exploitative apartheid-era “blood gem” operation?
We see that claim thrown around all the time by opponents of Musk, which is seemingly the side of the angels — however, Snopes can’t confirm that claim, and aggressive online reputation-management content (commissioned by I dunno who) makes efforts to figure out how that allegation even started next to impossible. Gibney is a heavy enough hitter to confirm or debunk that claim, which many use as evidence that Musk is rotten to the core. If that near-criminal basis for his fortune is debunked, I guess we’ll all have to really look hard to find other explanations for why he sucks so much.
Elizabeth Holmes Fights 'Sweeping' $900M Restitution Bid [Law 360]
Holmes is supposed to head to prison to begin her 11-year sentence on April 27, a date delayed until she could give birth to her second child (as she reportedly did last month). In this latest filing, her team claims that “there is no proof that the investors put their money into Theranos as a result of her fraudulent claims, or that her crimes were responsible for the company's collapse.” They also say she has no assets with which to repay any restitution.
She returns to court on March 17, where her attorneys will argue that that April 27 date should be postponed until all her appeals have been exhausted, as she is “the mother of two very young children.” Hey, if the U.S. court system wanted to extend similar dispensations to all women convicted of crimes, that might not be so bad!
They thought loved ones were calling for help. It was an AI scam. [Washington Post]
Audio deepfakes are the newest version of the classic “I’m stuck in jail overseas, help me Grandma” scam. And it’s only getting more popular:
Technology is making it easier and cheaper for bad actors to mimic voices, convincing people, often the elderly, that their loved ones are in distress. In 2022, impostor scams were the second most popular racket in America, with over 36,000 reports of people being swindled by those pretending to be friends and family, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission. Over 5,100 of those incidents happened over the phone, accounting for over $11 million in losses, FTC officials said.
City of Oakland posts statement on ransomware attack, as hackers begin posting data online [KTVU]
A hacker group called “Play” has hijacked Oakland, CA’s city-owned servers, and they’ve started leaking what they found. Officials are being secretive as hell about the incursion, which means reporting on it has been hard; that’s why you might not have heard about what’s a very significant and serious problem in the major, important U.S. city!
It’s unclear how much Play is asking from city officials to keep what they uncovered to themselves, but "If there (sic) no reaction full dump will be uploaded,” Play threatened last week.
Millions Spent on FTX Lawyers and Calls for Staff Bonuses, as SBF Hints He May Want Trial Delayed [Yahoo Finance]
As I was planning this issue, this item got a placeholder that read “whatever is up with SBF that day.” I know, I know, you don’t feel like understanding what Sam Bankman-Fried did and why he’s in trouble, but I promise that if you try, you’ll realize it’s pretty interesting! But I’m not going to outline it for you today — after all, his trial, which will have allll the dirt, hasn’t even started yet.
I haven’t seen any headlines yet on the (HBO? Hulu?) inevitable dramatic adaptation of the rise and fall of Bankman-Fried and his allegedly bogus currency yet, but I am here for your casting suggestions for the bankrupt company’s now-infamous founder, bet before you say it, “Jared Leto” is just a lazy suggestion (we get it, he’ll play anyone!). We can do better than that.
Local YouTube star sentenced to 5½ years, ordered to forfeit $30M in large-scale cable piracy case [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Bill Omar Carrasquillo aka Omi in a Hellcat makes YouTube videos that are better produced and more entertaining than the average network sitcom (Hulu autoplayed the pilot for Animal Control the other day and it was…wooooof), most of which showcase his “fleet of luxury and sports cars, collection of diamond-encrusted bling, and his spacious Swedesboro home.”
He’s set to lose all that, as well as access to YouTube, a federal judge told him this week. He was convicted of selling “content hijacked from cable boxes to thousands of online subscribers paying fees as low as $15 a month,” which prompted prosecutors to charge him with “conspiracy, copyright infringement, fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion.”
I’m new to this story, as I just stumbled across it this morning, but I’m already a little in love with Carrasquillo by way of his videos…and stealing from the cable company feels about as victimless a crime as you can get while still committing a crime. And I would watch the hell out of a show about his rise to wealth; I mean, look at this story:
A product of North Philadelphia, he was raised as one of 38 children. His mother was deported and died of an overdose when he was still a child. His father dealt drugs and trained Carrasquillo at age 12 to cook crack cocaine.
A product of North Philadelphia, he was raised as one of 38 children. His mother was deported and died of an overdose when he was still a child. His father dealt drugs and trained Carrasquillo at age 12 to cook crack cocaine.
After turning things around, he launched a company called Gears TV that made him rich:
It provided its subscribers hundreds of on-demand movies and television shows as well as access to dozens of live cable channels and pay-per-view events at cut-rate pricing — all of it stolen from legitimate services like Comcast, Verizon FiOS, and DirecTV.
The service proved wildly successful attracting more than 100,000 subscribers and amassing more than $34 million in revenue by the time federal investigators shut it down in 2019.
Read the Inquirer article and tell me you wouldn’t watch it, too.
Next week on Best Evidence: Robert Blake, In The Dark, Perry Mason, and more.
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