Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a 46-year-old native of Stockholm, is identified as the brain behind one of the biggest scams ever. Through the fictional cryptocurrency OneCoin, he, along with the so-called “Crypto Queen”, Ruja Ignatova, tricked investors from all over the world into investing over SEK 40 billion. Now a court in New York has sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
Sebastian Greenwood, who began using his middle name Karl as a nickname, was arrested in Thailand in 2018 after tricking people around the world into investing in a cryptocurrency that did not exist. His accomplice, Ruja Ignatova, is internationally wanted since 2017 and was charged in absentia, Bloomberg reports.
Between 2014 and fall 2016, despite total investments of 40 billion, OneCoin had revenues of over 30 billion according to the FBI. Profits during this period amounted to over 20 billion SEK.
Greenwood has been in custody in New York for five years on suspicion of money laundering and computer fraud. In December, he pleaded guilty to three of the criminal charges.
“Karl takes full responsibility for what he has done and deeply regrets his actions,” his defense lawyers said, according to Swedish news outlet SvD.
Despite his confession and the time he spent in custody, the court chose to sentence him to a total of 20 years in prison. The five years Greenwood spent in custody will be deducted from the total sentence, meaning he has 15 years left to serve.
Around 60,000 Swedes are said to have invested in OneCoin. Greenwood’s defense asked the court to consider his remorse and the suffering of his parents, who, according to the defense lawyers, are “paralyzed by the fear of not seeing their son return home”.
The maximum sentence for each crime he was charged with was 20 years. Given the seriousness of the charges and the scale of the fraud, the court chose to impose a severe sentence, despite the defense’s request for a lighter sentence or extradition to Sweden.
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OpenAI on Tuesday unveiled its new AI-based browser ChatGPT Atlas, a significant step in the company’s ambition to compete with Google as the primary source for information searches on the internet. The service, initially rolling out for macOS with support for Windows, iOS and Android coming soon, will be available to all users from the start.
Browsers have quickly become the next major battleground in the AI industry. Despite Google Chrome’s long-standing market dominance, a transformative shift is now underway as AI chatbots and intelligent agents change how people work online. Several startup companies have already launched their own AI-powered browsers, including Perplexity’s Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia. Google and Microsoft have also updated Chrome and Edge respectively with AI features.
OpenAI’s chief technology officer for Atlas, Ben Goodger, emphasized in a livestream on Tuesday that ChatGPT forms the core of the company’s first browser. Users can in ChatGPT Atlas engage in dialogue with their search results, similar to the functionality in Perplexity or Google’s AI mode, writes TechCrunch.
Side panel and web history
The most prominent feature in AI-based browsers has been the built-in chatbot in a side panel that automatically receives context from what is displayed on screen. This eliminates the need to manually copy and paste text or drag files to ChatGPT. OpenAI’s product manager Adam Fry confirmed that ChatGPT Atlas also includes this feature.
Additionally, ChatGPT Atlas has a “web history,” which means ChatGPT can now log which websites the user visits and what is done on them, then use the information for more personalized responses.
AI-based browsers also contain agents designed to automate web-based tasks. In TechCrunch’s tests, early versions of these agents prove to work well for simple tasks, but they struggle to handle more complex problems reliably.
Warning: OpenAI stores user data
Users should be aware that ChatGPT stores all conversation data. According to OpenAI’s official data storage guidelines, deleted conversations are saved for up to 30 days in the company’s system, unless legal obligations require longer storage. This applies even when users actively delete their chats.
Furthermore, OpenAI uses conversations to improve its services. Following a court ruling from the New York Times, OpenAI is now forced to permanently save all chats for non-business customers, meaning data is no longer deleted at all for many users.
A group of 55 Chinese iPhone and iPad users has filed a complaint against Apple with the country’s market regulator. They accuse the tech giant of abusing its dominant position by forcing users onto the company’s own platforms for downloads and payments – while charging commissions of up to 30 percent.
The complaint to the Chinese competition authority was filed on Monday and comes as the trade conflict between Beijing and Washington intensifies. Both countries are using tariffs and technology restrictions as political tools, reports Reuters.
The group, represented by lawyer Wang Qiongfei, argues that Apple holds a monopoly on iOS app distribution in China. Meanwhile, the company allows alternative payment methods and app stores in other markets following pressure from the EU and the United States.
Forced to use Apple’s system
The complaint identifies three violations of China’s anti-monopoly law: Apple forces consumers to purchase digital content through the company’s own payment system, restricts app downloads to the App Store, and charges commissions of up to 30 percent.
Apple has not commented on the allegations.
This is the second time Wang Qiongfei has pursued a similar case. A lawsuit from 2021 was dismissed by a Shanghai court last year, but the ruling has been appealed to the Supreme People’s Court, where a final decision has not yet been reached.
Wang tells Reuters that he expects faster processing of this regulatory complaint compared to the previous civil lawsuit.
China has recently initiated several antitrust reviews against American tech companies, including chipmaker Qualcomm.
With less than a year until the election and polling around two percent voter support, the Liberal Party in Stockholm is proposing that the city paint more crosswalks in rainbow colors to show support for the LGBTQ movement.
Taxpayers are expected to cover the total cost of approximately €200,000.
Currently, there is only one rainbow-colored crosswalk in the Swedish capital, located outside Stockholm City Hall. According to the Liberals’ budget proposal, this number should be significantly increased through the project “Proud streets in rainbow colors”.
Opposition city councilor Jan Jönsson (L), who is driving the proposal, argues that the initiative would clearly signal that Stockholm is a city that stands for “love, openness and inclusion”, reports Samnytt.
The proposal comes as the Liberal Party faces the threat of being voted out of the Riksdag. With polling around two percent – far below the four percent threshold required for parliamentary representation – the party is now seeking attention through symbolic policy proposals ahead of next year’s elections.
Drag queens – a cause close to the heart
Jan Jönsson has previously attracted attention for a series of attention-seeking initiatives in recent years. He has called himself “the gangs’ worst enemy” in a campaign about gang crime, although his proposals in practice mainly involved sitting down and having serious conversations with criminal youth.
He has also advocated for men dressed as drag queens to be allowed to read stories to children at libraries. According to Jönsson, it is of utmost importance to protect drag queens’ rights, and he considers it an “art form” that must be defended.
— We want to defend drag queens and everyone else’s right to express themselves. No one should have to hesitate to exercise their right to freedom of expression out of fear of reprisals of any kind, he declared in connection with putting on makeup himself, dressing in women’s clothing and organizing his own drag queen story time in support of the group in question.
— It’s about how people try to restrict people’s right to express themselves and be who they want to be. Especially this art form. This applies to Sweden and not least other countries where increasingly cold winds are blowing, Jönsson warned, claiming that many European countries are moving in an “LGBTQ-hostile direction”.
The number of minors suspected of planning murders has skyrocketed in a short time, according to new figures from the Swedish Prosecution Authority. More than 120 children under 15 are currently under investigation for planning deadly violence.
At the same time, the Swedish government reports that the fight against gang crime shows some progress – but the development raises concerns.
The government’s initiative against gangs has been a central part of the Tidö Agreement between the governing parties and the Sweden Democrats. Three years after the cooperation began, several sentences have been toughened, the justice system has received increased resources, and police have gained access to new tools.
Despite this, it remains unclear whether organized crime is actually decreasing. However, one clearly positive trend is that the number of shootings has decreased sharply in recent years.
According to police statistics, 314 shootings occurred through September 2022. During the same period this year, the number has dropped to 113. The number of fatal shootings has decreased from 49 to 26 during the corresponding period – excluding the ten people killed in the attack at Risbergska School in Örebro, central Sweden.
Police assess that more violent crimes are being stopped in time thanks to expanded possibilities for secret surveillance and other intelligence methods. More murder investigations are also being solved, according to the authority.
Antalet barn under 15 år som misstänks för inblandning i mordplaner ökar dramatiskt i Sverige. Mellan januari och september 2022 misstänktes 14 barn under 15 år för mordplaner. Under samma period i år är siffran 127.
Samtidigt i MP ♀️ pic.twitter.com/lN1LZxAA54
At the same time, the trend points in the opposite direction regarding bombings and arson attacks. These have increased but rarely lead to fatalities. Recently, many of the bombings have been carried out with powerful pyrotechnics instead of military explosives.
Police also see successes on the international front. So far this year, 183 gang-connected individuals have been arrested abroad – a record figure – of which 35 are classified as so-called priority actors. Despite this, the total circle of gang criminals is not assessed to be decreasing.
According to police’s latest situation report from autumn 2024, around 14,000 people are actively involved in the gang environment and an additional 48,000 have connections to it. When the next report is presented in November, the numbers are expected to rise.
Directing crime from abroad
Police also estimate that approximately 700 gang criminals now operate from abroad – an increase of 100 people since previous calculations.
The most concerning trend, however, involves children and young people. In 2022, 14 children under 15 were suspected of involvement in murder plots. This year, the figure has risen to 127, according to new data from the Swedish Prosecution Authority.
The suspicions mainly concern attempted murder, preparation, conspiracy and aiding and abetting murder, but also nine completed murders and a couple of cases of incitement.
Bombings are increasing alarmingly in Sweden (archive image Uppsala, Sep. 2023). Photo: Facsimile/Aftonbladet Play/YT
Children recruiting children
According to the Swedish Ministry of Justice, children are often recruited via social media, where gang criminals post orders for violent acts. A growing trend is also that children themselves recruit other children. Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (Moderate Party) believes that crime has not worsened, but that it has changed character.
Criminologist Manne Gerell assesses that the development is largely moving in the right direction: – The best indicator for me is how many people die or are seriously injured, and there we have seen a massive decrease in shootings.
Gerell believes the decrease is mainly due to increased resources for police rather than individual reforms in the Tidö Agreement: – Everything else is small puzzle pieces that individually could hardly have played any role, he says.
Among the measures that have had the least effect, he mentions the visitation zones, which have been used less than expected and have not produced any clear results.
Police simultaneously warn that the level of violence within gangs remains high and that new spirals of violence may arise: – One concern is that hundreds of children and young people who were taken for involvement in these crimes a few years ago will, to a large extent, be back on the streets soon if they aren’t already, says Manne Gerell.
