Hacker News with Generative AI: Corruption

BMA acts against 4 Chinese for removing documents from SAO building (nationthailand.com)
Pol Maj Gen Nopasin Poolswat, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, disclosed that on Saturday, March 29, 2025, four Chinese nationals were apprehended for illegally removing 32 files of documents from the rear of the collapsed State Audit Office (SAO) building, without permission.
'You're His Property': How One Sheriff Used Inmate Labor on His Family Farm (nytimes.com)
In Mississippi, incarcerated trusties cleaned chicken houses, fixed cars and installed flooring for the benefit of a local sheriff and his associates, a new investigation found.
Fired FTC commissioner warns of the 'corrupting influence of billionaires' (theverge.com)
President Donald Trump’s sudden and unlawful firing of the Federal Trade Commission’s two remaining Democrats will serve the tech billionaires who backed him, not the American people, warned one of the ousted officials today.
Why the Law Against Business Bribes Is Good for Business (sloanreview.mit.edu)
In February, the Trump administration announced that it was suspending enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), pending a six-month review.
Belgian cops raid Huawei in Euro bribery probe (theregister.com)
Belgian authorities have raided multiple premises as part of a corruption probe involving Chinese tech giant Huawei, which has also led to the sealing of two EU parliamentary offices in Brussels.
Kids for Cash Scandal (wikipedia.org)
The kids for cash scandal centered on judicial kickbacks to two judges at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, US.
Huawei targeted in new European Parliament corruption probe (ftm.eu)
Chinese tech giant Huawei is at the centre of a new corruption case in Europe’s capital. On Thursday, Belgian police raided the homes of its lobbyists, Follow the Money and its media partners Le Soir and Knack can reveal.
Justice Department office that prosecutes public corruption slashed in size (nbcnews.com)
The Trump administration is gutting the Justice Department's unit that oversees prosecutions of public officials accused of corruption, three sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told NBC News.
How a Connecticut DMV Employee Made Thousands by Selling Towed Cars (propublica.org)
The silver Jeep Wrangler that showed up at the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles inspection station was missing all four of its wheels. Gone, too, were its doors.
Trump's 'Crypto Reserve' Is Such Brazen Corruption (zeteo.com)
It’s hard to think of an example of political corruption more brazen than the president of the United States announcing a plan to use government money to buy cryptocurrency tokens for a “strategic reserve.”
How an obscure advisory board lets utilities steal $50B/year from ratepayers (pluralistic.net)
How an obscure advisory board lets utilities steal $50b/year from ratepayers: The Society of Utility and Regulatory Financial Analysts is a hell of a henhouse fox.
Powerful legal and financial services enable kleptocracy, research shows (phys.org)
Powerful legal and financial service industries are enabling kleptocracy and corrupt elites to operate with relative impunity, a new study shows.
DOGE 'Audits': A Mask for Corruption, Not Efficiency (medium.com)
The so-called “audits” conducted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are anything but.
State Capture (wikipedia.org)
State capture is a type of systemic political corruption in which private interests significantly influence a state's decision-making processes to their own advantage.
US prosecutor in New York resigns after order to drop mayoral case (ft.com)
Trump halts enforcement of US law banning bribery of foreign officials (theguardian.com)
President directs DoJ to pause prosecutions under Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and issues pardon to Rod Blagojevich
Trump to pause enforcement of law banning bribery of foreign officials (cnbc.com)
The FAA’s Hiring Scandal (tracingwoodgrains.com)
After my story on the FAA’s hiring scandal went viral, many of the people impacted and involved in bringing it to light reached out to me to share their stories in detail.
Prosecutors in Taiwan Indict 2024 Presidential Candidate Ko Wen Je (nytimes.com)
He had run unsuccessfully for president of Taiwan as a maverick candidate, promising to clean up the island’s political system. Now, he has been officially accused of corruption.
The strange link between obesity and corruption (bigthink.com)
Corruption makes you fat — that’s the hypothesis behind a creative study that compared body mass index (BMI) with conventional measures of corruption in post-Soviet countries.
Joe Biden calls for ban on congressional stock trading (apnews.com)
President Joe Biden endorsed a ban on congressional stock trading in an interview that’s being released this week, belatedly weighing in on an issue that has been debated on Capitol Hill for years.
Airline informant received thousands from passenger cash seizures (atlantanewsfirst.com)
With a single sentence, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has ended a nationwide program that had seized untold millions in cash from airline passengers without arrests.
Telecom industry 'think tank' tries to smear community owned broadband (techdirt.com)
We’ve noted for decades how the U.S. broadband sector is a mess thanks to corruption and unchecked monopoly power working tirelessly to undermine U.S. telecom competition.
The lobbist who hijacked ~3% of revenue from US doctors (propublica.org)
It was a multibillion-dollar strike, so stealthy and precise that the only visible sign was a notice that suddenly vanished from a government website.
McKinsey unit will pay $123M to settle claims it bribed South African officials (cnbc.com)
Javier Milei: President of Argentina – Freedom, Economics, and Corruption (lexfridman.com)
Javier Milei is the President of Argentina. This episode is available in both English and Spanish.
Javier Milei: President of Argentina – Freedom, Economics, and Corruption [video] (youtube.com)
The Business School Scandal That Just Keeps Getting Bigger (theatlantic.com)
The rot runs deeper than almost anyone has guessed.
Hacker Is Said to Have Obtained Damaging Testimony About Matt Gaetz (nytimes.com)
President-elect Donald J. Trump has admitted that his besieged choice for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, has less than even odds of being confirmed by the Senate.
Call it like it is: TSLA rise is not due to performance, but hope for corruption (electrek.co)
In the past week, TSLA stock has increased by about one-third of its previous value. But this increase has had nothing to do with company performance, or even due to external factors like consumer tastes or beneficial changes in EV policy. Rather, the week’s speculation has come out of a simple desire to see Tesla become the benefit of government corruption.