Washington
DOJ beefs up focus on AI enforcement, warns of harsher sentences
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is stepping up its focus on artificial intelligence, with officials set to warn on Thursday that companies and people who deliberately misuse the technology to advance a white-collar crime like price fixing and market manipulation will be at risk for a harsher sentence.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco will also say that the Justice Department will take into account how well a company is managing the risks of AI technology each time it assesses a corporate compliance program. Such a program is a set of policies and procedures designed to detect misconduct and to ensure that executives and employees are following the law.
The comments from the Justice Department’s No. 2 leader underscore the extent to which law enforcement officials are concerned about how the rapidly developing technology could be exploited, by foreign adversaries or by domestic entities, to harm the U.S. Monaco disclosed the policy moves one day after the Justice Department announced charges against a former Google software engineer accused of stealing AI trade secrets from the Mountain View, California-based company while secretly working with two China-based companies.
“All new technologies are a double-edged sword — but AI may be the sharpest blade yet. It holds great promise to improve our lives — but great peril when criminals use it to supercharge their illegal activities, including corporate crime,” Monaco will tell an American Bar Association conference of white-collar lawyers in San Francisco, according to a copy of her prepared remarks.
The Justice Department, Monaco says, has long used increased sentences for criminals whose behavior is seen as posing an especially serious risk to victims and the public. The same The principle applies to AI, she says.
“Where AI is deliberately misused to make a white-collar crime significantly more serious,” she says, “our prosecutors will be seeking stiffer sentences — for individuals and corporate defendants alike.”
“And,” she adds, “compliance officers should take note. When our prosecutors assess a company’s compliance program — as they do in all corporate resolutions — they consider how well the program mitigates the company’s most significant risks. And for a growing number of businesses, that now includes the risk of misusing AI.”
New York
Court order permanently blocks gun retailer from selling certain gun parts in NY
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday permanently banned a Florida gun retailer from selling or delivering certain gun parts in New York that officials say can be used to assemble untraceable ghost guns and sold without background checks.
The court order and approximately $7.8 million judgment from Judge Jesse Furman come after New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Indie Guns and nine other gun retailers in 2022 in state Supreme Court in Manhattan for allegedly selling tens of thousands of its products to New Yorkers, James’ office said.
The lawsuit was first filed in state Supreme Court but was later moved to federal court after Indie Guns and the other defendants filed a motion that said claims in the lawsuit “raise a substantial federal question.”
Indie Guns, which specializes in selling and shipping components used to create ghost guns, negligently sold unfinished frames and receivers — core parts of a firearm — to people it knew were likely to use them in a dangerous manner, according to the judgment. It also found that the retailer made at least $3.9 million in illegal profits and would likely continue to violate local, state, and federal laws.
The retailer is permanently barred from selling, delivering, or giving away any unfinished frames or receivers in the state of New York, according to the judgment. Indie Guns, which advertises some of its products on its website as “UNSERIALIZED UNREGISTERED UNTRACABLE,” must also pay approximately $7.8 million to the state.
A man who answered the Indie Guns phone line and identified himself as owner Lawrence Destefano called the lawsuit “frivolous.” He said he plans to fight the $7.8 million judgment.
The lawsuit against the nine remaining defendants is ongoing, James’ office said.
“Indie Guns refused to follow New York and federal law and tried to flood our streets with ghost guns — but now they are paying the price for those bad actions,” said James in a statement. “These deadly weapons are designed to be untraceable and can easily end up in the hands of people otherwise barred from owning guns.”
Under current state law, the sale of an unfinished frame or receiver is a felony.
New York
Former raw milk cheese maker pleads guilty to charges in connection with fatal listeria outbreak
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A former producer of raw milk cheese pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges related to a deadly outbreak of listeria from 2016 to 2017, federal prosecutors said.
Johannes Vulto and his New York-based company Vulto Creamery LLC each pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of causing the introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce in federal court in Syracuse, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prosecutors say environmental swabs taken at the Vulto Creamery facility in Walton repeatedly tested positive for listeria bacteria between July 2014 and February 2017.
Vulto shut down the creamery and issued a full recall after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2017 linked the creamery’s cheese to an outbreak of listeriosis that resulted in eight hospitalizations and two deaths — one in Vermont and another in Connecticut.
Listeriosis is a potentially life-threatening bacterial illness caused by consuming foods contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. Pregnant women, newborns, elderly people and others with weakened immune systems are among the most at risk of severe illness.
Carla Freedman, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, said Vulto and his company’s unsafe practices led to an “entirely preventable tragedy” of illness and death.
“It is crucial that American consumers be able to trust that the foods they buy are safe to eat,” said Brian Boynton, who heads the civil division at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Vulto’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday. He’ll be sentenced July 9.
DOJ beefs up focus on AI enforcement, warns of harsher sentences
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is stepping up its focus on artificial intelligence, with officials set to warn on Thursday that companies and people who deliberately misuse the technology to advance a white-collar crime like price fixing and market manipulation will be at risk for a harsher sentence.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco will also say that the Justice Department will take into account how well a company is managing the risks of AI technology each time it assesses a corporate compliance program. Such a program is a set of policies and procedures designed to detect misconduct and to ensure that executives and employees are following the law.
The comments from the Justice Department’s No. 2 leader underscore the extent to which law enforcement officials are concerned about how the rapidly developing technology could be exploited, by foreign adversaries or by domestic entities, to harm the U.S. Monaco disclosed the policy moves one day after the Justice Department announced charges against a former Google software engineer accused of stealing AI trade secrets from the Mountain View, California-based company while secretly working with two China-based companies.
“All new technologies are a double-edged sword — but AI may be the sharpest blade yet. It holds great promise to improve our lives — but great peril when criminals use it to supercharge their illegal activities, including corporate crime,” Monaco will tell an American Bar Association conference of white-collar lawyers in San Francisco, according to a copy of her prepared remarks.
The Justice Department, Monaco says, has long used increased sentences for criminals whose behavior is seen as posing an especially serious risk to victims and the public. The same The principle applies to AI, she says.
“Where AI is deliberately misused to make a white-collar crime significantly more serious,” she says, “our prosecutors will be seeking stiffer sentences — for individuals and corporate defendants alike.”
“And,” she adds, “compliance officers should take note. When our prosecutors assess a company’s compliance program — as they do in all corporate resolutions — they consider how well the program mitigates the company’s most significant risks. And for a growing number of businesses, that now includes the risk of misusing AI.”
New York
Court order permanently blocks gun retailer from selling certain gun parts in NY
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday permanently banned a Florida gun retailer from selling or delivering certain gun parts in New York that officials say can be used to assemble untraceable ghost guns and sold without background checks.
The court order and approximately $7.8 million judgment from Judge Jesse Furman come after New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Indie Guns and nine other gun retailers in 2022 in state Supreme Court in Manhattan for allegedly selling tens of thousands of its products to New Yorkers, James’ office said.
The lawsuit was first filed in state Supreme Court but was later moved to federal court after Indie Guns and the other defendants filed a motion that said claims in the lawsuit “raise a substantial federal question.”
Indie Guns, which specializes in selling and shipping components used to create ghost guns, negligently sold unfinished frames and receivers — core parts of a firearm — to people it knew were likely to use them in a dangerous manner, according to the judgment. It also found that the retailer made at least $3.9 million in illegal profits and would likely continue to violate local, state, and federal laws.
The retailer is permanently barred from selling, delivering, or giving away any unfinished frames or receivers in the state of New York, according to the judgment. Indie Guns, which advertises some of its products on its website as “UNSERIALIZED UNREGISTERED UNTRACABLE,” must also pay approximately $7.8 million to the state.
A man who answered the Indie Guns phone line and identified himself as owner Lawrence Destefano called the lawsuit “frivolous.” He said he plans to fight the $7.8 million judgment.
The lawsuit against the nine remaining defendants is ongoing, James’ office said.
“Indie Guns refused to follow New York and federal law and tried to flood our streets with ghost guns — but now they are paying the price for those bad actions,” said James in a statement. “These deadly weapons are designed to be untraceable and can easily end up in the hands of people otherwise barred from owning guns.”
Under current state law, the sale of an unfinished frame or receiver is a felony.
New York
Former raw milk cheese maker pleads guilty to charges in connection with fatal listeria outbreak
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A former producer of raw milk cheese pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges related to a deadly outbreak of listeria from 2016 to 2017, federal prosecutors said.
Johannes Vulto and his New York-based company Vulto Creamery LLC each pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of causing the introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce in federal court in Syracuse, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prosecutors say environmental swabs taken at the Vulto Creamery facility in Walton repeatedly tested positive for listeria bacteria between July 2014 and February 2017.
Vulto shut down the creamery and issued a full recall after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2017 linked the creamery’s cheese to an outbreak of listeriosis that resulted in eight hospitalizations and two deaths — one in Vermont and another in Connecticut.
Listeriosis is a potentially life-threatening bacterial illness caused by consuming foods contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. Pregnant women, newborns, elderly people and others with weakened immune systems are among the most at risk of severe illness.
Carla Freedman, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, said Vulto and his company’s unsafe practices led to an “entirely preventable tragedy” of illness and death.
“It is crucial that American consumers be able to trust that the foods they buy are safe to eat,” said Brian Boynton, who heads the civil division at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Vulto’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday. He’ll be sentenced July 9.
