21/05/2025

WEDNESDAY | MAY 21, 2025

7 S’porean faces new charges over US$263m crypto theft

Taiwan wants peace and security TAIPEI: Taiwan wants peace and dialogue with China as war has no winners, but the government must continue to strengthen the island’s defences, President Lai Ching-te said yesterday as he completed one year in office. China calls Lai a “separatist” and has rebuffed his offers for talks. Lai rejects China’s sovereignty claims over the island, saying only Taiwan’s citizens can decide their future. A government spokesperson said last week that Taiwan could not rule out the possibility that China could mark the anniversary with military drills. Speaking to reporters at the presidential office in central Taipei, Lai said Taiwan’s people love peace. “I, too, am committed to peace. Because peace is priceless and war has no winners. But when it comes to seeking peace, we cannot have dreams nor illusions,” he said. “Taiwan will continue to strengthen its defences as preparing for war is the best way to avoid it,” Lai added. “I also reiterate here – Taiwan is happy to have exchanges and cooperation with China as long as there is reciprocal dignity. Using exchanges to replace hemming in, dialogue to replace confrontation.” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China’s Defence Ministry last week said Lai was a “Taiwan Strait crisis maker” who had increased antagonism and confrontation and undermined peace and stability. Last month, China held war games code-named “Strait Thunder-2025A” around Taiwan, the “A” at its end suggesting there could be more to come. China called its May 2024 drills just after Lai took office “Joint Sword-2024A”, and in October of that year staged “Joint Sword-2024B”. – Reuters Sri Lanka train hits elephant, derails COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan express train killed an elephant and was derailed yesterday, despite safety measures introduced after the country’s worst wildlife railway accident three months ago on the same route. Local officials said the young wild elephant crossing the track near Habarana was run over by the same train involved in the Feb 20 accident that killed seven elephants. After that crash, officials imposed speed limits on trains passing through elephant habitats. No passengers were injured in the incident, which occurred some 180km by road east of the capital Colombo. Railway authorities said an investigation was underway, and engineers were trying to put the Colombo-Batticaloa train back on the track after the pre-dawn collision. The authorities had earlier announced changes to train timetables and efforts to clear shrubs from either side of the track to improve visibility for drivers, to give them more time to avoid hitting elephants. Wildlife officials have said 139 elephants have been killed by trains over the past 17 years, since authorities began collecting such data. The government has also announced that 1,195 people and 3,484 elephants have been killed in the past decade due to the worsening human-elephant conflict on the island. – AFP

o Accused charged with heading gang

prosecutors alleged that he orchestrated a wider scheme with a dozen other individuals, according to CNA. He appeared in a Washington DC court on Monday, where he pleaded not guilty to the superseding indictment. Lam and Conor Flansburg, 21, from California, are named in the indictment as the group’s organisers. The group allegedly met through online gaming platforms and developed a scheme that netted a total of US$263 million. They allegedly stole funds from cryptocurrency wallets, converted the crypto into US dollars and laundered the proceeds.

They also allegedly carried out home burglaries, including one incident in which a member of the crime ring broke into a victim’s home in New Mexico to steal a hardware wallet containing virtual currency. The 13 suspects, including Lam, have been charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (Rico) Act. In a press release issued on May 15, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said members of the syndicate held various roles, including database hackers, organisers, target identifiers, callers, money launderers and burglars targeting hardware cryptocurrency wallets.

Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), said four sources with knowledge of the matter. They asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the case. CPIB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg earlier reported that the Singapore trading firms had been approached in the investigation. The Attorney-General’s Office said it has questioned hundreds of witnesses in the probe. – Reuters sites including Choeung Ek, a notorious former “Killing Field” in Phnom Penh, where an annual Day of Remembrance event is held. Hundreds gathered at Choeung Ek, where about 15,000 people died between 1975 and 1979, holding prayers in front of a display of victims’ skulls. Students brandishing mock weapons then acted out slitting victims’ throats, shooting or clubbing them in a re-enactment of attacks on civilians. Some attendees cried at the confrontingly vivid re-enactment. “My tears fell when I watched the performance,” said attendee and survivor Chruok Sam, 70. He lost 12 family members under the Khmer Rouge and said the performance showed “exactly the same” as what he had experienced in 1975. He hoped the re-enactment would help young generations learn more about what he called “a heinous and cruel regime”. Another survivor, 63-year-old Em Ry, said she was still scared and had never been able to forget Pol Pot’s time in power. She was forced to work all day and only ate a “spoonful of corn”, she said. Prime Minister Hun Manet, who was at the opening of a new cement plant in central Kampong Speu province, urged people not to forget the past. – AFP Members and associates of the enterprise allegedly used the stolen virtual currency to buy luxury handbags, watches and clothing, rental homes in Los Angeles, the Hamptons and Miami, private jet rentals, and a fleet of at least 28 exotic cars ranging in value from US$100,000 to US$3.8 million. “Following his arrest in September 2024 and continuing while in pretrial detention, Lam is alleged to have continued working with members of the enterprise to pass and receive directions, collect stolen cryptocurrency, and to have members buy luxury bags and hand deliver them to his girlfriend in Miami, Florida,” the statement said. – Bernama

SINGAPORE: Malone Lam, already facing charges in the United States over a cryptocurrency theft, is now accused of heading a 13-member crime ring that allegedly stole hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, according to local media. Lam, 20, was first charged in September last year with stealing and laundering over US$230 million (RM986 million) in cryptocurrency from a victim. In the new indictment, federal

Cambodian students re-enact Khmer Rouge crimes PHNOM PENH: Cambodian

genocide that killed two million people in the 1970s. A quarter of Cambodia’s population died of starvation, forced labour or torture or were

slaughtered in mass killings under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. The Khmer Rouge atrocities are commemorated at museums and

students wearing all black and wielding bamboo clubs and wooden rifles staged a dramatic re-enactment yesterday of a

Students perform a re-enactment of Khmer Rouge crimes to mark the ‘Day of Remembrance’ in Phnom Penh. – AFPPIC

Foreign trading firms queried in graft probe JAKARTA: The Attorney-General’s Office here has approached a number of trading firms in Singapore regarding a corruption investigation involving state energy firm Pertamina. and promised to improve transparency following the arrests. Investigators now want to question some Singapore trading companies about the case, said Harli Siregar, a spokesperson for the Attorney-General’s Office. questioned to strengthen evidence gathering for the investigation,” Siregar said, declining to give further details. Pertamina spokesperson Fadjar Djoko Santoso said: “We respect the legal process and support

A number of executives at subsidiaries of Pertamina were arrested earlier this year for alleged corruption related to oil imports between 2018 and 2023 that caused US$12 billion (RM51.44 billion) in state losses. Pertamina publicly apologised

Earlier attempts to summon the companies, whose names have not been disclosed, to Jakarta were unsuccessful, so the companies could possibly be questioned in Singapore, Siregar said. “These companies will be

the Attorney-General’s Office in its investigation and law enforcement efforts in accordance with applicable regulations.” At least four trading companies have received a letter to assist with the investigation at Singapore’s