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A North Carolina musician has pled guilty to stealing $8 million in royalties with fake streams on AI-generated music in the first-ever criminal streaming fraud case brought by U.S. prosecutors.
Michael Smith, 54, copped to one count of wire fraud conspiracy on Thursday (March 19) in New York federal court. He agreed to forfeit his $8 million in streaming fraud proceeds and faces up to five years in prison.
“Michael Smith generated thousands of fake songs using artificial intelligence and then streamed those fake songs billions of times,” said Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, in a statement Thursday. “Although the songs and listeners were fake, the millions of dollars Smith stole was real. Millions of dollars in royalties that Smith diverted from real, deserving artists and rights holders. Smith’s…
THE BHI TRUST PONZI SCHEME (SOUTH AFRICA)
Date: Ongoing updates through February 2026 Perpetrator: Craig Warriner (Principal), with alleged co-conspirators
Case Description: The BHI Trust scandal remains one of South Africa’s most devastating financial crimes, involving the loss of between R1.9 billion and R3 billion. Craig Warriner, the “genius trader” behind the trust, turned himself in during late 2023, but the legal and recovery battles reached a fever pitch in 2025 and 2026. Warriner operated the trust as a textbook Ponzi scheme, utilizing “Old Boy” networks and high-profile brokers to lure in pensioners and high-net-worth individuals with promises of 20% annual returns.
In early 2025, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) faced heavy criticism for “provisionally withdrawing” charges against alleged co-conspirators Michael Haldane and Sona Pillay. However, civil recovery efforts by joint trustees have continued into 2026, aiming to claw back hundreds of millions in “fictitious profits” from early investors to redistribute to those who lost everything. The case is a masterclass in the failure of fiduciary duty; the FSCA eventually banned several advisors for up to 30 years for peddling the unlicensed scheme despite clear red flags, such as the lack of a website, the absence of regulated financial reports, and a fee structure that was triple the industry average.
Link to Original: Moneyweb – BHI Trust Scandal Deep Dive