[Plura-list] Casino mogul steals First Nation's vaccine; Facebook champions (its own) privacy; Goldman CEO gets $17.5m reward for $4.5b fraud

[Cory Doctorow]

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Join me tomorrow for the launch of the print edition of my 2020 book HOW
TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM!

https://medium.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GfnYHzZCSY-cCMVL5ZCDBw

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Today's links

* Casino mogul steals First Nation's vaccine: Rodney and Ekaterina
Baker, showing us settler colonialism is alive and well.

* Facebook champions (its own) privacy: UK privacy regulator says its
settlement is a secret.

* Goldman CEO gets $17.5m reward for $4.5b fraud: 1MDB couldn't have
happened without Goldman Sachs.

* This day in history: 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current
writing projects, current reading

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👩🏿‍🚒 Casino mogul steals First Nation's vaccine

Every billionaire is a policy failure. Nearly every millionaire is a
policy failure. Every casino industry millionaire, though?

Definitely a policy failure.

Take Rodney Baker, who made $10.6m in 2019 as the CEO of the Great
Canadian Gaming Corporation, a national racetrack and casino operator.
Baker resigned on Sunday, because he did something despicable even by
the standards of the casino industry.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/25/canada-ex-casino-head-fined-covid-vaccine-rodney-baker

Baker and his wife, the actor Ekaterina Baker, chartered a small plane
and flew to Beaver Creek, a tiny First Nations community, where they
defrauded their way into getting covid vaccinations intended for elders
in the White River First Nation.

https://www.yukon-news.com/news/former-ceo-of-great-canadian-gaming-actress-charged-after-flying-to-beaver-creek-for-covid-19-vaccine/

The Bakers did not quarantine on arrival. Rather, they presented
themselves at the remote Yukon community - a community whose isolation
has offered some protection from the pandemic - as workers at a local
motel. In so doing, they recklessly endangered the whole community.

Then they asked for a ride to the airport, which tipped off clinic
workers. Officials caught them in Whitehorse and charged them under the
Yukon's Civil Emergency Measures Act. They were fined $1150 each.

The White River First Nation has asked Yukon authorities to "pursue a
more just punishment" (the Act provides for prison sentences of up to
six months for violations); they fear that without meaningful penalties,
other wealthy sociopaths will follow the Bakers' example.

I've been thinking about this all day, looking for a bright side. There
is none. These millionaires will not go to jail. They won't face social
sanction. They'll be invited to private islands and exclusive parties,
wooed by charities and flattered by university fundraisers.

They are part of a long Canadian tradition of depraved, inhuman conduct
towards First Nations people. The nation's money is slathered in
pictures of people who did far worse, after all.

These evil, irredeemable people were just upholding a long Canadian
tradition.

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👩🏿‍🚒 Facebook champions (its own) privacy

According to their Twitter bio, the mission of the UK's Information
Commissioner's Office is to "uphold[] information rights in the public
interest, promotes openness by public bodies & data privacy for
individuals."

Great values, but actions speak louder than words. ICO chief Elizabeth
Denham has told Parliament that she can't divulge the status of her
office's audit of Facebook's app, which was triggered by the Cambridge
Analytica scandal.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/26/facebooks-secret-settlement-on-cambridge-analytica-gags-uk-data-watchdog/

She told Welsh Labour MP Kevin Brennan that she couldn't discuss the
audit in public because her office had entered into a confidentiality
agreement with Facebook whose terms couldn't be known by the public.

The ICO settled with FB after the toxic social media giant got a
tribunal to agree to consider "allegations of bias" within the regulator
against the company (in other words, FB whinged that the referee didn't
like it and the tribunal bought it).

FBI got off with a slap on the wrist: a £500k fine, no admission of
wrongdoing, and, it seems, a gag order for a regulator whose mission
features "openness."

The settlement was reached in 2018, but this is news today because FB
and the ICO hid the gag order's existence until the issue came up in
Parliament.

Commissioner Denham also disclosed that FB got to keep the ICO's
internal files - interviews with whistleblowers and files seized from
Cambridge Analytica - indefinitely, to help the company's own internal
investigation into Cambridge Analytica.

While the ICO and Zuckerberg did not mention the gag order or the
document handover in 2018, they did trumpet an "app audit" that was
meant to root out other "sketchy apps" engaged in abuse similar to
Cambridge Analytica's.

This audit has never reported in. Facebook won't tell us what became of
it, and the ICO can't.

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👩🏿‍🚒 Goldman CEO gets $17.5m reward for $4.5b fraud

In 1997, Fair Wayne Bryan was convicted of stealing a pair of
hedge-clippers. He was given a life-sentence because of other minor
thefts. He was paroled from Angola prison in late 2020.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-man-serving-life-sentence-stealing-hedge-clippers-granted-parole-n1243757

In 2015, a conspiracy involving the Malaysian "tabloid party boy" Jho
Low and a clutch of Goldman Sachs bankers stole and laundered $4.5b from
the country's 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund (1MDB).

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/former-goldman-sachs-bankers-charged-multibillion-dollar-money-laundering-scandal-n929916

The multibillion dollar crime toppled the Malaysian government, but
Goldman Sachs maintained that this was the result of a couple of rogue
elements, despite evidence that the rot went all the way to the top.

https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2018/12/18/goldman-sachs-fires-back-after-malaysia-charges-bank-in-1mdb-probe/

Goldman Sachs is a repeat offender. It played a key role in the mass
financial fraud that triggered 2008's Great Financial Crisis, then used
bailout money to pay giant bonuses to the top execs that presided over
the fraud.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs_controversies

The company has a long history of manipulating stock prices with bribes
and kickbacks. Its frauds led to the collapse of the Greek economy. It
underwrote California state bonds, advised its clients to short those
same bonds, and made a fortune.

Goldman's CEO since 2018 has been David Solomon. His base compensation
(which only accounts for a fraction of his total take-home) is $27.5m.

This week, the board cut Solomon's base pay to $17.5m.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/business/goldman-sachs-ceo-david-solomon-pay-cut/index.html

The cut was triggered by a $3b fine over 1MDB. Solomon's "leadership"
was part of a string of multibillion-dollar thefts and frauds that cost
his employe $3b and his punishment is a $17.5m payday.

Fair Wayne Bryan served 23 years in a federal pen for stealing a pair of
hedge clippers. He is still a convicted felon, on parole for his life
sentence.

Goldman Sachs is still in business and its C-suite have been punished
with multimillion-dollar payouts.

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👩🏿‍🚒 This day in history

#15yrsago PirateBox: anonymous, stand-alone wireless filesharing node
https://web.archive.org/web/20110129205033/http://wiki.daviddarts.com/PirateBox

#15yrsago World of Warcraft: Don’t tell anyone you’re queer
https://web.archive.org/web/20060131191638/http://www.innewsweekly.com/innews/?class_code=Ga&article_code=1172

#10yrsago Police sergeant: 16 year old girl probably saw penises before
I showed her mine, NBD
https://www.wcvb.com/article/bpd-sergeant-may-plead-guilty-job-on-the-line/8230846

#5yrsago Shootout in Oregon: one terrorist killed, eight arrested
https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/26/us/oregon-wildlife-refuge-siege-arrests/index.html

#5yrsago Man gasps dying words into officer’s bodycam: “They’re killing
me right now… I can’t breathe.”
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/01/body-cam-captures-mans-final-words-begging-the-cops-to-get-off-of-him/

#5yrsago All your booze comes from a handful of titanic global
corporations
https://www.eater.com/drinks/2016/1/26/10830410/liquor-brands-hierarchy-diageo-beam-suntory-pernod-ricard

#5yrsago Chinese snatch-squads roam the globe, kidnapping dissidents and
critics
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/pursuing-critics-china-reaches-across-borders-and-nobody-is-stopping-it/2016/01/26/cd4959dc-6793-473f-8b74-6cbac3f46422_story.html

#1yrago One of the CIA’s waterboarding torturers called himself “The
Preacher” and shouted religious nonsense while performing executions
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/25/some-folks-were-tearful-cia-waterboarding-on-trial-in-guantanamo

#1yrago Why I won’t buy an Ipad: ten years later
https://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/27/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-ten-years-later/

#1yrago Climate denial has destroyed the libertarian movement
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/01/libertarianism-climate-change-environment-private-property

#1yrago Amazon threatened to fire two tech workers who spoke about
climate and Amazon’s business, then 357 more workers joined them
https://amazonemployees4climatejustice.medium.com/amazon-employees-share-our-views-on-company-business-f5abcdea849

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👩🏿‍🚒 Colophon

Today's top sources: Kottke (https://kottke.org/), Slashdot
(https://slashdot.org/), Late Stage Capitalism
(https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism).

Currently writing:

* My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and
reconciliation. Yesterday's progress: 500 words (103599 total).

* A short story, "Jeffty is Five," for The Last Dangerous Visions.
Yesterday's progress: 265 words (1632 total).

Currently reading: Analogia by George Dyson.

Latest podcast: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (part 29)
https://craphound.com/news/2021/01/25/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-29/

Upcoming appearances:

* Launch for the print edition of HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE
CAPITALISM, Jan 28,
https://medium.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GfnYHzZCSY-cCMVL5ZCDBw

* Launch for the young adult edition of Edward Snowden's memoir
PERMANENT RECORD, Feb 9,
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/edward-snowden-in-conversation-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-136734968973

* Boskone, 58, Feb 12-15, https://boskone.org/

* Keynote, NISO Plus, Feb 22-25,
https://niso.plus/cory-doctorow-to-keynote-at-niso-plus-2021/

Recent appearances:

* Monocle Reads
https://monocle.com/radio/shows/meet-the-writers/monocle-reads-87/play/

* Hedging Bets on the Future (Motherboard Cyber):
https://play.acast.com/s/cyber/hedgingbetsonthefuturewithauthorcorydoctorow

* Applying the Pandemic Mindset to Climate Change:
https://hbr.org/podcast/2020/12/applying-the-pandemic-mindset-to-climate-change-with-cory-doctorow

Latest book:

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone
technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political
cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution
and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet
analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a
solution.
https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies
here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime,
gender, and kicking ass. Order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed
copy here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.

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"*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion
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