A Fort Bragg solider stands accused of using confidential national security information to place lucrative bets on the ousting of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. According to this article, the suspect was a part of the U.S. raid to remove Maduro from office and was privy to sensitive intelligence. He then allegedly used that information to make bets about Maduro’s removal from office on the prediction market, Polymarket, despite having agreed to keep such information secret. This led to winnings of more than $400,000. Polymarket employees apparently became suspicious about the bets and alerted the Department of Justice, leading to numerous charges against the man. Read on for more criminal law news.
Unbearable. The Associated Press reports that three people were recently sentenced by a California court for submitting fraudulent insurance claims. The scam involved a member of the group dressing in a bear costume and pretending to have entered and damaged luxury cars while other members filmed the incident. The videos were then submitted to insurance companies, leading to payouts for the conspirators of almost $142,000. In addition to weekend jail time and felony probation, two of the three were ordered to pay more than $50,000 in restitution. A fourth member of the group faces sentencing in September. While bears routinely cause mischief such as property damage, the insurance company eventually grew suspicious and had a biologist examine some of the video footage. They quickly determined the video was “clearly a human in a bear suit.” When officers searched the home of the suspects, they discovered a realistic looking bear costume, confirming the insurance company’s doubts about the authenticity of the videos.
Botched Operation. A surgeon is facing manslaughter charges after he removed the wrong organ from his patient’s body during a 2024 surgery. The patient was scheduled to have his spleen removed, an operation generally considered “minimally invasive.” Instead, the doctor removed the patient’s liver, causing “catastrophic blood loss,” leading to the patient’s death in the operation room. The doctor had been licensed to practice medicine in New York, Florida, and Alabama, and all three states suspended his privileges to practice following the incident, but the matter was only recently submitted to a Florida grand jury. The story notes that the clinician had previously been disciplined for a similar incident where he removed part of a patient’s pancreas instead of the patient’s adrenal gland and had attempted to lie to cover up his mistake. According to the report, the doctor-turned-defendant faces up to 15 years if convicted.
Executive Order on Psychedelics. This past Saturday, the Trump administration released an executive order calling on the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate efforts to review and potentially reclassify certain psychedelic drugs in an effort to combat what the order categorizes as a “crisis of serious mental illness” in the country. The order notes that some psychedelic drugs have already been designated as breakthrough therapies and that several such drugs are already being studied in clinical trials. During the signing ceremony on the order, the President joked, “Can I have some, please?” Ibogaine compounds are specifically mentioned as having the potential to treat otherwise treatment-resistant mental illness. Serious research efforts are already underway for other psychedelics, such as psilocybin (also known as “magic mushrooms”), with apparently promising results. Many, if not most, of these substances are classified as Schedule I drugs under state and federal law and would likely need to be reclassified before they could be made available on a more widespread basis. You can read more on that story here.
Federal Reclassification of Marijuana. I mentioned in an earlier cannabis update that the Trump administration continued an effort begun under the Biden administration to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I controlled substances under federal law and to reclassify it as a Schedule III substance. Numerous outlets report that this change is now imminent and may occur as soon as next week. While the reclassification does not legalize the substance or reduce criminal penalties relating to illegal possession or sale, it will ease restrictions on researching marijuana and may have other downstream consequences, such as allowing companies involved in the cannabis industry to deduct business expenses on their federal taxes. You can read more about reclassification in this piece.
Prosecuting A.I.? According to this report and others, law enforcement officials in Florida have begun investigating the role that ChatGPT and its parent company Open AI may have played in helping a user plan a mass shooting on the campus of Florida State University last year. Two victims died as a result of the violence. The accused shooter allegedly asked the artificial intelligence chatbot questions about how the country would react to a shooting at FSU, when the student union was typically busiest, and details about certain firearms, in addition to other queries about suicide and mass shooting. The story notes that AI bots have been involved in alarming incidents such as encouraging self-harm or creating child sexual abuse material. ChatGPT introduced parental control features last September in an effort to protect minors, but even the company acknowledges that such protections “are not foolproof.”
Protester Acquitted. A 62-year-old woman was acquitted at trial in Fairhope, Alabama, this week on charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and disturbing the peace. The charges stemmed from the woman’s participation in a rally where she appeared in an inflatable costume resembling the male sexual organ. An officer took offense to the getup, telling the woman, “I am not going to put up with this in my town,” before taking her to the ground and placing her under arrest. The officer’s trial testimony that the woman was blocking traffic and posted a safety risk was apparently not enough to convince the judge of the woman’s guilt. According to this report, the woman’s attorney has indicated an interest in suing the department for violating his client’s First Amendment rights.
Cocaine Salmon. Regular readers of the News Roundup have heard of cocaine bears and cocaine sharks. For our final news item of the day, I present cocaine salmon. Unlike the earlier stories of animals encountering the substance in the wild, the salmon here were intentionally introduced to cocaine and its primary metabolite, a substance called benzoylecgonine, in an effort to study the effects of the drug on animal behavior and ecosystems. Scientists implanted slow-release capsules containing cocaine or its metabolite, along with a tracking device. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the fish exposed to cocaine were more active and swam farther than unexposed fish. Salmon given the metabolite swam even more than the cocaine fish. According to the story, the research could be useful for future study on wastewater filtering, as well as ecological protection generally.
I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing weekend. I can always be reached at dixon@sog.unc.edu.
Faculty Coordinators
