—WASHINGTON
N
ine out of the 22 Sikh asy-
lum-seekers on a hunger
strike in a Florida jail
demanding to be released while
their asylum cases are evaluated
have been set free, media report-
ed.
The nine were released Aug.
10 while the remaining 13 were
still under Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) cus-
tody at the Broward Transitional
Centre, according to the
American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU).
“Things should never have
reached this extreme point,”
Latin Times newspaper quoted
Shalini Agarwal, Florida staff
attorney at ACLU, as saying on
Tuesday.
The 22 Sikh men were
detained after arriving at the
Texas border inMay.
The men began a hunger
strike when they learned that
they were denied a bond hear-
ing, that could have released
them from custody and sent to
their family members in the U.S.,
until their asylum inquiry.
“ICE needs to honor immigra-
tion enforcement priorities and
use its prosecutorial discretion to
not detain asylum seekers with-
out bond, especially where they
have demonstrated credible fear
of persecution if returned to their
home countries,” Agarwal said.
“Their granting of bond to
some of these men is an impor-
tant step, but there are many
more detainees like themwho
should not be kept behind bars
while their asylum proceedings
are underway,” she said.
Some of the men may have
been subjected to forced feeding
and solitary confinement, a letter
sent to ICE by the ACLU on Aug.
6 said.
–IANS
Sikh Asylum-seekers Protest In Florida Jail, Nine Released
–WASHINGTON
acebook cancelled an
Indian-origin student’s
internship after he
exposed a serious privacy
flaw in the social media
giant’s messenger service, a
media report said.
Aran Khanna’s application,
Marauder’s Map, used data from
Facebook Messenger to map
users’ location when they sent
messages, Boston.com reported
on Aug. 12.
The computer science and
math student at Harvard
University in Massachusetts,
U.S., posted about his app on
social media sites Reddit and
Medium in May this year, and
soon it went viral.
The app caught the attention
of Facebook and Khanna was
asked to disable it.
However, before it was dis-
abled, the extension was down-
loaded more than 85,000 times
and “shared on over 200 publi-
cations”, according to Khanna.
About a week later, Facebook
released a Messenger app
update to provide users “full
control over when and how you
share your location informa-
tion”.
Facebook cancelled Khanna’s
summer internship, saying he
did not meet the high ethical
standards expected from the
interns.
The student accepted anoth-
er internship with a tech start-
up in SiliconValley and later
detailed the experience in a case
study titled ‘Facebook’s Privacy
Incident Response: A study of
geolocation sharing on
Facebook Messenger’ in the
Harvard Journal of Technology
Science.
– IANS
News India Times
August 21, 2015
12
– that’s all you need to know
Community
Facebook Cancels Harvard Indian Student’s Internship
F
21-year-old Woman Jailed For Killing Pedestrian
From News Dispatches
A
n Indian-American
woman will serve at least
two years in prison for
hitting and killing a pedestrian
in an inebriated state in New
York last year, a media report
said.
Malina Singh, 21, a resident
of Lake Luzerne in NewYork,
appeared before Saratoga
County judge Matthew
Sypniewski on Monday,
Timesunion.com reported.
In addition to the sentencing,
Singh was asked to install an
ignition interlock device in every
vehicle she owns or drives for
three years upon her release
from prison.
On June 22, Singh admitted
she was drunk while driving and
killed Jonathon L. Rogers, 34, as
he was walking on September 4
last year. Rogers was rushed to a
hospital where he was later pro-
nounced dead.
Singh pleaded guilty to
charges of vehicular manslaugh-
ter. Rogers’ mother told the
court that the family would now
face difficulties in surviving and
his children would have to live
without a father.
Indian Investment Adviser Admits
To $9M Facebook Stock Fraud
– NEWYORK
A
n investment adviser of
Indian descent has
admitted to a $9million-
fraud involving Facebook stock
Thursday, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation announced.
Gignesh Movalia, the founder
of OM Global Investment Fund,
pleaded guilty in Tampa before
Federal Magistrate Judge
Anthony E. Porcelli to one count
of investment advisor fraud. He
is to be sentenced later.
Federal Prosecutor A. Lee
Bentley III said Movalia solicited
investments in his fund claim-
ing that he could get shares of
Facebook before its initial public
offering.
He raised more than $15 mil-
lion, of which $9 million was
buying Facebook shares.
However, Bentley said in a state-
ment, Movalia used the $9 mil-
lion for other investments and
hid this from the investors.
Ultimately, OM Global
Investment Fund lost $9 million
and went broke, Bentley said.
Last year in June in a separate
civil suit filed by the Securities
and Exchanges Commission,
Federal Judge Jose E. Martinez in
Miami ordered Movalia and OM
Investment fund to pay up
$1.729 million in illegal profits
and fined him $300,000.
In additon to the Facebook
stocks fraud, the SEC had also
accused him of making improp-
er loans to third parties and cre-
ating an institution with a name
similar to OM Investment Funds
to evade monitoring by a Florida
state court and using it to solicit
funds.
–
IANS
Businessman Charged
With $1.9 Million Benefit
Funds Fraud
By Ela Dutt
I
f convicted he could face
20 years in prison and
would have to pay up $1.9
million in restitution.
Yashvant C. Patel, 59, of St.
Charles was arrested Aug. 7
and charged with four counts
of mail fraud and four counts
of making false statements in
official retirement documents,
a release from the U.S.
Attorney for the Northern
District of Illinois said.
Each count of mail fraud
carries a maximum sentence
of 20 years in prison, a
$250,000.00 fine and manda-
tory restitution.
Each count of making false
statements on official docu-
ments carries a maximum
sentence of five years in
prison, a $250,000 fine, and
mandatory restitution.
Patel made an initial court
appearance Aug. 7 before U.S.
Magistrate Judge Daniel G.
Martin in Chicago and was
released on his own recogni-
zance on a secured bond of
$10,000, a spokesperson from
the U.S. Attorney's Office told
Desi Talk.
According to the indict-
ment, while serving as presi-
dent of My Baps Construction
Corp., from the period
January 2009 to October 2010,
Patel allegedly paid less-than-
union-scale wages to dozens
of employees, including illegal
aliens, in order to reduce the
employer contributions to the
benefit funds of the
Construction and General
Laborers’ District Council of
Chicago andVicinity. He is
alleged to have falsely report-
ed that My Baps and a sister
company, Vijay Construction
Corp., owed approximately
$600,000 less to the benefit
funds and approximately $1.3
million less to the companies’
employees than what was
required by collective-bar-
gaining agreements with the
union.
Also, he is charged with
under-reporting approxi-
mately 33,000 hours of work
of his employees, some of
whomwere not lawfully enti-
tled to work in the United
States..
