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Man Sentenced to 2.5 Years for S$120,000 Theft on Singapore Airlines Flight
A man who stole approximately S$120,000 (US$88,700) from a jeweller on a Singapore Airlines aircraft was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Friday.
Peng Hui, a 54-year-old Chinese national, initially told the court when he was charged that he did not acknowledge culpability, but later pled guilty to four offenses.
These are for theft, bringing more than S$20,000 in cash into Singapore without declaring it, changing some of the stolen cash into casino chips, and attempting to send money to China.
Four additional charges were considered during sentence.
Peng was aboard flight SQ899 from Hong Kong to Singapore on March 5 of this year, according to the court.
Another passenger on the plane was a Singaporean jeweller returning from trade shows in Bangkok and Hong Kong.
The victim carried over 1,000 notes of various denominations in his rucksack, including US$131,000 in hundred-dollar bills and HK$122,000 (US$15,630) in five-hundred-dollar notes.
During the trip, the jeweller left his suitcase in the overhead compartment, which is slightly behind his seat.
The compartment of the bag containing the cash was not locked, and the jeweller occasionally dozed off or used the restroom.
Peng had planned to steal from the victim, targeting him since he was carrying a substantial sum of money.
While the jet was in flight, Peng stole US$80,000 and another HK$70,000 from the victim’s backpack.
When the victim landed, he went through the immigration checkpoint and declared the cash he was carrying.
However, when he arrived at his office around three hours after landing, he discovered that a big sum of cash had gone missing and went to report the incident.
Peng also landed at Changi Airport. He carried cash in various denominations, including the stolen sums, totaling S$124,473.
He booked into a motel and counted his money, knowing that the owner would shortly look for it.
He decided to exchange the currency for Singapore dollars since he knew from previous experience that casinos could convert foreign currencies into casino chips.
Peng traveled to Marina Bay Sands Casino, where he exchanged US$30,000 for casino chips and gambled some of them.
He eventually cashed out approximately S$42,400 worth of chips.
Peng also went to a remittance office in the People’s Park Complex and placed two orders to send approximately S$19,900 to his wife in China.
Because he did not have a work visa, the company refused to accept any more orders from him, so he went to another shop and attempted to send approximately S$9,500 to his brother in China.
However, none of the remittances got through since the police stopped them.
Peng was arrested in the early hours of the next day following extensive police investigations that included a search of security camera footage and an ambush operation.
They retrieved approximately S$37,900 from remittance businesses that Peng attempted to wire to China, S$66,761 in cash from him, and HK$69,000.
Smaller sums of other currencies were also found from Peng. He was charged and remanded.
On Friday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tung Shou Pin sought 32 to 37 months in prison for Peng, claiming he was a foreigner who targeted a Singaporean on a Singapore aircraft.
He described such offenders as “a scourge” since they undermine Singapore’s status as a crime-free country.
Detecting such thefts on airlines is tough since passengers frequently lose track of their goods and discover the theft only later.
According to Tung, the amount stolen by Peng is among the worst examples of airplane theft.
In mitigation, Peng apologized to the jeweler through a Mandarin interpreter.
“I have caused him monetary loss, even though it’s not much,” he told me. “But mentally it did affect him as well.”
He also asked for leniency, claiming that he had “damaged Singapore’s security reputation.”
He stated that he was over 50 years old, diabetic, and had only one kidney.
“I’m concerned that if I’m detained for too long, I won’t be able to withstand it. Finally, my mother is over eighty years old. I’m the lone child. I want to care for her, yet doing so would land me in jail. I’d like to send her on her final voyage, therefore I’m hoping that your honor will lower the jail sentence, and I realize I’m in the wrong,” he said.
Deputy Principal District Judge Ong Chin Rhu stated that the victim did not suffer “much loss” as a result of the investigators’ hard work in stopping Peng’s attempt to dissipate his unlawful earnings.
“But it is good also that Mr Peng did recognise that aside from the monetary loss, the victim would also have suffered a certain measure of mental distress on discovering the theft of his monies,” the ruling’s judge stated.
She advised Peng to communicate his medical issues to prison officials.
NBC is bringing a version of legendary sportscaster Al Michaels back to the Olympics this summer, but with an unexpected twist: his voice will be powered by artificial intelligence.
On Wednesday, NBC said that it will utilize AI software to reproduce Michaels’ voice to offer daily Summer Games summaries to users of its Peacock streaming platform. This marks a significant milestone in the application of AI by a major media firm.
NBC | CTV Image
NBC To Use AI Version Of Announcer Al Michaels’ Voice For Olympics Recaps
The employment of an artificial intelligence voice for the Olympics comes at a time when technology has advanced dramatically, particularly in its ability to generate images, sounds, and text. This has sparked concerns in creative industries, such as journalism, regarding how artificial intelligence may—or should—be utilized.
A new tool, “Your Daily Olympic Recap on Peacock,” will allow subscribers to create 10-minute highlights packages incorporating event updates, athlete back stories, and other related content based on their preferences.
The company stated that the highlights could be packaged in approximately 7 million distinct ways, based on 5,000 hours of live coverage in Paris, thereby making AI (artificial intelligence, not the guy) a far more efficient way to give individualized summaries.
“When I was approached about this, I was skeptical but obviously curious,” Michaels stated in a press statement. “Then I saw a demonstration of what they had in mind. I replied, ‘I’m in.'”
An NBC representative told CNN that Michaels is being rewarded for his participation.
A veteran broadcaster, Michaels is now the play-by-play sportscaster for Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime. He is well noted for his work on earlier Olympic Games broadcasts for NBC and ABC and for announcing the Miracle on Ice Game at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.
NBC | Fox Image
NBC To Use AI Version Of Announcer Al Michaels’ Voice For Olympics Recaps
NBC stated that the AI system was trained using previous NBC broadcast audio from Michaels.
The business stated that a team of NBC Sports editors will evaluate all of the content, including audio and footage, to ensure that it is factually correct and that names are pronounced correctly.
Beginning July 27, the highlights tool will be available on Peacock in web browsers and iOS and iPad apps.
SOURCE – CNN
Jamie Foxx has yet to publicly divulge the reason for his hospitalization last year, although he did share further facts during a videotaped encounter.
The Oscar-winning actor was hospitalized in April 2023 due to a health problem while filming the Netflix film “Back in Action” in Atlanta.
In a TikTok video posted this week, Foxx informs an unidentified group of people that he has a “bad headache” on April 11, 2023. He remembers asking his friend for an Advil, and then “I was gone for 20 days.”
Jamie Foxx Shares New Details About Health Crisis That Left Him ‘Gone For 20 Days’
“I don’t remember anything,” he claimed in a video shot on June 29 in Phoenix.
Foxx went on to say in the video that he was told his sister and daughter took him to the doctor, who him a cortisone shot. Another doctor told him something was “going on up there,” as Foxx pointed to his head.
“I won’t say it on camera,” he remarked throughout the video.
The singer is known to be discreet about his personal life, and he disappeared from the spotlight at the time due to what his daughter Corinne Foxx described as a “medical complication” on social media.
In July 2023, the “Ray” star revealed that he chose not to reveal more information because he did not want the public “to see me like that.”
“I want you to see me laughing, having fun, partying, cracking jokes, or performing in a movie or television show. I didn’t want you to see me with tubes coming out of me and wondering if I was going to make it,” he said in a video posted on Instagram at the time, adding that he felt like he had gone “to hell and back.”
Foxx provided another health update on his verified social media accounts in August 2023.
Jamie Foxx | Fox Image
Jamie Foxx Shares New Details About Health Crisis That Left Him ‘Gone For 20 Days’
“You are looking at a thankful man…” “I’m finally starting to feel like myself,” he wrote at the time. “The journey has been unexpectedly dark…” “But I can see the light.”
He added that he was “thankful to everyone who reached out and sent well wishes and prayers.”
According to IMDB, “Back in Action” is now in post-production.
SOURCE – CNN
NEW YORK — Hunter Biden filed a complaint accusing Fox News of illegally distributing sexual photographs of him as part of a streaming series.
The president’s son filed the complaint on Sunday in state court in Manhattan over photos from “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” which will premiere on Fox Nation in 2022. According to the lawsuit, the series included a “mock trial” of Hunter Biden on crimes he has not faced, as well as photos of Biden naked and engaging in sex acts.
Hunter Biden | AP News Image
Hunter Biden Sues Fox News Over Explicit Images Featured In A Streaming Series
The lawsuit argues that the distribution of intimate photographs without his consent violated New York’s so-called revenge porn legislation.
“Fox published and disseminated these Intimate Images to its vast audience of millions as part of an entertainment program in order to humiliate, harass, annoy and alarm Mr. Biden and to tarnish his reputation,” the lawsuit states.
In an emailed statement, a Fox News representative termed it an “entirely politically motivated lawsuit” that was “devoid of merit.” According to the statement, Biden’s attorneys filed a letter demanding its removal from streaming sites in April 2024.
“The program was removed within days of the letter, out of prudence, because Hunter Biden is a public figure who has been investigated several times and is now a convicted felon. According to the emailed statement, Fox News has faithfully covered Mr. Biden’s newsworthy events by the First Amendment, and we look forward to defending our rights in court.
Hunter Biden was convicted last month of three felony charges stemming from the purchase of a revolver in 2018. Prosecutors claimed the president’s son lied on a mandated gun-buy form by claiming he was not unlawfully using or addicted to narcotics.
Hunter Biden | AP News Image
Hunter Biden Sues Fox News Over Explicit Images Featured In A Streaming Series
According to the lawsuit, the series’ simulated trial included bribery claims and inappropriate financial relationships with foreign governments, which Hunter Biden has not faced.
The lawsuit says Fox did not completely remove promotional materials and that the program is still available on some third-party streaming sites.
SOURCE – (AP)
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