Among those charged was Robert Rizzo, the former city manager of Bell, whose compensation package led the way with annual salary and benefits totaling more than $1.5 million. Prosecutors accused him of illegally writing his own employment contracts and steering nearly $1.9 million in unauthorized city loans to himself and others. He was booked into Los Angeles County Jail and was being held on $3.2-million bail.
The charges follow months of nationwide outrage and renewed debate over public employee compensation since The Times reported in July that the city's leaders were among the nation's highest paid municipal officials.
Cooley described Rizzo as the "unelected and unaccountable czar" of Bell, accusing him of going to elaborate lengths to keep his salary secret. Prosecutors alleged that Rizzo gave himself huge pay raises without the City Council's approval.
"This was calculated greed and theft accomplished by deceit and secrecy," Cooley said.
Rizzo's attorney, James W. Spertus, said the charges came as no surprise and were politically motivated by Cooley, who is running for California attorney general.
"The allegations are mistaken," Spertus said. "They are factually untrue in many readily provable ways."
Cooley denied that his election effort played any part in the decision to file charges.
At a news conference, Cooley accused City Council members of failing to oversee Rizzo's actions, saying that they instead had collected more than $1.2 million in total pay since 2006 for presiding over city agency meetings that never occurred or lasted just a few minutes.
Many city residents greeted news of the charges with joy.
"Finally the crooks are going to suffer what the city suffered for many years," said Carmen Bella, a longtime Bell activist.
About two dozen Bell residents gathered outside City Hall to celebrate. One man used a bullhorn to broadcast the Queen rock song, "Another One Bites the Dust," while others laughed, cheered and applauded.
But at least one resident wondered what would happen to his embattled city.
"Who's going to call the shots?" asked Hassan Mourad, 32. "That's the most important thing right now."
-- Richard Winton and Jack Leonard
Photo: Booking shots of Robert Rizzo, former city manager, and Bell Mayor Oscar Hernandez. Credit: L.A. County Sheriff's Department.
Photos: Arrests in Bell
Remember the old days of dialler Trojan horses?
Back when most of us didn't have broadband at home, and connected to the internet via a modem, we saw a type of malware which could take advantage of the phone line plugged into the back of your PC and dial an expensive premium rate number.
In this way, criminal hackers could make money out of your infected computer - and you might know anything about it until you received an expensive telephone bill.
Dialler Trojan horses went the way of the dinosaur as consumers turned their back on modem connections and adopted broadband en masse.
But, as F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen explained today at the Virus Bulletin conference, the threat may have returned in a different form through the use of virtual premium rate numbers.
Earlier this year I described the Terdial Trojan horse, which was distributed posing as a Windows mobile game called "3D Anti-terrorist action", but appeared to make calls to Antarctica, Dominican Republic, Somalia and Sao Tome and Principe without the owner's permission.
So how did it make money for the hackers?
Well, it transpires that although the Trojan did make phone calls to numbers associated with various far-flung corners of the world, the calls never made it that far.
That's because the phone numbers were what are known as virtual numbers. It's perfectly possible to find telephone operators on the web who will rent you premium phone number associated with, say, Antarctica, and pay you every time that a call is made.
Unlike other legitimate premium rate numbers (such as 1-900 in USA), there is no regulation preventing abuse of the virtual numbers, and the 'owner' of the number gets paid instantly rather than having to wait 30 days.
And your call never actually gets as far as Antarctica or North Korea. It's stopped in your own country, but you're still billed as though you rang that far away place.
The days of Trojan horses making money out of dial-up modem connections may be long gone, but here's a model for money-making that mobile malware authors could certainly exploit.
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All You Need to Know: Fox <b>News</b> 'Destructive,' MSNBC 'Invaluable <b>...</b>
Obama hates Fox because Fox is the only broadcast news outlet that exposes him for what he really is – a lazy, psuedo intellectual empty suit, who is being stopped in his tracks before he can complete his mission – as assigned to him by ...
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Among those charged was Robert Rizzo, the former city manager of Bell, whose compensation package led the way with annual salary and benefits totaling more than $1.5 million. Prosecutors accused him of illegally writing his own employment contracts and steering nearly $1.9 million in unauthorized city loans to himself and others. He was booked into Los Angeles County Jail and was being held on $3.2-million bail.
The charges follow months of nationwide outrage and renewed debate over public employee compensation since The Times reported in July that the city's leaders were among the nation's highest paid municipal officials.
Cooley described Rizzo as the "unelected and unaccountable czar" of Bell, accusing him of going to elaborate lengths to keep his salary secret. Prosecutors alleged that Rizzo gave himself huge pay raises without the City Council's approval.
"This was calculated greed and theft accomplished by deceit and secrecy," Cooley said.
Rizzo's attorney, James W. Spertus, said the charges came as no surprise and were politically motivated by Cooley, who is running for California attorney general.
"The allegations are mistaken," Spertus said. "They are factually untrue in many readily provable ways."
Cooley denied that his election effort played any part in the decision to file charges.
At a news conference, Cooley accused City Council members of failing to oversee Rizzo's actions, saying that they instead had collected more than $1.2 million in total pay since 2006 for presiding over city agency meetings that never occurred or lasted just a few minutes.
Many city residents greeted news of the charges with joy.
"Finally the crooks are going to suffer what the city suffered for many years," said Carmen Bella, a longtime Bell activist.
About two dozen Bell residents gathered outside City Hall to celebrate. One man used a bullhorn to broadcast the Queen rock song, "Another One Bites the Dust," while others laughed, cheered and applauded.
But at least one resident wondered what would happen to his embattled city.
"Who's going to call the shots?" asked Hassan Mourad, 32. "That's the most important thing right now."
-- Richard Winton and Jack Leonard
Photo: Booking shots of Robert Rizzo, former city manager, and Bell Mayor Oscar Hernandez. Credit: L.A. County Sheriff's Department.
Photos: Arrests in Bell
Remember the old days of dialler Trojan horses?
Back when most of us didn't have broadband at home, and connected to the internet via a modem, we saw a type of malware which could take advantage of the phone line plugged into the back of your PC and dial an expensive premium rate number.
In this way, criminal hackers could make money out of your infected computer - and you might know anything about it until you received an expensive telephone bill.
Dialler Trojan horses went the way of the dinosaur as consumers turned their back on modem connections and adopted broadband en masse.
But, as F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen explained today at the Virus Bulletin conference, the threat may have returned in a different form through the use of virtual premium rate numbers.
Earlier this year I described the Terdial Trojan horse, which was distributed posing as a Windows mobile game called "3D Anti-terrorist action", but appeared to make calls to Antarctica, Dominican Republic, Somalia and Sao Tome and Principe without the owner's permission.
So how did it make money for the hackers?
Well, it transpires that although the Trojan did make phone calls to numbers associated with various far-flung corners of the world, the calls never made it that far.
That's because the phone numbers were what are known as virtual numbers. It's perfectly possible to find telephone operators on the web who will rent you premium phone number associated with, say, Antarctica, and pay you every time that a call is made.
Unlike other legitimate premium rate numbers (such as 1-900 in USA), there is no regulation preventing abuse of the virtual numbers, and the 'owner' of the number gets paid instantly rather than having to wait 30 days.
And your call never actually gets as far as Antarctica or North Korea. It's stopped in your own country, but you're still billed as though you rang that far away place.
The days of Trojan horses making money out of dial-up modem connections may be long gone, but here's a model for money-making that mobile malware authors could certainly exploit.
bench craft company rip off
All You Need to Know: Fox <b>News</b> 'Destructive,' MSNBC 'Invaluable <b>...</b>
Obama hates Fox because Fox is the only broadcast news outlet that exposes him for what he really is – a lazy, psuedo intellectual empty suit, who is being stopped in his tracks before he can complete his mission – as assigned to him by ...
Evri Expands Mobile Offerings Beyond Tech <b>News</b> to Sports, Music <b>...</b>
Evri is going mobile in a big way. The Seattle- and San Francisco-based information discovery website backed by Paul Allen's Vulcan Capital introduced an.
Bulletstorm dev talks down FPS fatigue <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Bulletstorm dev talks down FPS fatigue.
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All You Need to Know: Fox <b>News</b> 'Destructive,' MSNBC 'Invaluable <b>...</b>
Obama hates Fox because Fox is the only broadcast news outlet that exposes him for what he really is – a lazy, psuedo intellectual empty suit, who is being stopped in his tracks before he can complete his mission – as assigned to him by ...
Evri Expands Mobile Offerings Beyond Tech <b>News</b> to Sports, Music <b>...</b>
Evri is going mobile in a big way. The Seattle- and San Francisco-based information discovery website backed by Paul Allen's Vulcan Capital introduced an.
Bulletstorm dev talks down FPS fatigue <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Bulletstorm dev talks down FPS fatigue.
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All You Need to Know: Fox <b>News</b> 'Destructive,' MSNBC 'Invaluable <b>...</b>
Obama hates Fox because Fox is the only broadcast news outlet that exposes him for what he really is – a lazy, psuedo intellectual empty suit, who is being stopped in his tracks before he can complete his mission – as assigned to him by ...
Evri Expands Mobile Offerings Beyond Tech <b>News</b> to Sports, Music <b>...</b>
Evri is going mobile in a big way. The Seattle- and San Francisco-based information discovery website backed by Paul Allen's Vulcan Capital introduced an.
Bulletstorm dev talks down FPS fatigue <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Bulletstorm dev talks down FPS fatigue.
bench craft company rip off
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