Bealten Hacking: February 2015

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

Hawala scam: One more Fatta accomplice detained

AHMEDABAD: Bilal Haroon Gilani, a co-accused in Rs 5,395 crore hawala racket was detained by Surat crime branch from special PMLA court here on Thursday. Gilani had appeared in the court on the summons issued last month. The court had summoned 77 other accused persons and firms who were chargesheeted by the ED in the hawala racket. This is the third big detention in the hawala scam after Afroz Fatta and Madan lal Jain, alleged kingpins of the racket.

Sources said Gilani was a major partner in the racket and is said to have sent Rs 1,200 crore through hawala outside India. "Gilani has been taken to Shahpur police station where he will be questioned by our officials. If need be, he will be arrested," said a Surat crime branch official.

With the help of ED officials, Surat crime branch detained Gilani who was absconding for last three months. Sources said that Gilani was trying to evade ED and police but was identified by ED officials and crime branch officials detained him. Both ED and Surat crime branch are working in tandem on the forgery cases as well as hawala racket. Surat crime branch is probing two cases of forgery of Rs 104 crore and Rs 28 crore under which Gilani was detained. According to an FIR filed by a private bank in April this year, Fatta and Jain had cheated the bank to the tune of Rs 104.60 crore by submitting fake bills of entry.

ED's probe has also revealed how the Gilani had used tools such as use of commission agents, bill discounters and angadia services to transfer funds from Indian entities to the accounts of fake entities created by Fatta and Jain.

ED had issued several summons to Bilal but he was into hiding. Sources also said that Gilani has directly and indirectly received over Rs 40 crore in commissions for sending money outside India.

Earlier this week while seeking bail, Fatta filed a reply before a special PMLA court saying that the ED had falsely framed him in this case and deliberately did not recognize that co-accused Madanlal Jain is the kingpin. Further hearing on this bail application will take place on August 19.

Friday, 6 February 2015

The first Ubuntu phone is finally going on sale next week

When Canonical unveiled its Ubuntu Edge concept phone on Indigo a couple of years ago, two things were clear: the ludicrously high funding goal showed that Canonical’s main goal was to generate hype rather than funds, and the company was taking a more aggressive approach to give Linux some mainstream appeal. If Ubuntu was treading water in the desktop space, maybe it could do a lap or two in the mobile market? The Edge didn't meet its funding goal, but next week — two years after the concept was revealed — the first Ubuntu mobile phone will go on sale.

The Ubuntu Edge that could’ve been.

Around one year ago — almost to date — we learned that Canonical managed to wrangle a couple of partners to help manufacture Ubuntu mobile phones, Meizu and BQ Readers. Since then, though, what we mostly heard was silence. Next week, BQ will be able to say it sold the world’s first Ubuntu smartphone. Canonical’s mobile OS will be placed on BQ’s Aquaris E4.5, traditionally a midrange Android phone, sporting a 1.3GHz quad-core Cortex A7 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, and a micro SD card slot packed underneath a 4.5-inch 540×960 display, alongside a 8MP rear camera and 5MP front camera. There’s no LTE compatibility, but the phone does have two micro SIM slots. It’s not exactly the Ubuntu Edge, which promised to be a super phone that can morph from mobile to a full desktop environment, but for Canonical — at least at this stage — it’ll do. It’s clear that Canonical is simply testing the market with as little risk as possible, and seeing how big of a draw the unique Ubuntu mobile experience will be.

Canonical and BQ plan to generate hype not through the midrange specs, but through exclusivity. Not only will this be the only purchasable Ubuntu smartphone for now, but it will initially be sold through online flash sales, creating an air of urgency — and if you've been clamoring for an Ubuntu mobile device since the failed Edge campaign, you’re out of luck if you’re out of Europe. Canonical, at least, is working on a strategy to make the phone available in US markets, but there isn't a definitive time frame.

If you’re in Europe, you’ll have to keep an eye on both Canonical and BQ, as the flash sales seem to be just that — a flash. If you’re invested in the mobile Ubuntu alternative, hope that your European brethren gobble up the phones and help build a viable market.