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38-521: Lazăr first appeared in news media in February 2013 after the website The Smoking Gun reported he was responsible for hacking the AOL account of Dorothy Bush Koch , sister of former president George W. Bush . Family photos of former president George H. W. Bush , who was in the hospital at the time, were circulated to the internet. He also circulated a self-portrait painted by George W. Bush . Lazăr went on to hack

76-463: A cable television series called The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest... . The series was originally known as World's Dumbest Criminals , but was re-titled World's Dumbest... and began covering other topics. William was a cast member on the show alongside Smoking Gun writer Andrew Goldberg. They left the show after season 1. As of January 2011, the program was re-titled again to truTV Presents: World's Dumbest... In June 2014, The Smoking Gun

114-402: A daily basis. The intent is to bring to the public light information that is somewhat obscure or unreported by more mainstream media sources. Most of the site's content revolves around historical and current events, although it also features documents and photos relating to out-of-the-ordinary crimes and people. The website was founded in 1997, by William Bastone ; his wife, Barbara Glauber,

152-454: A former member of the U.S. Cabinet, a former member of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former presidential advisor, he admitted. [Lazăr] admitted that in many instances, he publically [ sic ] released his victims’ private email correspondence, medical and financial information and personal photographs. On September 1, 2016, U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris sentenced Lazăr to 52 months in prison. The judge also stated that

190-529: A graphic designer; and Daniel Green, a freelance journalist, formerly of The Village Voice , and the son of Stephen L. Green . Most of The Smoking Gun's content is obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies , and from public records such as court documents. The site has used those requests to assemble a collection of mugshots of current and historical celebrities. The cable network truTV , formerly Court TV , purchased The Smoking Gun, as well as

228-501: A member's term as chair or vice chair. The chair, vice chair, and vice chair for supervision are appointed by the president from among the sitting members of the board to serve a four-year term and they can be renominated as many times as the president chooses, subject to Senate confirmation each time, until their terms on the Board of Governors expire. The below table shows those who were formally nominated to fill

266-551: A number of AOL , Yahoo! , Flickr , and Facebook accounts, giving him access to information about current and former high-level government officials. In January 2014, Lazăr was jailed in his native Romania for seven years after being convicted of hacking emails of Romanian officials. Lazăr was subsequently extradited by Romania to the United States, where he was indicted on federal charges . In May 2016, Lazăr pleaded guilty in federal court to two charges. In September 2016, he

304-525: A number of descriptions of criminal or otherwise outrageous incidents. In 2010, the site revealed financial irregularities in Yéle Haiti , a charitable foundation set up by rapper Wyclef Jean , soon after he publicized its successful fundraising for disaster relief following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti . As reported by The New York Times , the foundation had failed to file several years of tax returns. Later it

342-625: A police record in Romania, having been arrested and convicted there in 2011 for "hacking into the email accounts of Romanian starlets and other celebrities" under the pseudonym Micul Fum ("Little Smoke"). He was serving a separate three-year sentence in Romania for those crimes. In an interview with the New York Times in November 2014 conducted while Lazăr was imprisoned in the Arad Penitentiary,

380-696: A vacant seat but failed to be confirmed by the Senate. In addition some have been announced but never formally nominated before being withdrawn from consideration. Alicia Munnell , representing Boston , was announced to fill LaWare's seat by Bill Clinton in 1995. Felix Rohatyn (district unknown) was announced to fill Alan Blinder 's as vice chair and his seat in 1996. Steve Moore and Herman Cain were announced to fill Bloom Raskin and Yellen's seats (without specifying which seat or district) by Donald Trump in 2019. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of

418-451: A victim after compromising the victim's account. In March 2016, Romania approved an 18-month temporary extradition to the United States, and Lazăr was surrendered to U.S. authorities. Since his extradition, Lazăr has been detained at Alexandria City Jail in Alexandria, Virginia . He made his first U.S. court appearance on April 1, 2016. In May 2016—one month after being extradited to

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456-492: Is a portmanteau of " Gucci " and " Lucifer " (a reference, he says, to "the style of Gucci and the light of Lucifer"). Lazăr had no particular computer expertise, but instead used patience and persistence to obtain private information. Lazăr had "no fancy equipment, only a clunky NEC desktop and a Samsung cellphone, and no special skills beyond what he had picked up on the web." He used the simple technique of finding information about his victims online and then using this to guess

494-513: The Justice Ministry of Romania had made a request for Lazăr to be returned to Romania to complete his prison service there, before being conditionally released in 2018 and returned to America to serve his U.S. prison sentence. He was released from prison in August 2021. The Smoking Gun The Smoking Gun is a website that posts legal documents, arrest records, and police mugshots on

532-547: The Twitter feed and e-mail account of Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell . Bushnell spent several hours fighting for control of the accounts, while Lazăr publicly posted portions of an unpublished manuscript to Bushnell's Twitter feed. Lazăr sent an e-mail to TSG claiming responsibility for the hack using the AOL account of actor Rupert Everett . On 22 January 2014, Lazăr, then age 40,

570-583: The monetary policy of the United States . Governors are appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate for staggered 14-year terms. It is headquartered in the Eccles Building on Constitution Avenue , N.W. in Washington, D.C. By law, the appointments must yield a "fair representation of the financial, agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests and geographical divisions of

608-569: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. A governor serves for a fourteen-year term after appointment and member who serves a full term may not be reappointed; when governor completes an unexpired portion of a term may be reappointed. Since the Federal Reserve was established in 1914, the following people have served as governor. Status The Federal Reserve Board has seven seats subject to Senate confirmation, separate from

646-617: The U.S., and while jailed in Virginia awaiting trial—Guccifer claimed to have repeatedly hacked Hillary Clinton 's email server. This claim occurred in the midst of an ongoing FBI probe of Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as United States Secretary of State . Lazăr claimed that the server was "like an open orchid on the Internet" and that "it was easy ... easy for me, for everybody." Lazăr provided no proof of his claim, and U.S. investigators found no evidence to support

684-491: The board by the president "for cause". The chair and vice chair of the Board of Governors are appointed by the president from among the sitting Governors. They both serve a four-year term and they can be renominated as many times as the president chooses until their terms on the Board of Governors expire. All seven board members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and five Federal Reserve Bank presidents direct

722-489: The claim. U.S. officials have also said that if Lazăr had obtained information from Clinton's servers, he would have publicly released such information, as he did when he obtained access to other high-profile individuals, such as Sidney Blumenthal and George W. Bush . According to an FBI report, Lazăr stated during interrogation that he had lied to FOX News when claiming he hacked Clinton's e-mail server, and investigators determined that although he may have attempted to access

760-480: The correct answers to security questions . At the time of his arrest in 2014, Lazăr was an unemployed taxi driver. Lazăr later hacked Colin Powell 's website and accessed years' worth of his correspondence from another AOL account. The correspondence included personal financial information as well as e-mails to George Tenet , Richard Armitage , and John Negroponte . Through six months of trial and error, Lazăr guessed

798-574: The country". As stipulated in the Banking Act of 1935 , the chair and vice chair of the Board are two of seven members of the Board of Governors who are appointed by the president from among the sitting governors of the Federal Reserve Banks. The terms of the seven members of the Board span multiple presidential and congressional terms. Once a member of the Board of Governors is appointed by

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836-543: The e-mail account of Sidney Blumenthal , a former aide to former president Bill Clinton . He distributed private memos from Blumenthal to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton involving recent events in Libya , including the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attack. Before distributing the memos, he copied and pasted the text into his own new documents, then reformatted them with pink backgrounds and Comic Sans font. The hacker's IP address

874-566: The email and social media accounts of high-profile victims, including a family member of two former U.S. presidents, a former U.S. Cabinet member, a former member of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former presidential advisor. After gaining unauthorized access to their email and social media accounts, [Lazăr] publicly released his victims' private email correspondence, medical and financial information, and personal photographs. The indictment also alleges that in July and August 2013, [Lazăr] impersonated

912-509: The federal budget; however, since net earnings of the Federal Reserve Banks are ultimately remitted to the US Treasury, and spending by the Federal Reserve System reduces the size of these remittances, the effects of this source-of-funding distinction are largely optical. Membership is by statute limited in term, and a member who has served for a full 14-year term is not eligible for reappointment. There are numerous occasions where an individual

950-508: The hacker "read out a lengthy handwritten statement that he said explained the purpose of his hacking," which included "a potpourri of conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the 1997 death of Princess Diana and alleged plans for a nuclear attack in Chicago in 2015." Lazăr claimed that the world is run by the Illuminati and a cabal of others. On June 12, 2014, Lazăr

988-611: The open market operations that set U.S. monetary policy through their membership in the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Records of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors are found in the Record Group n. 82 at the National Archives and Records Administration . The current members of the Board of Governors are as follows: There are eight committees. The following is a list of past and present members of

1026-506: The password of Romanian politician Corina Crețu and gained access to her correspondence with Powell. The hacker also targeted U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski ; a senior UN official; members of the Rockefeller family ; former FBI and Secret Service agents , as well as the brother of Barbara Bush , CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz , and former Miss Maine Patricia Legere. On March 20, 2013, USA Today reported that Lazăr had successfully hacked

1064-598: The president, the members function mostly independently. Such independence is unanimously supported by major economists. The Board is required to make an annual report of operations to the Speaker of the House . It also supervises and regulates the operations of the Federal Reserve Banks , and the U.S. banking system in general. The Board obtains its funding from charges that it assesses on the Federal Reserve Banks, and not from

1102-588: The seller's address in an exchange, members would threaten the seller, saying that they would go to their house to rape them and murder their children. In 2006, the site uncovered widespread fabrication in James Frey's alleged memoir A Million Little Pieces . This investigation led to a public rebuke of Frey by talk show host Oprah Winfrey , who had previously endorsed Frey's book as part of her Oprah's Book Club . Frey's book, describing his alleged years of drug and alcohol abuse and subsequent recovery, contained

1140-799: The server, no additional solid forensic evidence was found to tie Lazăr to this failed access attempt. On May 25, 2016, Lazăr—then age 44—pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to unauthorized access to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. According to a Justice Department press release: In a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, [Lazăr] admitted that from at least October 2012 to January 2014, he intentionally gained unauthorized access to personal email and social media accounts belonging to approximately 100 Americans, and he did so to unlawfully obtain his victims' personal information and email correspondence. His victims included an immediate family member of two former U.S. presidents,

1178-483: The website Crime Library , in 2000. A series of the same name premiered on Court TV in 2005, which featured some of the site's stories and assorted sketch humor, using string puppets. This series was later moved and shown on Adult Swim . The site published its second book, The Dog Dialed 911: A Book of Lists from The Smoking Gun , in October 2006. From March 2008 until January 2011, on truTV , The Smoking Gun sponsored

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1216-408: Was appointed to serve the remainder of another member's uncompleted term and has been reappointed to serve a full 14-year term. Since "upon the expiration of their terms of office, members of the Board shall continue to serve until their successors are appointed and have qualified", a member can serve for significantly longer than a full term of 14 years. The law provides for the removal of a member of

1254-597: Was arrested by the Romanian law enforcement agency DIICOT (the Department of Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism Offenses, Direcția de Investigare a Infracțiunilor de Criminalitate Organizată și Terorism ) at his home in Sâmbăteni, Arad County . In 2014, a Romanian court sentenced Lazăr to four years in jail for accessing email accounts of public figures "with the aim of getting ... confidential data." Lazăr already had

1292-570: Was found to have illegally diverted funds to the personal use of Jean and some of his family. In 2019 Jean admitted irregularities at the charity. Federal Reserve Board of Governors The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System , commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board , is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System . It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement

1330-570: Was indicted by a federal grand jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, Virginia , on nine charges: three counts of wire fraud , three counts of gaining unauthorized access to protected computers, and one count each of aggravated identity theft , cyberstalking and obstruction of justice . The indictment alleged that: From December 2012 to January 2014, [Lazăr] hacked into

1368-493: Was sentenced to 52 months in prison in the United States. Romanian authorities asked for Lazăr to be released to his home nation to complete his seven-year prison sentence there before being returned to the U.S. to serve his federal prison sentence. Lazăr is of Romanian and Hungarian ancestry. He lived in the village of Sâmbăteni, part of the Păuliș commune , to the east of Arad, Romania . Lazăr has said that his pseudonym Guccifer

1406-716: Was sold back to William Bastone . The Smoking Gun began to conduct investigations of criminal activity and publicize its results. In August 2009, the site outed members of Pranknet , a virtual community notorious for tricking hotel and fast-food restaurant employees into setting off fire alarms , engaging fire-suppression systems, and engaging in humiliating acts. The group, whose members include two convicted child molestors , also engaged in threatening telephone harassment , placing fake Craigslist ads and shouting racial epithets and obscenities at people responding to them. The group members responded to Craigslist ads placed by young mothers selling household goods, and after gaining

1444-491: Was traced to Russia , however there was no certainty as to whether this was his actual location or whether he had used a proxy to hide his true location. In early May 2013, Lazăr hacked into online accounts owned by two members of the Council on Foreign Relations , as well as accounts owned by Adam Posen and his wife and another owned by a former Federal Reserve Board official. TSG reported on May 7, 2013, that Lazăr had hacked

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