Tag Archives: oceania

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Innocent motorists allegedly bashed by thieves posing as 'fake cops'

Innocent Melbourne motorists have allegedly been tied up and beaten by ruthless thieves posing as police to steal luxury cars.

One victim exclusively told 9News he was forced to run for his life after being allegedly threatened at gunpoint.

Richard George was driving home through the deserted city after work at 2am, when he was pulled over by a car with flashing red and blue lights.

READ MORE: Men allegedly try to steal 1400 RAT kits from Melbourne testing site

They asked Mr George for ID and pretended to call for backup.

Little did the victim know, it was an ambush.

"They had gloves on and stuff, they acted like normal police officers," he said.

"They had gear on, they had torches."

However, the act was over when the 24-year-old was left with a fractured eye socket and a broken nose.

Dragged from his Audi, two men allegedly bashed him and threatened him with a gun.

"For me, I just had to get out of there," Mr George said.

The financial consultant was pulled over on Brunton Avenue near the MCG on December 17.

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He was told his car was suspected of being involved in a hit-run.

The men – driving a Nissan X-Trail – claimed to be plainclothes detectives.

They asked for his licence and questioned whether he'd been drinking.

"Obviously I was complying," Mr George said.

"I wasn't really thinking I'm going to be pulled over by fake police."

The men then allegedly assaulted the 24-year-old and forced themselves into his Audi A5.

Police said the pair have used the car to terrorise more innocent motorists.

On Boxing Day, a driver was pulled over by a black sedan flashing its lights in Mickleham.

He was forced to the ground, his hands bound and his blue Audi stolen.

READ MORE: Millions due for booster shots as Victoria's COVID-19 numbers drop

Five hours later, a motorist in Box Hill was stopped, with the driver claiming two men shouted "show me your hands" before speeding off at 180km/h.

Police tracked both stolen Audis to a motel in Parkdale, where they arrested a 29-year-old man earlier this month.

Detectives allege they uncovered weapons and drugs inside the cars, including a gel blaster handgun, a butterfly knife, ice and cocaine.

Shaun Tantrum was charged with multiple offences, including impersonating police which has a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

His 19-year-old co-accused, Noah Giuliano, was arrested and then bailed on Thursday.

Investigators believe there could be more victims.

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World's richest men lose billions as cryptocurrency, tech stocks tank

The richest men in the world have lost billions of dollars in the past week as cryptocurrency markets and technology stocks plummet.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, in the last 24 hours Elon Musk lost US$12.5 billion ($17.41 billion), Jeff Bezos lost US$9.17 billion ($12.78 billion) and Facebook – now Meta – CEO Mark Zuckerberg lost US$4.86 billion ($6.77 billion).

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, lost an eye-watering US$13.3 billion ($18.53 billion) in one day.

READ MORE: Scott Morrison's Chinese social media account blocked

The prime movers behind these price drops are two-fold: tech stocks are retreating as investors eye potential interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in the US, and the entire cryptocurrency market is tumbling on the very same fears.

Given the personal net worth of the world's richest people is almost entirely tied up in assets – Mr Musk is not sitting on a bank account totalling more than US$240 billion – such fluctuations in the market will likely impact their rankings on personal wealth lists.

Since its all-time high in November, Bitcoin has lost almost 50 per cent of its value and the cryptocurrency market as a whole has wiped more than $1.4 trillion in value.

READ MORE: Will Omicron end the pandemic?

Another thorn in the side of digital currency backers is government policy: three days ago Russia's central bank proposed the banning of cryptocurrency mining on Russian soil.

Arguing that mining cryptocurrency (a complex algorithm-crunching process that involves huge computing power) threatened the financial stability of Russia, the central bank accused some cryptocurrencies as resembling pyramid schemes.

Simon Peters, cryptocurrency market analyst at eToro, said that if Russia were to ban cryptocurrency mining it will likely only affect prices in the short term.

"Russia imposing a blanket ban on bitcoin mining may well have an impact on its hashrate and price in the short term. However, I don't believe this will be a long-term headwind," Mr Peters said.

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Bitcoin mining accounts for 0.5 percent of all electricity used in the world each year.

"Russia is only responsible for approximately 11 per cent of the global hashrate. This is in stark comparison to China, which when it banned Bitcoin mining in May 2021, the mining operations based there accounted for 60–70 per cent of the global hashrate of the Bitcoin network.

"When these China-based miners went offline due to the ban, the hashrate dropped significantly along with price.

"But, as those miners set up in other countries/jurisdictions the hashrate rebounded and is now at an all-time high.

"If Russia does ban Bitcoin mining we may well see a similar pattern, but to a far lesser extent."

Here in Australia, one Bitcoin is currently trading at $48,967 per coin, down sharply from its November 8 high of more than $91,000.

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