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Die Energie- und Klimawochenschau: Von Fluten, Dürren und Sojawüsten, von brennenden Wäldern, einem neuen Freihandelsvertrag und der Götterdämmerung der Automobilindustrie

Die Energie- und Klimawochenschau: Von Fluten, Dürren und Sojawüsten, von brennenden Wäldern, einem neuen Freihandelsvertrag und der Götterdämmerung der Automobilindustrie

IT pros indicted after arranging credit card payments for weed startup

The marijuana industry is in a legal twilight zone that makes payments difficult.

Life is strict and regimented for these industrial cannabis plants.

Enlarge / Marijuana plants in a greenhouse in Santa Cruz, California. (credit: Ian Philip Miller / Getty Images)

On March 9, 2020, a German IT consultant named Ruben Weigand had a layover in Los Angeles as he traveled from Switzerland to Costa Rica. He never made it to his destination because US authorities arrested him as he was changing planes.

The feds say Weigand and a co-conspirator, Hamid "Ray" Akhavan, were the masterminds behind a multimillion-dollar bank-fraud scheme. The supposed fraud? Tricking US banks into processing more than $100 million in marijuana transactions that went contrary to the banks' rules. According to a March indictment, the pair disguised marijuana transactions as purchases of dog toys, carbonated drinks, diving gear, and other products unrelated to cannabis.

Lawyers for the two men say this is ludicrous because the alleged bank fraud had no victims. The customers knew exactly what they were paying for. The banks involved suffered no losses—in fact, they made money from transaction fees.

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Staupilot: Wie deutsche Hersteller beim autonomen Fahren rumeiern

Vom kommenden Jahr an dürfen erstmals selbstfahrende Autos in Deutschland unterwegs sein. Doch kein Hersteller verspricht ein konkretes Produkt. Eine Analyse von Friedhelm Greis (Autonomes Fahren, Technologie)

Vom kommenden Jahr an dürfen erstmals selbstfahrende Autos in Deutschland unterwegs sein. Doch kein Hersteller verspricht ein konkretes Produkt. Eine Analyse von Friedhelm Greis (Autonomes Fahren, Technologie)