American singer Michael Smith has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI)for allegedly earning $10 million in royalties through fraudulent Bot streams.
Using Artificial Intelligence tools and bots, he is accused of streaming songs billions of times.
Smith is facing charges of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy, with each offense carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, according to the Justice Department’s news release.
“As alleged, Michael Smith fraudulently streamed songs created with artificial intelligence billions of times to steal royalties.”
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney in the release, said, “Through his brazen fraud scheme, Smith stole millions in royalties that should have been paid to other rights holders whose songs were legitimately streamed.
“Thanks to the FBI and the career prosecutors of this Office, it’s time for Smith to face the music.”
