American Singer, Michael Smith arrested for $10m royalties fraud

The Federal Bureau of Intelligence has arrested American singer, Michael Smith on charges related to earning $10 million in royalties through fraudulent bot streams.

Smith is accused of exploiting Artificial Intelligence (AI) and bots to artificially inflate streaming numbers for his music.

The Justice Department announced that Smith faces three counts each of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

“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.”