A movie producer has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to bribe a former Louisiana film commissioner for tax breaks.
U.S. District Judge Lance Africk on Thursday also ordered 39-year-old Malcolm Petal of New Orleans to pay about $1.3 million in restitution to the state, plus a $15,000 fine.
Petal, who pleaded guilty in December, was chief executive of the Louisiana Institute of Film Technology when he allegedly used lawyer William Bradley as middleman for bribe money paid to former state film commissioner Mark Smith.
Smith pleaded guilty in 2007 to taking about $65,000 in bribes to inflate state tax credits and is awaiting sentencing. Bradley awaits sentencing after pleading guilty in March to a conspiracy charge.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More