An American man who leaked confidential details of thousands of HIV-positive people in Singapore, most of them foreigners, has been jailed in the US for two years.
Mikhy Farrera Brochez was convicted in June by a court in Kentucky for trying to extort the Singaporan government using the stolen data.
The 34-year-old had obtained the data from his partner, a senior Singaporean doctor who also helped Brochez conceal his own HIV-positive status to get a work permit for the city-state.
Confidential information — including the names and addresses of 14,200 people diagnosed with HIV — was dumped online.
The leak caused anxiety among those with HIV, who have long complained of facing prejudice in socially conservative Singapore.
Brochez was sentenced on Friday to 24 months in federal prison and three years of probabtion after his release, the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Kentucky said in a statement.
“The defendant’s conduct was serious and significant, affecting thousands of people across the world,” US Attorney Robert Duncan Jr said.
The data included information on more than 50 US citizens, the statement said.
In 2016, Brochez was jailed in Singapore for lying about his HIV status, drug-related offenses and fraud.
He was deported last year and then news emerged of the data leak, prompting his arrest in the US.
Trial testimony showed that Brochez e-mailed the data to his mother in Kentucky and retrieved the information upon his return.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese