fraud<\/a> case, as well as the $8 million in unearned royalties Smith earned. They argued a significant stint in prison was necessary \u201cto provide justice punishment\u201d and deter other potential fraudsters.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cIf the public is watching this case, as the defendant claims, a lenient sentence will send precisely the wrong message: streaming fraud will not result in meaningful punishment,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicholas W. Chiuchiolo and Kevin B. Mead wrote.<\/p>\n
\n\tSmith pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud back in March, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. In their original complaint, the feds claimed that, between 2017 and 2024, Smith used an army of bots to improperly stream his music millions of times. While Smith, an aspiring musician, had a catalogue of his own music, he also allegedly generated additional royalties through bot-streams of AI-generated songs he purchased and uploaded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIn their sentencing submission, Smith\u2019s lawyers said their client was \u201cprofoundly sorry\u201d for his conduct, but claimed he \u201cdid not set out to commit a federal crime\u201d and \u201cbelieved his initial efforts to be lawful.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tThey said he spoke with a \u201cwell-known music attorney\u201d and came to believe \u201chis conduct began at a time when the legal parameters [around artificially inflated streams] were unsettled.\u201d Nevertheless, they acknowledged, Smith \u201cended up rationalizing conduct that he knew was wrong,\u201d like when he gave \u201cfalse statements to distributors\u201d who contacted him about possible streaming manipulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSmith\u2019s sentencing submission further featured a plethora of statements from friends and family, many of whom argued that Smith should be spared a prison sentence so that he would not be separated from his children, especially an adolescent son. Some of Smith\u2019s music industry peers even submitted letters on his behalf, including the Wu-Tang Clan\u2019s RZA.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tAs Rolling Stone <\/em>previously reported, Smith developed deep contacts in the music industry during the 2010s, with RZA one of the more well-known figures he interacted with. They released some music together; RZA served as a guest judge on One Shot<\/em>, the rap reality competition Smith bankrolled and starred in; and in 2024, Smith and RZA both served as executive producers on a horror movie called Nyctophobia<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cMike has always acted honestly with me and with the artists and business partners we have worked with,\u201d RZA wrote. \u201cI have seen him use his connections and resources to help people who might not have had those chances otherwise. I know the matter before the Court is serious, and I do not write this letter to make light of it. I respectfully ask the Court to consider the person I have come to know through my own experience with Mike: someone who can contribute to his community, support others, and keep making responsible choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Smith, the first person to face federal charges tied to music streaming fraud, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":74419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}