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US Court Convicts Man for Streaming Fraud Involving AI-Generated Music
MULTIPLE REPORTS·Published ·Event date ·Main source · Heise Online
Story essentials
Michael Smith
United States
October 6, 2026
Original reports
Michael Smith was sentenced to 18 months in prison for a streaming fraud scheme.
He used tens of thousands of bots to stream AI-generated music billions of times to collect royalties.
The fraud resulted in over $12 million in illicit royalties, with an order to pay $8.1 million in restitution.
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