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Guilty plea in $10M AI-generated music streaming fraud scheme

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North Carolina musician Michael Smith pleaded guilty to orchestrating a $10M fraud scheme involving the artificial inflation of streaming royalties on major platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music. Using AI-generated music and automated bots, Smith bypassed anti-fraud controls by leveraging over 1,000 bot accounts and VPNs to stream songs billions of times between 2017 and 2024. The operation yielded more than $10M in illicit royalties diverted from legitimate artists and rights holders.

Timeline

  1. 20.03.2026 11:33 1 articles · 4h ago

    Guilty plea in monumental AI-powered streaming fraud scheme

    Michael Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after orchestrating a seven-year scheme that used AI-generated music and automated bots to fraudulently inflate streaming metrics on major platforms, resulting in over $10M in illicit royalties. The operation involved over 1,000 bot accounts and VPNs to bypass anti-fraud controls, with Smith estimating daily earnings of approximately $3,307 from bot-driven streams.

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Information Snippets

  • Smith pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and agreed to forfeit $8,091,843.64.

    First reported: 20.03.2026 11:33
    1 source, 1 article
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  • Prosecutors stated Smith fraudulently collected over $10M in royalties by streaming hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs billions of times between 2017 and 2024.

    First reported: 20.03.2026 11:33
    1 source, 1 article
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  • Smith used an estimated 1,000 bot accounts, alongside 52 cloud service accounts each operating up to 20 bots, to stream approximately 661,440 songs daily with each bot capable of streaming 636 songs per day.

    First reported: 20.03.2026 11:33
    1 source, 1 article
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  • To evade detection, Smith employed VPNs to mask the bot-originated streams and instructed accomplices to rapidly generate large volumes of content to bypass anti-fraud policies.

    First reported: 20.03.2026 11:33
    1 source, 1 article
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  • An email from Smith dated October 4, 2018, outlined the need to generate "a TON of content with small amounts of Streams" to avoid triggering fraud detection mechanisms.

    First reported: 20.03.2026 11:33
    1 source, 1 article
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  • Smith faces a maximum prison sentence of 5 years and has agreed to forfeiture as part of the guilty plea.

    First reported: 20.03.2026 11:33
    1 source, 1 article
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