Latest news with #Informant
Forbes
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Korean Action Comedy ‘Informant' Debuts On NYAFF Opening Night
Heo Sung-tae and Jo Bok-rae form an unlikely team in 'Informant.' Heo Sung-tae plays detective Nam-hyeok in the Korean action comedy Informant. Nam-hyeong hasn't made any arrests lately. He relies on an informant played by Jo Bok-rae to give him inside info on various criminal activities. Jo's character Tae-bong is a master of disguise. He slips into dangerous situations that could potentially lead to Nam-hyeok making big arrests and earning a promotion. However, Nam-hyeok manages to mishandle every lead he's given. He just keeps getting demoted. The criminals in this film are obviously not trustworthy, but neither are the police. Some are out for glory and promotions. Some have been corrupted by money and power, betraying each other as readily as the criminals do. At least Nam-hyeok's heart is in the right place, even if he keeps making mistakes. Heo's detective character Nam-hyeok somehow bungles every opportunity he finds to make a big arrest. However, Nam-hyeong can't face disappointment forever. He starts to think about robbing the robbers he's pursuing so he can retire. Bok-rae has been working on his retirement plan all along, hoarding some of the profits during every one of Nam-hyeok's failed busts. The film debuts this week at the opening night of the New York Asian Film Festival and is a good example of the festival's theme 'Cinema as Disruption.' While introducing a range of endearingly unreliable characters, the action rolls out a succession of comically absurd situations that provide laughs from the film's beginning to its end. It's a funny game of cops and robbers in which neither side can exist without the other. There's plenty of bungling to go around. Heo Sung-tae is best known for his role in the original season of the Netflix hit Squid Game and can currently be seen in the Korean TV drama Good Boy, in which he also plays a detective at odds with the system. Nam-hyeok is the kind of character who might finally get a break if he only stepped out of his own way. Or perhaps if he made better use of his very smart informant. Jo Bok-rae, who appeared in the films Josée and Coin Locker Girl and dramas such as Moving and Park's Marriage Contract, makes Tae-bong a character to root for. His mad impersonation skills should really land him a job on the right side of the law. Seo Min-ju, a 2013 Miss Korea beauty pageant winner, appeared in the 2024 film Firefighters and in this film plays a tough cop that Nam-hyeok has a crush on. Informant is directed and written by Kim Seok, who made his debut with the award-winning short film Humanist at the CJ Young Festival in 2008 and also directed There Is a Bug in 2009. Informant will have its world premiere on July 11, the opening night of the New York Asian Film Festival. The premiere takes place at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, with director Kim Seok, Heo Sung-tae, Jo Bok-rae and Seo Min-ju attending the opening screening and participating in various events, including a Q&A session following the screening. It's one of several Korean films that will be shown at NYAFF, which runs from July 11 to 27. The roster also includes Forbidden Fairytale with Choi Si-won and Park Ji-hyun, Girl With Closed Eyes, starring Kim Min-ha.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
2nd suspect detained after Crypto investor accused of torturing business partner in NYC
A second suspect was detained Tuesday in connection to the alleged torture of an Italian man inside a New York City townhouse over his refusal to disclose a Bitcoin password. William Duplessie surrendered this morning to a Manhattan precinct and was charged with assault, kidnapping in the first degree, unlawful imprisonment in the first degree and criminal possession of a firearm, a New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesperson told Fox News Digital. John Woeltz, 37, was seen handcuffed wearing a robe and barefooted outside his pad in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan on Friday morning shortly after his alleged victim escaped and called the police for help. Woeltz is facing the same charges in the case. A criminal complaint against Woeltz cited the alleged victim – an Italian former business partner, according to police and reports – as telling investigators that the saga began on May 6, when he arrived at an address on Prince Street. Cryptocurrency Investor Arrested After Alleged Torture Inside Nyc Townhouse Read On The Fox News App The complaint obtained by Fox News over the weekend said Woeltz, "acting in concert with an unapprehended male," first took "all of Informant's electronic devices and passport so that Informant was unable to access them." The NYPD spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the "unapprehended male" is Duplessie. "Informant further states that the defendant and unapprehended male demanded that Informant provide the defendant with Informant's Bitcoin password so that the defendant and unapprehended male could take Informant's Bitcoin," the complaint continued. No Distress Calls Made From Mexican Navy Tall Ship That Crashed Into Brooklyn Bridge, Mexico Navy Chief Says "Informant states that when Informant refused to provide the defendant and unapprehended male with his Bitcoin password, the defendant and unapprehended male, over the course of approximately three weeks, subjected Informant to beatings, including but not limited to using electric wires to shock Informant, using a firearm to hit Informant on the head causing a laceration, pointing the firearm at Informant's head on several occasions, and carrying Informant to the top flight of stairs within the above-mentioned location and hanging Informant over the ledge as the defendant threatened to kill Informant if Informant did not provide the defendant the Informant's Bitcoin password," the complaint added. "Informant further states that the defendant and unapprehended male tied Informant's wrists, binding Informant and preventing movement, and that the defendant and unapprehended male stated that he would have Informant's family killed," the complaint also said. The alleged victim eventually managed to escape and called a nearby traffic officer. Officers responded to the address around 10 a.m. Friday, and witnesses described a dramatic scene as police, SWAT teams and emergency vehicles swarmed the area, local station Fox 5 reported. A 24-year-old woman was also taken into custody in connection with the case, but the Manhattan District Attorney's Office told Fox News on Tuesday that they declined to prosecute her at this time "pending further investigation." Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan contributed to this report. Original article source: 2nd suspect detained after Crypto investor accused of torturing business partner in NYC
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Yahoo
DOJ: Fugitive Former Olympian Ryan Wedding, Subject of $10M Reward, Could Kill Witnesses
Former Olympian Ryan Wedding, a fugitive with a $10 million bounty on his head after he was charged in a federal indictment as the leader of a "sophisticated drug-trafficking organization," is capable of killing witnesses and informants who helped take down his empire, the government argued in a motion for a protective order. Wedding, 43, has been on the run from the law since his operation's consiglieri Andrew Clark was busted in a coordinated raid by Mexican Navy Seals last fall and is believed to be living under the protective arm of the ultra-violent Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. Last week the U.S. State Department announced it was offering a $10 million reward for information that could lead to his a recent court filing in California's Central District, federal prosecutors argue that Wedding operated his underworld drug trafficking conspiracy while tied to some of the world's most dangerous co-conspirators, Hezbollah, ex-KGB agents, and associates of Joaquin "el Chapo" Guzman, the notorious cartel leader who was found guilty in the U.S. on a plethora of charges related to his own murderous network. Guzman famously used 'sicarios,' or hit men was found guilty in a Brooklyn federal courtroom to what prosecutors called "hundreds of acts of violence in Mexico to enforce Sinaloa's control of territories and to eliminate those who posed a threat to the Sinaloa Cartel."Like Guzman, California prosecutors say, the one-time snowboarder for Team Canada and his buddy Clark also used hitmen to eliminate his competition in the drug trade and to wipe out anyone who crossed him, according to a motion for a protective order to protect the identities of anyone who worked with the government to take down "Operation Giant Shalom," the codename the Drug Enforcement Agent gave to the case that targeted Wedding and more than a dozen of his criminal compatriots. This is a complex case involving a sophisticated drug-trafficking organization, whose leaders have shown a callous disregard for human hitmen to execute perceived rivals or enemies," prosecutors argued in a motion for a protective order. Wedding and Clark, prosecutors say, are charged with four murders and one attempted murder between them. And while "Wedding is at large, presumably with the same access to encrypted means of communication and network of hitmen that enabled the charged murders," it is crucial to ensure the safety of cooperators by protecting their identities, prosecutors court agreed with prosecutors and issued an order that lays out a litany of rules designed to make sure Wedding and his codefendants do not gain access to "CI" or Confidential Informant, materials. "Each defendant's defense counsel shall ensure that the defendant is never left alone with any CI Materials," the court ruled. The court agreed with prosecutors and issued an order that lays out a litany of rules designed to make sure Wedding and his codefendants do not gain access to "CI" or Confidential Informant, materials. "Each defendant's defense counsel shall ensure that the defendant is never left alone with any CI Materials," the court ruled. Wedding's transnational drug trafficking operation, law enforcement officials say, "routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada, and other locations in the United States." The drugs were often secreted in stash houses in and around Los Angeles for shipment by long haul truckers to Canada.
