Blog

Tech billionaire’s alleged depraved double life: Palm Beach ex makes horrific claims about satanic beatings, insomnia-inducing sex acts and pregnancy terminated with violence

At a luxury estate in the rolling hills of Tuscany, Italy, Natalia Chernysheva claims she woke in agony, her body bruised and memory fractured after a night she could not fully recall.

It was November 2020, and she says she had been staying with her then-boyfriend, wealthy tech mogul Serg Bell, at the Renieri di Montalcino estate, a sprawling property surrounded by dense forest and miles from any public road, with only his assistant for company.

Disoriented and searching for answers, she says she turned to the villa’s surveillance system.

‘When I woke up the next day with pain in my body, I remember something very, very bad happened… but I just couldn’t remember,’ she told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.

‘So that’s when I checked the cameras.’

What she saw, she claimed, was horrifying. An emotional Chernysheva said: ‘Those pictures… I could see them in my head. But when I saw it captured on the cameras… my hands were shaking.’

The footage allegedly showed Bell grabbing her by the neck and strangling her before stepping back and adopting a martial arts stance. He then moved in again, striking and kicking her as she lay on the floor until she lost consciousness. The Daily Mail has not viewed the footage.

The alleged incident, detailed in a lawsuit filed by Chernysheva against Bell in Florida, was just one of many savage beatings she claims she endured during their six-year relationship.

After the alleged attack, it is claimed in the lawsuit that Bell calmly bent down to tie his shoelaces before walking away, leaving his assistant, who allegedly did not intervene, to lift her onto a couch.

‘That showed me how cruel Serg actually is,’ Chernysheva told the Daily Mail.

In the suit, Chernysheva, 42, alleges Bell, 54, exerted near-total control over her life – monitoring her spending, restricting her movements and isolating her from friends and family while making her financially dependent on him.

The document claims he enforced that control with violence, with the abuse spanning the globe – from Paris to Palm Beach, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

‘[Bell] made me believe I couldn’t leave because there was nothing beyond him; life is him. He put that in my mind from the beginning.’

The lawsuit describes how she finally decided to break free from the relationship after an alleged attack in 2022 on the day she told Bell she was pregnant after In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), which she claims led to a miscarriage days later.

‘It seems so simple [to leave], but it’s not,’ Chernysheva told the Daily Mail. ‘In reality, it’s the most impossible thing when you are in so deep and trapped with someone.’ 

Bell, born in the Soviet Union and now a Singapore citizen, founded several companies including Swiss cybersecurity firm Acronis, once valued at $4 billion. He stepped down as CEO in 2021 and is no longer associated with the company.

Keep reading

Eric Swalwell paid illegal Brazilian live-in nanny under the table with campaign funds, complaint alleges

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell — a frontrunner in the California governor’s race — has been accused of violating immigration and employment law to keep his illegal live-in Brazilian nanny in the country, according to a pair of recently filed complaints.

When his South American babysitter’s temporary work authorization was about to expire in 2022, he and wife Brittany Swalwell lied to the feds to keep Amanda Barbosa working for them, a new complaint filed Tuesday with the Department of Labor claimed.

Another complaint, filed to the Department of Homeland security in February and previously unreported, accuses Swalwell of paying the nanny under the table with campaign funds for a period of two years when she didn’t hold valid work authorization.

Barbosa appears in numerous social media photos with the Swalwell family throughout 2023 and 2024, indicating continued close association and ongoing childcare responsibilities despite the absence of known lawful work authorization,” the complaint to DHS, dated Feb. 16, alleged.

The embattled California gubernatorial hopeful first hired Barbosa, 33, in the fall of 2021 to look after his three children.

Keep reading

US appeals court declares 158-year-old home distilling ban unconstitutional

A U.S. appeals court on Friday declared unconstitutional a nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling, calling it an unnecessary and improper means for ​Congress to exercise its power to tax.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of ‌Appeals in New Orleans ruled in favor of the nonprofit Hobby Distillers Association and four of its 1,300 members.

They argued that people should be free to distill spirits at home, whether as ​a hobby or for personal consumption including, in one instance, to create ​an apple-pie-vodka recipe.

The ban was part of a law passed during ⁠Reconstruction in July 1868, in part to thwart liquor tax evasion, and subjected violators ​to up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Writing for a three-judge panel, ​Circuit Judge Edith Hollan Jones said the ban actually reduced tax revenue by preventing distilling in the first place, unlike laws that regulated the manufacture and labeling of distilled spirits on which ​the government could collect taxes.

Keep reading

Secret Grand Jury Convened to Unmask Anonymous Government Critic on Reddit

Federal prosecutors have ordered Reddit to appear before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., and hand over the personal data of an anonymous user who posted criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company has until April 14 to comply. Reddit has declined to say whether it plans to fight the order.

The user, identified in court filings as John Doe, is a US citizen in the Pacific Northwest. Doe’s attorneys reviewed the account’s post history and found nothing resembling criminal activity.

The most aggressive posts they could locate: sharing already-public biographical details about Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who killed Renee Good in Minneapolis in January; suggesting “Urine speaks louder than words” as an anti-ICE protest sign (a reference to a song); and writing “TSA sucks and we all know it.”

Keep reading

US-Israeli Strikes on Iran’s Universities Signal Higher Ed No Longer Off-Limits

Throughout their war on Iran, the U.S. and Israel broke many norms of military engagement, such as systematically targeting academic institutions in Iran. Universities became a major casualty, and explicit acknowledgements by Israeli leaders and some U.S. public figures clarified that these institutions were not collateral damage, but rather, intended targets. There are no definitive figures as to the number of higher education institutes targeted, but Iran’s science minister, Hossein Simaei Saraf, has said more than 30 universities have been bombed.

“It is truly unbelievable that in the 21st century, in the age of human rights, in the age of international law and international humanitarian law, civilian locations and civilians are being targeted,” Simaei Saraf told reporters upon inspecting the ruins of the Laser and Plasma Research Institute at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran on April 4.

“It is regrettable that our adversary has gone back to the Stone Age rather than us coming from the Stone Age,” he said, a reference to Donald Trump’s infamous threat against Iran. Simaei Saraf added that the international community is deprived of Iran’s human potential when the country’s scientific centers become targets in military campaigns.

Founded in 1960 as the National University of Iran, Shahid Beheshti University (SBU) is known for its robust law, literature, and architecture departments. The U.K.-based QS World University Rankings has ranked Shahid Beheshti University 214th in Asia among 1,534 universities listed regionally. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a former presidential candidate and leader of the 2009 Green Movement who has been under house arrest since 2011, is an SBU alumnus.

The most shocking incident in this string of attacks was the bombing of Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology, often referred to as Iran’s MIT. In the early hours of April 6, U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on the southern parts of the iconic campus destroyed several buildings, including the Philosophy of Science Group, High-Performance Computing Center, and Information and Communication Technology Center.

Keep reading

Idaho Bans Mandatory Digital ID With New Privacy Law

Idaho just became one of the few states to draw a line against mandatory digital identification. Governor Brad Little signed Senate Bill 1299 on April 1, 2026, and the new law does something genuinely unusual in American state politics right now: it pushes back against digital ID rather than pushing it forward.

We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.

The bill creates Section 67-2364 of the Idaho Code, prohibiting government entities from requiring “any person to obtain, maintain, present, or use digital identification.”

Approximately three-quarters of US states are currently offering or developing electronic driver’s licenses. The national momentum is clearly toward digital ID systems, with states like Arkansas, Texas, Georgia, and Utah all advancing their own versions in 2025 alone. Idaho is swimming against that current.

The bill, introduced by Senator Tammy Nichols, goes further than a simple opt-out. It prohibits public entities from denying, delaying, conditioning, or reducing “any service, benefit, license, employment, education, or access based on a person’s refusal or inability to use digital identification.”

That second clause, “or inability,” protects people who can’t use digital ID, not just those who won’t. Anyone without a smartphone, without reliable internet, without the technical literacy to navigate a digital wallet, keeps full access to government services. Physical, non-digital identification remains “valid for all governmental purposes” under the law.

The bill also addresses what happens when someone voluntarily shows a digital ID during a government interaction. A government entity cannot “require a person to surrender, unlock, or relinquish control of a personal electronic device for identity verification.” Handing your phone to a police officer or a clerk at the DMV is not the same as handing them a laminated card.

A phone contains your messages, your photos, your browsing history, and your location data. Presenting a digital ID “shall not constitute consent to search or access any other contents of a device.”

That’s a Fourth Amendment protection written directly into a state statute.

Keep reading

Massachusetts House Passes Social Media Age Verification Digital ID Bill

Massachusetts just voted to force every social media user in the state to prove their age to a tech company. 

The bill passed the House 129-25 on Wednesday, banning children under 14 from social media entirely, requiring parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds, and mandating that platforms build age verification systems to enforce all of it. If it becomes law, the policy takes effect on October 1.

We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.

House Speaker Ron Mariano and Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz framed the legislation as protection. “This ban would be among the most restrictive in the entire country, helping to protect young people from harmful content and addictive algorithms that have a proven negative impact on their mental health,” they said in a joint statement. 

They also described the broader goal: “The simple reality is that Massachusetts must do more to ensure that our laws keep pace with modern challenges – especially when it comes to protecting our children, and to setting students up for success in the classroom and beyond.”

The bill doesn’t say how companies should verify ages. It leaves that to Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who would have until September 1 to write the implementing regulations. 

That vagueness is deliberate, according to Michlewitz, who said it gives the AG flexibility in a changing industry. 

But the practical reality of age verification is that someone has to prove who they are. 

That means government IDs, facial scans, or behavioral tracking, and those requirements don’t just apply to kids. Every user on the platform has to go through the system, because you can’t filter minors without checking adults, too.

Keep reading

Pastor accused of sexually abusing foster child had prior prison sentence commuted by Trump

A South Carolina pastor accused of sexually assaulting a foster child had his prison sentence commuted by President Donald Trump and was on federal probation when the alleged assaults occurred.

The Richland County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) said Rodney Gibson and Kawiana Young were arrested Monday. RCSD noted the two are married.

Both were charged with unlawful conduct with a minor, while Gibson was additionally charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Gibson was also identified as the pastor of Pathway 2 Hope Ministries in Columbia, while Young owns and operates DreamCatcher Child Development Center.

Federal court records obtained by WIS reveal more about Gibson’s prison sentence and his efforts to end his probation early.

Federal court records show Gibson, 50, served more than 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to federal drug and gun charges in 2009. His prison sentence was reduced to 32 years in 2015 and to 17 years in 2017.

Records also show Gibson filed to have his sentence reduced again in June 2020, claiming errors in the sentencing process. Then, in January 2021, Gibson was one of several people whose prison sentences were commuted by President Donald Trump on the final day of his first term. Gibson was released in May that year, but remained under the previously imposed supervision.

Keep reading

Trump Administration Wants to Make It More Difficult to Evade a Military Draft

The Selective Service System, the government agency that keeps a list of draft-eligible American men, will begin automatically registering names later this year, abandoning a decades-old process in which young men self-registered.

“This has been in the works for quite a while,” a U.S. government official told The Intercept, noting that the Selective Service System — which is separate from the Defense Department — had been pressing Congress to revamp the registration process. The official referenced “sliding numbers” of men registering on their own and the potential of war with a near-peer power like China. The official also mentioned a Trump administration “obsession” with creating “comprehensive federal databases.”

Men ages 18 to 25 who are eligible to be drafted have been required to register with the government since 1980. Failure to do so is a felony, which bars unregistered men from most federal jobs, eligibility for student loans, and carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

More than 100 million men have registered in the last 46 years. But according to the Selective Service, just 81 percent of eligible men registered in 2024, a 3 percent point drop from the prior year.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump “keeps his options on the table,” when Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked her about the possibility of a return of the draft. But Trump would be required to get approval from Congress to enact a draft, which was last used during the Vietnam War.

Keep reading

Ban on step incest porn and ‘barely legal’ content in government climbdown

The government will ban so-called “barely legal” pornography of adults role-playing as children and depictions of some step-incest in a further crackdown on harmful online content.

There will also be a review into how pornography sites verify the age and consent of people featured in their videos, which will look at ways to allow people to withdraw previously given consent, Sky News has learnt.

The new measures mean the UK could have some of the strongest regulations of online pornography in the world, MPs told Sky News.

The government initially did not support the changes, leading to threats of a rebellion from female MPs who had been demanding further safeguards in light of a review into online pornography by the Conservative peer Gabby Bertin.

The review found online pornography was insufficiently regulated compared to offline, leading to an explosion of degrading, misogynistic and violent content.

Baroness Bertin tabled several amendments, which were passed in the House of Lords last month, inflicting defeats on the government.

This included a ban on pornography of adults pretending to be children, a ban on step incest pornography, the requirement for sites to verify age and consent and to allow people featuring in the videos to withdraw consent.

Keep reading