In the first criminal case involving artificially inflated streaming, Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Christie M. Curtis, the Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI, recently announced the unsealing of a three-count criminal indictment charging Michael Smith.

Smith, a musician, allegedly gained over $10 million in royalty payments unlawfully through his scheme of creating countless songs with artificial intelligence (AI) and using automated “bot” programs to stream the AI-generated songs billions of times. Between 2017 and 2024, he randomly generated song and artist names for audio files so they would appear to be created by real artists rather than AI, and caused Streaming Platforms to falsely report billions of streams of his music.

“The defendant’s alleged scheme played upon the integrity of the music industry by a concerted attempt to circumvent the streaming platforms’ policies,” said Curtis via The Violin Channel. He continues, “The FBI remains dedicated to plucking out those who manipulate advanced technology to receive illicit profits and infringe on the genuine artistic talent of others.”

As reported in The New York Times, Smith responded to his charges with denial by saying, “This is absolutely wrong and crazy!” he said. “There is absolutely no fraud going on whatsoever! How can I appeal this?” The 52-year-old of Cornelius, North Carolina, has since been arrested and will be presented before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in North Carolina.