Brute-force attack on La Cronista after release of exposé into Hadari Oshri's and Marc Lubaszka's alleged PPE fraud

aitanavargas
27 jun
3 min de lectura

Actualizado: 16 jul

By Aitana Vargas

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: On June 22, 2021, Hadari Oshri –Marc Lubaszka’s business partner– filed a frivolous civil harassment restraining order (CHRO) against me to stop the publication of my investigative series “A Special Report: The Harrowing Impunity of White-Collar crime,” and any subsequent installments or future media coverage. On August 3, 2021, I filed an anti-SLAPP motion to strike Oshri’s CHRO petition. In a hearing held on September 13, 2021, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Doreen Boxer granted my anti-SLAPP motion and denied Oshri’s civil harassment petition for failure to sustain the applicable burden of proof. Oshri will now have to pay my attorney’s fees for filing a frivolous case. She also declined to go on a recorded interview or provide statements via email. And what follows are the next installments of my months-long investigative series whose publication Oshri desperately attempted yet failed to stop.

On June 27, 2026, La Cronista was hit by a brute-force attack from Singapore with 342 recorded hits in two minutes.

La Cronista is currently looking into the nature of this incident, has taken steps to secure the site, activated 2FA and reached out to Wix support.

This comes on the heels of intensive preservation efforts by Investor News and La Cronista of the years-long investigative series Investor News published on alleged PPE fraud by Oshri and Lubaszka starting 2021.

Initial work in this series was recognized with an LA Press Club award in 2022. In 2023, the series was selected as a finalist for Floodlight, an initiative by Fundación Gabo and The Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project.

The brute-force attack came 24 hours after La Cronista created a page to preserve the original investigation and its accompanying records and documents.

The June 27th attack came some three weeks after La Cronista documented about 25 unusual hits also from Singapore. The attack also comes after this reporter's personal website, aitanavargas.com, was compromised since around mid-June, 2026 and was just cleaned up by Godaddy.

The attacks fit a years-long pattern. Since 2020, this reporter, Investor News, aitanavargas.com and sources received fake leads, cyberattacks and phishing emails from fake accounts like ‘Alex Alex,’ ‘Michaela Lake,’ and others. Some contained tracking pixels. Some contained fake leads.

Readers are advised that La Cronista's official content appears only on this domain and some of our trusted media partners. We have not authorized any mirrors or reposts on any site other than our media partners. If you encounter our articles elsewhere, please exercise caution and verify the source before interacting with links or forms.

In the past days, unauthorized probing activity targeting La Cronista has continued from multiple locations. We are constantly monitoring these activities and are taking all necessary steps to preserve this public-interest investigation featuring multiple victims' testimonies and our entire content library.

La Cronista and this reporter take First Amendment Rights very seriously and will not back down before any intimidation attempts.

*This story will be updated with additional details as they become available.

**Relevant documents about this exposé are being uploaded to archive.org.

***Last update: July 2nd, 2026 to reflect awards & latest documented activity.

Lea Parte 1, Parte 2, Parte 3, Parte 4, Parte 5, Parte 6, Parte 7, Parte 8 & Parte 9. Lea la serie completa aquí.