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Six former law enforcement officers who called themselves the Goon Squad face sentencing in Mississippi starting today, months after they pleaded guilty to federal civil rights offenses for torturing and sexually assaulting two Black men and a third white man who has remained anonymous until now. Prosecutors are expected to detail the officers’ violent actions, and victims will have an opportunity to share their stories. The officers could speak publicly for the first time if they choose to talk about their crimes or ask the judge for leniency. Hunter Elward, who pleaded guilty to shooting one of the victims, is scheduled to be sentenced first, on Tuesday morning. The other officers will then be sentenced during individual hearings.

Persons: Hunter Elward Organizations: Prosecutors Locations: Mississippi, Jackson, Miss

☆ How Georgia became America's green-manufacturing capital
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Howey, now 30, grew up in northwestern Georgia near Dalton, a small city known as the "carpet capital of the world." SolarCycle, which reclaims old solar panels to make new ones, in February announced plans for a glass factory. The law authorized big tax credits for companies making renewable-energy technologies, including solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles, in the US. According to S&P Global, the US imported more than two-thirds of its solar panels from Southeast Asia last year. When he sees solar panels atop the chargers, he feels pride in his job.

Persons: Robert Howey, Howey, he'd, Qcells, Catherine Boudreau, Joe Biden, Biden, Bob Keefe, Keefe, Gedia, Pat Wilson, Wilson, Brian Kemp, Benz, Dalton, Kemp, Heidi Popham, Popham, Donald Trump, Scott Moskowitz, Sen, Jon Ossoff of, Moskowitz, it's, Carl Campbell, Campbell, —, Whitfield, Jevin Jensen, Jensen, He's Organizations: US Navy, Business, Qcells, South, Hanwha, SK, Hyundai, Georgia Department of Economic, Gov, Porsche, Mercedes, SK On's, Financial Times, Georgia Northwestern Technical College, Treasury Department, P Global, Microsoft, Development Authority, Shaw Industries, Mohawk Industries, EV Locations: Georgia, Dalton, Japan, Cartersville, South Korea, Malaysia, North Carolina, China, Georgia , North Carolina, South Carolina, Savannah, Atlanta, Cartersville , Georgia, Germany, Commerce , Georgia, Southeast Asia, Korea, Jon Ossoff of Georgia, Washington, BloombergNEF, Vietnam, Whitfield County, ., Whitfield, Calhoun

For more than a decade, the pioneers of the cryptocurrency industry envisioned digital coins as an alternate branch of finance, a renegade sector that would operate outside the reach of big banks and government regulators. In recent years, regulators have seized on that legal precedent to argue that cryptocurrencies are just another security, like shares of Apple or General Motors. The crypto industry has fought back, leaving it in a legal gray zone with an uncertain future in the United States. Now the long-running dispute is edging closer to a resolution, as federal judges begin weighing in on a series of lawsuits by the nation’s top securities regulator against some of the largest crypto firms. This month, judges held hearings in two of the most consequential cases, which could dictate whether the multitrillion-dollar crypto industry can continue growing in the United States.

Organizations: Apple, General Motors Locations: United States

Ms. Dettore and Mr. Grozier were each fined several hundred dollars, and she has since left Rankin County. After Mr. McAlpin arrested Mr. Loveday and accused him of consorting with drug dealers, he ordered him to leave town. Before he left Mississippi, Mr. Loveday said, he called Sheriff Bailey personally to warn him about his deputies’ behavior. He called Mr. Loveday a dirty cop and accused him of secretly recording the call. Then, Mr. Loveday said, “He hung up on me.”Jerry Mitchell , Ilyssa Daly , Eric Sagara and Irene Casado Sanchez contributed reporting.

Persons: Robert Grozier, Christian Dedmon, Dettore, Grozier, Hobson, Loveday, McAlpin, ”, Sheriff Bailey, Bailey, “, ” Jerry Mitchell, Ilyssa Daly, Eric Sagara, Irene Casado Sanchez, Kitty Bennett Organizations: Big Local, Stanford University, Pulitzer Center Locations: Rankin County, Mississippi

☆ Tiger Woods’ son Charlie wins high school state golf championship
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Jack Bantock | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The 14-year-old was part of the Benjamin School boys team that clinched the Florida High School Athletic Association Class A state championship on Wednesday, helping secure a fourth title for the Palm Beach school. The 47-year-old Woods had caddied for his son when he triumphed at his Junior National Golf Championship qualifier in Orlando in September, but had to settle for a spectator’s view this time around. Woods on caddie duty for his son (center) at the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championships at Mission Inn Resort in Orlando, Florida in September. The California Interscholastic Federation did not stage the competition during Woods’ spell at Western High School in Anaheim, California. As a 15-year-old student at the school in 1991, Woods became the then-youngest US Junior Amateur champion, and would go on to three-peat the event.

Persons: Charlie Woods, Tiger, Woods, Rory McIlroy Organizations: CNN, Benjamin School, Florida High School Athletic, Class, Wednesday, Palm, Benjamin School Buccaneers, Junior, California Interscholastic Federation, Western High School, US Junior Amateur, TMRW Sports Locations: Howey, , Florida, Orlando, Woods, Orlando , Florida, Anaheim , California

☆ Coinbase shares rise 7% as Grayscale ETF ruling takes effect
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, slammed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He also said the cryptocurrency exchange is looking to invest more outside of the U.S.Shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase rose about 7% Tuesday afternoon as optimism about a long-awaited bitcoin spot ETF approval buoyed the stock. It could be a turning point for the company, which has been sparring with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Manhattan federal court. Grayscale saw a victory formalized in federal appeals court Monday, when a judge's mandate that the SEC review the company's Bitcoin ETF proposal took effect. The company is one of the largest crypto custodians and has been tapped by a host of prospective ETFs, including BlackRock's proposed Bitcoin ETF, in that capacity.

Persons: Brian Armstrong, BlackRock's Organizations: U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, U.S, Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Locations: Manhattan

☆ SEC orders LA-based company to pay $6.1 million for alleged sale of NFTs as unregistered securities–what investors should know
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Cheyenne Devon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

On Monday, the SEC fined Impact Theory, a Los Angeles-based entertainment company, $6.1 million, alleging the NFTs sold by the company were unregistered crypto asset securities, per an August 28 press release. The SEC alleges Impact Theory told investors who purchased them that they would "profit from their purchases" if the company was successful down the road. Impact Theory reportedly raised about $30 million through its NFT sales. Impact Theory hasn't admitted or denied the SEC's allegations, but has agreed to a cease-and-desist order. The company will also destroy any remaining NFTs in its possession and return funds to investors who purchased NFTs, according to the SEC's press release.

Persons: hasn't Organizations: Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Locations: Los Angeles

July 14 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency companies that have resisted U.S. regulatory oversight, arguing digital assets are not securities, won a court victory this week. The SEC sued Ripple for conducting an unregistered offering of $1.3 billion in XRP between 2013 and 2020. The regulator has brought more than 100 enforcement actions against crypto companies, claiming digital assets are securities. Securities, unlike assets such as commodities, are strictly regulated and require detailed disclosures to inform investors of potential risks. Before the Ripple decision, judges in the few cases decided in court agreed with the SEC that specific crypto assets were securities.

Persons: Analisa Torres, Ripple, Torres, Coinbase, Howey, Carol Goforth, Goforth, Jody Godoy, Tom Hals, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Labs, U.S, District, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, The SEC, SEC, Industry, Supreme, Securities, University of Arkansas, Thomson Locations: New York, XRP, U.S, Solana, Cardano, Florida, Wilmington , Delaware

☆ XRP soars 61% after a judge says the cryptocurrency is not a security in a big win over the SEC
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

XRP soared as much as 61% on Thursday after a US judge said certain aspects of the sale of the token did not break federal securities laws. The SEC had sued Ripple for the sale of its XRP token in 2020 for the failure to register XRP as a security. US District Judge for the Southern District of New York Analisa Torres said the XRP token is "not necessarily a security on its face." But there are multiple facets of the ruling and it gets complicated depending on the type of sale of XRP. A motion for summary judgement filed by the SEC in its "aiding and abetting" allegations against Garlinghouse and Larsen was denied.

Persons: Brad Garlinghouse, Christian Larsen, of New York Analisa Torres, Torres, Garlinghouse, Larsen, bitcoin Organizations: SEC, Service, US, Southern, of, of New York, Twitter Locations: Wall, Silicon, of New

☆ Coinbase is the latest target of the SEC’s crypto crackdown—how U.S. investors may be affected
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Cheyenne Devon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

On June 13, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Coinbase, the second-largest crypto exchange by volume, according to CoinMarketCap.com. The federal regulator alleges Coinbase operated its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange and broker, per the June 13 press release. The SEC also alleges at least 13 crypto assets that Coinbase made available to customers, including Solana and Cardano's tokens, qualify as "crypto asset securities," according to the complaint. This comes just one day after the SEC sued Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, and its billionaire founder, Changpeng Zhao. Trading crypto on an exchange versus peer-to-peer

Persons: Coinbase, Coinbase's, Brian Armstrong, Paul Grewal, we'll, Binance, Changpeng Zhao, Zhao, Gary Gensler, Chen Arad, they've, Arad, Omid, Malekan, wasn't, Bitcoin, There's, bitcoin Organizations: The U.S, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, CNBC, Twitter, Solidus Labs, NBC, Columbia Business School, Architecting, Money, U.S, Commodity, Futures, Metrics Locations: Paris, France, The, Solana, U.S, Arad

But the Coinbase case will be the biggest test yet of the regulator's jurisdiction over the industry. To argue that crypto assets are securities, the SEC has relied on a U.S. Supreme Court case from 1946. WHAT MAKES A CRYPTO ASSET A SECURITY? In the few cases that have been decided in court, judges have agreed with the SEC that specific crypto assets are securities. The SEC has alleged in the Coinbase case that 13 different digital assets sold on the platform are securities.

Persons: Binance, Coinbase, Howey, XRP, Carol Goforth, Goforth, Brian Armstrong, Jody Godoy, Tom Hals, Nick Zieminski, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: SEC, Securities, Exchange Commission, European Union, Supreme, Ripple Labs, University of Arkansas, Twitter, Thomson Locations: U.S, Manhattan, Solana, Cardano, Florida, XRP, New York

☆ SEC sues Coinbase over exchange and staking programs, stock drops 13%
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Coinbase stock had already fallen 9% on Monday, after the SEC unveiled charges against rival crypto exchange Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao. Coinbase's flagship prime brokerage, exchange and staking programs violate securities laws, the regulator alleged in its complaint. The SEC has alleged that at least 13 crypto assets available to Coinbase customers were considered "crypto asset securities" by the regulator. Coinbase's institutional service, Prime, its retail exchange product, and its self-custody Wallet service all offered one or more crypto asset security, the SEC said in its complaint. Coinbase's staking program was also identified as a investment contract and as an unregistered security: The SEC had already taken similar action to force the closure of crypto exchange Kraken's staking service.

Persons: Changpeng Zhao, Gary Gensler, Gensler, Coinbase, Paul Grewal, we'll, Coinbase's Organizations: Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, CNBC, New York Stock Exchange, Labs, Coinbase, Regulators Locations: New York

☆ ‘Silo’ Review: A Sci-Fi World Within Brutalist Walls
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

David Oyelowo, Geraldine James and Will Patton Photo: AppleTV+The day may come when creators of speculative fiction conjure a world in which humanity’s conflicts have been resolved, its needs met, its dreams realized. A day when viewers will be inspired to look forward to Earth’s destiny with hope rather than dread. A day when our imaginations will be piqued by the thought that light rather than darkness is at the end of the tunnel. But as the occupants of “Silo” would be apt to say, “We know that day . But “not this day.”

☆ 'Can't get their act together': Crypto firms slam SEC, Washington for lack of clarity on rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Joe Lubin, CEO of ConsenSys and co-founder of Ethereum, told CNBC Thursday that he thought the ecosystem was "generally frustrated." And it's a little bit, you know, sort of a frustrating thing to observe," Nicolas Cary, president of Blockchain.com, told CNBC on Thursday. "I find the talking point that there's a lack of clarity in the securities laws unpersuasive," Gensler said. "Some crypto companies might message that the laws are unclear rather than admitting that their platforms don't have sufficient investor protection." watch nowHe laid out instances where crypto firms come under existing securities laws, such as when a company offers lending products.

☆ ‘True Lies’ Review: A Counterintelligence Couple Comes Back
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The old James Cameron / Arnold Schwarzenegger collaboration “True Lies” has needed a reboot since, oh, about the time it was released. Its premise was close to preposterous: A long-married woman wouldn’t know her husband was a globe-trotting, veteran counterterrorism agent? Linguistics professor, yoga enthusiast and mother of two Helen Tasker (Ms. Gonzaga) has been married to Harry Tasker (Mr. Howey) for 17 years. Yet she has no idea that all his business travel for that job in “computer sales” really involves him and his cohort saving the world. This doesn’t earn her a lot of our respect, but the show wisely dispenses with the whole façade in the first episode: Helen becomes an agent, too.

☆ The SEC has a stablecoin firm in its sights — and it could shake up the whole $137 billion market
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Paxos has been ordered by New York regulators to stop issuing the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin. The move will have major implications for the $137 billion market, experts told CNBC. Are stablecoins securities? Renato Mariotti partner, BCLPIf BUSD is deemed a security by the SEC then the regulator would have oversight over the stablecoin. "Absent a successful fight, it is most likely BUSD will no longer be sold into the U.S. or be available on U.S.-based digital asset exchanges," Lansing said.

☆ Sorry crypto world, but SEC isn’t backing down on ‘regulation by enforcement’
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Right now, Wahi argued, crypto users are simply left guessing about their exposure to SEC enforcement — and that's not sustainable. That strategy, Hodl Law asserted, didn't give token-holders fair notice about whether their coins are securities. Otherwise, Hodl Law said, Ethereum users have no idea if the SEC will swoop in with an enforcement action. The SEC also said that it's not obliged to warn crypto users about its interpretation of securities laws. It also, however, provides the first robust explanation of an argument I expect to see more often in SEC crypto cases: SEC enforcement, according to Wahi, is precluded by the Supreme Court’s recently articulated major questions doctrine.

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☆ As BlockFi files for bankruptcy, what to know about crypto investor protections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The ongoing FTX fallout — and bankruptcies earlier this year for lenders Celsius Network and Voyager Digital — is teaching crypto investors a hard lesson about their protections relative to more traditional asset classes. Howey Co., established the so-called Howey test to determine what constitutes a security, or "investment contract." More on how the Howey test works can be found below. Here's why this is important for crypto: It's unclear in many cases if digital assets are an "investment contract" under the 76-year-old Howey test. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation insures investors for up to $500,000 in the event a brokerage firm liquidates and their holdings are tied up in the insolvent firm.

☆ Why protections for crypto investors are linked to orange groves
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

watch nowHow orange groves impact crypto protectionsThe reason why largely hinges on a 1946 Supreme Court case about investors in Florida orange groves. Howey Co. — established the so-called Howey test to determine what constitutes a security, or "investment contract." (More on how the Howey test works can be found below.) Here's why this is important for crypto: It's unclear in many cases if digital assets are an "investment contract" under the 76-year-old Howey test. Why the 'security' distinction mattersThe Howey test has four parts to determine if something like bitcoin is an "investment contract."

☆ After FTX's collapse, an SEC commissioner says crypto is worsening finance's existing flaws, while investors look for answers on regulatory concerns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Investors told Insider that they welcome regulation and more guidance at the federal level. In Lizárraga's view, many crypto companies have not only replicated the flaws of the traditional finance industry, but they've made them worse by operating in a regulatory gray area. Instead, crypto companies can protect both themselves and their customers by embracing regulation rather than seeking to sidestep it, he said. She decided to partner with the fintech company Apex for Zingeroo's crypto offering rather than a pure-play crypto exchange because she felt more confident that Apex would follow proper compliance. But others, including some venture capitalists, have suggested that federal regulators have not provided enough clarity to crypto companies.

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