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☆ 'He lied to us about what he was doing and who he was': Anthony Scaramucci reflects on the top 3 lessons he wants all investors to learn from his experience with Sam Bankman-Fried.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Anthony Scaramucci's investment firm SkyBridge Capital had a rough run in 2022 after being burned by the collapse of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. Scaramucci told Insider that the amount of leverage in the system and the tax-loss selling in December depressed their overall performance. Still, there are spillover effects — and lessons — from last year's debacle with FTX that Scaramucci and SkyBridge are working through. Lessons learned from the FTX debacleLast year, Sam Bankman-Fried through FTX, the crypto exchange he founded, bought 30% of SkyBridge for $45 million. And finally, as the majority shareholder of the firm, Scaramucci holds the right of refusal to reject any transfer of the shares.

☆ The average price for a house in the Hamptons just hit a record $3 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Robert Frank | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The average price for a house in the Hamptons hit a record $3 million in the first quarter, highlighting a shortage of trophy beach homes for sale and the resilience of wealthy buyers. The average sales price in the New York beach community jumped 18% in the first quarter to $3.1 million, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. The average price in the Hamptons is now more than $1 million higher than the average sales price in Manhattan. The high end of the Hamptons market is the strongest. In the luxury market — representing the top 10% of sales — both the median and average sales price broke records during the first quarter, with the average luxury price surging 33% to $16.1 million, according to Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel.

CNN —Disgraced R&B singer and convicted sex trafficker R. Kelly has been transferred to a federal prison in North Carolina. R. Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was moved to FCI Butner Medium I, a “medium security federal correctional institution,” according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. The Butner complex sits north of the Raleigh-Durham area and includes two medium security facilities, a low-security facility and a medical facility. He was already serving a 30-year sentence on racketeering and sex trafficking charges after being convicted in New York in September 2021. “Numerous seated jurors were either familiar with accusations that Defendant had a history of sexually abusing underage girls, had previously faced legal problems, and/or had seen the highly unflattering docuseries, Surviving R. Kelly, in which several government witnesses had appeared,” a brief filed last Wednesday said.

☆ DeSantis may have overreached when he went to war with Disney, and Trump smells blood in the water
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Florida Gov. "DeSanctus is being absolutely destroyed by Disney," Trump wrote earlier this week. "DeSanctus is being absolutely destroyed by Disney," Trump crowed on his social media platform Truth earlier this week. The Florida governor wanted to burnish his national image by torching Disney. And by gobbling up intellectual property and broadcasting rights, Disney continues to be virtually inescapable.

☆ I Visited Miami After the Stock Market Crash, Crypto Bubble Pop
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

And if any city is the city where you can see just how remarkably things have shifted, it's also Miami. If the draw in the 1920s was imaginary land, Miami's bubble in the 2020s was driven by imaginary money — crypto. The newcomers — and the crypto kids, especially — believed they could master Miami as easily as they had mastered the markets. The new Miami money party started to run out of libations. "There were a lot of true believers in the Miami crypto scene.

☆ Bernie Madoff’s Former Hamptons Home Sells for $14 Million
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Sarah Paynter | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Be the first to know about the biggest and best luxury home sales and listings by signing up for our Mansion Deals email alert. The former Hamptons home of late disgraced financier Bernie Madoff has sold for $14 million, according to the local Multiple Listing Service.

Efforts to recoup them will highlight major flaws in political donations. On Thursday, former Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried was hit with additional criminal charges, including an accusation that he conspired with two former FTX executives to make more than 300 illegal political donations. Ray is hoping to add politicians’ returned donations to his coffers, and past blowups suggest he will have some luck. Madoff and Stanford’s political contributions, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars each, pale in comparison to the $84 million-plus FTX executives gave campaigns. No other FTX executives, including Ryan Salame and Nishad Singh, have been charged with campaign finance violations at this time.

☆ Fraud Economy: How Current Economic Trends Lead to More Corporate Scams
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Get ready for what will feel like an inescapable wave of corporate fraud. And as interest rates have risen, the stock market has fallen off — which makes it harder to get dollars by whipping up new investors or offering stock. Despite Scheck's assertion that the risk of a wave of corporate fraud has heightened, he didn't want to speak in historical analogies. There be icebergsOf course, there's also fraud that goes undetected in times of easy money — companies where the very act of existing means stretching the truth. Kreuger had managed to hide that he had stretched the company's finances beyond solvency by raising money on the US stock market while it was raging.

☆ Great Fraud Reckoning Will Expose Scam Companies, Cause Stock Market Chaos
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Get ready for what will feel like an inescapable wave of corporate fraud. And as interest rates have risen, the stock market has fallen off — which makes it harder to get dollars by whipping up new investors or offering stock. Despite Scheck's assertion that the risk of a wave of corporate fraud has heightened, he didn't want to speak in historical analogies. Kreuger had managed to hide that he had stretched the company's finances beyond solvency by raising money on the US stock market while it was raging. That may have been enough when the stock market was on a heater and investors were winning, but it's not enough when the stock market is falling, the economy is slowing, and everyone from regulators to lawmakers to kids on TikTok want answers.

☆ Anthony Scaramucci says he bought Sam Bankman-Fried a suit for their Middle East fundraising tour and that the trip sparked FTX's downfall
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sam Bankman-Fried and Anthony Scaramucci went on a Middle East fundraising tour in October. Scaramucci told Insider he bought SBF a suit so the FTX CEO wouldn't wear a T-shirt with investors. Scaramucci told Insider he bought the then-FTX CEO a suit from Bloomingdale's to help impress investors. "I bought him a suit, frankly, to take him to the Middle East with me and told him he can't dress with a T-shirt in the Middle East," Scaramucci told Insider. "So in some ways, I'm happy that we took that trip because we could still be living in a world of FTX," Scaramucci said.

☆ Explainer: Who is behind Hindenburg, the company that is shorting Adani?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Short-seller Hindenburg Research disclosed on Wednesday short positions in India's Adani Group, citing potential stock manipulation and accounting fraud in a report. WHAT IS HINDENBURG RESEARCHFounded in 2017 by Nathan Anderson, Hindenburg Research is a forensic financial research firm which analyses equity, credit and derivatives. On its website, Hindenburg says it looks for "man-made disasters," such as accounting irregularities, mismanagement and undisclosed related-party transactions. After finding potential wrongdoings, Hindenburg usually publishes a report explaining the case and bets against the target company, hoping to make a profit. HOW MANY COMPANIES HAS HINDENBURG TARGETEDHindenburg has flagged potential wrongdoing in at least 16 companies since 2017, according to its website.

"FTX in my view now gets painted as a crypto problem. I think if you really peel enough onion layers, it's not really a crypto ... problem to happen here, it's fraud. "We talk about this as a crypto problem. But really, this is just fraud, and I think in some ways, not that dissimilar than Bernie Madoff," said Garlinghouse. "When Bernie Madoff occurred, we didn't totally restructure how we thought about oversight and regulation of hedge funds."

☆ Anthony Scaramucci compared Sam Bankman-Fried to Bernie Madoff, and alluded to Dante's 'Inferno' as he discussed the FTX founder's downfall
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Anthony Scaramucci spoke about his relationship with Sam Bankman-Fried at a Davos crypto panel. Scaramucci alluded to the circles of hell in Dante's "Divine Comedy" and compared SBF to Bernie Madoff. FTX bought 30% of SkyBridge Capital for $45 million in September 2022. The Financial Times reported that SkyBridge Capital also bought $10 million of FTX's cryptocurrency, FTT, as part of the deal's requirements. "I made a mistake being involved with Sam," Scaramucci said.

☆ ‘Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street’ Review: Ponzi Scheme of a Sociopath
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The subject of director Joe Berlinger ’s captivating, penetrating, four-part “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street” is described by one of its kinder voices as a “financial sociopath.” Later, someone just comes right out and calls him a “serial killer.” All of which may help explain our persistent obsession with the man who perpetrated the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. After so many productions, dramatic and documentary, shouldn’t we be tired of Bernie Madoff ? One might as well ask if we’re tired of Charles Manson , or Jack the Ripper. It’s certainly not violence that makes the Madoff story magnetic, although the death toll does begin to resemble the post-heist body count in “Goodfellas” after Madoff’s nearly $65 billion rip-off goes belly up in 2008. Madoff, who died in 2021, is very matter-of-fact about the crimes he committed, dispassionate, even clinical.

☆ Bernie Madoff was a 'sociopath' with no empathy, says documentary director Joe Berlinger
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailBernie Madoff was a 'sociopath' with no empathy, says documentary director Joe BerlingerJoe Berlinger, series director, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss how Berlinger got access to confidential files regarding Bernie Madoff's deposition, what Berlinger makes of SBF's current situation and more.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried may have trouble getting a plea bargain as 'the buck presumably stopped with him,' former federal prosecutor says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A plea bargain may be out of reach for Sam Bankman-Fried, according to a former federal prosecutor. The buck presumably stopped with him. But it's unclear if Bankman-Fried can point the finger at others. He could still offer a quick guilty plea, similar to what Bernie Madoff did in 2009 after his Ponzi scheme was exposed. But Madoff got a substantial sentence anyway, McGinley noted, so "the options here are very limited" for Bankman-Fried.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried doesn't 'have the typical profile of a crook' – and his fear of failure might explain FTX's collapse, Bill Ackman says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ackman compared SBF to convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff, saying neither "have the typical profile of a crook.' The crypto exchange cofounded by Bankman-Fried seems to have been profitable and backed by top venture capitalists, Ackman said Friday. This reminds me of Madoff," tweeted Ackman, the founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management. Young Wall Street trader Bankman-Fried went from relative obscurity to the head of crypto empire FTX in just four years. That runaway success soon after leaving a top college sheltered Bankman-Fried from learning how to cope with failure, Ackman suggested.

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted out of the Magistrate's Court on December 21, 2022 in Nassau, Bahamas. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be released on $250 million bond while awaiting trial for fraud and other criminal charges, a New York federal judge ruled Thursday. Judge Gabriel Gorenstein said Bankman-Fried would require "strict" supervision following his release to his parents' home in California. Bernie Madoff posted a $10 million bond while awaiting trial on his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Jeff Skilling, former Enron CEO, posted a $5 million bond, while Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos founder, posted a scant $500,000.

☆ 'O.C.' star and crypto critic Ben McKenzie tells lawmakers that the crypto market is the 'largest Ponzi scheme in history'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The crypto market is the "largest Ponzi scheme in history," actor-turned-crypto critic Ben McKenzie said Wednesday. McKenzie, who co-wrote a book about crypto, testified to the Senate Banking committee about the fall of FTX. McKenzie was referring to financier Madoff who in 2009 was convicted of running a decades-long Ponzi scheme that conned his investors out of $65 billion and which collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis. In my opinion, the cryptocurrency industry represents the largest Ponzi scheme in history," said McKenzie, who co-wrote "Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud". "They have been lied to, in ways both big and small, by a once-seemingly mighty crypto industry whose entire existence in fact depends on misinformation, hype, and yes, fraud."

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried is set to testify before Congress on Tuesday. He could be grilled on his past statements — and expose himself to more legal risks.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sam Bankman-Fried plans to appear remotely before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday. The House Financial Services committee has its own investigative mandate, outlined by its role in inquiring into financial failures, and in helping to craft legislation to prevent similar episodes in the future. Participating could expose Bankman-Fried to more legal risksTestimony provided to House lawmakers would usually be under oath, thought not necessarily so. The House Financial Services committee, chaired by Democratic Representative Maxine Waters of California, comprises progressive political stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. The House Financial Services committee hearing is scheduled to kick off at 10 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday.

CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin reported that the charges against Bankman-Fried include wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering. Bahamas Attorney General Ryan Pinder said the United States was "likely to request his extradition." "While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere," the statement said. The Bahamas and the United States have had an extradition treaty in place since the early 20th century, when the Bahamas was still under British control. Legal experts told CNBC that if the federal government pursues wire or bank fraud charges, Bankman-Fried could face life in prison without the possibility of supervised release.

☆ Arielle Charnas' company, Something Navy, is floundering amid dwindling sales, an employee exodus, and furious suppliers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Katie Warren | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +36 min

From the outside, it doesn't look as if Charnas' company is in trouble. Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for Beach MagazineSeveral former employees told Insider they cut ties with Something Navy because they saw signs the company was struggling. Several current and former Something Navy employees told Insider they'd been inundated with emails since the spring from suppliers, freelancers, and models asking where their money was. In one email viewed by Insider, Scanlan told a supplier that cash was tight but promised payment was on the way. The current Something Navy employee said that based on data she'd seen, the retail locations most likely don't turn a profit.

Bankman-Fried could face a host of potential charges – civil and criminal – as well as private lawsuits from millions of FTX creditors, legal experts told CNBC. There are three different, possibly simultaneous legal threats that Bankman-Fried faces in the United States alone, Levin told CNBC. He told CNBC, "prosecutors would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bankman-Fried or his associates committed criminal fraud." (Carter was not an FTX investor, and told CNBC that his fund passed on early FTX rounds.) "People should not jump to the conclusion that something is not happening just because it has not been publicly disclosed," Levin told CNBC.

☆ Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman says the S&P 500 won't hit a new high for a long time - and predicts a US recession and stubborn inflation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Leon Cooperman expects the S&P 500 to eke out mediocre returns for the rest of this decade. The billionaire investor predicts a US recession and stubbornly high inflation. Sign up for our newsletter to get the inside scoop on what traders are talking about — delivered daily to your inbox. "The 4,800 high this year will be the high for quite some time," he said about the benchmark stock index. Rising prices, declining growthA prolonged economic downturn and elevated inflation lie ahead for the US, Cooperman said.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried says he ‘got a little cocky’ before FTX collapsed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of now-bankrupt FTX, has fallen from the peak of crypto celebrity, but he’s not going quietly. “I think I got a little cocky — I mean, more than a little bit,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Good Morning America. Bankman-Fried, echoing comments he also made to The New York Times on Wednesday, denied knowing of any improper transfers of customer funds between the exchange and Alameda. “I don’t think that’s who I am at all, but I understand why they’re saying that,” Bankman-Fried told Stephanopoulos. In that interview, Bankman-Fried said he “didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone,” while admitting he made mistakes as chief executive.

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