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☆ In Africa, FTX Posed as Haven From Tumbling Currencies, Inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Alexandra Wexler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Weeks before cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy, dozens of young Nigerians in skintight dresses and brightly colored suits shimmied under limbo bars, posed for photos in front of the company’s logo and sipped expensive liquor at a swanky beachfront venue. The party in Lagos, Nigeria, was part of the Bahamas-based exchange’s push into Africa, where, in the final days before its implosion, FTX was aggressively recruiting new customers whose funds are now stuck in bankruptcy proceedings. U.S. prosecutors have charged FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried , with fraud for allegedly stealing billions of dollars of customer funds from FTX and of defrauding investors and lenders to his trading firm, Alameda Research. He has pleaded not guilty.

☆ Supreme Court Hears Bid by Turkey’s Halkbank to Avoid Charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Jan Wolfe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Halkbank says it has sovereign immunity because it is majority-owned by the Turkish government. WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Tuesday weighed whether to shield Turkey’s Halkbank from charges that it helped Iran evade sanctions by laundering billions of dollars, a high-profile case that stoked tensions between the U.S. and Turkey. The case, Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States, is expected to clarify whether U.S. prosecutors can criminally charge corporations owned by foreign states. Halkbank says it has sovereign immunity because it is majority-owned by the Turkish government.

"The idea that somehow cryptos are going to maintain value, while the fiat currencies collapse. That's nonsense," Rajan said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The wider crypto market shrank by $1.4 trillion in 2022 with bitcoin losing 60% of its value. One cause for worry, however, could be that labor markets were tight as nobody wanted to fire people, given how hard it was to hire them to begin with, he said. For daily Davos updates in your inbox sign up for the Reuters Daily Briefing here(Join GMF, a chat room hosted on Refinitiv Messenger: https://refini.tv/33uoFoQ)Reporting by Divya Chowdhury in Davos and Savio Shetty in Mumbai; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Jan 17 (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing 23 people and injuring dozens more in a hate crime targeting people of Mexican descent at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, a court document filed on Tuesday showed. Crusius pleaded not guilty in 2020 to 90 federal hate crime charges in the case. Proceedings were delayed while prosecutors decided whether to pursue the death penalty against him. Last year, a Texas judge put off a state trial in the case as federal prosecutors determined whether they would seek capital punishment. In a notification to the court and to the defendant filed Tuesday, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman said the government would not seek death in the case.

☆ Kevin Spacey celebrated in Italy at first major speaking event since sexual assault allegations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

TURIN, Italy — Making his first speaking appearance since sexual assault allegations derailed his career, actor Kevin Spacey used a colorful Italian term to thank the National Cinema Museum in the northern city of Turin on Monday for inviting him. “By presenting this award, they are making a strong defense of artistic achievement and for that they should be applauded,” Spacey said. After multiple allegations of sexual assault surfaced, the actor lost his starring role on the Netflix series “House of Cards” and saw other opportunities dry up. Spacey did not directly address the allegations while accepting the award or during the hourlong class. After the master class, fans lined up to take selfies and get DVDs signed.

☆ Nancy Pelosi's husband lost over $500,000 selling Tesla stock in December as investors fretted about Elon Musk's tweets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Nancy Pelosi reported that her husband lost more than $500,000 in December after selling Tesla shares. Paul Pelosi's trades were a facet of the coverage over a potential ban on lawmakers and their spouses. An investor and venture capitalist, Pelosi's husband is one of the most prodigious traders connected to a lawmaker. He's made tens of millions of dollars in stock trades during the past few years, congressional records indicate. A spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi, who also stepped down from Democratic leadership, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The sentence, handed down by a judge in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, caps a lengthy legal ordeal for Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, which was convicted in December of doling out off-the-books perks to some of its top executives. One of the executives who orchestrated the scheme, Allen H. Weisselberg, pleaded guilty and testified at the company’s trial. But the verdict branded the company a lawbreaker, exposed a culture that nurtured illegality for years and handed political ammunition to Mr. Trump’s opponents. They also blamed Mr. Weisselberg, who they say carried out the scheme without intending to benefit the Trump Organization. But Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, argued that the company carried out “a multidimensional scheme to defraud the tax authorities.”

☆ Prosecutors: Proud Boys plotted assault on U.S. democracy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Reuters Editorial | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

PoliticsProsecutors: Proud Boys plotted assault on U.S. democracyPostedU.S. prosecutors on Thursday (January 12) accused leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group of plotting an assault on American democracy as one of the most high-profile trials to stem from the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack got underway. This report produced by Olivia Zollino.

[1/3] Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio speaks to members of the media as he leaves the D.C. Central Detention Facility where he had been held since September 2021, in Washington, U.S., January 14, 2022. All five Proud Boys defendants have pleaded not guilty and their attorneys will argue that they did not plot to block the peaceful transfer of power. "Dude, we're right in front of the Capitol right now. American citizens are storming the Capitol - taking it back right now," Biggs said on a video he recorded of himself. The indictment said Pezzola used the stolen shield to break a window, allowing members of the mob to enter the Capitol.

☆ Voyager gets initial approval for $1 bln Binance deal amid national security concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Jan 10 (Reuters) - Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital received initial court approval on Tuesday for a proposed $1 billion sale of its assets to Binance.US, and said it will seek to expedite a U.S. national security review of the deal. He said Voyager intends to address any issues that would lead CFIUS to oppose the transaction. The Binance transaction includes a $20 million cash payment and an agreement to transfer Voyager's customers to Binance.US's crypto exchange, Sussberg said. Voyager estimates the sale will allow customers to recover 51% of the value of their deposits at the time of Voyager's bankruptcy filing. In addition to CFIUS, Voyager's proposed sale was also opposed by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and state securities regulators.

☆ FTX lawyers have recovered $5 billion in assets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —FTX officials overseeing its bankruptcy have recovered more than $5 billion in cash and other liquid assets that may be used to help repay creditors, a lawyer for the failed crypto firm said during a bankruptcy court hearing Wednesday. That disclosure significantly raises the estimated amount of funds FTX claims to hold. Last month, FTX lawyers submitted filings that showed the company and its affiliates had a total of $1.2 billion in cash. The lawyers also said they had identified more than 9 million creditors — far more than earlier estimates of around 1 million. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrives pleaded not guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges in Manhattan on January 3.

☆ Crypto exchange Binance plans 15%-30% hiring spree in 2023 even as rivals slash jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Zhao said Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said the company increased head count in 2022 from 3,000 people to "almost" 8,000. In 2023, Binance plans to increase the number of staff by between 15% and 30%, Zhao said at the Crypto Finance Conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Zhao said Binance needs to get the company "well-organized" ahead of the next crypto bull run and admitted the exchange is "not super efficient." The industry was plagued last year by collapses of major projects, liquidity issues, bankruptcies and the high-profile failure of crypto exchange FTX. Binance had a big role to play in FTX's collapse.

The U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission has estimated missing customer funds at more than $8 billion. The affiliates -- LedgerX, Embed, FTX Japan and FTX Europe -- are relatively independent from the broader FTX group, and each has its own segregated customer accounts and separate management teams, according to FTX court filings. In part to preserve the value of its businesses, FTX also sought Dorsey's approval to keep secret 9 million FTX customer names. Dorsey allowed the names to remain under wraps for only three months, not six months as FTX wanted. In addition to customer funds lost, the collapse of the company has also likely wiped out equity investors.

☆ Voyager seeks to expedite national security review of Binance deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 10 (Reuters) - Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital is working to expedite a U.S. national security review that could delay or block its proposed $1 billion sale of its assets to Binance.US, its attorneys said on Tuesday. He said Voyager intends to address any risk that CFIUS would oppose the transaction. The Binance transaction includes a $20 million cash payment and an agreement to transfer Voyager's customers to Binance.US's crypto exchange, Sussberg said. If CFIUS blocks the transaction, Voyager will be forced to repay customers with the crypto it has on hand, resulting in a lower payout for Voyager users, Sussberg said. Binance.US, based in Palo Alto, California, has said that its separate American exchange is "fully independent" of the main Binance platform.

The approach used to identify Kohberger is just one of several recent developments in DNA analysis that have transformed the way law enforcement investigates crimes. In a justice system rife with flawed science, DNA evidence is rightly viewed as the gold standard for forensics: After DNA evidence was first introduced in the criminal justice system in the late 1980s, scientists spent years developing and evaluating protocols for comparing individual DNA samples, which have been repeatedly found to produce consistent, reliable results. DNA analysis was a revolution in forensics, but like every form of scientific evidence it has the potential for error. Recent technological advancements allowing scientists to analyze increasingly small or contaminated DNA samples further complicate the process. DNA samples are also sometimes mishandled or tampered with, compromising results.

☆ Danny Masterson to face second trial on rape charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Prosecutors announced on Tuesday that they will pursue a second trial against Danny Masterson, after a jury deadlocked on three rape charges at the actor’s first trial in November. Masterson, 46, is accused of forcibly raping three women at his home in the Hollywood Hills from 2001 to 2003. Defense attorney Philip Cohen argued that it was unlikely that any jury would vote unanimously to convict. The women, who have all since left Scientology, said they feared being excommunicated from the church for going to the police. Cohen argued that Scientology was irrelevant to the case, and he sought to minimize any mention of it.

☆ Ex-Coinbase manager's brother sentenced to 10 months in insider trading case
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nikhil Wahi admitted last year that he made trades based on confidential Coinbase information. Ishan Wahi has pleaded not guilty. Two of his closest associates, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Prosecutors had recommended Nikhil Wahi be sentenced to between 10 and 16 months in prison, arguing that he earned nearly $900,000 in profits from the scheme. Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Trial of Sayfullo Saipov, accused of killing 8 people in truck terror attack on NYC bike path, begins
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Marlene Lenthang Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Opening arguments kicked off Monday in the federal trial of Sayfullo Saipov, the Uzbek immigrant who in 2017 plowed a rented pickup truck on a New York City bike path, killing eight people in its path of destruction. The Oct. 31 attack was the deadliest terrorist attack in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001. Police said Saipov, then 29, was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group, or ISIS, in launching the attack. How the attack unfoldedIn the attack, Saipov rented a white Home Depot pickup truck in Passaic, New Jersey, and drove it into Manhattan where the streets were filling up with Halloween festivities. Investigators later found a note that Saipov left in the truck, claiming the attack was in the name of ISIS.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday revived a Texas death row inmate’s claim that his murder conviction should be tossed out on the grounds that DNA evidence used at trial was later found to be unreliable. In a rare move, prosecutors had agreed that the evidence was faulty and there should be a new trial. The Supreme Court sent the case back to an appeals court in Texas "for further consideration in light of the confession of error by Texas," the brief order said. Prosecutors accepted that finding and notified the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which was reviewing the case. At the Supreme Court, Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, representing the state, urged the justices to rule in Escobar’s favor.

☆ Watchdog group accuses George Santos of campaign finance violations in FEC complaint
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A national watchdog group has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Republican U.S. Rep. George Santos for allegedly violating numerous campaign finance laws during his successful run for Congress. The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan campaign watchdog organization, filed the complaint with the FEC on Monday. The group accuses the Santos campaign of allegedly violating three counts of campaign finance laws, including one tied to a $705,000 loan the lawmaker made to his campaign. Santos is under scrutiny by congressional lawmakers and federal authorities for lying and embellishing key elements of his resume during his 2022 campaign for Congress. The Campaign Legal Center claims that the loan he made to his campaign may have come from a straw donor.

☆ Iran Executes Two Protesters Accused of Killing Militia Member
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( David S. Cloud | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Military personnel stood in front of an Iranian flag during a pro-government rally last month in Tehran. Iran hanged two men Saturday who were convicted of killing a militia member during antigovernment protests, according to Iranian state media, the third and fourth Iranians known to have received the death penalty in connection with the nearly four-month-old nationwide demonstrations. The executed men, Mohammad Mehdi Karami, 22 years old, and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, 39, were convicted in the Nov. 3 killing of Ruhollah Ajamian, a member of the pro-regime Basij militia force. Prosecutors said Mr. Ajamian was stabbed and bludgeoned with rocks during protests in the city of Karaj, near Tehran.

☆ How 'Real Housewife' Jen Shah's fabulous life came crashing down
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Stephanie Clifford | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +43 min

The woman wrote to the judge overseeing Shah's case that she'd had to remortgage her house, almost divorced, and "thought about ending my own life." The couple decided that he should get his degree while Jen Shah dropped out of college to work. (Shah told a judge at her 2022 plea hearing that she had been treated for "alcohol and depression" two years prior. Koa Johnson, Jen Shah's former fashion designerWhen Sharrieff Shah did participate in filming, he quickly became a fan favorite, calm and sensible. Once the show aired and Jen Shah developed a fan base, her behavior became more dramatic, Johnson said.

☆ FTX reaches agreement over U.S. and Bahamas bankruptcy proceedings
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Jan 6 (Reuters) - FTX and its affiliated debtors said the cryptocurrency exchange's U.S. bankruptcy estate and the liquidators of its affiliated operations in the Bahamas reached an agreement to coordinate their operations. The two sides will work to share information, secure property and coordinate litigation against third parties, according to a mutual statement. Legal teams for the U.S. and Bahamian operations had been locked in a dispute over access to internal records and value of holdings of their operations. FTX collapsed into bankruptcy in November and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been charged with fraud by U.S. prosecutors. Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu NomiyamaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. prosecutors launch website for Bankman-Fried alleged fraud victims
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. government plans to launch a website for victims of FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried's alleged fraud to communicate with law enforcement. In court papers filed on Friday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan for permission to use the website to notify victims, rather than contacting each individually. Federal law requires prosecutors to contact possible crime victims to inform them of their rights, including the rights to obtain restitution, be heard in court and be protected from defendants. Kaplan has yet to rule on the request, but the website had gone live by Friday afternoon. Bankman-Fried, 30, has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of wire fraud and conspiracy over November's collapse of FTX.

☆ Exclusive: FTX's former top lawyer aided U.S. authorities in Bankman-Fried case
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Angus Berwick | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Friedberg gave details about FTX in a Nov. 22 meeting with two dozen investigators, the person said. "THROUGH THICK AND THIN"Prior to his work advising FTX, Friedberg advised a mix of banking, fintech, and online gaming companies. At the time, the source said Friedberg advised Bankman-Fried on running Alameda, which he founded that year. In 2020, when Bankman-Fried launched a separate exchange for U.S. customers called FTX.US, Friedberg moved in-house as FTX's chief regulatory officer. In a now-deleted blog post published that year on FTX's website, Bankman-Fried wrote that Friedberg was FTX's legal advisor "from the very beginning," noting he had been "with us through thick and thin."

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