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☆ New look CBDCs and cryptomarket to emerge from turmoil, top BIS official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Cryptomarkets have not been killed off by last year's turmoil, while the new wave of central bank digital currencies will face geopolitical limits, the Bank for International Settlements' new innovation head has predicted. Dubbed the central bank to the world's central bank, the BIS has long been critical of cryptocurrencies, likening bitcoin to both a ponzi scheme and market bubble in the past. Since the start of 2023, however, there has been something of a rebound, including a 40% recovery in bitcoin's price. The European Central Bank should get the go-ahead for full-scale tests. "We will never have full interconnectedness," Skingsley said, adding though that the BIS' work aimed to make CBDCs as versatile as possible.

Early last year, Sam Bankman-Fried told an FTX all-hands meeting about an addition to the company’s staff. It wasn’t a head of accounting. It wasn’t a risk manager. Instead, it was a psychiatrist who would serve as coach for stressed-out employees at the fast-growing crypto exchange. Dr. George Lerner introduced himself on the video meeting and encouraged workers to consult with him, meeting attendees recalled.

☆ Washington Property Linked to FTX Customer Funds Pulled From Market
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Akiko Matsuda | Alexander Gladstone | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A Washington, D.C., townhouse that FTX’s new management has linked to Sam Bankman-Fried‘s political spending has been pulled off the market after the company alleged that the $3.3 million property was purchased with FTX customer funds. Property records show the four-bedroom, 4,100-square-foot property in Capitol Hill is owned by Guarding Against Pandemics, a nonprofit organization founded by Mr. Bankman-Fried’s brother Gabriel. FTX’s newly appointed management team said in a court filing last month that Guarding Against Pandemics was also funded by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and that the organization purchased a multimillion-dollar property using what the company believes are misappropriated customer funds.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail is tightened over ‘threat’ of witness tampering
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Kara Scannell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Sam Bankman-Fried is in trouble, once again, for talking too much. A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily tightened the FTX founder’s bail conditions after learning that Bankman-Fried sent a text message to a former top executive of the crypto trading platform. The restriction comes after federal prosecutors raised the prospect of witness tampering when it discovered that Bankman-Fried had recently contacted the former general counsel of FTX, identified at “Witness-1” in court filings. In the message, Bankman-Fried wrote:“I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked. I’d love to get on a phone call sometime soon and chat.”The judge disagreed with Bankman-Fried’s lawyers’ argument that the message was benign.

☆ Britain kicks crypto when it’s down
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Britain’s answer, unveiled by Financial Services Minister Andrew Griffith on Wednesday, is that the existing framework suffices. The government intends to regulate the digital assets using the Financial Services and Markets Act of 2000, legislation applied to the City of London. The consultation also notes that the City and Wall Street typically segregate activity consolidated by crypto groups, such as being a broker, exchange, lender or custodian. Coming on the heels of last year’s collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX means Britain’s kick lands when the industry is down. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

But Mr. Musk’s Twitter feed is often an echo chamber. 48 hours of Elon Musk’s tweets Circles representing Musk’s tweets are sized by the total retweets, likes, replies and quote tweets in response to what he posted. A chart of Mr. Musk’s original tweets, replies and quote tweets over a two-day period in November. A website tracking Mr. Musk’s private jet movement suggested that he traveled away from San Francisco around that time. Shareholders are now also seeking billions of dollars in damages in a lawsuit after Mr. Musk’s takeover proposal never materialized.

☆ Prosecutors say Sam Bankman-Fried tried to obscure his crimes with Robinhood’s stock
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Kara Scannell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Federal prosecutors said FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s efforts to control about $500 million worth of Robinhood shares last year indicates steps the former crypto entrepreneur has taken to “obscure” his alleged crimes. In a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan involving Bankman-Fried’s bail, prosecutors argued he should still be prevented from moving FTX assets. Prosecutors want to limit who Bankman-Fried can be in touch with from FTX and its sister hedge fund Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers asked for the limitations of his contact with FTX assets be lifted since prosecutors have not proven he was behind a mysterious transfer. Correction: A previous version of this article provided the wrong date for the judge to unpause his Monday ruling.

☆ Prosecutors say Sam Bankman-Fried’s contact with FTX’s ex-general counsel is ‘suggestive’ of witness tampering
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Kara Scannell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Federal prosecutors said FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried contacted the former general counsel of the crypto trading platform earlier this month in a move they say may constitute witness tampering. They also want the judge to block Bankman-Fried from using any encrypted communication devices out of concerns he will obstruct the ongoing investigation. “Efforts by the defendant to improve his relationship with potential witnesses that may testify against him may itself constitute witness tampering,” prosecutors wrote. Witness-1 participated in Signal and Slack communications with the defendant and a small group of company insiders during the relevant events of November 2022. Several potential witnesses told prosecutors of “incriminating conversations” they had with Bankman-Fried over the messaging platforms that were deleted because Bankman-Fried set the programs to auto-delete after 30 days.

☆ Premarket stocks: The world has a major debt problem. Is a reset coming?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

That number is about 349% of global gross domestic product, and the equivalent of $37,500 of debt for every single person in the world. “Rising interest rates and slowing economies are making the debt burden heavier,” they write. What it means: Higher interest rates are already hurting governments and corporations with low-credit ratings. Rising interest rates also impact stock prices — the Federal Reserve’s hikes in 2022 contributed to a nearly 20% decline in the S&P 500. What comes next: There is no easy way out of a global debt crisis, write Chan and Dimitrijevic.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, which long championed campaign finance reform, got so good at the game that it used more dark money than Republicans during the 2020 presidential campaign. He was also charged with campaign finance violations, allegedly using "straw donors" to circumvent contribution limits by giving money to allies who would then donate to politicians in their own names. There have been no campaign finance bills introduced in the new Congress, no new policies from regulators and barely even any discussion about reform. But I’m not so surprised," said Sheila Krumholz, the executive director of OpenSecrets, which tracks political donations, of Bankman-Fried’s use of the campaign finance system. "This is yet another example of how lax campaign finance rules allow someone with money to throw their weight around and build influence and maybe it is not gaining traction because it’s just one of many stories like this."

Sam Bankman-Fried published an extensive blog post Thursday morning attempting to explain the collapse of FTX, the crypto platform he co-founded, and denying allegations that he stole any funds. “I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away,” Bankman-Fried wrote in the blog post. NBC News has not verified any of the various balance sheets Bankman-Fried published in the blog post. Bankman-Fried wrote: “FTX International has many billions of dollars of assets, and I am dedicating nearly all of my personal assets to customers. In the blog post, Bankman-Fried called the move by Zhao “a targeted attack” on Alameda.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried’s Supersized Bet: $1 Billion for a Bitcoin Miner on the Kazakh Steppe
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Eliot Brown | Yuliya Chernova | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Just before crypto markets plunged last year, Sam Bankman-Fried ’s hedge fund made a $1 billion bet on Genesis Digital Assets, a Cyprus-registered bitcoin miner rigged to consume a small city’s worth of electricity in Kazakhstan. The cash injection from Mr. Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research LLC was supersized even for the red-hot crypto startup world, and it dwarfed the FTX founder’s other investments in private companies.

☆ 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.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Are Veterans of Ghislaine Maxwell and ‘El Chapo’ Cases
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( James Fanelli | Corinne Ramey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A pair of attorneys defending FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried against one of the biggest white-collar prosecutions in decades are veterans of high-profile cases, including ones involving drug lord “El Chapo” and disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell , former federal prosecutors who are now partners in the New York-based boutique firm Cohen & Gresser, are known for an unflashy, roll-up-their-sleeves style to cases, with a meticulous and persistent approach to building a defense, lawyers who know the men say. The pair are up against hard-charging Justice Department lawyers who moved quickly to indict Mr. Bankman-Fried after FTX’s collapse and secured two of his former top lieutenants as cooperating witnesses.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried’s Defense Team Led by Battle-Tested Lawyers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( James Fanelli | Corinne Ramey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A pair of attorneys defending FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried against one of the biggest white-collar prosecutions in decades are veterans of high-profile cases, including ones involving drug lord El Chapo and disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell , former federal prosecutors who are now partners in the New York-based boutique firm Cohen & Gresser, are known for an unflashy, roll-up-their-sleeves style to cases, with a meticulous and persistent approach to building a defense, lawyers who know the men say. The pair are up against hard-charging Justice Department lawyers who moved quickly to indict Mr. Bankman-Fried after FTX’s collapse and secured two of his former top lieutenants as cooperating witnesses.

☆ FTX Seeks to Recoup Sam Bankman-Fried’s Charitable Donations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Eric Wallerstein | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX doled out millions in charitable donations. Now, new management is asking for it back. Some of the money, however, has already been spent, and the gifts flowed through myriad sources and agreements that are proving difficult to tally.

☆ Crypto just had an awful week
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

It’s the kind of negative press that the crypto faithful want to either ignore completely or denounce as a fringe, one-off scandal. But crypto is a tight-knit web, and when one corner collapses it puts the whole lot at risk. And we’re not done yet…Also this week:Coinbase, a publicly traded US crypto platform, agreed to a $100 million settlement after a New York regulator found “significant failures” to comply with the state’s anti-money-laundering laws. Bottom line: I’m not here to write crypto’s obit, and I am well aware that there are plenty of legitimate crypto enterprises out there. But no one within crypto agrees on what those regulations should look like, and some dispute the need for regulation in the first place.

The Justice Department said Wednesday that has moved to seize millions of shares of Robinhood, the popular stock-trading app, whose ownership is disputed by several parties, including Bankman-Fried himself, his bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and another bankrupt crypto company. Four separate entities have laid claim to the approximately 56 million shares, worth about $460 million. That company, Emergent Fidelity Technologies, borrowed more than $546 million from crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, according to an affidavit Bankman-Fried filed in December. Also claiming the Robinhood shares are bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi and an individual FTX creditor. As of December 31, roughly $150 million of Silvergate’s deposits were from customers that have filed for bankruptcy.

☆ Coinbase reaches $100 million settlement with New York regulators
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Coinbase, one of the most popular US crypto-trading platforms, agreed to a $100 million settlement after New York regulators found “significant failures” to comply with the state’s anti-money-laundering laws. The settlement includes a $50 million penalty Coinbase must pay to the New York Department of Financial Services and a pledge to spend $50 million to strengthen the company’t compliance program over the next two years. The regulator said it had installed an independent monitor to investigate, and that monitor will remain in place for at least another year as needed. Coinbase’s statement included reference to the so-called crypto winter — a chill that hit the industry in 2022, bringing down several companies, including Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX. “We recognize that the crypto industry is at an inflection point right now and that every public move by a crypto company will receive intense scrutiny,” Grewal said.

The government will give documents and evidence to Bankman-Fried’s lawyers in a process known as discovery. Prosecutors said on Tuesday that they have hundreds of thousands of documents with more on the way as they continue gathering evidence. Discovery can take months, particularly if disputes arise over what evidence the defense is entitled to see ahead of trial. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams has said his office will continue to make announcements as its probe widens. Criminal defendants can change their plea at any time, and their lawyers often negotiate with prosecutors over a possible plea deal.

Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in New York federal court Tuesday to eight charges related to the collapse of his former crypto exchange FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research. The onetime crypto billionaire was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, individual charges of securities fraud and wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to avoid campaign finance regulations. Federal prosecutors also announced the launch of a new task force to recover victim assets as part of an ongoing investigation into Bankman-Fried and the collapse of FTX. Federal prosecutors built the indictment against Bankman-Fried with unusual speed, packaging together the criminal charges against the 30-year-old in a matter of weeks. The federal charges came alongside complaints from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sam Bankman-Fried built the cryptocurrency exchange FTX on the reputation of his trading firm, Alameda Research LLC. Alameda was applying Wall Street-style wizardry to the crypto world—and outsiders thought it was winning big. But little was known beyond the firm about its trades, which included a lucrative early bet involving bitcoin in Japan. Alameda had no outside investors and didn’t disclose its performance.

☆ Premarket stocks: Wall Street's biggest winners and losers in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The S&P 500 is down nearly 20% and with two trading days left in the year, investors’ hopes of a miraculous recovery have been dashed. The energy sector has so far returned more than 60% this year, significantly outperforming every other S&P 500 sector. Occidental Petroleum has been the biggest gainer of the year in the S&P 500, up 122% year-to-date. The energy sector reported the highest year-over-year earnings growth of all 11 sectors, at 137.3%. Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) is also down about 70%, making the auto tech company the third worst performer this year.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried borrowed $546 million from his hedge fund to buy a Robinhood stake
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

In an affidavit that emerged Tuesday, Bankman-Fried said he and FTX co-founder Gary Wang borrowed more than $546 million from the hedge fund, Alameda Research, which they used to purchase the Robinhood shares via a holding company primarily controlled by Bankman-Fried. Wang has since pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and conspiracy, in cooperation with US prosecutors investigating FTX’s collapse. Four separate entities have laid claim to the approximately 56 million shares, worth about $450 million. Also claiming the Robinhood shares are bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi, and an individual FTX creditor. BlockFi is suing Bankman-Fried for the Robinhood shares, which BlockFi claims it is owed after Alameda defaulted on $680 million in collateralized loan obligations.

☆ This little-known firm with a weird website was central to the misappropriation of FTX customers' money, regulators say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Gretchen Morgenson | Gretchen Morgenson Is The Senior Financial Reporter For The Nbc News Investigative Unit. A Former Stockbroker | She Won The Pulitzer Prize In For Her | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Still, North Dimension had a crucial role in the FTX mess, regulators now say. In fact, they contend, the little-known company was central to the furtive misappropriation of FTX customers’ funds. But North Dimension Inc. also appears to have been a fake online electronics retailer, an NBC News investigation found. The second North Dimension website is sparse, with just two pages superimposed on a photo of a mountain range. An analysis by DomainTools shows this North Dimension site was created on Oct. 3, 2022, and registered in Ontario, Canada.

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