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☆ Exclusive: Sam Bankman-Fried to reverse decision on contesting extradition
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Jasper Ward | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

His decision to consent to extradition would pave the way for him to appear in U.S. court to face wire fraud, money laundering and campaign finance charges. At his initial court hearing in Manhattan, Bankman-Fried would be asked to enter a plea and a judge would make a determination on bail, Margulis-Ohnuma said. The attorney added that such a hearing must take place within 48 hours of Bankman-Fried's arrival in the United States, though it would likely be sooner. Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk management failings at FTX but has said he does not believe he has criminal liability. 'BIGGEST FINANCIAL FRAUDS IN AMERICAN HISTORY'It was not immediately clear what prompted Bankman-Fried to change his mind and decide not to contest extradition.

NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) - A dual citizen of Sweden and the United Kingdom pleaded guilty to U.S. fraud and money laundering charges on Friday for selling a fake cryptocurrency alongside one of the United States' most-wanted fugitives, a woman referred to as the 'Cryptoqueen.' The plea comes as prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) ramp up enforcement of financial crimes related to digital assets. Prosecutors said Greenwood founded OneCoin in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2014 alongside Ruja Ignatova, a German citizen who prosecutors say is also known as the 'Cryptoqueen.' He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 5 for the three counts to which he pleaded guilty. He is currently detained in The Bahamas, where FTX is based, and is contesting a U.S. request for his extradition.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried is in jail, but legal watchers are wondering: Where's ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison isn't named in prosecutors' charges against Sam Bankman-FriedBut the SEC's civil suit references her statements on the relationship between FTX and Alameda. Conspiracy charges and civil claims against SBF show others in the crosshairs, legal experts said. But her rise as CEO at Alameda, Bankman-Fried's other crypto company separate from FTX, may certainly put her in investigators' sights. The SEC's complaint on Tuesday claimed that Bankman-Fried "remained the ultimate decision-maker" at Alameda, even after Ellison took over the reins. Since Bankman-Fried's crypto empire began unraveling in November however, Ellison has stayed away from the public eye.

The bare-bones indictment against Bankman-Fried - which could be amended with more details and co-defendants as the case progresses - suggests prosecutors have a long road ahead piecing together what they have described as one of the biggest financial frauds in American history. “A trial is probably 14 to 18 months out,” said Michael Weinstein, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor. On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan said a grand jury had indicted Bankman-Fried on wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud, campaign finance law violations and conspiracy charges. The indictment came just weeks after Bankman-Fried's $32 billion crypto exchange collapsed - an extraordinarily fast turnaround for prosecutors. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday but indicated he would fight extradition to the United States.

Now, with the fraud charges filed earlier this week against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt FTX exchange, Williams has further solidified his office's growing role in prosecuting financial crimes involving cryptocurrency, according to interviews with a half-dozen former prosecutors. Bankman-Fried, 30, has acknowledged risk management failures at FTX but said he does not believe he has criminal liability. In the wake of Bankman-Fried's arrest, Williams has made clear he would plow on with cryptocurrency enforcement. On Wednesday, he announced wire fraud conspiracy charges against the founders of two separate cryptocurrency mining and trading companies he called Ponzi schemes. On Tuesday, Williams told reporters more charges in the FTX probe were possible.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is introducing legislation Wednesday aimed at cracking down on money laundering in cryptocurrency. The Senate Banking Committee, which includes Warren, is holding a hearing Wednesday on the FTX debacle and aftermath. The bill would designate providers of digital asset wallets as money service businesses, bringing them under the authorities of the Bank Secrecy Act, which fights money laundering in the financial system. Further, it would prohibit financial institutions from dealing with services that blend the cryptocurrencies of users together, obscuring their origins. Warren has been an outspoken critic of FTX prior to Bankman-Fried’s indictment.

Bankman-Fried and unnamed co-conspirators made "tens of millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions" to both Democratic and Republican candidates and campaign committees, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for Southern New York, said at a news conference unveiling the eight-count criminal indictment, which included a campaign finance violation charge. "And all of this dirty money," Williams said, was used to "buy bipartisan influence and impact the direction of public policy in Washington." FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted by police officers as he leaves court in Nassau, Bahamas on Dec. 13, 2022. The indictment alleges he also made illegal contributions through a corporation, which it does not name. Once believed to be a financial wunderkind, Bankman-Fried also faces a host of other charges.

☆ Premarket stocks: Investors are hoping for the economic tide to turn. The wait may soon be over
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

What’s happening: Price increases in the United States cooled more than economists expected last month, recording the lowest level of growth since last December. This is the second consecutive month of moderating price pressures and could mean the underlying trend of inflation is finally decelerating. That’s a welcome and hopeful sign for consumers, policymakers and investors, said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors. The bill specifically names TikTok and its parent, ByteDance, as social media companies for the purposes of the legislation. In the past two weeks, at least seven states have introduced such measures, including Maryland, South Dakota and Utah.

John J. Ray, chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, arrives to a House Financial Services Committee hearing investigating the collapse of FTX in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. Instead, like bankers and lawyers who are working on the bankruptcy proceedings, the new leadership team is professional independent contractors. That means, among other things, that they get paid immediately, before any FTX investors receive recompense for their losses. According to court filings, the new FTX CEO will collect $1,300 hourly plus "reasonable expenses" for his work untangling what U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called "one of the biggest frauds in American history" in a news conference Tuesday. In one bankruptcy case Ray worked on, he billed around 156 hours in a two-month period, netting him $120,582, so his billings for FTX may run higher or lower.

The Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday is holding a second day of hearings this week on the downfall of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, examining how the company's implosion could impact the nascent industry. Old school, old school." Bankman-Fried was charged by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York for a wide variety of crimes including wire fraud, securities fraud and violating campaign finance regulations. Though Ray and Bankman-Fried won't be part of the Senate Banking hearing on Wednesday, four cryptocurrency experts will be testifying instead, including Kevin O'Leary, a longtime paid FTX spokesman. "In my opinion, it is the largest Ponzi scheme in history by an order of magnitude."

☆ Disgraced FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried 'orchestrated yearslong fraud' on investors and customers, SEC and criminal charges say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of cryptocurrency giant FTX, defrauded investors by funneling money into his private hedge fund and conspired to commit wire fraud against customers and lenders, federal authorities said Tuesday. The Manhattan panel indicted Bankman-Fried on eight counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers, wire fraud on customers, conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders, wire fraud on lenders, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the campaign finance laws. $8 billion loss to customersThe wire fraud on lenders and customers started in or about 2019 and lasted through November, according to the filing. Separately, in a filing Tuesday also in the Southern District of New York, the SEC charged him with defrauding investors and enriching Alameda. FTX CEO pledges continued cooperationAlso Tuesday, the company’s new CEO, John J. Ray III, testified at a congressional hearing on FTX’s collapse and missteps.

☆ Breakingviews: Sam Bankman-Fried lacks cover of systemic risk
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Antony Currie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MELBOURNE, Dec 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Sam Bankman-Fried couldn’t be blamed for mulling over past financial scandals with a degree of envy. The former boss of bankrupt crypto exchange-cum-hedge-fund FTX was arrested on Monday in the Bahamas at the request of U.S. prosecutors. No senior executives ended up facing criminal charges, or were hauled off in handcuffs even, though several Libor traders went to jail. loadingCONTEXT NEWSSam Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive of now-bankrupt crypto firm FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on Dec. 12. The attorney general’s office for the Caribbean state said it took Bankman-Fried into custody after receiving formal confirmation of criminal charges from U.S. prosecutors.

☆ Everything you need to know about the FTX saga that unfolded today
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

On Tuesday, Ray testified before the House Financial Services Committee, relaying what he could about the company he took over just four weeks ago. FTX, on the other hand, was “not sophisticated at all.”“This is really old-fashioned embezzlement,” Ray continued. They say he misappropriated FTX customers’ deposits by using those funds to pay expenses and debts of Alameda, his crypto hedge fund. (The SDNY are an aggressive people, but they are not sloppy, and they don’t indict without a solid case.) Several lawyers not involved in the case have told me that the speed of Bankman-Fried’s arrest signals that former FTX employees may be aiding prosecutors.

Federal authorities on Tuesday charged FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried with using what they said was tens of millions of dollars of misappropriated customer funds to make illegal political donations to both Democratic and Republican candidates. He then used those funds to make "large political donations," to make investments and buy "lavish real estate," the SEC complaint alleged. The campaign finance allegations come days after a private watchdog group asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate Bankman-Fried's political contributions. Most of Bankman-Fried's publicly disclosed campaign contributions, which totaled nearly $40 million in the 20222 election cycle, went toward Democrats, FEC records show. "The question is whether regulators, including the SEC, backed off from aggressive investigation of FTX because of this political influence," Painter said.

☆ U.S. Attorney for Southern District of NY outlines charges against Sam Bankman-Fried
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | 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 EmailU.S. Attorney for Southern District of NY outlines charges against Sam Bankman-FriedDamian Williams, U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York, outlines the charges against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, including fraudulent borrowing of consumer money, wrongful use of funds towards creditors and breaking campaign finance laws.

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.

☆ Archegos' Bill Hwang says prosecutor misconduct justifies indictment's dismissal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Bill Hwang is seeking the dismissal of his U.S. fraud indictment over the collapse of his once-$36 billion Archegos Capital Management LP, saying prosecutors committed misconduct by sandbagging him when building their case. In a separate filing, Hwang and co-defendant Patrick Halligan, Archegos' former chief financial officer, said their indictment should be dismissed because Archegos' trading activity was "entirely lawful," using methods that are "clearly permitted by the existing regulatory structure." These discussions, the last occurring two days before Hwang's April 27 arrest, "revealed what has now become (as prosecutors doubtless knew it would) his defense strategy," Hwang's lawyers said. Hwang also wants U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who oversees the case, to hold a hearing to determine the extent of any taint. The case is U.S. v. Hwang et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.

☆ Justice Department Prosecutors Swamped With Data as Cases Leave Long Digital Trails
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( James Fanelli | Corinne Ramey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams views the data issue as a crisis. When the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan brought securities-fraud charges against executives of cable operator Adelphia Communications Corp. in 2002, its case involved one million pages of evidence. In the office’s recent case against Trevor Milton , the former electric-truck executive who was convicted of fraud charges, prosecutors handed over four times that number to the defense. The numbers are even higher in a pending securities-fraud case stemming from the collapse of Archegos Capital Management LP, where prosecutors already have provided more than seven million pages of evidence to defense attorneys—after asking a court for a six-to-eight week window to produce the material.

☆ FTX remains focus of 'active' investigation, Bahamas attorney general says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Nov 27 (Reuters) - Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX remains the subject of "an active and ongoing investigation" by Bahamian authorities, Bahamian Attorney General Ryan Pinder said on Sunday, as he praised the Bahamas' regulatory regime and swiftness with which it responded to the crisis. FTX, which had been among the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is headquartered in the Bahamas. In mid-November, the Royal Bahamas Police said that government investigators in the Bahamas were looking at whether any "criminal misconduct occurred." read more"We are in the early stages of an active and ongoing investigation," Pinder said on Sunday, according to prepared remarks for the speech. Bahamas securities regulators had revoked FTX Digital's license and began involuntary liquidation proceedings the day before the U.S. bankruptcy case kicked off.

NEW YORK, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The founder of Infinity Q Capital Management, a New York firm accused of inflating assets by over $1 billion to collect more fees, pleaded guilty on Monday to securities fraud. James Velissaris, 38, of Atlanta, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, averting a scheduled Nov. 28 trial. Before suspending redemptions in February 2021, the fund reported $1.73 billion of assets. The case is U.S. v. Velissaris, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani will not face criminal charges in Ukraine foreign lobbying case, prosecutors say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will not face criminal charges in an investigation into whether he violated U.S. lobbying laws while doing business in Ukraine, federal prosecutors told a judge Monday. The grand jury was examining whether he violated the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, and his attempts to oust Marie Yovanovitch, the American ambassador there. Williams asked the judge in the same letter to terminate the appointment of former federal judge Barbara Jones as a special master, or watchdog, to review documents seized from Giuliani. Giuliani, along with Trump, still faces an ongoing criminal probe by a grand jury in Georgia, which is investigating interference in that state's presidential election in 2020. Giuliani's license to practice law in Washington, D.C., soon after was suspended automatically as a result of the New York suspension.

REUTERS/Maria Alejandra CardonaNEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - No charges will be brought in a criminal investigation into business dealings in Ukraine by Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, the top U.S. prosecutor in Manhattan said in a court filing on Monday. In a sign that the investigation was winding down, FBI agents returned the seized electronic devices to Giuliani, his lawyer said in August. Giuliani, 78, also faces a state-level criminal investigation in Georgia over efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. Giuliani in 2020 urged the state's lawmakers not to certify Biden's victory in Georgia. In August, Giuliani testified before a Fulton County grand jury after a judge ordered him to comply with a subpoena.

After more than 35 years in prison, Mutulu Shakur, Tupac Shakur’s stepfather, will be released on parole on Dec. 16, when he'll spend what are expected to be his final days among family and friends. U.S. Attorney Carlton S. Shier in October approved a motion to release Shakur, an activist and holistic health care advocate, now 72, according to court documents obtained by NBC News. After being released on parole, Shakur will be monitored for up to four months. He was given medical parole, which means he could still be snatched back from us," Muhammad said. Now, Shakur's supporters and family feel the decision to release him represents a bittersweet victory.

NEW YORK, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The United States is seeking the forfeiture of more than $1 billion in Bitcoin stolen from the Silk Road online marketplace, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Monday. By the time it was seized, the Bitcoin was worth more than $3 billion. Some of the stolen Bitcoin was found on a computer in a popcorn tin stored in a bathroom closet, IRS special agent Trevor McAleenan said in an affidavit. The U.S. government seized Silk Road in 2013, describing the underground website as a massive illegal drug and money-laundering marketplace. Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 of seven counts of enabling illegal drug sales via bitcoin.

☆ Feds announce $3.36 billion seizure of bitcoin, the second-largest recovery of crypto so far
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Paige Tortorelli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Department of Justice announced Monday that it seized about $3.36 billion in stolen bitcoin during a previously-unannounced 2021 raid on the residence of James Zhong. It follows the $3.6 billion in allegedly stolen cryptocurrency linked to the 2016 hack of the cryptocurrency exchange, Bitfinex. Silk Road was launched in 2011, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation shut it down in 2013. IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher said Zhong used a "sophisticated scheme" to steal the bitcoin from the Silk Road marketplace. In October 2022, Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, suffered a $570 million hack.

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