DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ FTX says $415 million in crypto was hacked
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The logo of FTX is seen at the entrance of the FTX Arena in Miami, Florida, U.S., November 12, 2022. REUTERS/Marco BelloJan 17 (Reuters) - Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX said in a report to creditors on Tuesday that about $415 million in cryptocurrency had been stolen as a result of hacks. Some $323 million in crypto had been hacked from FTX's international exchange and $90 million had been hacked from its U.S. exchange since it filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, CEO John Ray said in a separate statement on Tuesday. FTX told a bankruptcy judge in Delaware last week that it had recovered over $5 billion in crypto, cash and liquid securities, nine weeks after declaring bankruptcy. The crypto assets recovered to date include $685 million in Solana, $529 million in FTX's proprietary FTT token and $268 million in bitcoin, based on crypto prices on Nov. 11, 2022.

Travel insurance weekly rates at a glance:Average premium: $288.99Average trip cost: $5,763.06Average trip length: 16 daysGet your free travel insurance quote with SquareMouth »What is travel insurance? Insider's Featured Travel Insurance Companies World Nomads Travel InsuranceAllianz Travel InsuranceTravelex travel insurance Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Policy type Average days between purchase to trip Average trip length (days) Average trip cost Average cost of travel insurance Cancellation 53 13 $5,763.06 $288.99 Non-cancellation 16 21 N/A $95.86Source: SquareMouthWhen is the best time to travel? When calculating your travel insurance premium, travel insurance providers consider the likelihood of a medical emergency. Get your free travel insurance quote with SquareMouth »Travel Insurance Rates FAQsHow much does travel insurance cost?

☆ Passengers applauded and got 'really emotional' after a Royal Caribbean cruise liner rescued 17 people from a tiny boat in the Bahamas
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Royal Caribbean cruise ships rescued 17 people from a tiny boat in the Bahamas. Due to heavy winds, the cruise ship had skipped a planned day trip to CocoCay, a private island in the Bahamas owned by Royal Caribbean. This turned out to be a "lucky" coincidence, said Bradford, as it ended up crossing paths with the tiny boat that the Royal Caribbean captain said had been adrift for weeks. The people on the tiny boat were waving pieces of red fabric, said Bradford. This was the latest in a series of similar incidents of cruise ships crossing paths with migrants' boats.

☆ House Republicans move to regulate crypto industry with a new subcommittee
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The unregulated nature of the crypto industry emerged as a pressing concern late last year after the collapse in November of crypto exchange FTX. Hill has been an enthusiastic supporter of the crypto industry. Emmer described actions taken by Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler as "haphazard and unfocused." Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have already begun to prepare their own efforts to oversee the crypto industry and dictate enforcement actions. The commission charged crypto lender Genesis and crypto exchange Gemini with the unregistered sale and offering of securities on Thursday, the same day that Hill announced the subcommittee.

☆ Four accused in Bulgarian probe of crypto lender Nexo -investigators
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SOFIA, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Investigators looking into crypto lender Nexo on Friday said that four citizens of Bulgaria had been accused of participating in an organised crime group for money laundering as well as tax and computer fraud. Nexo had said after Thursday's operations that the raided office was not customer facing but has only back office functions. Some 35 artworks, including from Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, had been seized from one of the accused, investigators said. According to Bulgarian prosecutors $94 billion has gone through the Nexo platform in the past five years. Crypto lenders act like banks for the crypto world, offering customers interest on cryptocurrencies they deposit with the platform.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried is now writing his own newsletter while under house arrest at his parents' $4 million property: 'I didn't steal funds'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Presumably writing from his parents' $4 million property in Palo Alto, California near Stanford, Sam Bankman-Fried published a lengthy newsletter yesterday, titled "FTX Pre-Mortem Overview." One statement stood out to me: "I didn't steal funds, and I certainly didn't stash billions away." In the note, Bankman-Fried highlighted that both FTX and Alameda Research were raking in billions in profits in 2021. A key to the collapse, he explained, was 2022's crypto bear market that left just about every token worth dramatically less than the year prior. Well, Bankman-Fried yesterday outlined two versions of the hedge fund's balance sheet, one from each of the past two years.

☆ FTX Says It Has Located More Than $5 Billion in Cash, Liquid Assets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Becky Yerak | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX said it has located more than $5 billion in cash and other liquid assets and is hoping to sell hundreds of additional investment holdings with a book value of more than $4.6 billion. Those assets are valued as of FTX’s bankruptcy filing in November and don’t include $425 million held by authorities in the Bahamas, company lawyers said on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried says guards outside his parents' house stopped a vigilante who wanted to make a citizen's arrest
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Sam Bankman-Fried said a citizen vigilante was stopped by security guards, per an interview in Puck. Bankman-Fried said people wanted to come to his parent's house and make a "citizen's arrest." Bankman-Fried told Teddy Schleifer, a reporter from Puck, that some people claimed they wanted to come to the house and make a citizen's arrest. As part of his bail terms, he is required to stay at his parent's house while he awaits trial. He told Schleifer he had not spoken to his ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, or FTX co-founder Gary Wang.

☆ Take FTX's name off the Miami Heat's arena, the crypto exchange's bankruptcy judge orders in ending a $135 million sponsorship deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

FTX's bankruptcy judge has terminated its $135 million deal to sponsor the Miami Heat's home arena. Miami-Dade County has been trying to get out of the deal since the crypto exchange failed in November. In March 2021, FTX and Miami-Dade agreed a deal to award the crypto exchange the naming rights to the Heat's home arena for the next two years. But the crypto exchange filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November after suffering a major liquidity crisis that wiped out around $8 billion in customer funds. Read more: FTX bankruptcy documents show list of investors set to be completely wiped out, including Tom Brady and Robert Kraft

☆ George Santos took campaign donation from an Italian who was caught smuggling undocumented migrants into the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

George Santos accepted a campaign contribution from an Italian people smuggler, per The Daily Beast. Rocco Oppedisano was caught trying to smuggle 14 undocumented migrants into the US in 2019. Oppedisano's family runs a restaurant to which Santos' campaign has made some unusual payments. The donation also raised the spotlight on other questionable financial conduct related to Santos, Oppedisano, and Oppedisano's family members. Rocco Oppedisano's brother Joseph, and niece Tina, run an Italian restaurant in Little Neck, New York, The Beast reported.

Silbert is the founder of Digital Currency Group (DCG), a crypto conglomerate that includes the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and trading platform Genesis. Winklevoss, along with his brother Tyler, co-founded Gemini, a popular crypto exchange that, unlike many of its peers, is subject to New York banking regulation. Winklevoss and Silbert were linked through an offering called Earn, a nearly two-year-old product from Gemini that promoted returns of up to 8% on customer deposits. With Earn, Gemini loaned client money to Genesis for placement across various crypto trading desks and borrowers. Silbert has avoided responding directly to Winklevoss' latest accusation, though the company has taken up his defense.

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.

☆ SBF, who was once worth $26 billion, says he tried to survive on a jar of peanut butter when in a Bahamian prison
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said he tried to survive on a jar of peanut butter while locked up. He told Puck News he would skip a meal and eat a peanut-butter sandwich instead. "I spent a while trying to see how far a jar of peanut butter could get me," Bankman-Fried told Puck News. At his peak, Bankman-Fried was worth $26 billion. Bankman-Fried told Axios in November that he only has $100,000 in his bank account.

Travel insurance weekly rates at a glance:Average premium: $275.52Average trip cost: $5,652.66Average trip length: 16 daysWhat is travel insurance? Insider's Featured Travel Insurance Companies World Nomads Travel InsuranceAllianz Travel InsuranceTravelex travel insurance Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Policy type Average days between purchase to trip Average trip length (days) Average trip cost Average cost of travel insurance Cancellation 53 13 $5,652.66 $363.74 Non-cancellation 16 21 N/A $95.86Source: SquareMouthAverage cost of travel insurance by ageA traveler's age is a significant factor in determining the cost of travel insurance. When calculating your travel insurance premium, travel insurance providers consider the likelihood of a medical emergency. Travel Insurance Rates FAQsHow much does travel insurance cost?

☆ Former top FTX engineer who lived in Sam Bankman-Fried's Bahamas penthouse is trying to cut a deal with fraud prosecutors, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

FTX's ex-chief engineer last week met prosecutors probing the crypto exchange's collapse, per Bloomberg. Sam Bankman-Fried's ex-roommate Nishad Singh could become the 3rd top FTX exec to cut a deal. Prosecutors hope Singh will shed light on Bankman-Fried's political donations, per Bloomberg. He worked as an engineer at Facebook before joining FTX, according to a LinkedIn profile that has now been taken down. Read more: FTX fraud investigators are digging deeper into Sam Bankman-Fried's inner circle – and reportedly have ex-engineer Nishad Singh in their sights

☆ Coinbase to lay off 20% of staff as crypto winter continues
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Coinbase announced Tuesday that it was laying off 950 people, about 20% of its staff. Coinbase, like many other publicly traded and privately held crypto companies, has been hit hard by the massive plunge in the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is up more than 4% since the start of the year, suggesting that crypto prices may have finally bottomed out. The hope is that bitcoin and other crypto prices may start to stabilize, especially if financial regulators start to provide more guidance and clarity about their stance on cryptos. Several high profile crypto companies have gone belly up, most notably one-time crypto darling (and Coinbase rival) FTX.

☆ FTX Reaches Agreement With Bahamas Liquidators on Asset Recovery
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Alexander Saeedy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

FTX’s new management and liquidators in the Bahamas have signed an agreement to cooperate and collect assets on behalf of creditors, capping off a prolonged row between the two parties over who controls the bankrupt exchange’s remaining property. The parties have agreed to share information, as well as help to secure and distribute assets that belong to FTX entities in the Bahamas and abroad, according to a Friday press release. FTX had been headquartered in the Bahamas since 2021 and its international exchange was overseen by Bahamian regulators.

☆ FTX spent nearly $7 million on food and over $15 million on luxury Bahamian hotels in just 9 months, court documents show
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

FTX's Bahamian entity spent nearly $40 million on hotels, food, and travel in just nine months. They show the company spent almost $6 million at a single hotel and $1 million on one caterer. Lawyers pointed out that the crypto exchange's Bahamian company, FTX Digital Markets, generated no customer revenue, but spent lavishly. From January to September 2022, the company spent $15.4 million on luxury hotels and accommodation, the filings say. Almost half of that was spent on catering services, with the largest amount, $1.4 million, spent on catering at the Hyatt.

Jan 6 (Reuters) - FTX's U.S.-based bankruptcy team have agreed to coordinate with liquidators winding down the crypto exchange's operations in the Bahamas, resolving a dispute that threatened the recovery of what could be billions of dollars in lost funds. FTX’s U.S. bankruptcy team has been at odds with Bahamian officials since November, when competing bankruptcies were filed in the two countries. The Securities Commission of the Bahamas began liquidation proceedings on Nov. 10 against FTX Digital Markets Ltd., the company's Bahamas-based unit. The next day a U.S. Chapter 11 proceeding was filed in Delaware, which included more than 100 FTX entities including FTX Trading and crypto hedge fund Alameda Research. Bahamian regulators have seized FTX assets, which officials said was meant to safeguard assets that will ultimately be returned to creditors of FTX Digital Markets.

☆ 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.

☆ Crypto firms off to rocky start in 2023 with outflows, layoffs and a lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Hannah Lang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The fallout from the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and criminal charges leveled against its founder Sam Bankman-Fried weighed heavily on the sector this week. Among those hit were Genesis Global Capital, which laid off staff, and crypto-focused Silvergate Bank, which reported a large fall in deposits. Another crypto entrepreneur, Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of Celsius Network, also encountered a legal battle on Thursday. The accounts at Silvergate Bank and Farmington State Bank, which does business as Moonstone Bank, held about $143 million, court records showed. Crypto exchange Gemini, which had a crypto lending product in partnership with Genesis, and other Genesis creditors have been agitating for a solution to avoid a situation similar to FTX’s rapid descent into bankruptcy.

☆ Judge Ordered Seizure of Money from FTX Digital Markets Accounts at Silvergate
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Peter Rudegeair | Alexander Saeedy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A federal judge recently ordered the seizure of about $93 million that an FTX unit was keeping in accounts at Silvergate Capital Corp., according to a court filing Wednesday. Silvergate disclosed the seizure in a filing to a Delaware bankruptcy court handling the insolvency of FTX Digital Markets, a Bahamian-based subsidiary of crypto exchange FTX. The joint provisional liquidators of FTX Digital Markets in the Bahamas previously asked the court on Dec. 23 to transfer the $93 million out of Silvergate to “ensure the safety” of the funds.

☆ Mystery solved! We identified the big chonky ring that Sam Bankman-Fried wore to court.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

On his right ring finger was a big honking metal ring. Indeed, the ring appears to be an MIT class ring, also known as the "brass rat." The beaver design for the MIT class ring, taken from the school's mascot, dates to 1930. The chair of the 2014 ring committee didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment for this story. A representative for Bankman-Fried responded to Insider's request for comment and confirmed Bankman-Fried was wearing an MIT class ring.

☆ U.S. securities regulator probes FTX investors' due diligence -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Chris Prentice | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoNEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking details about FTX investors' due diligence, according to two sources familiar with the inquiry, as fallout from the crypto firm's collapse spreads. Reuters and others previously reported that U.S. authorities sent document requests to investors and potential investors in FTX, seeking details on their communications with FTX officials. Those inquiries predated last month's SEC charges against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried for allegedly defrauding such investors. The SEC's inquiries to investors have continued after SEC filed those charges, and the agency has now shifted its focus to the firms' diligence, the sources said. FTX filed for bankruptcy in November amid what its new CEO later described as a "complete failure of corporate controls".

Travel insurance weekly rates at a glance:Average premium: $298.10Average trip cost: $5,844.48Average trip length: 16 daysWhat is travel insurance? Insider's Featured Travel Insurance Companies World Nomads Travel InsuranceAllianz Travel InsuranceTravelex travel insurance Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Policy type Average days between purchase to trip Average trip length (days) Average trip cost Average cost of travel insurance Cancellation 53 14 $5,844.48 $371.67 Non-cancellation 16 21 N/A $96.17Source: SquareMouthAverage cost of travel insurance by ageA traveler's age is a significant factor in determining the cost of travel insurance. When calculating your travel insurance premium, travel insurance providers consider the likelihood of a medical emergency. Travel Insurance Rates FAQsHow much does travel insurance cost?

Search resuls for: "Bahamas"

25 mentions found