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☆ FTX planned to purchase the Pacific island nation of Nauru to build an apocalypse bunker, lawsuit says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

FTX is suing Sam Bankman-Fried and other former bosses for $1 billion. SBF's brother discussed turning the island country of Nauru into an apocalypse bunker, the suit says. FTX wanted to purchase the Pacific island nation of Nauru to build a bunker in case of an apocalyptic event, according to a new lawsuit. The complaint says that the FTX founder's brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, discussed with an officer for the FTX Foundation a scheme to purchase the country of Nauru. A spokesperson for Sam Bankman-Fried did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

Persons: FTX, Sam Bankman, John J, Ray III —, Gabriel Bankman, Gabe Bankman, Fried Organizations: FTX, EA, FTX Foundation, Twitter Locations: Nauru, It's, Australia

July 20 (Reuters) - FTX Trading on Thursday sued founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other former executives of the cryptocurrency exchange, seeking to recoup more than $1 billion they allegedly misappropriated before FTX went bankrupt. FTX is now led by John Ray, who helped manage Enron after the energy trader's 2001 bankruptcy. FTX said Bankman-Fried and Wang also misappropriated $546 million to buy shares of Robinhood Markets (HOOD.O), while Ellison used $28.8 million to pay herself bonuses. The case is FTX Trading Ltd et al v Bankman-Fried et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. The main bankruptcy case is In re FTX Trading Ltd et al in the same court, No.

Persons: Sam Bankman, FTX, Caroline Ellison, Gary, Wang, Nishad Singh, Fried, John Ray, Ellison, Singh, Jonathan Stempel, Mike Scarcella, Leslie Adler Organizations: Alameda Research, Enron, U.S, Robinhood, Bankruptcy, District of, FTX, bk, Thomson Locations: Delaware, Alameda, U.S, District, District of Delaware, New York

☆ FTX lawyers accuse Sam Bankman-Fried of financing his criminal defense with $10 million in misappropriated funds
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of failed crypto exchange FTX, was sued in Delaware bankruptcy court on Thursday by his ex-company's lawyers, who accuse him and members of his leadership team of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. The lawyers are seeking to recover funds from Bankman-Fried and former executives of FTX and sister hedge fund Alameda Research. One way the attorneys for the bankrupt exchange say Bankman-Fried pilfered money was through a $10 million gift to his father, distinguished legal scholar Joe Bankman. Much of that $10 million gift from was routed from FTX to Bankman-Fried's Morgan Stanley and TD Ameritrade accounts around January 2022, the lawsuit alleges. WATCH: Taylor Swift agreed to FTX partnership, but the crypto exchange bailed

Persons: Sam Bankman, Fried, Joe Bankman, Fried's Morgan Stanley, FTX, Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, Taylor Swift Organizations: Alameda Research, Bankman, FTX, Alameda Locations: Delaware, Bankman, Alameda, FTX

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - Microsoft (MSFT.O) said on Friday that Chinese hackers misappropriated one of its digital keys and used a flaw in the company's code to steal emails from U.S. government agencies and other clients. The company said in a blog post that the hackers were able to use the key - which they acquired under undisclosed circumstances - and take advantage of "a validation error in Microsoft code" to carry out their cyberespionage campaign. The blog provided the most fulsome explanation yet for a hack that rattled both the cybersecurity industry and China-U.S. relations. Microsoft and U.S. officials said on Wednesday night that Chinese state-linked hackers had been secretly since May accessing email accounts at around 25 organizations. Microsoft's blog post did not explain how the hackers got their hands on one of the company's digital keys, leading some experts to speculate that Microsoft itself had been hacked ahead of the thefts.

Persons: Antony Blinken, China's, Wang Yi, Raphael Satter, Sandra Maler Organizations: Microsoft, State and Commerce, ., State Department, Thomson Locations: China, U.S, Beijing, Jakarta, Redmond, Washington

SummaryLaw Firms FTX founder allegedly misappropriated customer funds for European acquisitionFTX failed to find a buyer for the company in bankruptcy saleNEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) - Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX sued insiders at FTX Europe AG late Wednesday, seeking to recover $323 million that FTX had invested in an ill-fated expansion into European crypto markets. After FTX filed for bankruptcy in November, it sought to sell FTX Europe, only to conclude that no buyer would offer meaningful value for the company, according to FTX. FTX acquired Digital Assets for nearly $400 million in three transactions in 2020 and 2021, hoping to obtain regulatory approvals and expand into European markets. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in November, saying it was unable to completely repay customers who had deposited funds on its exchange. Prosecutors have charged Bankman-Fried, 31, with stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to cover losses at its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research.

Persons: FTX, Sam Bankman, Patrick Gruhn, Robin Matzke, Brandon Williams, Cosima Capital, Williams, Fried, Gruhn, Steven Holley, Stephen Ehrenberg, Brian Glueckstein, Christopher Dunne of Sullivan, Cromwell, Read, Clinton, Dietrich Knauth Organizations: FTX, AG, DA AG, Assets, Matzke, Gruhn, Prosecutors, Alameda Research, Trading, Bankruptcy, District of, Cromwell LLP, Thomson Locations: Zurich, Switzerland, Europe, Delaware, Matzke, Oregon, Alameda, U.S, District of Delaware

☆ Google hit with lawsuit alleging it stole data from millions of users to train its AI tools
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Google was hit with a wide-ranging lawsuit on Tuesday alleging the tech giant scraped data from millions of users without their consent and violated copyright laws in order to train and develop its artificial intelligence products. The complaint also claims Google has taken “virtually the entirety of our digital footprint,” including “creative and copywritten works” to build its AI products. The complaint points to a recent update to Google’s privacy policy that explicitly states the company may use publicly accessible information to train its AI models and tools such as Bard. It is also seeking unspecified damages and payments as financial compensation to people whose data was allegedly misappropriated by Google. Giordano contrasted the benefits and alleged harms of how Google typically indexes online data to support its core search engine with the new allegations of it scraping data to train AI tools.

Persons: DeepMind, OpenAI, Bard, “, ’, ” Tim Giordano, Giordano, ” Giordano, Ryan Clarkson Organizations: CNN, Google, Clarkson Law Firm, ChatGPT, Clarkson Locations: California

☆ Sarah Silverman sues OpenAI and Meta alleging copyright infringement
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors are suing Meta and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, alleging the companies’ AI language models were trained on copyrighted materials from their books without their knowledge or consent. A new crop of AI tools has gained tremendous attention in recent months for their ability to generate written work and images in response to user prompts. The large language models underpinning these tools are trained on vast troves of online data. The complaint against Meta similarly claims that the company used the authors’ copyrighted books to train LLaMA, the set of large language models released by Meta in February. The legal action from Silverman isn’t the first to focus on how large language models are trained.

Persons: Sarah Silverman, OpenAI, Silverman, ”, Christopher Golden, Richard Kadrey, ChatGPT, “, Meta, Silverman isn’t, Sam Altman, “ We’re Organizations: CNN, Meta, OpenAI, Facebook Locations: San Francisco federal

July 7 (Reuters) - A former U.S. Army financial counselor from New Jersey was criminally charged on Friday with defrauding grieving military families out of life insurance payments, causing millions of dollars of losses while reaping big commissions for himself. The U.S. Department of Justice charged Caz Craffy, 41, of Colts Neck, New Jersey, through a 10-count indictment with wire fraud, securities fraud and making false statements targeting members of at least two dozen Gold Star families. Craffy "preyed upon these vulnerable families," U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger in New Jersey said at a news conference. Craffy, who is also known as Carz Craffey, also faces civil charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Gold Star families include people who have immediate family members who died in active duty.

Persons: Caz Craffy, Philip Sellinger, Craffy, Mark Berman, Sellinger, Gurbir Grewal, Grewal, Jonathan Stempel, Daniel Wallis Organizations: U.S, Army, U.S . Department of Justice, Gold Star, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, Star, Authorities, SEC, Thomson Locations: New Jersey, , New Jersey, New York

☆ Over half a million silver coins just vanished – now the metals dealer behind the 'fraudulent' scheme must pay $146 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Joseph Wilkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A precious metals dealer has been asked to pay up $146 million in damages after over half a million silver coins went missing. Robert Higgins ran a "fraudulent and deceptive scheme" linked to the purchase and sale of precious metals, the CFTC said. From 2014 to 2022, Higgins led a 'fraudulent silver leasing program' that took deposits from almost 200 customers. Higgins ran a "fraudulent and deceptive scheme", and was ordered to pay $113 million to clients and $33 million in penalties, according to the CFTC. The precious metals industry has seen a series of scams in recent times.

Persons: Robert Higgins, Higgins, —, Prateek Gupta Organizations: Service, Commodities Futures Trading Commission, Asset, Depository Company, US Treasury, London Metal Exchange Locations: Delaware, Rotterdam, Singapore

☆ Compliance chief at Chinese fintech company stole girlfriend's insider info to trade VMware, tech stocks
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Steven Teixeira, who served as chief compliance officer for the U.S. arm of China's LianLian Global, pleaded guilty to the federal charges under a cooperation agreement. Teixeira allegedly obtained insider information, including advance knowledge of Broadcom's announced $61 billion acquisition of VMware from 2022, and shared it with an associate for profit. Proofpoint was taken private in 2021 by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in a $12.3 billion deal, within the timeframe Teixeira was allegedly trading insider information. Teixeira allegedly shared the insider information with his associate, Jordan Meadow, who is also charged with violating federal insider trading laws. Kennedy and Van Hollen introduce bill to block foreign executives from insider trading

Persons: Steven Teixeira, Teixeira, Broadcom's, Thoma Bravo's, Proofpoint, Thoma, Jordan Meadow, Meadow, Scott Thompson, Kennedy, Van Hollen Organizations: U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, New, U.S, SEC, VMware, Thoma Bravo, of Locations: New York, Southern, of New York, Philadelphia, Sens

☆ OpenAI lawsuit: Maker of ChatGPT sued over alleged data usage
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —OpenAI, the company behind the viral ChatGPT tool, has been hit with a lawsuit alleging the company stole and misappropriated vast swaths of peoples’ data from the internet to train its AI tools. The proposed class action lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a California federal court, claims that OpenAI secretly scraped “massive amounts of personal data from the internet,” according to the complaint. Microsoft, a major investor into OpenAI, was also named as a defendant in the suit and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It also seeks payments of “data dividends” as financial compensation to people whose information was used to develop and train OpenAI’s tools. OpenAI publicly launched ChatGPT late last year, and the tool immediately went viral for its ability to generate compelling, human-sounding responses to user prompts.

Persons: CNN — OpenAI, OpenAI, “, ”, Timothy K, Giordano Organizations: CNN, Microsoft, Clarkson Locations: California, OpenAI

June 26 (Reuters) - Certain banks working with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's trading firm Alameda Research raised questions about the firm's wire activity as early as 2020, according to a report released by FTX on Monday. Federal prosecutors have alleged that Bankman-Fried stole billions of dollars in customer funds to plug losses at Alameda. He has previously said that when FTX did not have a bank account, some customers wired money to Alameda and were credited on FTX. In 2020, certain banks working with Alameda pressed the firm on its wire transfers, according to the report. One bank representative wrote to Alameda about references to FTX in the company's wire activity and asked whether the account was being used to settle trades on FTX.

Persons: Sam Bankman, FTX, Fried, Hannah Lang, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Alameda Research, Federal, Alameda, Thomson Locations: Alameda, FTX, An Alameda, Washington

☆ JPMorgan Chase's drawn-out breakup with Jeffrey Epstein
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Kaja Whitehouse | Emmalyse Brownstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

Several months later, in October 2006, JPMorgan categorized Epstein as a "high-risk" client, according to a transcript of Dimon's deposition in May. Today, banks have entire departments dedicated to tracking client activity and flagging suspicious behavior. Lots of questions'The fuss JPMorgan compliance officers raised about Epstein in 2011 was extensive. A 'faithless servant'One person who might know much more about the tangled relationship between Epstein and JPMorgan is Jes Staley. Staley sent Epstein internal JPMorgan documents and relied on him for guidance on an array of business and personal dealings, the JPMorgan internal report shows.

Persons: —, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers —, Jamie Dimon, Jeffrey Epstein, Leon Black, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Epstein, Jes Staley, Staley, Jeffrey Epstein's, Michelle Licata, Courtney Wild, Stephanie Keith, Jane Doe, JP Morgan —, Epstein —, jes staley, Patricia Wexler, Wexler, Dimon, Barry Krischer, JPMorgan, Ghislaine Maxwell, Rod Stewart, Cipriani, Joe Schildhorn, Patrick McMullan, Frank Haberstroh, Haberstroh, Les Wexner, Wexner, Tom Williams, JP Morgan, Little, Little Saint James, Epstein's, Jim Spellman, Staley didn't, Morgan, James, Emily Michot, Bill Gates, Larry Summers, Woody Allen, Stephen Cutler, Cutler, Mary Erdoes, Erdoes, Youngbee Dale, Dale, JPMorgan Chase, Michael M, NYDFS, Bernie Madoff, Cecile de Jongh, Joe Shmoe, Jacob Shamsian Organizations: JPMorgan, Highbridge Capital Management, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, titans, Apollo, US, US Virgin Islands, Bloomberg TV, Financial, US Department of, Treasury, Getty, BSA, Polaris Market Research, United Nations University Centre, M2C Model, Palm, JPMorgan Chase, Washington D.C, Inc, Apollo Global Management, The New York Times, Little Saint, Virgin, U.S ., Miami Herald, Tribune, Service, Microsoft, Columbia University, Mountain Capital, DOJ, New, Deutsche Bank, New York Department of Financial Services, Virgin Islands, Barclays, Authority, Wall Street Journal Locations: York, Manhattan, New York, US Virgin, dimon, Palm Beach , Florida, New York City, UN, Paris, Washington, Prague, thomas, Wexner, Little Saint, I'm, Little St, U.S, U.S . Virgin Islands, Staley, Dimon's, Virgin, British

☆ 'Lots of smoke. Lots of questions': Internal emails show JPMorgan Chase execs worried about the bank's ties to Jeffrey Epstein. So why did it take so long to cut him loose?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Kaja Whitehouse | Emmalyse Brownstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

That, of course, is the billion-dollar question: What did JPMorgan, America's largest bank, know about Epstein's alleged sex trafficking? Today, banks have entire departments dedicated to tracking client activity and flagging suspicious behavior. Lots of questions'The fuss JPMorgan compliance officers raised about Epstein in 2011 was extensive. Lots of questions," declared a senior JPMorgan compliance officer reviewing Epstein's accounts as part of that 2011 compliance review, according to court papers filed by the US Virgin Islands. Staley sent Epstein internal JPMorgan documents and relied on him for guidance on an array of business and personal dealings, the JPMorgan internal report shows.

☆ In a scathing dissent, Neil Gorsuch compared the Navajo Nation's plight to the experience of 'any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote an impassioned dissent comparing the plight of the Navajos to the experience of "any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles." The high court ruled 5-4 in Arizona v. Navajo Nation on Thursday that under an 1868 treaty, the US is not required secure water for the Navajo Nation. But Gorsuch wrote in his dissent that the majority "rejects a request the Navajo Nation never made." Gorsuch wrote, however, that "the relief the Tribe seeks is far more modest." And at 26 pages, his dissent in Arizona v. Navajo Nation was twice as long as the majority opinion.

Persons: Neil Gorsuch, —, Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson — Organizations: Navajo Nation, Department of Motor Vehicles, Service, Supreme Locations: Navajo, Arizona v, United States, Colorado

NEW YORK, June 22 (Reuters) - Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX on Thursday sued a former aide to Hilary Clinton and the former aide's investment firm, seeking to claw back $700 million in investments allegedly made with misappropriated FTX funds. Bankman-Fried authorized investments in K5 projects that enriched Kives and Baum with no payoff for FTX or its customers, who were footing the bill, FTX alleged. FTX has also filed lawsuits over its pre-bankruptcy investment in the stock platform Embed and its payments toGenesis Global Capital, the bankrupt lending arm of crypto firm Genesis. FTX on Wednesday announced a settlement with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in which the museum agreed to return $550 million in donations that it received from FTX companies in 2022. Reporting by Dietrich Knauth in New York Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Hilary Clinton, misappropriated, FTX, Sam Bankman, Fried, Michael Kives, Bryan Baum, Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Katy Perry, I've, Baum, Kendall Jenner's, SBF, Elizabeth Ashford, Kives, Dietrich Knauth, Alexia Garamfalvi, Matthew Lewis Organizations: YORK, K5 Global, Democratic, Republican, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, K5, Genesis Global Capital, Wednesday, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomson Locations: Wilmington , Delaware, Democratic U.S, New York, Republican California, FTX

☆ Safety concerns about missing Titan vessel voiced by former OceanGate employees years ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Celina Tebor | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Lochridge worked as an independent contractor for OceanGate in 2015, then as an employee between 2016 and 2018, according to court filings. Court filings from the company indicate there was additional testing after Lochridge’s time at OceanGate, and it’s unclear whether any of his concerns were addressed as the vessel was developed. He said more concerns were raised by contractors and employees during his time at OceanGate, and Rush became defensive and shied away from answering questions during all-staff meetings. In 2022, the legal representative updated the Virginia court on OceanGate’s expeditions in another court filing. “OceanGate decided to cancel the second mission for repairs and operational enhancements” after the vessel “sustained modest damage to its external components,” it reads.

Persons: David Lochridge, Lochridge, Stockton Rush –, “, Rush, OceanGate, of Virginia –, ” Kevin Williams, “ OceanGate, “ Classing Organizations: CNN, US Coast Guard, OceanGate, Stockton Rush, Titan, Coast Guard, U.S, Eastern, of, University of Washington’s, Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, American Bureau of Shipping, Lloyd’s Locations: Cape Cod , Massachusetts, OceanGate, of Virginia, Virginia

☆ Ex-aide to 1MDB fugitive Jho Low dies weeks after questioning
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 (Reuters) - A former aide to Malaysian fugitive Jho Low - wanted for his central role in the multi-billion dollar 1MDB corruption scandal - has died weeks after being questioned by Malaysian authorities on Low's whereabouts, his lawyers said on Wednesday. He was questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on arrival and had his house searched, media reported. Malaysian authorities have previously said Low was believed to be in China, though Beijing has denied that. Low has been charged in Malaysia and the United States for allegedly masterminding the theft of $4.5 billion from now-defunct fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, who co-founded 1MDB, was sentenced to 12 years in prison last year for graft linked to the scandal.

Persons: Jho, Kee Kok Thiam, Valen, Kee, Al Jazeera, Al, Low, Najib Razak, Hasnoor Hussain, Rozanna Latiff, Kanupriya Kapoor Organizations: Malaysian, Partners, Malaysian Anti, Corruption, 1Malaysia Development, Thomson Locations: KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysian, U.S, Malaysia, Macau, 1MDB, China, Al Jazeera, Beijing, United States

More than six million pages of emails, Slack messages and other digital records. For months, federal prosecutors building the criminal case against the fallen cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried have assembled a vast and unusually varied array of evidence. The documents include crypto transaction logs and encrypted group chats from Mr. Bankman-Fried’s collapsed exchange, FTX, as well as strikingly personal reflections recorded by a key witness in the case. The mountain of evidence ranks among the largest ever collected in a white-collar securities fraud case prosecuted by the federal authorities in Manhattan, according to data provided by a person with knowledge of the matter. In the 2004 securities fraud prosecution of Martha Stewart, for example, prosecutors produced 525,000 pages of evidence to the defense team, but the numbers have increased significantly in recent years.

Persons: Slack, Sam Bankman, Bankman, Fried’s, Martha Stewart Locations: Manhattan

FollowNEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) - Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX is seeking to claw back more than $240 million it paid for stock trading platform Embed, saying former FTX insiders did no investigation before buying the essentially worthless bug-ridden software platform. FTX filed three lawsuits late Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware targeting former FTX insiders including indicted founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Embed executives including founder Michael Giles, and Embed shareholders. FTX alleged that Bankman-Fried and other FTX insiders misappropriated company funds to acquire stakes in Embed as part of the transaction. As part of the purchase, FTX also paid Embed employees $70 million in retention bonuses. FTX is seeking to recover $236.8 million from Giles and Embed insiders, and $6.9 million from Embed minority shareholders.

☆ Fox News' lawyers send cease and desist to stop Media Matters from publishing leaked videos of Tucker Carlson's comments
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Fox News' lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to Media Matters over coverage of Tucker Carlson. The letter demands Media Matters stop publishing behind-the-scenes videos of Carlson. Media Matters has shared videos of Carlson making sexist remarks and complaining about Fox. Fox News' lawyers have sent a cease and desist letter to Media Matters for America over its publication of leaked videos showing Tucker Carlson making offensive and embarrassing comments off-air. In other videos, Carlson complained that "nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks" and said he'd rather put his interviews on YouTube than on Fox's site.

☆ Fox demands Media Matters stop publishing leaked Tucker Carlson videos
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Jon Passantino | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Fox sent a cease-and-desist letter on Friday to Media Matters, the progressive watchdog, and its president, demanding that it take down embarrassing behind-the-scenes videos of Tucker Carlson attacking Fox News’ streaming service and making crude remarks while joking with staff. “For Fox to argue otherwise is absurd and further dispels any pretense that they’re a news operation. Carlson referred to a Dominion lawyer as a “slimy little motherf**ker” and confessed to his producer “the hate” that he felt for him. It’s totally bad for you to feel that way,” Carlson said. “But that guy, he triggered the sh*t out of me.”The footage also showed Carlson trashing the right-wing network’s streaming service Fox Nation, expressing frustration that the platform “sucks” and complaining that its “unbelievable” shortcomings were a “betrayal” of his efforts.

☆ F.B.I. Searches Home of Top FTX Executive
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Matthew Goldstein | David Yaffe-Bellany | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

carried out a search on Thursday morning at the Potomac, Md., home of Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive who was a major campaign contributor to Republican political candidates, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Salame, who ran FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, was part of the close circle of advisers around Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency exchange’s founder, before the firm filed for bankruptcy in November. Federal prosecutors have charged Mr. Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a vast fraud and illegal campaign finance scheme at FTX. Mr. Salame has been under particular scrutiny over the $24 million in campaign contributions he made during last year’s midterm elections. In court filings, federal authorities have claimed that most of the $90 million contributed to political candidates by a handful of former FTX employees, including Mr. Salame, had been misappropriated from customers of the exchange.

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas ordered the head of a South African firm to pay a whopping $3.4 billion for what the U.S. commodities regulator said was its largest-ever fraud case involving bitcoin. Cornelius Johannes Steynberg was ordered to pay $1.7 billion in restitution to victims of the fraud scheme and another $1.7 billion as a civil penalty, a record for any Commodity Futures Trading Commission case, the regulator said in a statement on Thursday. The CFTC charged Steynberg in July, saying Mirror Trading solicited bitcoin online from thousands of people to purportedly operate a commodity pool. The firm claimed to trade off-exchange, retail foreign currency with participants who were not eligible to trade, the regulator said. The default judgment against Steynberg was granted by Judge Lee Yeakel in the Western District of Texas, according to a court filing.

☆ Twitter gave a gold checkmark to a troll account impersonating a defunct Disney TV channel for kids, which then posted a racial slur
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A fake Disney account was given a verified gold checkmark before it was suspended on Monday. Twitter appeared to give a gold checkmark to a random account pretending to be an official Disney account, before suspending it after a tweet from the account went viral. The troll also suggested they'd already had the gold checkmark for two days before gaining attention with Monday's viral tweet. After Twitter removed verified checkmarks from everybody who wasn't subscribed to Twitter Blue last week, a backlash saw some campaign to "Block The Blue." The handle used by the trolls was previously used by an official Disney account until October 2020, when the TV channel by the same name was closed down.

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