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☆ Read Mark Zuckerberg's deposition about Facebook user data, released years later thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Mark Zuckerberg told the SEC in 2019 he'd heard news of Cambridge Analytica and the 2016 US election. He was "curious" to understand the group's use of Facebook then, per a newly released deposition. The deposition with the SEC was released thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request. A newly released deposition of Zuckerberg's questioning in 2019 by the US Securities and Exchange Commission is another piece of the puzzle. In a House hearing in 2018, Representative Anna Eshoo, a Democratic Representative from California, asked Zuckerberg pointedly about Cambridge Analytica.

☆ Caroline Ellison is cooperating with prosecutors after the collapse of FTX. New legal docs reveal how she acted on behalf of Sam Bankman-Fried.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison pinned FTX's downfall on disgraced cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried, SEC documents show. "Ellison, at Bankman-Fried's direction, caused Alameda to manipulate the price of FTT," the SEC complaint reads. Prosecutors are accusing Bankman-Fried of using his Alameda trading firm as "his personal piggy bank." 'At Bankman-Fried's direction'The phrase "at Bankman-Fried's direction" is listed 10 times in the 38-page document, most often linked to Ellison. Despite being co-CEO of Alameda, Ellison usually consulted Bankman-Fried prior to making any big decisions regarding the firm as well.

☆ Wells Fargo is paying yet another huge penalty to settle more allegations it harmed its own customers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Here are some of the other scandals Wells Fargo has been embroiled in. In what has become a common practice in these types of resolutions, Wells Fargo neither admitted nor denied the CFPB's allegations. "Put simply, Wells Fargo is a corporate recidivist that puts one third of American households at risk of harm," Chopra said in prepared remarks on Tuesday. At a Senate hearing in 2017 over the scandal, Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from Massachusetts, called for then Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan to be fired. In 2020, Wells Fargo said it would pay $3 billion to resolve enforcement actions over the episode.

☆ Premarket stocks: The Grinch comes for retailers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

What’s happening: US retail sales, which measure the total amount of money that stores make from selling goods to customers, fell 0.6% in November, the weakest performance in nearly a year. The Fed factor: November’s report could indicate that consumers are feeling the double-punch of sky-high inflation and painful interest rate hikes from the central bank. This retail sales data adds to recessionary concerns, as it suggests that consumers may be becoming more cautious with their spending. Those increases were spurred by the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented campaign of harsh interest rate hikes to tame soaring inflation. The Fed announced on Wednesday that it will continue to raise interest rates — albeit by a smaller amount than it has been.

☆ Stock delisting risks averted as US gains access to audit papers of Chinese tech companies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The announcement marks a major breakthrough in a yearslong standoff over how Chinese companies listed on Wall Street should be regulated. There are more than 260 Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges, with a combined market capitalization of more than $770 billion, according to recent calculations posted by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The United States had increased pressure by passing a law in December 2020 requiring Chinese companies listed in the US to open their books to audit watchdogs. In Friday’s statement, the PCAOB said it had inspected the audits of eight Chinese companies completed by KPMG Huazhen LLP in China and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong. She added that the watchdog is continuing to demand complete access in mainland China and Hong Kong moving forward.

☆ The criminal charges against Sam Bankman-Fried carry big penalties and jail time if proven, legal experts say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

If he pleads guilty or ends up being convicted, a federal judge will ultimately decide the length of any prison sentence. And those charges come with potentially big penalties, if he's found guilty: In a sparse indictment unsealed on Tuesday morning, federal prosecutors in Manhattan listed eight criminal counts. Prosecutors leveled multiple conspiracy and wire fraud charges, some of which can be fairly straightforward as they don't require elaborate exposition to support, according to legal experts. It is too soon to tell what, if any, charges Bankman-Fried would be convicted on. But federal criminal statutes prescribe these maximum prison penalties for the following counts:Four counts relating to wire fraud: Maximum sentence for each count is 20 years in prison.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX had the corporate governance of a college fraternity, congressman says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A congressman likened collapsed exchange FTX's corporate governance to a college fraternity. "It would be laughable were it not so serious," congressman Ritchie Torres said. In reality, the company was more like a college fraternity, congressman Ritchie Torres says, with haphazard and reckless bookkeeping practices. "FTX had the corporate governance of a fraternity," Torres, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, told Coindesk TV on Wednesday. The now-bankrupt exchange used QuickBooks, an accounting software generally used by smaller businesses, not multi-billion dollar companies.

☆ Meet Sam Bankman-Fried's family: His parents are Stanford law professors, his aunt is a dean at Columbia, and his brother is the founder of a nonprofit
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Sam Bankman-Fried was raised in an academic family based in Silicon Valley. Sam Bankman-Fried cofounded FTX in 2019 and was its CEO. FTXFTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday, in a spectacular fall from grace after his crypto exchange collapsed last month. In November, Reuters reported that a $16.4 million house in the Bahamas listed Bankman-Fried's parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, as signatories. Here are some of the prominent members of Bankman-Fried's family.

☆ FTX was a 'house of cards' built on a 'foundation of deception,' SEC boss says in scathing statement about Sam Bankman-Fried
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The SEC has accused FTX of being a "house of cards" built on a "foundation of deception," in a statement. The SEC released charges on Tuesday morning, accusing Bankman-Fried of a "years-long" fraud. In its complaint, the SEC announced it had charged the FTX cofounder, Sam Bankman-Fried, with "orchestrating a scheme to defraud" FTX investors. SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in the statement: "We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto." The director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, Gurbir S. Grewal, accused FTX of operating "behind a veneer of legitimacy" that was created by Bankman-Fried, per the Tuesday press release.

☆ The head of the legal system in the Bahamas said the US will 'likely' ask for Sam Bankman-Fried's extradition
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The US is "likely" to request Sam Bankman-Fried be extradited to the US, the Bahamas attorney general said. The attorney general indicated the Bahamas intended to extradite Bankman-Fried if requested. The disgraced crypto founder was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday, according to US authorities. The Bahamas attorney general said in the statement that the US had filed criminal charges against Bankman-Fried and was "likely to request his extradition." Representatives for the Bahamas attorney general office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside normal working hours.

☆ Alameda ex-CEO Caroline Ellison taps SEC's former top crypto regulator as lawyer in FTX investigation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Bethany Biron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Caroline Ellison hired Stephanie Avakian and law firm WilmerHale to represent her in the FTX investigation, per Bloomberg. Sources close to the matter told Bloomberg that Avakian, as well as fellow WilmerHale lawyers, will represent Ellison. Avakian and WilmerHale will represent Ellison during the federal probe into her former company, Alameda Research, the trading firm and corporate sibling of fallen cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. Ellison has remained an elusive figure in the collapse of FTX, staying mum and largely unreachable during its downfall. As noted by Bloomberg, while Bankman-Fried has publicly placed blame on Alameda in numerous interviews, Ellison has stayed silent.

☆ SEC chief Gary Gensler says crypto platforms need to 'come into compliance' or face the regulator's wrath
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

SEC chair Gary Gensler says the agency has "enough authority" for a crypto regulatory crackdown. Gensler's comments come a month after the demise of once-$32 billion crypto exchange FTX. The regulator has "enough authority" for a crackdown in the space, Gensler said, adding that the SEC is "already suited up." Crypto exchange Coinbase faced legal threats from the regulator for its lending offering as well, leading it to scrap the effort. Gensler's comments come after the demise of FTX, the once-$32 billion crypto exchange started by Sam Bankman-Fried.

☆ Cryptocurrency firms need to 'come into compliance' with existing rules, SEC Chair Gary Gensler says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Gensler told Yahoo Finance in an interview that the SEC has brought more than 100 enforcement cases in the crypto space, directly challenging lawmakers' questions about the agency's oversight. "We're already suited up," Gensler told Yahoo Finance. The SEC chief said cryptocurrency firms should be held liable for compliance with existing rules. Gensler told Yahoo Finance that the SEC has successfully deterred other suspicious crypto firm activities. Gensler said the SEC would take more enforcement actions if cryptocurrency exchanges will not comply, but he did not elaborate on what those would be.

BlockFi users must still account for gains and/or losses on their 2022 taxes, but there are ways to reduce your tax bill. The crypto lender says it's requesting approval from the Court to restore withdrawal activities for those with BlockFi Wallet accounts. BlockFi also asked users not to submit any deposits to the BlockFi Wallet or its interest accounts. Georgia Quinn, General Counsel of Anchorage Digital, believes coverage for crypto users could be stronger. In addition, users are typically last to receive payouts in the event of crypto bankruptcy, since companies settle debts with creditors first.

☆ Wall Street's most important consultant might be its cloud provider
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insider's Bianca Chan explored this trend with a piece on how cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud are reimagining themselves as business consultants. Many of the biggest cloud providers have stood up teams focused on interfacing with the C-suite to advise them on how a move to the cloud can be an opportunity to overhaul things. It's not hard to see how this could end up being big business for the cloud providers. Cloud providers still have a long way to go to be a real threat to consultants, but there is potential there. Click here to read more about how cloud providers are becoming the new-age consultants for Wall Street.

☆ FTX's collateral tanked from $60 billion in the spring to $9 billion now, SBF reportedly told staff. This just about covers its liabilities of $8 billion.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

FTX founder SBF sent company staff a memo on Tuesday to explain the exchange's collapse, per reports. FTX had $60 billion in collateral this spring, but its value fell to $9 billion by November. A further "drying up" of credit in the industry further tanked the value of the collateral to around $25 billion, while FTX's liabilities quadrupled to $8 billion. In November, another "concentrated, hyper-correlated" crash led the collateral's value to crash to $17 billion, according to the message. Bankman-Fried apologized to FTX staff in the email, saying he was "deeply sorry" and regretful about what happened.

☆ Insiders detail how Wall Street is preparing for a post-FTX world, from heightened scrutiny on crypto deals to rethinking hiring plans
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Morgan Chittum | Bianca Chan | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Most Wall Street firms have executed big crypto and blockchain initiatives. The ties between Wall Street, Main Street, and digital assets have never been tighter. Some traditional firms have chosen crypto custodians to do that for them, while others offer it themselves. Fidelity also has its own digital assets custody offering, and reportedly had plans to continue building out its digital-asset team as recently as late October. 121, which requires most SEC registrants to record the fair value of custodied digital assets as a liability.

☆ Collapsed FTX owes nearly $3.1 billion to top 50 creditors
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN Business —Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which has filed for US bankruptcy court protection, said it owes its 50 biggest creditors nearly $3.1 billion. The exchange owes about $1.45 billion to its top ten creditors, it said in a court filing on Saturday, without naming them. The crypto exchange said on Saturday it has launched a strategic review of its global assets and is preparing for the sale or reorganization of some businesses. FTX’s rapid collapse marked a stunning downfall for one of the biggest and most powerful players in the crypto industry. The Bahamian authorities have also taken control of cryptocurrency assets held by FTX Digital Markets, The Bahamas-based FTX unit that filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection Tuesday.

☆ After FTX's collapse, an SEC commissioner says crypto is worsening finance's existing flaws, while investors look for answers on regulatory concerns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Investors told Insider that they welcome regulation and more guidance at the federal level. In Lizárraga's view, many crypto companies have not only replicated the flaws of the traditional finance industry, but they've made them worse by operating in a regulatory gray area. Instead, crypto companies can protect both themselves and their customers by embracing regulation rather than seeking to sidestep it, he said. She decided to partner with the fintech company Apex for Zingeroo's crypto offering rather than a pure-play crypto exchange because she felt more confident that Apex would follow proper compliance. But others, including some venture capitalists, have suggested that federal regulators have not provided enough clarity to crypto companies.

☆ Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX may have over 1 million creditors as ‘dozens’ of regulators probe collapse
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX could have more than 1 million creditors and has been in contact with “dozens” of regulators around the world, according to court documents, underlining the far-reaching impact from the stunning collapse of one of the industry’s biggest players. A person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN on Monday that federal prosecutors in New York are investigating the FTX collapse. FTX filed for bankruptcy last week and at the time estimated it had more than 100,000 creditors. “In fact, there could be more than one million creditors in these Chapter 11 cases,” lawyers for FTX wrote. The court filing said Bankman-Fried “ultimately agreed to step aside” at about 4:30 a.m. on Friday.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried wishes 'we'd bitten off a lot less' after distressed crypto exchange FTX imploded: NYT
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried told the New York Times he had his fingers in too many pies. Seemingly apologetic, he said he was doing too many things and didn't catch signs of troubles at FTX. FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday after it was caught in a week-long liquidity crisis. Other than running the FTX exchange as CEO — a position he relinquished on Friday — he was also involved in a range of other activities such as founding the non-profit FTX Foundation, investing in other companies, and making political donations. Bankman-Fried told the Times he wished "we'd bitten off a lot less."

☆ Crypto: What's next as FTX collapse triggers 'Lehman moment'?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And can the beaten-down crypto industry bounce back? What’s clear is that the fallout from the FTX crisis injects significant volatility into the crypto ecosystem. “Thank God!”Can the crypto industry survive? “In the short term, this is going to be really, really bad for the crypto industry,” said Jog of Sei Labs. Fok said he expects the FTX collapse will push institutional investors away from the crypto space just as they had been warming up to it.

☆ Cyprus regulator requested FTX EU suspend operations Nov. 9
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NICOSIA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Cyprus's Securities and Exchange Commission asked FTX EU to suspend its operations on Nov. 9, the regulator said on Friday. "The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, November 9th, called upon the Cypriot Investment Firm FTX EU Ltd to suspend its operations and to proceed immediately with a number of actions for the protection of the investors," a statement from the Commission said. FTX had announced in September that it had received approval from the Cypriot regulator to operate as a Cyprus Investment Firm, allowing the company to fully own a local investment firm it had previously acquired, and operate in Europe. "The Company is regulated by CySEC under the provision of Investment Services Law and is authorised to provide investment services in Derivatives and/or other financial instruments. However, it is not licensed by CySEC to engage in the direct trading of crypto assets," CySEC said.

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☆ Premarket stocks: Why investors aren't going green
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

ESG funds in September saw their largest outflow of investor cash since the March 2020 recession. These ESG and responsible investing funds saw assets under management peak above $8.5 trillion in late 2021. That’s because ESG ratings agencies tend to rate companies against others within their industry, so oil and gas companies are rated separately from automotive companies. A debate over how to regulate ESG funds is also adding to the noisy picture. But the hurdles facing ESG investing show that doing so is easier said than done.

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