“Digital Currency”

To his credit, Securities and Exchange Commission chief Gary Gensler is arguing that the Sam Bankman-Fried crypto scandal doesn’t mean we need more regulations to rein in digital-coin excess and fraud. Laws are on the books that give the current regulatory and legal system plenty of tools to prosecute bad actors. Plus theft has been illegal since the beginning of civilization.

But if our regulators are properly armed, how did the furry-haired alleged fraudster get away with something that could rival the wrongdoing of the notorious Bernie Madoff and his $65 billion Ponzi swindle?

Squint and you might think that not much has changed for Sam Bankman-Fried. The 30-year-old crypto tycoon spends his days hanging out at his parents’ $4 million home near Stanford University, in a neighbourhood populated by fellow academics employed by the renowned institution. He can relax by the pool and is visited by the occasional crypto influencer, or Michael Lewis, the Moneyball author who has been shadowing the boy-genius for months.

Look closer, though, and you will see that the street is barricaded, with security checking IDs to ensure the press can’t get through. Bankman-Fried is fitted with an ankle monitor — a condition of his house arrest — and on Tuesday, he will appear in a Manhattan court to face eight criminal charges related to what the government has dubbed an “epic fraud”. The stakes are very high: he could be sent to prison for at least 30 years, and his family might be left financially ruined.

The Bahamas securities regulator has said it has seized assets worth $3.5bn (£2.9bn) from the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and plans to return them to creditors and former customers.

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said it had transferred all digital assets under the custody or control of FTX Digital Markets, a Bahamas subsidiary of the FTX operation, to its own digital wallets for “safekeeping”.

Can’t blame anyone who says the fix is in!

Sam Bankman-Fried had four White House meetings THIS YEAR: Bombshell report reveals disgraced crypto mogul met with top Biden aides as recently as September

Disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried met with four Biden officials this year before the collapse of his FTX empire and his arrest in the Bahamas.

The Democratic donor, 30, awaiting trial for what prosecutors say is one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history held talks with senior White House advisor Steve Ricchetti on September 8, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

He has had at least two other meetings with Ricchetti on April 22 and May 12 and another with top aide Bruce Reed.

And … Did Sam Bankman-Fried Secretly Cash Out $1.5M?

Indicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried used customer cash from sister firm Alameda Research to invest $200 million in two separate companies, according to a report.

One of Bankman-Fried’s investments went toward the banking app Dave, which disclosed a $100 million windfall last March that purportedly came from FTX Ventures, CNBC reported on Wednesday.

The other $100 million investment backed Mysten Labs, a Web3 firm focused on digital infrastructure, according to the business network.

It looks worse every day, now he has been caught lying about the source of funds for these two “investments.” He is scheduled to make a plea Jan 3. I have no idea which way he will go, but he seems “entitled” enough to claim innocence.

NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to enter a plea next week to criminal charges he defrauded investors and looted billions of dollars in customer funds at his failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

The 30-year-old is expected to be arraigned on the afternoon of Jan. 3, 2023, before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court, court records on Wednesday showed.

Sam Bankman-Fried hires top private investigator who worked for Ghislaine Maxwell

Disgraced crypto boss Sam Bankman-Fried has hired a top private investigator who friends have dubbed a ‘real hound dog’ because he is so relentless.

Bankman-Fried was seen being escorted out of court in New York after being freed on $250million bail by Jimmy Harkins, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Harkins is a highly-decorated former NYPD detective who has previously worked for Calvin Klein, John Gotti Jr and played a cop in the Martin Scorcese film The Irishman

Hiring a PI does not suggest he’s entering a guilty plea.

But then there’s this, some are asking why Sammy wasn’t banned from internet access as part of his bail conditions…

Alameda Wallets Suddenly Become Active Day After SBF’s Bail-‘Out’

The crypto wallets associated with now-bankrupt trading firm Alameda Research, the sister company of FTX, were seen transferring out funds just days after the former CEO Sam Bankman Fried was released on a $250 million bond.

Beyond the seemingly ready-made crypto-strangling legislation that Senator Liz Warren (D-MA) and other Constitution-flouters pushed within days of the Nov. 11 FTX bankruptcy announcement, one of the most curious and disturbing facets of the Ukraine-tied, media-adored, and now-collapsed crypto-currency exchange has just come to light.

On December 22, Politico’s Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade, and Eugene Daniels reported that a close ally and adviser to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (“SBF”) was part of a direct backchannel communications portal with leftist activists and…the White House.

And, curiously, the members of that FTX-White-House-Leftist-Activist portal appear to have shut it down the day after FTX filed for bankruptcy.

Makes sense given Mommy’s links to the DNC.

Federal prosecutors are investigating an alleged cybercrime that drained more than $370 million out of FTX just hours after the cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy last month.

The Department of Justice has launched a criminal probe into the stolen assets that is separate from the fraud case against FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, according to a person familiar with the case. US authorities have managed to freeze some of the stolen funds, the person confirmed. However the frozen assets only represent a fraction of the entire loot.

Are Mom & Dad really paying the tab?

Sam Bankman-Fried’s family pays $10K a week for armed security, sources say

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Amid death threats and sudden global infamy, accused FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried and his parents have turned their posh Stanford home into a heavily guarded fortress.

The family is shelling out roughly $10,000 a week to have a private Bay Area security firm patrol the leafy, 3,000-square-foot residence with several armed guards working around the clock, sources told The Post.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Before his mid-December arrest, cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried repeatedly claimed that he was a responsible business leader who sought more regulation of cryptocurrency and wanted his industry to be part of the mainstream financial system.

But now that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Justice Department are prosecuting the 30-year-old for fraud, the extensive professional relationships he cultivated with current and former federal regulators risk embarrassment for all involved.

As CEO of FTX, a crypto exchange, Bankman-Fried hired multiple former federal regulators who helped connect him with top officials at the CFTC, the agency he hoped would be charged with regulating his industry, emails show.

Disgraced FTX crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison was facing up to 110 years in prison before she agreed to cooperate with the federal government, her plea agreement shows.

The former Alameda hedge fund CEO, 28, pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in an agreement signed on Monday.

The agreement also indicates that Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang had agreed to “cooperate fully” with the feds, in exchange for which they will likely get much lighter sentences.

It appears prosecutors want Sam’s butt in a sling as the pleas to date specifically contradict the Mini-Madoff’s dindunuffin narrative.

It will be interesting to watch if this goes to trial. What if any sentence will be handed the Democrat’s 2nd largest donor?

Judge kept FTX execs’ plea deals secret to get founder to US

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge kept secret that two of Sam Bankman-Fried’s closest associates had turned against him so the cryptocurrency entrepreneur wouldn’t get spooked and fight extradition from the Bahamas, according to court transcripts made public Friday.

U.S. prosecutors in New York waited until Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, was in FBI custody before revealing that his business partners, Carolyn Ellison and Gary Wang, had secretly pleaded guilty to fraud charges and were cooperating, which can earn them leniency at sentencing.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams announced the guilty pleas when Bankman-Fried was in the air late Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives received billions of dollars in secret loans from the crypto mogul’s Alameda Research, the hedge fund’s former chief told a judge in her guilty plea for her role in the exchange’s collapse.

Caroline Ellison, former chief executive of Alameda Research, said she agreed with Bankman-Fried to hide from FTX’s investors, lenders and customers that the hedge fund could borrow unlimited sums from the exchange, according a transcript of her Dec. 19 plea hearing that was unsealed on Friday.

“We prepared certain quarterly balance sheets that concealed the extent of Alameda’s borrowing and the billions of dollars in loans that Alameda had made to FTX executives and to related parties,” Ellison told U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan federal court, according to the transcript.

Holy Crap.

More … Chief executive of FTX sister company pleads guilty to seven offences

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was spotted early Friday arriving at his parents’ Palo Alto, California, home where he will remain under house arrest after being released on a record $250 million bond.

Two vehicles were seen pulling up to Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried’s residence located in an exclusive neighborhood on the edge of Stanford University’s campus at around 4:30 a.m.

A Stanford campus police vehicle was seen outside the home, where the accused cryptocurrency fraudster will be spending his time with mom and dad, both law professors.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will released on $250 million bail in a deal designed by federal prosecutors and Bankman-Fried’s defense attorneys, a New York federal judge ruled.

Judge Gabriel Gorenstein said that Bankman-Fried would require “strict” supervision following his release to his parents home in California.

Gotta wonder how much cash is hidden offshore.

The ex-girlfriend of disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried and a co-founder of FTX pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange and are both cooperating with federal prosecutors, officials announced Wednesday night.

Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund company Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, a co-founder of FTX, pleaded guilty to the criminal offenses before Bankman-Fried landed in New York to face his own charges, Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

The charges filed against the pair were “in connection with their roles in the frauds that contributed to FTX’s collapse,” Williams said.