Anyone invested in bit coins?

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,438
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/bor...iness-based-on-imaginary-money-might-be-fraud
World Shocked That Man Running Business Based On Imaginary Money Might Be Fraud
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around this,” Johan, who is based in Sweden, said. “How could a business built on a foundation of nonexistent dollars somehow collapse?”

“I’m completely gobsmacked by the news,” Caitlyn, who lives in London, said. “Of all of the firms offering big returns on made-up money, this one seemed the most solid.”

Roger, who lives in Michigan, expressed concern about the broader implications of a company swimming in fictitious billions suddenly going bankrupt. “I just hope that one bad apple doesn’t wreck the entire fake-money industry,” he said.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,438
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...of-cash-to-plead-guilty-in-bitcoin-theft-case
Ohio Man Who Posed in Tub Full of Cash to Plead Guilty in Bitcoin Theft Case
Prosecutors had seized the wallet from Harmon’s brother, Larry, after his February 2020 arrest on charges he laundered $311 million in crypto transactions on Darknet sites where illegal drugs were sold. Larry Harmon was the first person charged with US crimes related to “mixing” — the practice of jumbling together tokens from different owners to make them harder to trace.
idgit
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,438
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MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/17/ftx...dition-in-alleged-fraud-case-source-says.html
Sam Bankman-Fried will now surrender himself for extradition before Bahamian court Monday: Source

A week in a Bahamian jail cell makes federal lockup look like a 5 star hotel suite.

A part of me wants him to stay for a while.
If Bahamas was OK to run your shady business, it should also be OK to sit in their shady prison.
“Maximum-security cells for men measured approximately six feet by 10 feet and held up to six persons with no mattresses or toilet facilities,” the report said. “Inmates removed human waste by bucket. Prisoners complained of the lack of beds and bedding. Some inmates developed bedsores from lying on bare ground. Sanitation was a general problem, and cells were infested with rats, maggots, and insects.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/sbf-...ditions-and-degrading-treatment-us-state-dept
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,438
“Maximum-security cells for men measured approximately six feet by 10 feet and held up to six persons with no mattresses or toilet facilities,” the report said. “Inmates removed human waste by bucket. Prisoners complained of the lack of beds and bedding. Some inmates developed bedsores from lying on bare ground. Sanitation was a general problem, and cells were infested with rats, maggots, and insects.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/sbf-...ditions-and-degrading-treatment-us-state-dept
This is why only a part want's him to stay. Human rights abuses are a horror to all mankind.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,438
https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/20/crypto_ponzi_scheme_cofounder_pleads/
OneCoin co-founder pleads guilty to $4 billion fraud

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/p...currency-pyramid-scheme-onecoin-pleads-guilty
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As a founder and leader of OneCoin, Karl Sebastian Greenwood operated one of the largest international fraud schemes ever perpetrated. Greenwood and his co-conspirators, including fugitive Ruja Ignatova, conned unsuspecting victims out of billions of dollars, claiming that OneCoin would be the ‘Bitcoin killer.’ In fact, OneCoins were entirely worthless. Greenwood’s lies were designed with one goal, to get everyday people all over the world to part with their hard-earned money — real money — and to line his own pockets to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. This guilty plea by the co-founder of OneCoin caps a week at SDNY that sends a clear message that we are coming after all those who seek to exploit the cryptocurrency ecosystem through fraud, no matter how big or sophisticated you are.”
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,438
As I suspected, she has a deal.
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2022/comp-pr2022-234.pdf
Beyond its “line of credit” with FTX, Ellison, at Bankman-Fried’s direction, caused Alameda to borrow billions of dollars from third party lenders. Those loans were backed in significant part by Alameda’s holdings of FTT—an illiquid crypto asset security that was issued by FTX and provided to Alameda at no cost. Ellison, acting at the direction of BankmanFried, engaged in automated purchases of FTT tokens on various platforms in order to increase the price of those tokens and inflate the value of Alameda’s collateral, which allowed Alameda to borrow even more money from external lenders at increased risk to the lenders and to FTX’s investors and customers, all in furtherance of the scheme.
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From CoinDesk -
Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and former FTX co-founder Gary Wang plead guilty to fraud charges in the FTX case, seeming to turn against their former boss Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces similar charges. Bankman-Fried, founder of both the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the crypto trading firm Alameda Research, is expected to make his first appearance in federal court in Manhattan today.
https://www.coindesk.com/tv/first-mover/first-mover-dec-22-2022/

Also - https://www.coindesk.com/markets/20...oken-at-center-of-new-us-charges-in-ftx-case/
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has called FTX’s FTT exchange token a security. FTT was sold as an investment contract, and is a "security," the SEC said in a complaint filed late Wednesday, in a move that is sure to have a wide-ranging impact on the industry. "If demand for trading on the FTX platform increased, demand for the FTT token could increase, such that any price increase in FTT would benefit holders of FTT equally and in direct proportion to their FTT holdings," the SEC wrote in its complaint.

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges tied to FTX's collapse. The SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission also announced charges against the two, saying Ellison manipulated the price of FTT. The duo are cooperating with investigators. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York did not specify what they were being charged with.
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/12/22/sec-calls-ftt-exchange-token-a-security/


Caroline Ellison Plea Agreement: $250,000 Bail, Surrender of Travel Documents, Forfeiture of Assets
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...el-documents-forfeiture-of-assets/ar-AA15yfHn
The agreement states that if Ellison fully cooperates with the SDNY's investigation, as well as any other law enforcement agency designated by the office, she won't be further prosecuted criminally except for possible criminal tax violations with regard to the wire and commodity fraud charges that resulted from commingling funds between FTX and Alameda accounts.
 
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nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,438
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ill-released-250-million-bail-judge-rcna62994
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is released on $250 million bond
The terms of package, described by U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos as “highly restrictive” and the largest pretrial bond that he could recall, were agreed to by federal prosecutors and Bankman-Fried’s attorneys, CNBC reported.

The “$250 million personal recognizance bond signed by Mr. Bankman-Fried and co-signed by his parents ... will be secured by the parents’ equity interest in their home” in Palo Alto, California, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Nicholas Biase said in a statement after the court appearance.
These guys are connected. I know you don't need all of that for bond but you do need something.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/explainer-did-bankman-fried-secure-221259494.html
Does the bail amount mean Bankman-Fried or his family has $250 million?

No. In Bankman-Fried's case, the $250 million bond is secured by his parents' home. Since Bankman-Fried's parents signed the bond agreement, they would be on the hook for $250 million if their son flees.

"They can take everything else," said Michael Bachner, a New York criminal defense attorney. "They can go ahead and take the bank accounts, the IRA accounts, stock accounts."

The $250 million bond does not reflect the family's assets, which could not be determined. Bankman-Fried said in late November that he now had "close to nothing" left and is down to one working credit card with "maybe $100,000 in that bank account."
"Can we pay with crypto?"
 
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nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,438
https://arstechnica.com/information...calls-on-fbi-to-recover-3-6m-in-digital-coin/
Key bitcoin developer calls on FBI to recover $3.6M in digital coin
On New Year's Day, Dashjr took to Twitter to report that his entire bitcoin holdings—worth roughly $3.6 million—were “basically all gone.” He said the hack stemmed from the compromise of a PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) key that he used to ensure that his downloads of Bitcoin Core and a smaller app known as Bitcoin Knots weren’t laced with malware. He said all his computers were compromised and urged people to hold off downloading new versions for the time being.

“So to be clear: DO NOT DOWNLOAD BITCOIN KNOTS AND TRUST IT UNTIL THIS IS RESOLVED,” he wrote. “If you already did in the last few months, consider shutting that system down for now.”

Dashjr didn’t respond to an interview request.

In the same thread, the developer said he had contacted the FBI and police but hadn’t received a response.

“What the heck @FBI @ic3. Why can't I reach anyone???” he wrote. “I paid those taxes and the police don't care. What a scam.”
So now you want the evil fiat government agents to find your fake money.
One takeaway, however, is clear, as evidenced by one of the most influential bitcoin developers calling on law enforcement to recover his stolen digital coin: The notion that cryptocurrencies provide a decentralized platform that cuts out established authorities is nothing short of a pipe dream.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,438
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/ftx-bankruptcy-documents-show-list-170209957.html

As part of its bankruptcy process, FTX Monday released a list of its top equity holders, detailing just how many investors were set to be wiped out from the downfall of the crypto exchange.


The document showed Brady, who was a brand ambassador for FTX and appeared in a commercial for the company, owned just over 1.1 million common shares of FTX. Meanwhile, Bündchen, Brady's ex-wife, owns just under 700,000 common shares of FTX.

The billionaire Robert Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots NFL team, was also listed in the FTX bankruptcy document. Through KPC Venture Capital, Kraft owns over 110,000 Series B preferred shares of FTX Trading, as well as 479,000 common shares and about 44,000 Series A preferred shares of West Realm Shires, the company that controls FTX's US exchange.

. . . .

Well-known funds run by Tiger Global, Thoma Bravo, Sequoia Capital, SkyBridge, and Third Point, among others, were listed as owning millions of both common and preferred shares of FTX.

Those investments are now virtually worthless, . . .

Brady is not broke.
Just a few more years on the field to recover those losses.
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