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At a glance Under cross-examination on Monday, Sam Bankman-Fried was evasive when confronted with his own incriminating comments — seemingly failing what may prove to have been the biggest exam of his life. Judge Kaplan was visibly irritated with Bankman-Fried, at one point snapping at the FTX founder to “just answer the question.” Bankman-Fried’s evasion tactics included splitting hairs and conveniently failing to recall events that would have made a lasting impression on most. On Monday October 30, Sam Bankman-Fried took the stand in his own defense, facing cross-examination by Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon. The proceedings frequently verged on farce, as the FTX founder was again and again confronted with seemingly hard evidence of fraudulent claims made by him over the years. Sassoon presented Bankman-Fried with a relentless catalog of his own direct quotes and official FTX promotional material that touted the exchange as safe, or that denied...

In one of the more surprising revelations of his ongoing trial, Sam Bankman-Fried had a meeting planned with former US President Bill Clinton just weeks before the FTX collapse. Indeed, the trial revealed that in September 2022, Bankman-Fried had meetings with several politicians. Along with Bill Clinton, Sam Bankman-Fried had meetings scheduled with New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Mayor Eric Adams. Moreover, the meetings had been uncovered to jury members during the testimony of an FBI agent amid the ongoing fraud trial. Source: Bloomberg Also Read: Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Says FTX Spending Was Not ‘Reckless’ Sam Bankman-Fried had Meetings Planned With Several Politicians The ongoing trial of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried has seemingly dominated headlines. It has captured the attention of most as it unfolds the details of one of the largest financial crimes in US history. Subsequently, the man responsible is now facing more than 100 yea...

Seven people have been arrested following a robbery that saw a Brazilian businessman lose R$1.2 million ($237,000) worth of crypto and his family held hostage at gunpoint for three hours. According to the Santa Catarina Civil Police, the group entered the victims’ home in Praia Brava in January and used threats of violence against family members and employees to extort crypto , jewelry, electronics, and cash.  In response, authorities launched an investigation that saw temporary arrest warrants issued for eight suspects. During the so-called ‘blockchain operation,’ police tracked down the stolen crypto, following transfers to numerous wallets in Argentina and Peru, and ultimately seizing R$1.2 million worth of funds . Fintech owner laundered millions with bitcoin for ‘finger cutter’ drug lord, police say Read more: Brazil gang caught laundering illegal gold with crypto Brazilian authorities, working with Interpol, arrested two residents of Buenos ...

On Monday, renowned publication The New Yorker published a completely off-kilter article that compared FTX to a bank, infantilized Sam Bankman-Fried, and let his family decry their treatment by the media with little to no pushback whatsoever. While article s like this are fr US trating to those of US covering Crypto , it’s also important to disc US s why they’re not j US t annoying but could paint a potentially misleading picture to those not quite as immersed in the ind US try. Misinformed with PR-like commentary The article offers little in the way of substance, but more important are the completely twisted, misinformed false equivalencies. These include “It is standard practice for banks to take depositors’ money and use it for other activities.” The article’s author, Sheelah Kolhatkar, isn’t new to the dark world of finance and unregulated industries: she’s previously written a well-received book called Black Edge that covers Steve Cohen (now owner of the N...

Crypto trading firm Robinhood has been able to repurchase Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang’s stakes from the United States Marshal Service.  FTX founders Bankman-Fried and Wang owned 55 million shares in Robinhood through Emergent Fidelity Technologies; these shares were seized as part of the criminal case against Bankman-Fried. A warrant for seizure of these shares was issued on December 30, 2022. On January 4, they were transferred to the US which filed to sell these on August 13. Robinhood paid $605 million to repurchase these shares in an agreement with the US Marshal Service.  Bankman-Fried and his lawyers have previously opposed the FTX bankruptcy estate’s claim on these shares and specifically argued that clients of FTX only risked “economic loss,” whereas Bankman-Fried faced the “irreparable” harm of potentially not being able to use these funds to support his criminal defense.  Scoop: Indicted billionaire Joe Lewis sold property to Sam...

Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX, is seeking space outside detention weekly to prepare for his upcoming trial. His attorneys rejected a two-day-a-week release proposal offered by the U.S. government. Detention conditions challenged Bankman-Fried has been in a New York jail for a week, but he is requesting to be release d five days a week so that he may work on his defense with his attorneys at the federal courthouse in Manhattan. The disgraced entrepreneur’s attorneys claimed in a letter sent on Aug. 18 to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan that Bankman-Fried couldn’t thoroughly review the massive amount of documents in his case while he was detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Bankman-Fried, 31, had his $250 million bail revoked last week for allegedly attempting to tamper with witnesses. You might also like: Binance CEO criticizes Sam Bankman Fried’s actions In a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan, attorneys...

Palihapitiya did concede the crypto sector has “pushed more boundaries” than other startup sectors which may have attracted the SEC’s attention. Regulators in the United States have choked out the cryptocurrency sector to the point of death according to Bitcoin (BTC) bull and billionaire tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya. “Crypto is dead in America,” he boldly claimed in an April 22 episode of the All-In podcast. Palihapitiya’s comment came in response to the news that cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is now considering a move offshore. He pointed the finger at Gary Gensler, the Chair of the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC): “Crypto is dead in America. I mean now you have Gensler even blaming the banking crisis on crypto — so the United States authorities have firmly pointed their guns at crypto.” While Palihapitiya said that the U.S. likely views crypto as a threat to its “establishment,” the tech investor did however attribute some fault to the sector: “In fairness to the ...

The entire world is witnessing the ordeal that followed suit after the collapse of FTX . As Sam Bankman-Fried sits under house arrest and pens down an elaborate blog post, media houses across the globe were evidently curious. Back in December, SBF was granted a $250 million bail. It has been recognized as the highest pre-trial bail bond in the history of the United States. Considering the magnitude of the bail, the judge reportedly asked two other individuals of “considerable means” to sign the bond. However, the identities of these guarantors were undisclosed. Contesting the same, eight media houses including the Associated Press, Bloomberg, CNBC, Dow Jones, The Financial Times, Insider, and the Washington Post wrote a letter to the New York District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan. Attorneys from Davis Wright Tremaine LLP were representing these media houses. According to the letter, the attorneys argued that the public entailed the right to know the guarantors of SBF . The...