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@jab01701mid yeah i'm surprised that they agreed to turn over the notes, but i suspect there's a lot more to the story behind that footnote that we will learn in due time.
as someone who had the pleasure of observing #DanielleSassoon in action live and and in person during the #SBF / #FTX trial i can attest to the fact that she is an *incredibly* effective communicator. read any of the press about the trial and you will see everyone who watched it observed this to be true. "holy shit that DA Sassoon is fucking crushing this" was like 70% of all discussion during breaks in the trial over in the journalists' section.
darling of the FTX trial #DanielleSassoon (she handled the cross examination of Sam Bankman-Fried) has apparently resigned rather than drop the corruption charges against #EricAdams.
I had a lot to say about Ms. Sassoon on my threads about the SBF trial, which I flew to New York to attend: https://cryptadamus.substack.com/p/the-sam-bankman-fried-trial-and-the
tl;dr she was a very, very effective prosecutor.
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@GottaLaff the crypto bros are big mad about the collapse of #Silvergate and Signature banks (AKA "the big crypto banks"). the conspiracy theory they have about the #FDIC is called "Operation Chokepoint 2.0" if you want to look into it.
(the reality is that Silvergate and Signature banks were massive money laundering hubs, moving literally trillions of dollars a year in untracked funds outside of all money laundering regulations. they were both intimately connected to #FTX)
cc @KimPerales ICYMI
i published this 4 months before Signature Bank collapsed: https://cryptadamus.substack.com/p/signature-bank-ftx-and-trueusd-a
The Cryptocalypse Chronicles · Signature Bank, FTX, Binance, and TrueUSD: A Tale of Questionable Judgement
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All of this and more in the last Citation Needed issue of the year.
If you like my writing and want to support my work, please consider signing up for a pay-what-you-want subscription! It really helps me to keep doing this.
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Troublingly, the conditions that enabled FTX’s fraud remain unchanged today. With the same red flags waving across today’s cryptocurrency industry, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that similar frauds have only yet to be discovered.
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There's a case against Anthony Scaramucci, who just announced he bought a new Lamborghini as he and his business partner are being accused of possibly "looting the [SkyBridge fund] assets for themselves", after Bankman-Fried bailed out their failing crypto fund.
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There are cases against fourteen political action committees and dark money groups, some of which were recipients of FTX's illegal straw donations as FTX tried to hide some of its political maneuvering.
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There's a case against crypto exchanges run by Justin Sun (among the shadiest of Donald Trump's new crypto business partners), which is trying to dodge returning assets that FTX entities were secretly trading on his platforms.
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They include a case against Genesis Block, a self-described "grey area" crypto business secretly acquired by FTX, which is now trying to claim over $65 million of FTX money belongs to them in what the bankruptcy estate describes as a "baffling act of hubris".
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The roughly thirty FTX adversary cases, filed against business partners, customers, effective altruist organizations, and political action committees, pull back the curtain on how cryptocurrency companies do business.
![Over a year after Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, perhaps one of the most memorable moments to stick with me was an unexpected one: a brief exchange between prosecutors and BlockFi founder Zac Prince. (FTX’s collapse bankrupted the crypto lender, which had loaned FTX entities hundreds of millions.)
BlockFi's Zac Prince: [With] crypto firms, it was much less common to have audited balance sheets because of issues with getting audits as a cryptocurrency firm.
Prosecutor: Just to be clear, some of the balance sheets you received from crypto firms were what is called unaudited balance sheets.
Prince: I would say the majority of balance sheets that we received from cryptocurrency firms were unaudited.
This casual statement about lending hundreds of millions based on scrawled estimates and a “trust me, bro” underscored the deception in crypto executives’ post-collapse claims that FTX was a rare bad actor with aberrant business practices, a black sheep among scores of legitimate businesses. On the contrary, many of FTX’s activities were business as usual in an industry where regulatory enforcement and proper audits were rare, but maximal leverage and risk-taking were par for the course.](https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/744/574/990/186/498/original/3c2cf74d1b220eaa.png "Over a year after Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, perhaps one of the most memorable moments to stick with me was an unexpected one: a brief exchange between prosecutors and BlockFi founder Zac Prince. (FTX’s collapse bankrupted the crypto lender, which had loaned FTX entities hundreds of millions.)
BlockFi's Zac Prince: [With] crypto firms, it was much less common to have audited balance sheets because of issues with getting audits as a cryptocurrency firm.
Prosecutor: Just to be clear, some of the balance sheets you received from crypto firms were what is called unaudited balance sheets.
Prince: I would say the majority of balance sheets that we received from cryptocurrency firms were unaudited.
This casual statement about lending hundreds of millions based on scrawled estimates and a “trust me, bro” underscored the deception in crypto executives’ post-collapse claims that FTX was a rare bad actor with aberrant business practices, a black sheep among scores of legitimate businesses. On the contrary, many of FTX’s activities were business as usual in an industry where regulatory enforcement and proper audits were rare, but maximal leverage and risk-taking were par for the course.")
Newsletter: Adversary cases from the FTX collapse further expose how crypto companies do business: with secret acquisitions of “grey area” businesses, buying influence, and creative accounting.
Citation Needed · Not just one bad apple: FTX's practices were business as usual in cryptoAdversary cases from the FTX collapse further expose how crypto companies do business: with secret acquisitions of “grey area” businesses, buying influence, and creative accounting.
more great reporting from Jason Mikula on the #a16z / #MarcAndreessen backed financial disaster known as Synapse, the middleman behind Yotta and others that lost track of (and maybe lost) most of their customers’ money.
Andreessen’s desire to eliminate the #CFPB for “terrorizing” #fintech companies like Synapse suggests a desire to keep backing companies that will strip mine the wallets of uneducated consumers.
Seen also: Evolve Bank & Trust (a bank popular with players like #FTX and #GeorgeSantos), #VoyagerDigital (a crypto company backed by #MarcCuban that incinerated user deposits in 2022), and #MetropolitanCommercialBank (#MCB), a NY institution beloved by the far right in Israel.
https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/p/regulators-should-conduct-material
Fintech Business Weekly · Regulators Should Conduct "Material Loss Review" Of Synapse Disaster
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I’m demi girl and demiboy or something.
Some kind of bigender, nonbinary, but not quite trans masc tho?
Trans chicks make perfect sense to me, but cis dudes and cis chicks don’t.
Trans dudes are like, fine? But not me?
I understand the logic but I don’t want people to look at me and go “Manly guy dude mc mannerson. Bob.”
I want them to look at me and go “JFC are vey going on about thiamine depletion in the ocean again? Ver tirades don’t get anyone onboard. I’ve told vem time and again.”
(I’d say femboy, but uh. Y’know. Safe search that one with strict filtering if you’re curious and not at work etc.)
pro tip: name your organization something that sounds terrible to sue
@JessTheUnstill interesting fact: the #Synapse partner bank where all these issues are stemming from, Evolve Bank & Trust, has a bunch of fun properties:
1. Issuer of the #FTX debit card
2. Used by George Santos and Andy Ogles to store campaign funds
3. Banking partner of #PrimeTrust, the Nevada crypto custody company that collapsed in 2023
4. Banking partner of #BlockFi, one of the crypto "banks" that went down with the good ship FTX.
5. Recently hacked by Russians
6. Recently hit with a major fed enforcement action
Also Synapse was backed in a big way by Trump loving #a16z and Marc Andreessen.
Some more details:
https://fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/p/evolve-hit-with-fed-enforcement-action
Fintech Business Weekly · Evolve Hit With Fed Enforcement Action, But Why Did It Take This Long?
Interesting: in the government’s sentencing submission for FTX’s Gary Wang, they note he has “created a tool for the detection of potential fraud in the stock market” and is “in the process of developing a similar tool for cryptocurrency markets” for government use.
![The computer coding concepts that Wang implemented at FTX have implications for fraud detection. Since he began cooperating with the Government, Wang has created a tool for the detection of potential fraud in the stock market.1 Specifically, [redacted paragraph] 1. The Government respectfully requests that the portion of its sentencing brief providing details about the fraud detection tools being developed by Wang be maintained under seal. The public disclosure of those details could potentially undermine the effectiveness of the tool. The proposed redaction and sealing will still permit the public discussion of the general nature of Wang’s proactive cooperation. ](https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/477/537/116/134/550/original/ff84be25bccd8c3c.png "The computer coding concepts that Wang implemented at FTX have implications for fraud detection. Since he began cooperating with the Government, Wang has created a tool for the detection of potential fraud in the stock market.1 Specifically, [redacted paragraph] 1. The Government respectfully requests that the portion of its sentencing brief providing details about the fraud detection tools being developed by Wang be maintained under seal. The public disclosure of those details could potentially undermine the effectiveness of the tool. The proposed redaction and sealing will still permit the public discussion of the general nature of Wang’s proactive cooperation. ")
![The tool has significant potential value to the Government. [redacted paragraph] To provide further assistance, Wang is in the process of developing a similar tool for cryptocurrency markets, which – if he is sentenced to a time served sentence – the Government hopes it will be able to take advantage of early next year. Wang’s willingness to use his skills proactively, to help detect other criminal activity in financial markets, distinguishes his cooperation from the vast majority of cooperating witnesses to appear before this Court. ](https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/477/537/112/516/368/original/ffbdfcb4e0f8acfe.png "The tool has significant potential value to the Government. [redacted paragraph] To provide further assistance, Wang is in the process of developing a similar tool for cryptocurrency markets, which – if he is sentenced to a time served sentence – the Government hopes it will be able to take advantage of early next year. Wang’s willingness to use his skills proactively, to help detect other criminal activity in financial markets, distinguishes his cooperation from the vast majority of cooperating witnesses to appear before this Court. ")
FTX sues Binance and its former CEO for $1.8bn https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/11/ftx-sues-binance-changpeng-zhao #Cryptocurrencies #SamBankman-Fried #Technology #Business #Binance #FTX
The Guardian · FTX sues Binance and its former CEO for $1.8bn
FTX’s Nishad Singh was sentenced to no jail time, and three years of supervised release. He had pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges, as well as a campaign finance charge, and cooperated with the prosecution.
That just leaves defendant Gary Wang left to be sentenced. I imagine he’s feeling some relief after hearing of Singh’s non-custodial sentence.
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