Plus Pages

▼

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Wake-Up Call: Bankman-Fried Facing 8 Counts of Fraud



Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with eight counts of fraud and conspiracy. Federal prosecutors said the FTX founder defrauded his crypto exchange’s customers and his hedge fund’s lenders by using FTX.com deposits to pay Alameda Research’s expenses and debts. He also was charged with defrauding the U.S. and conspiring to make illegal political contributions.

According to new FTX CEO John J. Ray III’s testimony at a congressional hearing, the company has incurred more than $7 billion in losses. Bankman-Fried has said he bore responsibility for FTX’s collapse but denied committing fraud; his lawyer said that his client “is reviewing the charges with his legal team and considering all of his legal options.” 

Also, the SEC alleged in a civil lawsuit that Bankman-Fried diverted customer funds from the start of FTX to support Alameda and to make venture investments, real-estate purchases and political donations, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a separate lawsuit accusing him and his companies of fraud that affected markets it regulates.

➤INFLATION EASES A BIT LAST MONTH:   The consumer-price index, a measurement of what consumers pay for goods and services, climbed 7.1% in November from a year ago, down from 7.7% in October, the Labor Department said. Inflation this year hit its highest level in four decades. Consumers saw lower prices for used cars, plane tickets and electricity in November compared with October, though food and shelter inflation continued to be elevated. Slowing inflation could intensify the debate over when the Fed should stop raising interest rates; the central bank is on track for a half-percentage-point increase this week.

➤SOME TESLA INVESTOR'S ARE NERVOUS:  Some Tesla investors’ concerns are growing louder about how Elon Musk’s Twitter involvement affects the EV maker. The Tesla CEO acquired the social-media platform for $44 billion in October. At a trial about his Tesla compensation package last month, he said he'd been focusing on Twitter recently, but planned to reduce his time there and find somebody else to run it. Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.

➤POLL:  TRUMP'S IN TROUBLE: As the former president is beleaguered by midterm losses and courtroom setbacks, Republican support for Donald Trump's presidential bid in 2024 has cratered, an exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds. By 2-1, GOP and GOP-leaning voters now say they want Trump's policies but a different standard-bearer to carry them. While 31% want the former president to run, 61% prefer some other Republican nominee who would continue the policies Trump has pursued. And they've got somebody in mind: By double digits, GOP voters prefer Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the 2024 presidential nominee over Trump. The findings are a red flag for Trump, whose core support has been remarkably solid through firestorms over his personal behavior, provocative rhetoric, and most controversial actions in the White House. 


👥PRESIDENT BIDEN SIGNS RESPECT FOR MARRIAGE ACT: President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday a bipartisan bill that codifies same-sex and interracial marriages with a large celebration on the South Lawn of the White House. "Today is a good day, a day America takes a vital step toward equality, toward liberty and justice, not just for some, but for everyone," Biden said in front of thousands of people who gathered on the White House South Lawn to commemorate the new law.

➤OREGON GOVERNOR COMMUTES ALL 17 OF STATE'S DEATH SENTENCES: Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced Tuesday that she is commuting the sentences of all of the state’s 17 inmates awaiting execution, saying their death sentences will be changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  Brown, a Democrat with less than a month remaining in office, said she was using her executive clemency powers to commute the sentences and that her order will take effect on Wednesday.

➤US POSTAGE STAMP TO HONOR CIVIL RIGHTS ICON JOHN LEWIS: The late congressman and civil rights giant John Lewis will be honored with a postage stamp in 2023, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday. The design for the stamp uses a photograph taken by Marco Grob for a 2013 issue of Time magazine. Lewis, then 73, wears a dark suit and blue tie and looks directly into the camera.


➤NEW ZEALAND IMPOSES LIFETIME BAN ON YOUTH BUYING CIGARETTES: New Zealand on Tuesday passed into law a unique plan to phase out tobacco smoking by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes. The law states that tobacco can’t ever be sold to anybody born on or after Jan. 1, 2009.  It means the minimum age for buying cigarettes will keep going up and up. In theory, somebody trying to buy a pack of cigarettes 50 years from now would need ID to show they were at least 63 years old.  New Zealand also has a goal of making New Zealand smoke-free by 2025.


➤U.S. STUDY: OVER HALF OF CAR CRASH VICTIMS HAD DRUGS IN SYSTEM: A large study by U.S. highway safety regulators found that more than half the people injured or killed in traffic crashes had one or more drugs, or alcohol, in their bloodstreams.  Also, just over 54% of injured drivers had drugs or alcohol in their systems, with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an active ingredient in marijuana, the most prevalent, followed by alcohol. The study also found that more than half of injured pedestrians and just over 43% of injured bicyclists had a drug in their bloodstreams.


Daily Mail US Composite 12/14/22

A Lake county Florida police officer nearly died as she was left choking and unable to breath after being 'exposed to fentanyl' during a traffic stop on Tuesday. Officer Courtney Bannick had pulled over a car in the early hours of the morning and discovered a passenger with narcotics rolled up in a dollar bill. After Bannick had brought the passenger to jail, her colleagues began to hear her struggling to breath over their radios, and rushed to help her. It is unclear exactly when or how she was exposed to the drug during the stop.


➤STATES WHO BANNED ABORTION ALREADY HAD HIGH MATERNAL DEATH RATES AND FEWER DOCTORS: States who imposed strict abortion laws this year were already more likely to have significantly higher maternal and infant death rates as well as fewer doctors providing care to women. For example, in 2020 the maternal death rates were 62% higher in the states that later passed or implemented abortion restrictions compared to the states where abortion remains accessible.


🏈KYLER MURRAY'S SEASON ENDS AFTER SUFFERING TORN ACL: Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL, coach Kliff Kingsbury said Tuesday afternoon. Murray went down in Monday night's 27-13 loss to the New England Patriots after a 3-yard run on the third play of the game. He was carted off the field and did not return. An MRI on Tuesday confirmed the injury.

⚾BOSTON RED SOX SIGN CLOSER KENLEY JANSEN: The Boston Red Sox announced on Tuesday that they've signed veteran righty Kenley Jansen to a two-year contract worth $32 million. Jansen gives the Sox the most established closer they’ve had since the departure of Craig Kimbrel after the 2018 season.

🏈COLE BEASLEY COMES OUT OF RETIREMENT, SIGNS WITH BUFFALO BILLS: Wide receiver Cole Beasley has come out of retirement to join his former team, signing to the Buffalo Bills' practice squad Tuesday. After seven seasons with the Dallas Cowboys to start his career, Beasley spent three years with the Bills from 2019-2021, offering Josh Allen a reliable, chain-moving target.


✞MISSISSIPPI STATE COACH MIKE LEACH DIES AFTER HOSPITALIZATION: Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach died Monday night after complications related to a heart condition, the school announced. He was 61.  In a statement released on Tuesday by the school, the Leach family said Mike participated in organ donation at the University of Mississippi Medical Center as "a final act of charity."


🏈TOM BRADY SIGNS INTERCEPTED BALL FOR 49ERS LB: As if throwing two interceptions and losing 35-7 to the San Francisco 49ers was not bad enough, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady was asked by 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw to autograph the ball he intercepted. The play happened with 9:50 to go in the third quarter on a pass intended for Mike Evans that Greenlaw leaped up and tipped to himself.

🏀NBA SCORES:
  • Philadelphia 76ers 123 Sacramento Kings 103
  • Milwaukee Bucks 128 Golden State Warriors 111
  • Houston Rockets 111 Phoenix Suns 97
  • Utah Jazz 121 New Orleans Pelicans 100
  • Boston Celtics 122 Los Angeles Lakers 118
⚽WORLD CUP:  Argentina 3 vs Croatia 0

✞CURT SIMMONS, LAST OF THE PHILLIES' WHIZ KIDS, DEAD AT 93: While pitching for the Phillies, Simmons was a three-time All-Star. In his mid-30s, after coming back from elbow surgery, he pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals’ 1964 NL pennant winners. 


➤THE WEATHER IS FRIGHTFUL:  5 injured in Texas, blizzard warnings in 6 states as massive winter storm rocks nation A massive winter storm roaring across the West dumped up to 4 feet of snow in parts of Nevada and Idaho, fueled blizzard warnings in six other states and spawned tornadoes that injured at least five people in the South. More than 25 million people were under dangerous weather watches and warnings Tuesday, and parts of Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Kansas were facing blizzard conditions – snow with winds of at least 35 mph, reducing visibilities to a quarter of a mile or less. The storm's march across the nation could last through the weekend when parts of the northeast could be blasted with more than a foot of snow, forecasters warned. 





Posted

No comments:

Post a Comment