Since the end of December 2020, the SEC has been at loggerheads with Ripple. The legal dispute drags on and weighs on the cryptocurrency XRP. Is the decisive help for Ripple coming now?
Do Kwon, cofounder of the collapsed crypto scheme Terra-Luna, was charged with fraud by U.S. prosecutors shortly after local authorities arrested him in Montenegro. A grand jury in New York federal court charged Kwon with securities fraud, wire fraud and commodities fraud, the indictment shows. In February, the SEC already charged Do Kwon and Terraform Labs with fraud.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently filed several lawsuits against crypto companies for allegedly selling equity-like products, i.e., unregistered securities. The most high-profile case is the SEC's lawsuit against Ripple, expected to be settled by the end of March 2023 after years of litigation.
The New York Attorney General Letitia James filed charges against Celsius Network founder Alex Mashinsky, alleging that he defrauded investors out of billions of dollars in digital currency by hiding the weak health of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency lending platform. Mashinsky continued to promote Celsius as a safe alternative to banks and paid up to 17% interest on deposits while hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in losses in risky investments, according to the lawsuit.
A 58-year-old Austrian and his 81-year-old father caused enormous damage amounting to 13 million euros throughout the EU with fraudulent Bitcoin trading. The men allegedly ripped off more than 100 victims to the tune of €13 million by promising high returns. The invested capital allegedly was dealt with by professional "traders" for trading on crypto exchanges.
The most spectacular fraud in German economic history is the Wirecard bankruptcy. The main defendant is former CEO, Markus Braun. On the other hand, one of the prominent masterminds of the scandal, Jan Marsalek, is living comfortably in Russia.
Eva Kaili, the former vice president of the European Parliament admitted to instructing her father to hide large amounts of cash. The Greek member of the European parliament at the center of a cash-for-influence scandal implicating Qatar will remain in jail pending trial, a Belgian court has decided on Thursday. Kaili is one of four people who have been charged with corruption and money laundering in the case.
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the FTX founder and former CEO was extradited to the U.S. from the Bahamas and brought before the court. He was released on $250 million bail. Earlier, his former partners and alleged accomplices in the FTX fraud, Caroline Ellison, and Gary Wang, pleaded guilty and announced their cooperation with U.S. authorities. In addition to the criminal charges, the two U.S. regulators, the CFTC and SEC, have also brought fraud charges against the three.
The Israeli Gal Barak and his German partner Uwe Lenhoff were arrested in early 2019. They were the leaders of two closely cooperating international...
