U.S. authorities have charged disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) with fraud a month after the crypto exchange he founded filed for bankruptcy. Moreover, the U.S. CFTC and the U.S. SEC have filed fraud complaints against SBF and his companies FTX and Alameda Research. The complaints charge them with fraud and material misrepresentations in connection with the sale of digital assets. The CFTC complaint asserts that their actions caused the loss of over $8 billion in FTX customer deposits.
For a long time, the Twitter community demanded the arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) after around a million customers had lost billions with the collapsed crypto exchange. Monday evening, he was now arrested by police in the Bahamas after U.S. prosecutors brought a still-sealed indictment. He is now apparently to be quickly extradited to the U.S. to answer questions from prosecutors there. The comprehensive investigation of the FTX Case is an important building stone to make the crypto world whole again.
Over 40 people and companies have been named defendants in the class action lawsuit. Among them are Paris Hilton, Snoop Dog, Jimmy Fallon, Justin Bieber and Madonna. Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and crypto fintech Moonpay, is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly using celebrities to promote and sell NFTs misleadingly.
Over the past year, cryptocurrency fraud has increased by 32% in the U.K. This is part of a larger "fraud epidemic" that began during the pandemic as people moved their financial activities online, according to a Financial Times report. Crypto-related losses totaled £226 million (or $272 million) from October 2021 to September this year, up 32% from October 2020 to September 2021.
It's called corruption! The Block announces that Michael McCaffrey has resigned as CEO after failing to disclose $27 million in loans from FTX subsidiary Alameda Research. The crypto publication In a Medium post, The Block's Bobby Moran wrote that McCaffrey was the only person at the organization who had "knowledge of the funding" of Alameda, the crypto hedge fund at the center of the FTX bankruptcy.
European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili, a key figure in ongoing efforts to regulate cryptocurrencies in Europe, has been suspended by her party. It comes in response to reports that she and others are allegedly involved in a wide-ranging corruption scandal involving illegal lobbying for Qatar.
Two and a half years after the spectacular bankruptcy of the financial group Wirecard, the mammoth criminal trial against its former boss, the Austrian Markus Braun, has begun. In one of the biggest financial scandals in German history, Braun and two other former managers of the former DAX company will have to answer to the Munich I Regional Court from Thursday. The public prosecutor's office accuses them of accounting fraud, market manipulation, breach of trust and professional gang fraud.
Two anonymous women accusing the late Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse have filed separate civil lawsuits against JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG, claiming the significant banks facilitated and financially benefited from Epstein's alleged sex trafficking.
Police in the western Indian state of Maharashtra have arrested two suspected of running a crypto scam that allegedly bilked more than 1,400 investors out of between $6 million and $12 million. So far, 24 investors have come forward claiming they were scammed out of $55,000. The arrests were made on Aug. 10 following raids in Thane and Powai, two regions in Greater Mumbai, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Thane police said.
