Category Archives: Cryptocurrencies

Asic faces questions over failure to warn consumers about HyperVerse crypto scheme

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Assistant treasurer Stephen Jones says concerns should have been raised about scheme that appeared to be selling ‘worthless investment products’

Chief executive of HyperVerse does not appear to exist

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, has questioned why Australia’s consumer watchdog did not issue a consumer warning against the HyperVerse crypto investment scheme in line with a number of overseas regulators.

A Guardian Australia investigation has revealed widespread losses to the HyperVerse scheme, which escaped regulator attention in Australia despite one overseas authority warning it was a possible “scam” and another describing it as a “suspected pyramid scheme”.

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Sam Bankman-Fried will not face second trial after multibillion-dollar crypto fraud conviction

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US prosecutors say ‘strong public interest’ in prompt resolution of case against 31-year-old outweighs benefits of second trial

US prosecutors say they do not plan to conduct a second trial against Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted last month of stealing from customers of his now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

In a letter filed on Friday night in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors said the “strong public interest” in a prompt resolution of their case against the 31-year-old former billionaire outweighed the benefits of a second trial.

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‘They are so convincing’: Vera Gazzard lost her life savings to HyperVerse

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Australians who were convinced to put money into the Hyper group investment schemes say no one has been held to account for their losses

Geelong woman Vera Gazzard had plans for her $50,000 in savings. Elective surgery was on the list, as was help for her daughter who was expecting a second child.

But when an acquaintance recommended an investment opportunity called HyperVerse offering daily returns of 0.5% she jumped at the opportunity.

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Digital pound should not be considered until risks addressed, MPs warn

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Treasury select committee highlights concerns over data privacy and increased possibility of bank runs

The idea of creating a digital pound should not even be considered until the UK government and Bank of England address concerns over data privacy and the increased risk of bank runs, a parliamentary committee has warned.

MPs on the Treasury select committee said that while it was true that the rollout of a central bank digital currency could trigger fresh innovation and competition in the payments sector, serious questions remained about whether the positive effects outweighed the risks and costs.

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Cristiano Ronaldo faces US$1bn lawsuit for promoting Binance NFTs

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Class-action lawsuit alleges footballer’s promotion of world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange was ‘deceptive and unlawful’

Cristiano Ronaldo has been hit with a class-action lawsuit seeking at least $US1bn in damages for his role in promoting cryptocurrency-related “non-fungible tokens,” or NFTs, issued by the beleaguered cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in the Southern District of Florida on Monday alleges the footballer’s promotion of Binance was “deceptive and unlawful”.

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Crypto giant Binance admits to money laundering and agrees to pay $4.3bn

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CEO Changpeng Zhao will resign and pay a $50m individual fine as part of a plea deal with the US Justice Department

Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, agreed to resign from the company and plead guilty to money laundering on Tuesday.

As part of a guilty plea, Zhao agreed to pay a $50m fine and would be barred from any involvement in the business. Binance too agreed to plead guilty, accept the appointment of a monitor and pay a criminal fine of nearly $1.81bn as well as a $2.51bn order of forfeiture to settle three criminal charges. The US Justice Department had charged the company with conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business, a conspiracy charge and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

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Ex-minister Gavin Williamson warned as he takes job at payment card provider

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Advisory committee on business appointments tells MP he must not utilise contacts in government in Lanistar role

The former cabinet minister Gavin Williamson has taken a job at a firm launching a payment card “built for the influencer lifestyle”, which was previously hit with a consumer warning by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and currently only offers its product in Brazil.

Williamson has gained permission to join the advisory board of Lanistar, whose website says it wants to roll out its virtual payment card and crypto services to the UK and EU.

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Was crypto on trial with Sam Bankman-Fried?

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Binance and Coinbase are under investigation – but Bitcoin was trading at highest value in a year as FTX founder convicted of fraud

As the trial of the former crypto star and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried began last month, headlines declared cryptocurrency was on trial too.

But when Bankman-Fried was found guilty on seven counts of wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracy Thursday evening, after less than five hours of jury deliberations, Bitcoin was trading at its highest price in a year.

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Sam Bankman-Fried built ‘pyramid of deceit’, jurors hear in closing arguments

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Founder of FTX platform, 31, painted by prosecution as scammer and liar who defrauded customers out of billions of dollars

Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto fraud trial neared its end with closing arguments on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court following weeks of testimony that lifted the veil of FTX’s stunning collapse – and a broader murkiness surrounding digital currency markets. The prosecution quickly painted Sam Bankman-Fried as an unabashed scammer rather than the image of the wayward math nerd proffered by the defense throughout the trial, saying he created a “pyramid of deceit” with his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.

Assistant US attorney Nicholas Roos also used Bankman-Fried’s own testimony against him.

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Sam Bankman-Fried denies messy hair part of ‘tech genius’ persona during trial

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Disgraced former CEO of crypto exchange FTX admits to disparaging regulators on third day of testimony

Sam Bankman-Fried testified in his own blockbuster crypto trial again Monday, with prosecutors grilling the one-time crypto mogul about the many discrepancies between his public and private claims about crypto-exchange FTX.

Bankman-Fried appeared to have had a haircut over the weekend, just in time for prosecutors to start their cross examination and question whether his famously unkempt hair was part of a deliberate, anti-style “tech genius” persona.

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Prosecutor grills Sam Bankman-Fried about his hair and tech genius persona – as it happened

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Bankman-Fried gives details about the day FTX went bankrupt

Days after Binance’s sale of FTT, the cryptocurrency issued by FTX, and CoinDesk’s story on the multibillion-dollar hole in Alameda Research’s balance sheet, there was a rush of customer withdrawals, Bankman-Fried said.

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Sam Bankman-Fried admits to ‘large mistakes’ in crypto fraud trial testimony

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Bankman-Fried says his biggest mistake was not implementing a dedicated risk management team for crypto trading platform FTX

Sam Bankman-Fried admitted to making management mistakes while at the helm of FTX, his former multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency empire, during testimony in his defense at trial.

“I made a number of small mistakes and a number of large mistakes,” Bankman-Fried, 31, said in sharing his version of the rise and fall of crypto trading platform FTX. The biggest mistake, he said, was not implementing a dedicated risk management team.

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Former FTX executive says he was ‘embarrassed and ashamed’ of its excess

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Nishad Singh testifies at Sam Bankman-Fried trial about millions spent by failed crypto exchange on celebrity partnerships

The jury at Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial on Monday saw a photograph of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder with the singer Katy Perry and the actor Orlando Bloom at the 2022 NFL Super Bowl, as prosecutors sought to bolster their case that the failed crypto mogul squandered customer money on efforts to boost his stature.

Prosecutors displayed the image as Nishad Singh, FTX’s former director of engineering, testified about how the company spent hundreds of millions of dollars on celebrity partnerships and marketing in early 2022, months before the exchange declared bankruptcy amid a wave of customer withdrawals.

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Caroline Ellison testifies Sam Bankman-Fried told her to illegally divert FTX funds

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Former Alameda Research CEO says ex-boyfriend largely blamed her for company’s financial collapse

Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial entered its sixth day on Wednesday with more testimony from Caroline Ellison, his ex-girlfriend and the former CEO of the hedge fund associated with his collapsed cryptocurrency exchange. She testified that, during last year’s cryptocurrency crash, Bankman-Fried directed her to illegally appropriate FTX customers’ money.

When downturn began in May 2022, Ellison worried that the walls could soon come down on Alameda Research. Many of the hedge fund’s lenders had open-term loans, which meant they could call them – and ask for their money back – at any point. The crash left Alameda in the lurch after the value of its crypto assets evaporated. The two had broken up in early 2022. Ellison said she was avoiding social settings and one-on-one conversations with him when the crash began.

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Sam Bankman-Fried trial: ex-girlfriend says he directed her to commit crimes

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Caroline Ellison, who dated Bankman-Fried for ‘a couple of years’, tells court that he ‘directed me to commit these crimes’

On the fifth day of Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial, the prosecution’s star witness named the FTX founder as the ringleader of a $10bn fraud scheme at the cryptocurrency exchange and its associated hedge fund.

“While you were working at Alameda, did you commit any crimes?” a prosecutor asked Caroline Ellison.

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FTX co-founder testifies he committed crimes with Sam Bankman-Fried

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Gary Wang, who previously pleaded guilty to his role in FTX’s downfall, is testifying under a plea agreement

Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto fraud trial gained steam on Thursday when the co-founder of his fallen exchange, Gary Wang, took the stand as a government witness in Manhattan federal court.

His testimony came as the highly anticipated trial entered its third day. Bankman-Fried faces seven counts on fraud and conspiracy charges in relation to the implosion of his crypto exchange FTX and its related hedge fund, Alameda Research.

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Sam Bankman-Fried trial: ‘I may have unwittingly contributed to a crime’, FTX developer tells court – as it happened

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Sam Bankman-Fried’s confidants were along for the ride. At his side was Caroline Ellison, Alameda’s CEO and his on-again, off-again lover.

Ellison, too, projected tech bro-like eccentricities, waxing philosophical about free love and drugs. She wrote in a now-notorious tweet.:

Nothing like regular amphetamine use to make you appreciate how dumb a lot of normal, non-medicated human experience is.

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Sam Bankman-Fried arrives in Manhattan court as fraud trial kicks off

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FTX founder shed his signature T-shirt and shorts look to don on suit with freshly cut hair as day one of fraud trial commenced

The criminal trial of the former cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried began on Tuesday, with jury selection getting under way in a Manhattan federal court.

Bankman-Fried, who founded the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and associated hedge fund Alameda Research, is facing trial on finance crimes stemming from the shocking collapse of FTX. Before its sudden downfall last year, FTX was valued at around $32bn.

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The vast majority of NFTs are now worthless, new report shows

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Two years after tech trend that swept up artists and celebrities, researchers estimate 23 million people hold worthless investments

Tens of thousands of NFTs that were once deemed the newest rage in tech and dragged in celebrities, artists and even Melania Trump have now been declared virtually worthless.

According to a new report by dappGambl that reviewed data from NFT Scan and CoinMarketCap, 69,795 out of 73,257 NFT collections have a market cap of 0 Ether, leaving 95% of those holding NFT collections – or 23 million people – with worthless investments.

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FTX sues Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents, claiming they received millions in gifts

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Lawsuit is the company’s first legal pursuit against Bankman-Fried’s parents for their role in the company

FTX is suing the parents of Sam Bankman-Fried, two longtime Stanford Law School professors, alleging that the couple inappropriately used company funds to enrich themselves through gifts and donations.

The cryptocurrency company, now operating under CEO John Jay Ray III, an expert in helping companies recover after bankruptcy, claims Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried received funds from their son’s company in the form of gifts and donations to specific causes.

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