Elizabeth Holmes Sentencing: Prosecutors Seek 15 Years Prison, Holmes Asks for Home Confinement

Elizabeth Holmes Should Get 15 Years’ Prison for Fraud, US Says

Former Theranos Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Holmes should spend 15 years in prison for committing one of the most serious white-collar crimes in Silicon Valley history, prosecutors told the judge who will sentence her.

In a request filed late Friday by the US Attorney’s Office in San Francisco, prosecutors injected a new element into the closely watched case: a recommendation that Holmes, 38, be ordered to pay full restitution to her investors, including Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Safeway Inc. — sums adding up to more than $800 million.Source: 

‘FTX Has Been Hacked’: Crypto Disaster Worsens as Exchange Sees Mysterious Outflows Exceeding $600M

The collapse of FTX, already one of the most spectacular disasters in financial history, worsened as hundreds of millions of dollars were drained from the cryptocurrency exchange hours after it filed for bankruptcy.

More than $600 million was siphoned from FTX’s crypto wallets late Friday. Soon after, FTX stated in its official Telegram channel that it had been compromised, instructing users not to install any new upgrades and to delete all FTX apps.

“FTX has been hacked. FTX apps are malware. Delete them. Chat is open. Don’t go on FTX site as it might download Trojans,” wrote an account administrator in the FTX Support Telegram chat. The message was pinned by FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller.Source: 

Exclusive: At least $1 billion of client funds missing at failed crypto firm FTX

At least $1 billion of customer funds have vanished from collapsed crypto exchange FTX, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The exchange’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried secretly transferred $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to Bankman-Fried’s trading company Alameda Research, the people told Reuters.

A large portion of that total has since disappeared, they said. One source put the missing amount at about $1.7 billion. The other said the gap was between $1 billion and $2 billion.

Kevin O’Leary Blaming SEC for FTX Losses is ‘Farcical’

Famed Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, who has suffered FTX-related losses, blames the SEC for the FTX debacle and vowed to “fly to Washington DC” to lambaste the SEC for its negligence. Instead of a plane ticket, O’Leary should buy a mirror and take a good hard look at it.

Just last month, O’Leary brazenly shilled FTX, proudly declaring, “If there’s ever a place I could be that I’m not gonna get in trouble, it’s gonna be at FTX.” 

Talk about Alice in Wonderland.

O’Leary’s pivot to the tired and toothless refrain of berating the SEC after a dumpster fire like the FTX grift is not just a dubious deflection, it’s farcical and a flat-out ruse.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce: FTX’s Collapse Could Finally Be ‘Catalyst’ for Regulation

The crumbling of crypto exchange FTX and its subsequent bankruptcy filing has brought much negative attention for the crypto industry. However, that may be just the wake-up call U.S. lawmakers need, said Hester M. Peirce, a commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Peirce, who joined CoinDesk TV “First Mover” just moments before Bahamas-based FTX announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., said that despite the dark moment for the industry, FTX’s downfall could be the “catalyst” government agencies needed to “sit down” and create clear regulations.

“That doesn’t mean just bringing enforcement actions,” Peirce said, “but we also need to know, thinking about this as a society, how do we want to regulate this thing.”

From Enron to FTX: Who is John Jay III, the New CEO of Bankrupt Exchange FTX?

John Jay Ray III, who led disgraced energy titan Enron through rocky bankruptcy proceedings and a slew of settlements in the early-mid 2000s, has taken over as CEO at beleaguered crypto exchange FTX.

Now-former CEO Samuel Bankman-Fried, who led FTX to its major international crypto presence, resigned the same day as the company’s bankruptcy filing, Friday morning.

Ray has garnered a reputation for having something of a Midas touch with troubled companies. Previously, the turnaround titan served as a chief restructuring officer and plan administrator in high-profile bankruptcy cases involving prominent companies Overseas Shipholding Group and Nortel Networks.

You Can Forget About Crypto Now

Even the legions of crypto skeptics, now basking in I-told-you-so’s, would acknowledge that even as recently as this past spring, the industry was crackling with a kind of potential energy. “We’re so early,” goes one popular crypto mantra, the idea being that despite the ricketiness of the whole system, despite the constant feeling that everything might fall apart at any moment, there will come a time when crypto really arrives. The fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, and the more-than-likely fall of many more firms in the immediate future, has sapped much of that hope. Now it’s hard to imagine a near- or even a medium-term future where crypto has a fraction of the influence it did six months ago.

Crypto will always persist in some form, but the future of crypto as an institution—as something that might one day destabilize the big banks, or at least operate in parallel—has never been less certain.