FTX Customers Will Be Paid Back With Interest ... But "They're Mad Anyway"

FTX Users Will Be Paid Back, With Interest. They’re Mad Anyway

Arush Sehgal and Acaena Amoros Romero saw their life savings disappear, all at once, into the vortex of FTX’s fraud-fueled collapse.

Then the crypto market staged a stunning surge back from the depths of the 2022 crash. Over the next year and a half, Bitcoin climbed so much, in fact, that by their count what they had entrusted to FTX — if it weren’t tied up in bankruptcy court — would have swelled to at least $4 million.

That’s at the root of mounting anger at what is — by traditional measures, at least — a surprising victory for FTX’s more than two million customers, all of whom will have a chance to vote on the plan for winding down the company’s bankruptcy.

Former FTX Exec Ryan Salame Asks for 18 Months in Prison

Attorneys for Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive who pled guilty to election fraud charges in September, are asking the court for leniency in the form of an 18-month sentence, according to a sentencing memorandum filed on Tuesday.

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In filings, his attorneys argue that Salame’s role at the shuttered companies was less central to the fraud and more operational. They also cite cooperation with authorities, genuine remorse, efforts to address his substance abuse issues, and the significant personal and financial losses he has already suffered as a result of the exchange’s collapse.

He had absolutely no knowledge that the four people at the center of Alameda and FTX had conspired to lie and to steal from their customers. Ryan stole from no one. He did not lie to customers,” his attorneys wrote in a filing. “He was duped…when he finally understood the FTX fraud, he was the first person to blow the whistle to authorities in The Bahamas.”

Leading Crypto Lawyers Lewis Rinaudo Cohen, Gregory Strong, and Sarah W. Chen Join Cahill as Partners in the Firm’s Digital Assets and Emerging Technology Practice, CahillNXT

Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP announced today that leading “crypto native” lawyers Lewis Rinaudo Cohen, Gregory Strong, and Sarah W. Chen have joined the firm as partners in Cahill’s globally recognized Digital Assets and Emerging Technology, or “CahillNXT” practice. The CahillNXT practice will be co-chaired by Cahill partners Samson “Sam” Enzer (who founded Cahill’s cryptocurrency and fintech practice in 2021) and Lewis Cohen. The arrival of Mr. Cohen, Mr. Strong and Ms. Chen will include the opening of a Cahill office in Delaware led by Mr. Strong, a former Deputy Attorney General in the Delaware Department of Justice, given the state’s strategic importance to clients in the digital assets sector and across Cahill’s financial services-focused practices.

Tesla Hits the Road to Persuade Shareholders to Pay Elon Musk $46 Billion

Tesla shareholders have a decision to make in the next month about Elon Musk.

On June 13, they are set to vote on whether to reinstate stock options currently valued at $46 billion to Musk, the carmaker’s chief executive and one of the world’s richest people, after a judge struck down the award in January.

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Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm and others at the company plan to spend the next several weeks crisscrossing the globe to rally support from shareholders.

Cyber Threats Rise Along With Scrutiny of How Companies Handle Hacks

Cybersecurity threats increased for businesses over the past year, according to a Wall Street Journal survey of compliance professionals.

Nine out of 10 companies said cybersecurity risks rose, with nearly half saying the risk shot up substantially. Almost all midsize companies—those with between $50 million and $1 billion in revenue—said they felt cyber threats had increased.

Boldface and Italics Not Enough to Identify Misleading Statements

The Court said that it was unable to discern from amongst these statements and assertions what specifically the defendants were alleged to have said that was misleading. The plaintiffs had tried to explain that they “often…use… bold and italicized font” to indicate “what portion of each statement is misleading.”

The Court said that “Rather than guess as to which instances of bold and italicized font Plaintiffs intend to denote the statements (or portions of statements) they claim are false and misleading, the Court leaves it to Plaintiffs to make that clear – for each statement offered as a basis of their claims – in the first instance.” The Court granted the plaintiffs’ thirty days leave to file a second amended complaint.

SEC Charges Convicted Felon for Offering Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Jerry D. Guess, a convicted felon, and his company, Guess & Co. Corporation, Inc. (“Guess & Co.”), alleging that the Defendants conducted a fraudulent offering of Guess & Co. stock.

According to the SEC’s complaint, from at least June 2021 through April 2022, the Defendants made multiple false and misleading statements of material facts to at least 57 prospective investors in at least 12 states and one foreign country to solicit them to invest in Guess & Co. stock. The complaint alleges that the Defendants falsely represented to prospective investors that Guess & Co. was a diversified energy, health care, technology, and real estate company that had earned millions of dollars in revenue from its business operations in 2019 to 2021, and they misleadingly projected the Company would earn billions in revenue in both 2021 and 2022. However, as alleged in the complaint, during the period of the offering, Guess & Co. had no operations, customers, or business revenue other than the sales of 19 computers to electronics re-sale shops for $14,650.

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