Judge in DEBT Box Case Orders SEC to Pay $1.8 Million in Fees

US judge orders SEC to pay $1.8 million in legal fees in Debt Box case

A U.S. federal judge has ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay legal fees of about $1.8 million in its case against Digital Licensing Inc., doing business as Debt Box. The judge dismissed the SEC’s case against Debt Box without prejudice, meaning the case could potentially be reopened in the future.

In an order filed on Tuesday, Utah District Court Judge Robert Shelby ruled that the SEC needs to pay the attorney fees and relevant legal fees. “In this Order, the court ensures the final amount of fees requested by Defendants and the Receiver is reasonable,” the filing said.

In another Tuesday filing, the judge ruled that the case has been dismissed without prejudice as per SEC’s request. “The Commission argues dismissal without prejudice is appropriate because it will protect investors and the public interest, and will not cause Defendants legal prejudice,” the filing noted.

Ryan Salame, FTX Executive, Gets Seven and a Half Year Prison Sentence

Ryan Salame, a top executive at the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on Tuesday, making him the first of Sam Bankman-Fried’s circle of advisers at FTX to receive prison time.

Mr. Salame, 30, a trusted lieutenant of Mr. Bankman-Fried, the exchange’s founder, pleaded guilty last year to a campaign finance law violation and a charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. He is one of four top deputies in the FTX empire who have pleaded guilty to crimes since the company imploded in November 2022.

FTX examiner’s report reveals lingering exposure for law firm Fenwick & West

The California law firm that acted as lead outside counsel for crypto exchange FTX until just before its collapse in 2022 remains under investigation in the FTX Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to a report issued last week by an independent court-appointed examiner.

Fenwick & West was the only law firm “entrusted with a birds-eye view” of what was happening at FTX and its sister hedge fund Alameda Research, according to bankruptcy examiner Robert Cleary of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, who was appointed earlier this year at the behest of federal bankruptcy watchdogs.

Global Crime Surge Strains Unheralded Justice Department Unit

Even in better times, the Justice Department’s international unit would work around-the-clock, only to see the piles of requests for overseas evidence and fugitives keep growing.

Its pace often frustrated impatient prosecutors, who risk losing valuable information, witnesses, or arrests if they fail to seize on a time-sensitive tip, said several former DOJ attorneys.

And when the Office of International Affairs does navigate sensitive diplomatic relations to deliver a star witness or complex extradition to help secure a major conviction, the trial attorneys they assist gain the acclaim.

More recently, the longstanding difficulties confronting OIA appear to be exacerbated, according to a description of its “workload challenges” tucked inside the department’s latest budget analysis for Congress. And that’s three years after an internal DOJ watchdog diagnosed the office as suffering from soaring caseloads, antiquated technology, morale concerns, and high attrition.

Jailed Binance Executive Gabaryan Is Thought to Have Malaria, Family Says

Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s compliance head, who remains jailed in Nigeria, is suspected of having malaria, a family spokesperson told CoinDesk.

Gambaryan collapsed in a Nigerian court on May 24. He, along with the exchange, is facing charges of both tax evasion and money laundering.

“Despite a court order from Justice Emeka Nwite issued on Thursday, May 23, Tigran Gabaryan has still not been moved to hospital from Kuje prison,” a family spokesperson for Gambaryan said. “It has not yet officially been ascertained what he is suffering from given that the medical facilities at Kuje are inadequate. It is suspected that he has a severe throat infection and Malaria.”

GameStop

Bloomberg tells me that the average closing price of GameStop Corp. common stock for the first five and change months of this year — Jan. 1 through May 10 — was $13.76. And then on May 12, the X account of Keith Gill — the … GameStop influencer? … known as Roaring Kitty — tweeted a drawing of a guy leaning forward in a chair. This sparked a huge rally in GameStop shares for no particular reason….

GameStop, not being dummies, took the opportunity to launch an at-the-market stock offering on May 17. On Friday, it announced that it had finished the offering, selling 45 million shares for $933.4 million, or roughly $20.74 each. One way to think about it is that, if GameStop had sold those 45 million shares at pre-Roaring Kitty prices, it would have raised about $619.2 million. So Roaring Kitty’s tweets — which, again, were not about GameStop — brought in an extra $314.2 million for GameStop.

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I guess I will shrug and point to those questions again? If you were GameStop, how much would you have paid to buy Gill’s X account on May 11? How good a trade would that have been? What sort of trouble would you get in?

BlackRock’s IBIT Flips Grayscale to Become the Largest Spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S.

BlackRock’s spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) is now the largest product of its kind, flipping Grayscale’s GBTC after a $102 million inflow on Tuesday.

IBIT holds nearly $20 billion worth of bitcoin as of Wednesday morning, its product page shows. GBTC holds $19.7 billion after seeing $105 million in outflows on Tuesday, its page shows. Since going live in January, investors have poured in $16.5 billion to IBIT and have withdrawn $17 billion from the Grayscale fund.