Lottery.com Execs Plead Guilty to Securities Fraud for Inflating Financial Results

Two Ex-Lottery.com Executives Plead Guilty to Securities Fraud

Two former Lottery.com Inc. executives have pleaded guilty to securities fraud charges in connection with a scheme to fraudulently inflate the financial results of a company that promoted itself as the lottery equivalent of Uber or Doordash.

Ryan Dickinson, the company’s former chief financial officer, pleaded guilty Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, to make false and misleading statements in proxy statements, and to make false filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud, one count of making false SEC filings, and one count of improperly influencing the conduct of audits.

Former chief revenue officer Matthew Clemenson pleaded guilty to the same charges, minus the count for influencing the conduct of audits.

Judge Overturns Convictions in Mango Markets Exploiter’s Crypto Fraud Case

A U.S. judge has overturned the fraud and market manipulation convictions of Avraham Eisenberg, the crypto trader accused of draining $110 million from the now-defunct decentralized finance protocol Mango Markets.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that prosecutors failed to prove Eisenberg made false representations to the platform.

He also moved to acquit Eisenberg of wire fraud charges. The investor manipulated the price of Mango’s native token MNGO with massive trades by more than 1,000% in 20 minutes before getting the protocol to allow him to borrow and withdraw $110 million in various cryptocurrencies, backed by the inflated collateral.

Eisenberg’s defense argued that the platform, which operated through smart contracts, allowed anyone to transact freely and that he simply exploited a vulnerability. The judge agreed, stating that Mango’s permissionless structure meant that there “was insufficient evidence of falsity” from prosecutors regarding Eisenberg’s representation to Mango Markets.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Prison Sentence Could be Cut by Over 4 Years: Business Insider

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the defunct crypto exchange FTX, could be released from prison in December 2044, more than four years earlier than his original sentence called for, according to Business Insider.

Convicted in 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy, Bankman-Fried received a 25-year sentence in March 2024 for orchestrating an $11 billion fraud.

Delaware Amended Its Corporate Laws, So Texas and Nevada Did, Too

If nothing else, it is clear that as far as the legislatures of Delaware, Texas, and Nevada are concerned, it is game on when it come so competing to become companies’ preferred state of incorporation. Indeed, it seems that the legislatures are far from done. Among other things, the law firm memo to which I linked above about the Texas legislation notes that there are already a number of other additional proposed legislative changes in the works.

One over-arching question behind all of this is whether the other states’ changes are sufficient to overcome the perceived advantage that Delaware continues to have in the incorporation race. Delaware undoubtedly continues to be the presumptive jurisdiction of choice due to its well-developed case law, respected judiciary, and perceived user-friendly corporate infrastructure. While Texas and Nevada do indeed get points for innovation, they are also still relatively unknown quantities. The reputations they eventually will have are yet to be established.

Silent Ransom Group Targeting Law Firms

The cyber threat actor Silent Ransom Group (SRG), also known as Luna Moth, Chatty Spider, and UNC3753, is targeting law firms using information technology (IT) themed social engineering calls, and callback phishing emails, to gain remote access to systems or devices and steal sensitive data to extort the victims. While SRG has historically victimized companies in many sectors, starting Spring 2023, the group has consistently targeted US-based law firms, likely due to the highly sensitive nature of legal industry data.