Sam Bankman-Fried's Latest Project: Trying to Get a Pardon from Trump

Sam Bankman-Fried Lobbies Trump Associates in Hopes of a Pardon

Consulting with a lawyer who has ties to President Trump. Reaching out to Washington lobbyists. And sitting for a jailhouse interview with Tucker Carlson.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul who was once a top Democratic donor, has embarked on a long-shot campaign to secure a pardon from the Trump administration, six people with knowledge of the matter said. […]

There is no indication that the Bankman-Frieds and their allies have reached Mr. Trump directly or discussed a potential pardon with his White House advisers.

But the push appears intended to capitalize on Mr. Trump’s transactional approach to clemency. The president has favored pardon seekers with connections to him — either personally or through lawyers and lobbyists — and claims of prosecutorial misconduct that echo his own grievances about the cases against him.

Bird Flu, Weight Loss Drugs, DEI Emerge Among Corporate Risks

Corporate securities filings this year are littered with glimpses into new businesses risks, from costs related to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown to threats to employees and property from wildfires.

Companies are divulging the flurry of new threats to shareholders in 10-K annual reports that typically flood into the Securities and Exchange Commission at the beginning of each year.

The onslaught of Trump executive actions ties into many of the concerns, prompting corporate disclosure about tariffs, immigration enforcement, and scrutiny of diversity policies. But companies are also on edge over a medley of recent events that don’t relate directly to the new administration, including mounting worries about avian flu, potential dips in business from weight loss drugs, and safety issues in the wake of the murder of a UnitedHealth Group leader.

Robinhood to Pay $26 Million to Settle Finra Allegations

Two units of Robinhood Markets Inc. agreed to pay $26 million to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority allegations that it failed to respond to red flags about potential misconduct and didn’t verify the identities of thousands of customers. […]

Among other allegations, the regulator said Robinhood failed to supervise social media influencers paid to tout the firm and some of the social media communications were misleading to investors.

The firm also fell short on compliance with reporting obligations for data files called blue sheets, which include detailed trading information that regulators request to investigate suspicious trading.

Finra said customers received unclear disclosures about the terms and conditions around a mechanism the firm used to protect customers from volatile stock prices. Called collaring, customers were prevented from buying or selling stocks whose prices moved up or down by more than 5% between placing and executing a trade. When customers re-entered their orders, they sometimes got an inferior price, Finra said.

The Fool’s Gold of a Crypto Reserve

U.S. dollar reserves provide liquidity and facilitate payments with the rest of the world. Bitcoin doesn’t. While Mr. Trump describes bitcoin as “digital gold,” many countries don’t recognize or accept it as legal tender. While gold has been used as a store of wealth for centuries, bitcoin has been around for all of 16 years.

Its price is also highly volatile. Investors sold off bitcoin last week as they have other risky assets amid growing trade uncertainty. The prices of bitcoin and other tokens on Thursday fell after Mr. Trump issued his executive order, apparently because crypto investors were hoping he’d do more to bolster their speculative crypto bets.

His order directs Treasury and the Commerce Department to “develop strategies” for acquiring more bitcoin that are “budget neutral and do not impose incremental costs on United States taxpayers.” This ostensibly means Treasury won’t issue debt to buy bitcoin, but the order still invites government mischief.

Assets seized in civil and criminal forfeitures are typically returned to victims or sold with the proceeds remitted to Treasury to reduce the budget deficit. The Trump plan is to keep confiscated tokens as investments, which might later be sold to finance a President’s spending prerogatives. Future presidents of both parties could raid the stockpile to bypass Congress on spending.