SEC, DOJ Charge Billionaire Gautam Adani with Massive Bribery Scheme

SEC Charges Three Senior Executives in Two Actions Alleging Massive Bribery Scheme Involving Indian Energy Companies Adani Green and Azure Power

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd., and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global Ltd., for conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme. According to the SEC’s allegations, the bribery scheme was orchestrated to enable the two renewable energy companies to capitalize on a multi-billion-dollar solar energy project that the companies had been awarded by the Indian government. During the alleged scheme, Adani Green raised more than $175 million from U.S. investors and Azure Power’s stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Trump Team Considers Creating Crypto Role, First in Administration

President-elect Donald Trump’s team is holding discussions with the digital asset industry about whether to create a new White House post solely dedicated to cryptocurrency policy, according to people familiar with the transition efforts.

Trump’s team is vetting candidates to serve in such a role, the people said. If created, it would be the first ever crypto-specific White House job, and would underscore the influence the nascent industry stands to wield in the incoming administration.

It’s unclear whether there will be a senior White House staff position or “crypto czar” — Washington parlance for a point person to oversee policy and regulation across the federal government, the people said. Crypto industry advocates are pushing for the role to have a direct line to Trump, they said.

Archegos Founder Bill Hwang Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison

Archegos Capital Management founder Bill Hwang was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Wednesday after he was found guilty of manipulating stock prices and defrauding banks as part of a scheme that led to the biggest single-firm meltdown since the financial crisis.

A New York federal jury this summer found Hwang guilty of 10 counts including securities fraud and market manipulation. Hwang has denied wrongdoing, and his lawyer has indicated Hwang intends to appeal.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said the sentence was a “symbol to others that if you don’t live by the law, you could be punished very severely by the law.”

Ex-SBF Ally Gary Wang Avoids Prison Over FTX Fraud

FTX co-founder Gary Wang has been spared from prison over his role in the multibillion dollar fraud at the cryptocurrency exchange after prosecutors praised his early cooperation in the case.

Wang, whose assistance helped convict the orchestrator of the fraud, Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to time served Wednesday by US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan.

Musk, Ramaswamy will lean on Supreme Court rulings to cut US agencies

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy said the government efficiency panel that President-elect Donald Trump has named them to lead will follow recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that they say can be used to take power away from federal agencies and reduce regulations the two call unnecessary, costly and inefficient.

Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate and the founder of biotech firm Roivant Sciences will head a panel of outside advisers to make recommendations concerning the federal government. They want to greatly reduce the size of the federal workforce and to wipe away many existing regulations.

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In a 2022 decision, the court decided that agencies cannot address “major questions” with broad economic or societal impact without explicit permission from Congress. In a ruling in June, the court overturned its own precedent that had called on courts to defer to an agency’s interpretation of ambiguous laws.

MicroStrategy’s Magical Bitcoin Buying Machine Uses Some Wacky Math

Every new market mania needs new metrics to attract investors and explain the reason for its existence. Here’s one for the bitcoin boom: “BTC yield.”

MicroStrategy, which once was a humdrum software firm, introduced this unusual term to its investors in August. BTC, for the uninitiated, means bitcoin. Yield typically refers to the dividend a company pays as a percentage of its stock price, or to the interest rate a lender expects to earn on a loan or bond. This isn’t either of those.

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The BTC yield at MicroStrategy, which calls itself a “bitcoin treasury company,” isn’t a yield as commonly understood by investors. As the company explains in its filings, it is the percentage change, from one date to another, in how many bitcoins per share MicroStrategy owns….