SEC Issues Wells Notice to Robinhood over Crypto Unit

SEC Prepares to Sue Robinhood Over Crypto Unit

The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to sue Robinhood Markets’ crypto unit, ramping up its crackdown on digital-currency trading to target one of the most popular U.S. brokerage firms, the company said Monday.

Robinhood disclosed that its crypto unit received a so-called “Wells Notice” from SEC staff over the weekend, which said the staff had made a “preliminary determination” to recommend an enforcement action against the unit, called Robinhood Crypto, over alleged violations of securities laws.

The SEC’s power grab on digital assets threatens US innovation

Imagine a scenario in which the US government — suddenly, arbitrarily and without any justifiable authority — outlawed a commodity like petrol. Now imagine this occurred in the early 1900s, right as Henry Ford emerged on the scene, creating a model for the automotive industry that has endured for over a century. A ban on petrol would have equated to a ban on driving altogether, crippling the burgeoning auto industry, allowing the rest of the world to pursue game-changing innovations and creating a lasting, depressive impact on the way Americans live.

This comparison may seem extreme but it is instructive regarding the potential impact of a US Securities and Exchange Commission ruling on the future of ether, currently under consideration. Ether is the digital commodity that, like petrol, powers programs running on the Ethereum network, the world’s largest programmable blockchain.

Elizabeth Holmes sees more months trimmed from prison release date

Imprisoned Silicon Valley CEO Elizabeth Holmes has shaved more months from her initial 11-year-plus sentence for wire fraud and conspiracy, federal records show, and is due to be released two years earlier than expected.

Holmes, 40, has a current release date of Aug. 16, 2032, from a women’s federal prison in Bryan, Texas, according to the Bureau of Prisons. Last July, her expected release date was listed as Dec. 29, 2032.

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While the BOP declined to comment specifically about Holmes’ status for privacy and security reasons, the agency said in a statement that “projected release dates are calculated with several factors in mind.”Inmates are eligible for “good conduct time,” and those who qualify can earn up to 54 days for each year of sentence imposed by the court. In addition, inmates can see more time taken off their sentences by earning time credits that accrue when they complete certain prison and work programs, part of the federal government’s way to reduce recidivism and ease the prison population.

Rob Gronkowski, Other Influencers Settle Voyager Crypto Suit

Retired football star Rob Gronkowski has agreed to pay the majority of a $2.4 million settlement stemming from allegations that he and other famous athletes helped promote failed cryptocurrency exchange Voyager Digital Holdings Inc.

A class of US customers who enrolled in a Voyager EPA or bought one of its VGX tokens from Oct. 2019 onward are seeking preliminary approval for an agreement they reached with Gronkowski, basketball player Victor Oladipo, and NASCAR driver Landon Cassill, according to a motion filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida….

Silicon Valley Crypto Investor Chris Dixon Wants to Overhaul the Industry

Of course, the crypto scene oozes with reasons for the public to distrust it. Speculation continues to fuel the price of Bitcoin, and even Dixon acknowledges that memecoins, joke-themed currencies that sometimes rise to be worth billions of dollars, have unfortunately come back into vogue. Meanwhile, crypto poster boys Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng “CZ” Zhao—the former heads of, respectively, FTX and Binance, two of the industry’s most famous exchanges—have been sentenced to prison. Just last week, Roger “Bitcoin Jesus” Ver, an early crypto investor, was charged by the US Department of Justice with almost $50 million in tax fraud. Crypto, Dixon says, has a void when it comes to representatives who aren’t questionable characters. “If people that have a positive message don’t fill it, then it’ll be filled by people with the next FTX or something.”

Dixon—who’s still in charge of Andreessen’s crypto funds, including its $4.5 billion fund, the industry’s largest—desperately wants to be that better alternative. But he and his team have been promising a blockchain revolution for years, and it still hasn’t happened….

Enforcement: Bye-Bye BF Borgers

The SEC’s order in this case reads like a litany of every SEC rule & statutory provision that an auditor could conceivably violate (or cause its client to violate) in connection with an audit or review engagement. The case was settled on a neither admit nor deny basis, but not surprisingly, the SEC absolutely clobbered both respondents in terms of the sanctions it imposed. In addition to hefty monetary penalties, the SEC essentially put an end to both respondents’ public company practice by issuing an order under Rule 102(e) denying them the privilege of appearing or practicing before the SEC as an accountant.

Musk Superfans, Meme-Stock Traders Crash US Business Court Norms

Meme stock traders come to the country’s premier venue for corporate litigation on a mission to—well, there’s a lot going on here.

Tesla Inc. superfans vow to protect Elon Musk from the judge who doesn’t think he’s worth $56 billion. Retail investors want a reckoning for the movie theater chain they say treats them like “a piggy bank.”

They’re little guys saving their beloved brands from “a broken system” perpetuated by “bad actors” on Wall Street. They do their own research. They’re an online army. They want their money back. They don’t care so much about winning.

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The true believers flood the courts with letters and pleadings written in an amateur’s best approximate legalese, sometimes if not always heeding advice to be “VERY RESPECTFUL.” The court, more used to hearing disputes about buyout battles and self-dealing by billionaires, had to appoint a special master to summarize correspondence from almost 3,000 retail investors objecting to AMC’s plan to recapitalize by diluting their shares. One of those investors re-ups her objection Wednesday in an appeal before the Delaware Supreme Court.