Theranos' Holmes Denies Trying to Flee the Country

Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes denies claim she tried to flee country

In response, attorneys for Holmes said and her husband, William Evans, had booked the trip before the verdict was reached because she “hoped to be acquitted and thus to be able to attend the wedding of close friends in Mexico in late January 2022.

The lawyers said Holmes “did not intend to make the trip” once she was found guilty.

“Mr. Evans had not yet canceled her ticket when the government inquired about the booking, but there was no way for her to go: Not only did Ms. Holmes’ conditions of release require Court approval for international travel, but the Court has her passport, which was (and still is) expired, and she did not attempt to get a new one,” the filing said.

“Outdated” – SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce’s Remarks before the Digital Assets at Duke Conference

Why not set forth a coherent legal framework in a rule? After all, if we continued with our regulation-by-enforcement approach at our current pace, we would approach 400 years before we got through the tokens that are allegedly securities. By contrast, an SEC rule would have universal—albeit not retroactive—coverage as soon as it took effect.

Why no rule? If they are all securities, then voila—problem solved! But if we seriously grappled with the legal analysis and our statutory authority, as we would have to do in a rulemaking, we would have to admit that we likely need more, or at least more clearly delineated, statutory authority to regulate certain crypto tokens and to require crypto trading platforms to register with us. And Congress might decide to give that authority to someone else.

Congress can figure out whether and how to fill the regulatory gaps. Given our extensive experience regulating disclosure, if tokens need federal disclosure rules, the SEC could do the job well. Given our extensive experience regulating retail-oriented exchanges, if trading platforms need a federal regulator, the SEC could do the job well.[47] But the SEC must make that case, and our undisciplined approach to crypto regulation thus far is not helping that case.

The Unknown Hedge Fund That Got $400 Million From Sam Bankman-Fried

Not long before FTX collapsed in November, its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, sent $400 million to an obscure cryptocurrency trading firm called Modulo Capital.

The fledgling firm, which was founded in March and operated out of the same Bahamian compound where Mr. Bankman-Fried lived, had no track record or public profile. One of the founders, Duncan Rheingans-Yoo, was only two years out of college. His business partner, Xiaoyun Zhang, known as Lily, was a former Wall Street trader who had previously been romantically involved with Mr. Bankman-Fried, according to four people with knowledge of their relationship.

Now, Modulo is emerging as a crucial part of the investigation by federal prosecutors into Mr. Bankman-Fried and his once giant cryptocurrency exchange. They’re examining whether he used FTX’s customer funds to invest in the little-known firm when his existing hedge fund, Alameda Research, was struggling amid a wider crypto industry downturn. The $400 million outlay was one of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s single largest investments.

SEC & CFTC Could Write Rules for Crypto Markets – But Likely Won’t Anytime SoonRegulators are in no hurry to write rules for crypto. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission have brought a combined total of more than 100 enforcement actions against crypto-asset market participants. Yet, neither agency has issued a single crypto-specific rule, and it is unlikely that they will change course any time soon. But what if the agencies decided to do so? What sorts of rules could they write using their existing regulatory authorities?

Binance moved $346 mln for seized crypto exchange Bitzlato, data show

FINRA has announced that it is conducting a targeted examination of broker-dealer Crypto giant Binance processed almost $346 million in bitcoin for the Bitzlato digital currency exchange, whose founder was arrested by U.S. authorities last week for allegedly running a “money laundering engine,” blockchain data seen by Reuters show.

Point72 granted UK regulatory approval at third time of asking

Steve Cohen’s Point72 has been granted regulatory approval in the UK, a decade after his previous firm paid a record $1.8 billion in fines after pleading guilty to insider trading charges, according to a report by the Financial Times.

The Financial Conduct Authority had turned down Point72’s applications two previous occasions following SAC Capital’s sanctions in 2013, ruling in 2018 that Cohen was not ‘fit and proper’ to offer his new fund to UK investors.