Trader Convicted in First Crypto Market Manipulation Case

Trader convicted of Mango Markets fraud in first US crypto manipulation case

A cryptocurrency trader was convicted of fraud on Thursday, after prosecutors accused him of stealing about $110 million by rigging the Mango Markets exchange.

Jurors in federal court in Manhattan found Avraham Eisenberg, 28, guilty of commodities fraud, commodities manipulation and wire fraud, in the U.S. Department of Justice’s first criminal case involving cryptocurrency market manipulation.

Eisenberg had argued that his trades were legal, and that he made no attempt to deceive anyone. The jury deliberated for less than a day.

SEC Charges Media Company and Its CEO with Defrauding Investors

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it filed charges against Icaro Media Group, Inc. (“Icaro”) and its CEO, Paul H. Feller (“Feller”), for allegedly engaging in a multimillion-dollar offering fraud.

According to the SEC’s complaint, from approximately 2017 to 2021, Feller and Icaro, a privately owned media technology company, raised more than $22 million from at least 38 investors by making fraudulent misrepresentations about Icaro’s business partnerships with two multinational telecommunication companies (“Telcos”). The complaint alleges that Feller repeatedly told investors that Icaro was either about to launch, or had already launched, digital platforms and mobile phone applications with the Telcos, projecting millions of dollars in imminent revenue streams from those business partnerships. In reality, Icaro had not launched and was not poised to launch any such products. The complaint further alleges that Feller falsely told investors that high-profile business leaders were coming in as strategic investors.

How a Crypto Compliance Officer Ended Up in a Nigerian Prison

The discussions turned hostile. The Nigerian officials wanted Binance to turn over data for a large swath of its customers, a demand that the company was unwilling to meet, three people familiar with the talks said.

A few hours later, Nigerian officials escorted Mr. Gambaryan and Mr. Anjarwalla to their hotel and ordered them to pack their bags, according to their families. Then they were taken to the guesthouse — a secure compound near the headquarters of Nigeria’s national security adviser. “You’re our guest now,” a Nigerian official told them, according to a person familiar with what happened.

The Nigerian authorities confiscated Mr. Gambaryan’s and Mr. Anjarwalla’s passports, but they were able to keep their phones, allowing them to communicate with family and colleagues. No criminal charges were filed, though a local court issued an order permitting the authorities to detain Mr. Gambaryan and Mr. Anjarwalla pending an investigation.

For weeks, they stayed in a section of the house that included two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. Guards holding AK-47s were stationed nearby, a person familiar with the matter said.

Tesla tries legal ‘Band-Aid’ to revive Musk’s huge pay deal

Tesla and Elon Musk are seizing upon an obscure provision in corporate law to attempt to restore Musk’s $56 billion pay package, in an untested move that could again mire the company in litigation, legal experts said.

The electric vehicle maker on Wednesday proposed putting Musk’s 2018 pay deal to a shareholder vote, even though a Delaware judge voided it in January.

Tesla is using a little-known section of Delaware’s corporate law that lets companies fix procedural defects that would otherwise nullify their boardroom decisions.

Tesla called the approach “novel” in its securities filing and said the special board committee that approved it could not predict how it would be treated under Delaware law.

Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia Law School, said the provision is meant to be a “Band-Aid” for technical boardroom mistakes, not to undo major court rulings.

Jamie Dimon calls bitcoin a ‘fraud’ and a ‘Ponzi scheme’ — and says the crypto is hopeless as a currency

Bitcoin is a scam and fails as a currency, Jamie Dimon said.

“If you mean crypto like bitcoin, I’ve always said it’s a fraud,” the JPMorgan CEO told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.

“If they think they’re a currency, there’s no hope for it. It’s a Ponzi scheme,” he added.

However, the billionaire banker did say tokens that serve a purpose may not be worthless.

“If it’s a crypto coin that can do something like a smart contract, that has value,” he said. “There will be smart contracts, and blockchain works — to the extent crypto is accessing certain blockchain things, yeah, that might have some value.”

Joe Lewis’ Yacht Aviva Sets Sail After British Billionaire Pays US Fine

After departing Zakynthos earlier this week, the Tavistock Group founder’s yacht was near Kalamata in southern Greece on Thursday morning local time, the data show. It’s the most the roughly $250 million vessel has traveled in about seven months, though it’s unclear if Lewis is on board.

Lewis, 87, pledged his yacht along with his private jet to secure his release following his arrest in July. A few months later, Aviva docked until April 5 in the Maltese capital of Valletta, where it can cost as much as €750 ($800) a night to moor vessels that exceed 75 meters.

Lewis, who was scheduled to have eye surgery in London recently, was prohibited from setting foot on the yacht that has long served as part-residence, part-office while awaiting trial. He was only allowed on board after paying a $5 million fine after sentencing, which he settled soon after the verdict in Manhattan.

Quis custodiet ipsos cellphones

I hope the banks will sue for their money back? I hope that the SEC’s enforcement lawyers came to a meeting with a bank’s top brass, and proceeded to berate them about how awful it is that some of their employees texted about business, and then the SEC lawyer’s phone buzzed and she pulled it out and was like “sorry do you mind if I answer this text, it’s about another case” and proceeded to text a reply. And the bank CEO was like “hang on did you just” and the SEC lawyer put her phone away and said “we’re not here to talk about me” and went back to berating him. Absolutely perfect financial regulation story right here.

Bankers Hit With Millions in ‘Breakup Fees’ For Ditching New Jobs on Wall Street

This story begins happily enough, with a nearly $10 million offer from Jefferies Financial Group Inc. The lucky hire was Dean Decker, a rainmaker at Credit Suisse Group AG.

The catch: If Decker reneged before he started, a clause in his nine-page offer letter read, he’d have to pay Jefferies what amounted to a personal breakup fee. The price to walk away: $4 million. Walk away Decker did.

Seven years later, the legal fallout is still raining down. A federal appeals court in California is now poised to rule on whether the Jefferies maneuver was legal or, as Decker’s camp has contended, tantamount to ransom. During a hearing on April 12, two of the three judges on the panel appeared to express skepticism about Decker’s argument.