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Join the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Group on LinkedInSam Bankman-Fried Needs to Lawyer Up, Get Smart, and Stop Talking
Bankman-Fried may think he’s helping himself by making FTX’s collapse sound like a business mistake rather than a colossal fraud. But prosecutors can pick apart his public statements for inconsistencies and use his statements to show the extent of his knowledge or the facts that he has conveniently forgotten now that he faces scrutiny. Under […]
Bankman-Fried Is a ‘Master of Deflection,’ Securities Lawyer Says
“He is a master of deflection, and you see this often with con men who really believe they can convince the world of what they’re saying,” Murphy said. Despite Bankman-Fried’s attempts at being “transparent,” the disgraced CEO isn’t actually answering reporters’ questions, according to Murphy. Last week, New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin probed […]
Sam Bankman-Fried could face years in prison over FTX meltdown
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO of FTX — the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange that was worth $32 billion a few weeks ago — has a real knack for self-promotional PR. For years, he cast himself in the likeness of a young boy genius turned business titan, capable of miraculously growing his crypto empire as other […]
For Martin Shkreli and Others, ‘No Comment’ Is Not in the Script – The New York Times
It used to be that money managers and entrepreneurs charged with a crime or civil securities fraud would keep their mouths shut and routinely refer any questions to their lawyers. But in the age of social media, those days are gone. For some media-savvy defendants there is a new script: They jump on Twitter to […]
The comparisons between Madoff and Bankman-Fried are unfair to Madoff | Rick Bookstaber, LinkedIn
The comparisons between Madoff and Bankman-Fried are unfair to Madoff. Really. The execution of the fraud makes the impact of FTX much worse. *** In a Ponzi scheme the net impact is zero. It is robbing Peter to pay Paul. If you sum everything up, the total pie among those in the scheme is unchanged. […]
Elizabeth Holmes Appeals Theranos Fraud Conviction, Prison Term – Bloomberg
Elizabeth Holmes appealed her criminal fraud conviction, two weeks after she was ordered to serve 11 1/4 years in prison for deceiving investors in her blood-testing startup Theranos Inc. *** Legal experts said her appeal was widely expected and faces long odds because US District Judge Edward Davila went to great lengths to be fair […]
Ex-Theranos President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani Faces 15 Years in Prison – Bloomberg
Ex-Theranos Inc. President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani should spend 15 years in prison for defrauding investors and patients, prosecutors said. His lawyers countered he should be spared jail entirely. The recommendations were filed at federal court in San Jose, California, one week before Balwani’s sentencing by US District Judge Edward Davila. Last month, the judge handed […]
What a Securities Lawyer Would Ask FTX’s Bankman-Fried
As a securities litigator for over 30 years, I have cross-examined a host of conmen and fraudsters…. Starting in 2017, I pivoted my firm toward representing foreign and domestic crypto exchanges, as well as a host of startup enterprises using blockchain technology to disrupt traditional financial products and services. When I heard that Andrew Ross […]
FTX’s Collapse Was a Crime, Not an Accident
Banks can be hit by “bank runs” because they are explicitly in the business of lending customer funds out to generate returns. They can experience a short-term cash crunch if everyone withdraws at the same time, without there being any long-term problem. But FTX and other crypto exchanges are not banks. They do not (or […]
US Prosecutors Charge 21 Alleged ‘Money Mules’ With Using Crypto to Launder Proceeds of Cybercrimes
Maryland woman Zenobia Walker, 65, pleaded guilty in January to her role in a a scheme in which she received over $300,000 from victims of romance scams and other fraud schemes, deposited the money in her personal bank accounts, exchanged it for cryptocurrency and passed the crypto on to her foreign co-conspirators. She was sentenced […]