Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

Sam Bankman-FriedSam Bankman-Fried (attribution)
Sixteen months after the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. He has also been ordered to pay an $11 billion monetary judgment.

The sentence follows his conviction on all seven felony charges in November 2022 — a decision reached by the jury within hours of beginning their deliberations.

Bankman-Fried intends to appeal the conviction.

  • Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge Lewis A. Kaplan: Sentencing held on 3/28/2024 for Samuel Bankman-Fried [archive]

KuCoin and founders criminally charged

The cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and two of its founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, were indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act. Both founders are Chinese citizens, and neither has been located or arrested.

According to prosecutors, they tried to conceal that the exchange had customers from the United States in order to claim that they were exempt from US anti-money laundering laws. They also marketed KuCoin as a KYC-optional exchange where customers from the US could operate unverified accounts.

The charges against the founders carry maximum sentences of five years in prison.

SEC launches investigation into Ethereum Foundation

Fortune reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has targeted the Swiss-based Ethereum Foundation for investigation, apparently in an effort to classify its ETH token a security. The report came out shortly after CoinDesk reported that a warrant canary had been removed from the Ethereum Foundation's website.

Although the SEC has agreed that bitcoin is a commodity and not a security, it has been hesitant to make similar explicit statements about ETH. Designation as a security could be devastating to the Ethereum project and to ETH, which is the second most popular cryptocurrency to bitcoin.

SIM swappers charged over hacks, reportedly including FTX

Three people running a SIM swapping operation have been charged with fraud and identity theft. By gaining access to the personal information of their victims and then convincing cell phone providers to "swap" victims' phone numbers to phones they controlled, they were then able to gain access to various accounts controlled by their victims.

Although the indictment does not name FTX, Bloomberg has reported that "victim company-1" named in the court filings was FTX, which was hacked for around $400 million amid the chaos as the company was collapsing.

HyperVerse founder Sam Lee charged

US Attorneys in Maryland and the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed criminal and civil lawsuits, respectively, against Sam Lee, the co-founder of the HyperVerse cryptocurrency investment scheme, which has defrauded victims of between $1.3 billion and $1.9 billion depending on whose estimate you use. The US Attorneys have accused Lee of securities fraud and wire fraud. The SEC has accused Lee and a major HyperVerse promoter, Brenda Indah Chunga (aka "Bitcoin Beautee"), of securities fraud and offering unregistered securities.

This is the second HyperVerse related criminal charge in recent days, following the arrest of promoter "Bitcoin Rodney".

8,100 Bitcoin forfeited by Silk Road drugs distributor in guilty plea

The US government is cementing its status as one of the largest BTC holders by adding another 8,100 BTC (priced at almost $350 million today) to its stash. The tokens were forfeited in a plea agreement from Banmeet Singh, who sold large quantities of drugs including fentanyl, LSD, ecstasy, Xanax, Ketamine and Tramadol on various dark web marketplaces including the Silk Road.

Singh pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit money laundering, charges for which he's expected to serve around 8 years in prison.

Terraform Labs files for bankruptcy

Terraform Labs, the company behind the Terra blockchain, has filed for bankruptcy. Its flagship product, the Terra stablecoin and associated LUNA token, failed spectacularly in May 2022. Its CEO, Do Kwon, was arrested in March 2023, and remains in custody awaiting a decision on whether he will be extradited to the United States or South Korea — both of which are looking to charge him over his role in the scheme.

Despite all of that, Terraform Labs had continued to operate. However, it is now in dire financial straits, and has now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an attempt to sort out its financial obligations amid costly legal cases. Terraform Labs is currently a defendant in a complaint by the SEC, as well as several class-action lawsuits.

According to the company's bankruptcy filing, it has between $100 million and $500 million in assets, and liabilities in the same range.

CFTC files complaint against Debiex platform for using "romance scam tactics" to steal $2.3 million

The CFTC has filed a complaint against Debiex, a shadowy cryptocurrency platform whose precise location and executives are unknown. The company's employees primarily targeted Chinese Americans, and used common romance scam techniques: first striking up a friendship or romantic relationship with the victim, then convincing them that they could earn huge profits by putting money on Debiex.

Debiex, however, only resembled a cryptocurrency trading platform. In reality, the website merely mimicked a trading platform, and the funds supposedly deposited there for trading purposes were taken by Debiex.

The CFTC identified five victims who were allegedly defrauded of a combined $2.3 million.

Genesis to settle with New York for $8 million

After the New York Department of Financial Services accused the Genesis cryptocurrency platform of cybersecurity failures that made it vulnerable to criminal activity and hacking threats, Genesis has reached an $8 million settlement with the agency.

The failures included poor anti-money laundering programs, deficiencies around filing suspicious activity reports, and poor cybersecurity.

The NYDFS action is only one of Genesis' many worries these days, as it undergoes bankruptcy proceedings and is facing various other legal woes.

"Bitcoin Rodney" arrested in relation to Hyperverse scam

A man wearing a denim bucket hat and vest with the Gucci logo, a white button-down shirt, large black glasses, a massive gold and diamond chain, and two watches, poses in front of a backgroundBitcoin Rodney (attribution)
A crypto influencer known as "Bitcoin Rodney" was arrested by US authorities for his involvement in the HyperVerse crypto scam, which fleeced victims out of over $1 billion. In addition to promoting the scam, Bitcoin Rodney allegedly received more than $7.8 million directly from victims, which he exchanged for HyperVerse's $HU token. $5.8 million of this money was received after HyperVerse had disabled converting $HU to cryptocurrency, meaning that the victims never even had the opportunity to cash out their "investments".

Bitcoin Rodney has been charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

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