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Coinbase shares hit 18-month high after Binance charges

November 27, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Binance

The price high comes after rival exchange Binance pleaded guilty and traders seemingly priced in Coinbase’s custodian agreements for a slate of spot crypto ETFs.

Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) shares have hit an 18-month high after rival exchange Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering and sanctions violations in the United States.

On Nov. 27, Coinbase closed at $119.77, its highest since May 5, 2022, when it closed at $114.25, according to TradingView data. It has seen little movement in after-hours trading.

The number puts Coinbase shares up around 256.5% year-to-date, although is still down 65% from its Nov. 12, 2021, all-time high of nearly $343.

*Coinbase share price since May 2022. Source: TradingView*

Coinbase’s share surge comes just shy of a week since Binance and founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering, violating U.S. sanctions and running an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

Zhao and Binance settled with the U.S. for $4.3 billion, which included Zhao stepping down as CEO and Binance agreeing to DOJ and Treasury compliance monitors for up to five years.

Over the past year Coinbase has also secured a significant windfall with to-be-approved U.S. spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Analysis from Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart shows Coinbase is custodian to 13 of the 19 spot crypto ETFs currently pending with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

*Coinbase is the custodian of 70% of the 19 spot crypto funds. Source: James Seyffart/X*

Coinbase, however, faces a lawsuit from the SEC which claims the exchange didn’t register with the regulator and listed several tokens that violated U.S. securities laws.

Coinbase had attempted to dismiss the suit and called into question the SEC’s authority to police crypto.

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What’s next for the ‘crypto king’ Sam Bankman-Fried?

November 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The former FTX CEO is headed back to prison and awaits a potential second trial in March, while his lawyers pledged to “continue to vigorously fight the charges against him."

Sam Bankman-Fried is back in his federal prison cell in Brooklyn after being found guilty for all seven charges in his criminal trial. His lawyers however, say the fight isn’t yet over.

Bankman-Fried’s attorney Mark Cohen said in a Nov. 2 statement that Bankman-Fried “maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him."

If Bankman-Fried follows through then it’s possible he will appeal after being sentenced. The first step would see the FTX co-founder file a notice of appeal in the New York District Court where he was just found guilty.

STATEMENT FROM THE TEAM OF SAM BANKMAN-FRIED —

“We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result. Mr. Bankman Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him." pic.twitter.com/Q69w6nKB34
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) November 3, 2023

Bankman-Fried was hit with a guilty verdict from the jury on late Nov. 2 in New York. United States Attorney Damian Willaims called Bankman-Fried one of the biggest financial frauds in American history and perpetrator of “a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto."

Bankman-Fried faces the possibility of an another criminal trial slated for March 11 on five charges of bribery conspiracy, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, bank fraud conspiracy along with derivatives and securities fraud.

New York District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan gave government prosecutors a Feb. 1, 2024 deadline to confirm if they will still pursue the second trial.

If that goes ahead, Bankman-Fried has the option to plead guilty which could help reduce his sentence.

As for the recent guilty verdict — prosecutors will recommend a sentence by March 15, and will see Bankman-Fried will return to court for sentencing on March 28, 2024.

Kaplan however, will have the final say on how much time Bankman-Fried will serve. If Bankman-Fried served the maximum sentences for his crimes back-to-back he would be in jail for 110 years.

Kaplan, however, could instead decide that Bankman-Fried will serve his sentence concurrently. If so, his wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy crimes alone each carry a maximum 20-year sentence.

Former federal prosecutor turned crypto venture capitalist Kathryn Haun said in a Nov. 2 X (Twitter) post that she thinks Bankman-Fried will likely spend “decades in prison.”

Now that SBF has been found guilty on all counts, people are asking what sentence he may get. I think the answer is likely decades in prison. People confuse the statutory maximum sentence (the max a judge is allowed to give) with the sentencing guidelines recommended sentence… pic.twitter.com/C7Tn81A7xh
— Kathryn Haun (@katie_haun) November 3, 2023

In the meantime, Bankman-Fried will stay in jail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where he’s been incarcerated since Aug. 11 after breaking his bail conditions.

Kaplan previously said the Brooklyn jail was “not on anybody’s list of five-star facilities” and during Bankman-Fried’s time there before the trial, he complained about his lack of access to medication and vegan food.

In September, a week before the start of Bankman-Fried’s trial, lawyers gave mixed predictions as to how long his sentence would be.

Loevy & Loevy partner Michael Kanovitz said if Bankman-Fried was found guilty, “I think he will get the maximum sentence.”

Hogan & Hogan partner Jeremy Hogan predicted Bankman-Fried may not have the book thrown at him and get the maximum 110-year sentence but he’ll be “going to prison for quite some time.”

“I don’t know enough about it to get into details,” Hogan said. “Just a long time — more than 10 years.”

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Breaking: Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty on all charges

November 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial has concluded with a jury finding him guilty of all seven charges.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty of all of the seven charges in his criminal trial by a jury in New York.

Bankman-Fried was found guilty of two counts of wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud conspiracy along with one count of securities fraud, one count of commodities fraud conspiracy and one count of money laundering conspiracy.

He will return to court for sentencing by New York District Judge Lewis Kaplan at a later date.

Bankman-Fried’s crimes total a maximum of 110 years in prison with the wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy carrying a maximum 20-year sentence.

Other key FTX executives including former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former FTX engineering head Nishad Singh have all pleaded guilty to various charges and worked with the government to testify against Bankman-Fried.

Bankman-Fried had previously pleaded not guilty to all charges and during his trial, he took the stand to maintain his innocence and mark up FTX’s November 2022 collapse as "a number of big mistakes." He denied any wrongdoing in FTX’s relationship with Alameda and attempted to distance himself from key decisions.

Bankman-Fried pinned the blame on Wang for creating a function that allowed Alameda to trade funds on FTX that it didn’t have and claimed he “wasn’t entirely sure what happened” with Alameda’s line of credit, which ballooned to billions in the collapsing crypto market of 2022.

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This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

Additional reporting by Ana Paula Pereira.

Russian Charged With Laundering Ransomware Proceeds in Crypto Pleads Guilty in US

February 10, 2023 Bitcoin.com

$4B OneCoin scam co-founder pleads guilty, faces 60 years jail

December 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The co-founder of the fraudulent scheme is set to be sentenced in April 2023 on charges relating to wire fraud and money laundering.

Karl Sebastian Greenwood, the co-founder of the multi-billion dollar fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme OneCoin has pleaded guilty to multiple charges brought forward by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and faces a maximum of 60 years in prison.

The DOJ announced on Dec. 16 that Greenwood submitted a guilty plea in a Manhattan federal court to charges of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy with each charge carrying a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in jail.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Greenwood operated “one of the largest international fraud schemes ever perpetrated” and claimed he touted OneCoin as a “Bitcoin killer” when in reality the tokens were “entirely worthless.”

OneCoin was a Bulgarian company founded by Greenwood alongside “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova that marketed a cryptocurrency by the same name. Emails obtained by the DOJ between the two before its founding in 2014 allege the pair called it a “trashy coin.”

*Greenwood on stage in Jun. 2016 at OneCoin’s “COIN RUSH” event in London. Image:* *YouTube*

Outwardly it claimed to be a multi-level marketing firm with members gaining commissions for selling cryptocurrency packages apparently containing OneCoin and the ability to mine more. OneCoin could only be exchanged for fiat currency on the private Xcoinx exchange.

In reality, it was both a pyramid and a Ponzi scheme as investors could recruit others into the scheme without an actual product and later investors were paid with the money from earlier investors.

According to the DOJ Greenwood was earning around $21.2 million (€20 million) per month in his role as the “global master distributor” of the fraudulent crypto firm. Over $4 billion is believed to have been swindled by OneCoin from the three million people who invested in the packages.

Ignatova was placed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s top ten most wanted list in June for her role in the scheme. She remains at large and was last known to have traveled to Athens, Greece in Oct. 2017.

Williams said Greenwood’s plea “sends a clear message” the DOJ is “coming after all those who seek to exploit the cryptocurrency ecosystem through fraud, no matter how big or sophisticated you are.”

Greenwood is slated to be sentenced before District Judge Edgardo Ramos on Apr. 5, 2023.

Authorities elsewhere have charged those involved with OneCoin and Ignatova, with three associates facing charges in Germany over fraud and money laundering.

EmpiresX ‘head trader’ to face 4 years of prison over $100M crypto ‘Ponzi’

December 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

<div>EmpiresX 'head trader' to face 4 years of prison over 0M crypto 'Ponzi'</div>

CFTC

Two other associates that helped run the U.S.-based fraudulent crypto platform EmpiresX left the country early this year and are believed to be in Brazil.

One of the leading figures convicted of being behind the $100 million crypto “Ponzi” scheme, EmpiresX, has just been handed an over four-year jail sentence by a United States court.

The sentencing was handed to Joshua David Nicholas, the “head trader” of purported crypto platform EmpiresX, who is nowset to serve a 51-month prison sentence along with three years of supervised release for his role in the fraudulent scheme.

It follows a Sept. 8 guilty plea from Nicholas for conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), over a two-year period, Nicholas made claims the platform would make daily “guaranteed” returns using a trading bot that utilized “artificial and human intelligence” to maximize returns.

In reality, the “bot” was fake, and Nicolas and his associates, Emerson Pires and Flavio Goncalves, operated a "Ponzi" scheme that paid earlier investors with money from later investors. The DOJ alleges blockchain analytics shows Pires and Goncalves, both Brazilian nationals, laundered investors’ funds through a “foreign-based” crypto exchange.

Only around $1 million of investor funds were sent to a futures trading account for EmpiresX with the majority of funds either lost or misappropriated according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) which filed civil actions against the three in June.

At the same time, fraud charges were leveled against the trio by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which said investor money was used to “lease a Lamborghini, shop at Tiffany & Co., make a payment on a second home, and more.”

Investors were also told EmpiresX was registered with the SEC as a hedge fund and that Nicholas was a licensed trader.

The SEC said the platform was never registered with the Commission and Nicholas’ was suspended from trading by the National Futures Association for misappropriating customer funds.

The scheme ran for two years, from around September 2020 until early 2022 when it fell apart as the platform refused to honor customer withdrawals who were likely wanting to leave the crypto market due to significant price drawdowns that began at the time.

Pires and Goncalves, who were residing in Florida, allegedly began winding down the operations of EmpiresX in early 2022 and left the U.S., they are now believed to be in Brazil.

Founder of the Bitcoin Mixer Helix Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering Charges

August 18, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Guilty

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