Legal Random, Random

News and commentary on trials, the law, and expert opinions about legal systems
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#346

Post by ti-amie »

The NYTimes is running live updates of SBF's hearing in the Bahamas.
David Yaffe-Bellany

Mr. Bankman-Fried was denied bail by a judge in the Bahamas.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/13 ... 9ea0c8fec5
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#347

Post by ti-amie »

19 minutes ago
Ephrat Livni

The Bahamas Securities Commission pushes back on statements made by FTX’s new C.E.O.

Financial regulators in the Bahamas took issue on Tuesday with some of the comments John J. Ray III, FTX’s new chief executive, made earlier in the day in testimony before Congress and in court filings in recent weeks.

In a statement, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas accused Mr. Ray of making “key misstatements” before the lawmakers that it said “appear intended only to make headlines and advance questionable agendas.”

The commission’s complaint largely stemmed from Mr. Ray’s comments about messages between former FTX executives. In its bankruptcy filing, FTX has said there was reason to believe, based on those messages, that Bahamian regulators had ordered unauthorized asset transfers that raised questions about their qualifications to serve as bankruptcy liquidators.

On Tuesday, lawmakers questioned Mr. Ray about those communications and relations between the founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, and the Bahamian authorities.

Mr. Ray responded that it “appears” Mr. Bankman-Fried was attempting to undermine U.S. bankruptcy proceedings by negotiating some arrangement with officials in the Bahamas. He said there had been “pushback” from authorities in the Bahamas about that claim.

In its statement, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas said that Mr. Ray mischaracterized an email exchange in November between Bahamian authorities and Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s former chief executive. The commission said that gave the “false impression of communications” between its organization and Mr. Bankman-Fried.

The commission also objected to Mr. Ray’s general references to Bahamian authorities, saying that he should have been specific about which government officials he was referring to, because it left the impression that he meant the Securities Commission.

The Bahamas Securities Commission statement concluded by saying that it had informed the new FTX C.E.O. of its willingness to meet and cooperate. “Mr. Ray has not reached out to discuss any of his concerns before airing them publicly,” the statement noted.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/13 ... xs-new-ceo
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#348

Post by ti-amie »

The tl;dr

Here’s what we know about the case against Sam Bankman-Fried.
Sam Bankman-Fried faced widespread charges of fraud Tuesday after the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, and his arrest on Monday in the Bahamas. Here’s what we know:

Prosecutors for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Southern District of New York unsealed a criminal indictment on Tuesday charging Mr. Bankman-Fried with lying to investors from the start of the company. Mr. Bankman-Fried faces eight counts, including wire fraud on customers and lenders, and conspiring to defraud the United States and violate campaign finance laws. “This is our first public announcement, but it will not be our last,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District, said at a news conference about the charges.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges on Tuesday alleging that Mr. Bankman-Fried misled investors who committed nearly $2 billion to FTX while also defrauding customers of the exchange. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which plays an important role in overseeing the crypto industry, also filed a complaint against Mr. Bankman-Fried, charging him with fraud and misrepresentation.

Mr. Bankman-Fried was arrested shortly after 6 p.m. on Monday at his apartment complex, according to a statement from the Bahamian police. The timing of when Mr. Bankman-Fried might be moved to the United States was unclear. The Bahamas has an extradition treaty with the United States, but the process can take weeks, and sometimes far longer if a criminal defendant contests it. Mr. Bankman-Fried was denied bail by a judge in the Bahamas on Tuesday.

The House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing about FTX’s collapse. Mr. Bankman-Fried was slated to testify, but the hearing went ahead without him, featuring testimony from John J. Ray III, who took over FTX after its bankruptcy. Mr. Ray spent nearly four hours answering questions about what caused FTX’s implosion. It was a case of “old-fashioned embezzlement,” he said.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/13 ... eds-arrest
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#349

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#350

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#351

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#352

Post by ponchi101 »

What information to release?
All of (expletive) it. Isn't that obvious?
These people are infuriating.
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#353

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#354

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#355

Post by ponchi101 »

The worst administration ever. The worst.
Uhm...
No, Uncle Joe is doing a very good job. One small step at a time.
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#356

Post by patrick »

GOP will agree with the first part of your statement. They are ready for January to arrive,
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#357

Post by ti-amie »

Sam Bankman-Fried Said to Agree to Extradition After Chaotic Hearing
The disgraced FTX founder, who has been in a Bahamas prison for the past week, agreed to be sent to the United States, after a confusing day in court.

By Royston Jones Jr., David Yaffe-Bellany, Matthew Goldstein and Rob Copeland
Dec. 19, 2022
Updated 6:20 p.m. ET

The disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to be extradited to the United States, one of his lawyers said on Monday, after a chaotic morning of legal maneuvering in which Mr. Bankman-Fried was shunted back and forth between court and prison in the Bahamas.

Mr. Bankman-Fried is facing fraud charges in the United States related to the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, which was based in the Bahamas. Jerone Roberts, a local defense lawyer for Mr. Bankman-Fried, told reporters that his client had agreed to extradition voluntarily, defying “the strongest possible legal advice.”

“We as counsel will prepare the necessary documents to trigger the court,” Mr. Roberts said. “Mr. Bankman-Fried wishes to put the customers right, and that is what has driven his decision.”

After being arrested at his luxury apartment complex last week, Mr. Bankman-Fried initially indicated that he would challenge the extradition. But he later had a change of heart, a person briefed on the matter said over the weekend, and was prepared to return to the United States to be arraigned on a criminal indictment.

On Monday, Mr. Bankman-Fried appeared at a Magistrate Court hearing in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. The hearing had been scheduled specifically for Mr. Bankman-Fried to tell the authorities that he would not contest the extradition. But the courtroom soon descended into chaos: Mr. Roberts said he was “shocked” to see his client in court, and requested at least one 45-minute break to confer privately with Mr. Bankman-Fried.

Mr. Roberts said Mr. Bankman-Fried needed more information and wanted to read the indictment filed by federal prosecutors before deciding whether to go along with the extradition.

The magistrate judge overseeing the matter ordered Mr. Bankman-Fried to return to the Fox Hill prison in Nassau, where he has been held since last week.

“I certainly feel it is a wasted day,” said the judge, Shaka Serville.

Not long after the hearing ended, Mr. Roberts announced that Mr. Bankman-Fried was agreeing to the extradition after all.

Image
Jerone Roberts, center, Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer in the Bahamas, with Crystal Stuart, left, and Kendrea Demeritte in Nassau on Monday.Credit...Eva Marie Uzcategui for The New York Times

Mark Cohen, a lawyer in New York who was hired to handle Mr. Bankman-Fried’s federal prosecution, was not in the courtroom in Nassau on Monday and did not return requests for comment. Mark Botnick, a spokesman for Mr. Bankman-Fried and Mr. Cohen, declined to comment.

It was not clear whether Mr. Roberts’s claim that Mr. Bankman-Fried was defying legal advice referred just to his own counsel or to advice from Mr. Cohen as well.

(...)

Speaking to reporters after the hearing in Nassau, Mr. Roberts said his legal team was preparing documents so a “time and date could be fixed for the extradition process to continue and to be completed.” Mr. Bankman-Fried could appear for a new hearing as soon as Tuesday, a person familiar with the matter said.

Once he is returned to the United States, Mr. Bankman-Fried will be arraigned in Federal District Court in Manhattan. He is likely to be detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, pending a bail hearing.

The extradition will set up months of courtroom maneuvering in the United States. And it will be the end of a peculiar legal drama that has unfolded in the Bahamas in the week since Mr. Bankman-Fried’s arrest.

At an initial hearing last week, Mr. Bankman-Fried said he would not waive his right to contest the extradition. He was denied bail, and then moved from a police holding cell to the Caribbean island nation’s notorious Fox Hill prison, which has been widely criticized for its poor living conditions — so much so that locals call it “Fox Hell.”

Mr. Bankman-Fried was expected to reverse his position on extradition when he appeared in Magistrate Court again on Monday morning. Wearing a navy blue suit and a white shirt unbuttoned at the cuff, he slumped in his seat, with his head down and his leg shaking.

Soon the proceedings were thrown into turmoil.

“Whatever trail got him here this morning, it did not involve me,” Mr. Roberts told the judge in front of a packed courtroom. He said Mr. Bankman-Fried’s court appearance had happened “prematurely” and without his involvement. The hearing was adjourned so Mr. Roberts could speak privately with Mr. Bankman-Fried.

When the hearing resumed, the confusion only intensified. Mr. Roberts said Mr. Bankman-Fried wanted to make a decision on extradition but needed “a bit more information.” He also said Mr. Bankman-Fried needed time to speak with his lawyers in the United States.

A prosecutor representing the Bahamian government, Franklyn Williams, accused Mr. Roberts of wasting the court’s time. Amid the uncertainty, the judge ordered Mr. Bankman-Fried to be returned to prison, where he is being held in a medical unit with four other inmates.

By the afternoon, however, Mr. Roberts had changed tack. He convened a few reporters for a meeting at Arawak Cay, an area of Nassau known for its restaurants, picking an oceanside spot with palm trees and cruise ships in the background.

Promising “a rather laconic press conference,” Mr. Roberts said Mr. Bankman-Fried had agreed to a voluntary extradition. He said the next step would be for the FTX founder to appear once again in Magistrate Court.

“Throughout my involvement with Sam, he has indicated an overwhelming desire to put the customers right and make the customers whole,” Mr. Roberts said.

The collapse of FTX has devastated the crypto industry, putting other companies in jeopardy and costing customers a fortune in lost cryptocurrencies. Outside the courthouse, a group of visitors to the Bahamas, including some who said they had invested in digital assets and done business with FTX, showed up to express anger with Mr. Bankman-Fried.

Erin Gambrel, who flew to Nassau from Dallas to attend the hearing, said she had shared office space with FTX this year in the Bahamas, where she met Mr. Bankman-Fried.

Ms. Gambrel said she wanted to see him “go away for a long time.” She had not invested with FTX, she said, but some of her friends had stored funds on the platform.

“He’s ruined millions of lives,” she said. “He’s caused friends of mine to lose their life savings.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/busi ... ition.html


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Re: Legal Random, Random

#358

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Legal Random, Random

#359

Post by ti-amie »

I thought this was reported the other day but oh well

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Re: Legal Random, Random

#360

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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