FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried charged with defrauding investors
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2022
US prosecutors on Tuesday accused Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, of fraud and violating campaign finance laws and a judge in the Bahamas denied him bail, sending him to a local correctional facility instead.
Footage showed Bankman-Fried being escorted out of the Magistrate Court building in Nassau and getting inside a car followed by patrols. Earlier in the day, prosecutors were also seen leaving the courthouse.
The former FTX CEO, who was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday (December 12), was denied bail by a magistrate judge citing a “great” risk of flight.
He was ordered remanded to a correctional facility in the island nation until Feb. 8, where he will initially hold in the medical department, according to a local official.
The day’s events capped a stunning fall from grace in recent weeks for the 30-year-old, who amassed a fortune valued at over $20 billion as he rode a cryptocurrency boom to build FTX into one of the world’s largest exchanges before it abruptly collapsed this year.
Bankman-Fried has previously apologized to customers and acknowledged oversight failings at FTX, but said he does not personally think he has any criminal liability.
Earlier on Tuesday, US Attorney Damian Williams in New York said Bankman-Fried made illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans with “stolen customer money,” saying it was part of one of the “biggest financial frauds in American history.”
Bankman-Fried faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison if convicted on all eight counts, prosecutors said, though any sentence would depend on a range of factors.
‘The antidote to hate is love’ – Biden signs Respect for Marriage Act
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2022
US President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law on Tuesday at a jubilant celebration that featured US singer Cyndi Lauper performing “True Colors” in front of thousands of supporters on the White House lawn.
The new law provides federal recognition to same-sex marriages, a measure born out of concern that the Supreme Court could reverse its legal support of such relationships.
Cheers erupted from the crowd as Biden signed the bill.
“Marriage is a simple proposition. Who do you love? And will you be loyal to that person you love? It’s not more complicated than that. The law recognizes that everyone should have the right to answer those questions for themselves,” Biden said. “Today’s a good day.”
The event featured performances by pop icons Lauper and British singer Sam Smith.
Made famous by her 1983 song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” Lauper, 69, said the act offered peace of mind to families like hers and Americans nationwide.
“We can rest easy tonight because our families are validated and because now we’re allowed to love who we love, which sounds odd to say, but Americans can now love who we love,” Lauper, an activist on LGBT issues who has been married to actor David Thornton since 1991, told reporters at a briefing prior to the performance.
“This is about respect,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier in the event. “This is about taking pride… and it’s about time that we do so at the federal level.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose daughter and her wife are expecting a child, called it “a day of jubilation.”
The US House of Representatives on Thursday (December 8) gave final congressional approval to the legislation.
The House vote was 258-169, with all of the chamber’s Democrats and 39 Republicans voting in favour – though 169 of the chamber’s Republicans voted against it and one voted “present.”
The legislation won the support of LGBT advocates as well as a number of religious organizations and entities including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though many American religious conservatives still oppose gay marriage as a counter to biblical scripture.
A face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday led to minor injuries “to a few personnel” from both sides, sources said on Monday and noted that both sides immediately disengaged from the area.
The Indian troops deployed in the area of face-off on Friday in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector gave a befitting response to the Chinese troops and the number of Chinese soldiers injured in the clash is more than the Indian soldiers, sources said on Monday.
China announced on Monday that a digital tool to track cross-city travel will go out of service starting Tuesday.
Jobs Philippines PH vows to save seafarers’ jobs in EU | Inquirer President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Sunday night said the government was doing everything it could for the Philippines to pass the European Maritime Safety Agency’s (Emsa) evaluation, which the country has failed since 2006, to avert possible job losses for some 50,000 Filipino seafarers deployed on European Union (EU)-flagged vessels.
South Korea asked China to step up efforts to bring North Korea back to denuclearization talks at a videoconference Monday held between their respective foreign ministers, as the two countries seek to better ties that have been strained by their divergent views on Pyongyang and the escalating US-China rivalry.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday called on China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) to make joint efforts to maintain the stability and smooth flows of regional and global industrial and supply chains.
President Xi Jinping has called for concrete steps to protect China’s intangible cultural heritage in a systematic way and promote Chinese culture around the world.
The special income tax for reconstruction, tobacco tax and corporate tax are being eyed to fund a planned increase in defense spending, according to sources.
When President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo told his diehard supporters to vote for a candidate with “forehead wrinkles” and “white hair” in the 2024 presidential election, almost everyone concluded that he was referring to Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, whom all surveys put as one of three most popular public figures to succeed him.
Business sentiment among major Japanese companies improved in October-December, with the recovery led by nonmanufacturers, a government survey showed Monday.
The overall business confidence in Pakistan fell to minus four per cent, according to a survey of the Overseas Investors Chambers of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) conducted during September-October 2022.
Soon Ent. is South Korea’s top TikTok creator management firm, home to over 140 creators whose total number of followers amounts to 940 million. This includes the nation’s No. 2 creator WonJeong, who recently surpassed 50 million followers. He is the only South Korean to reach the milestone other than K-pop supergroup BTS.
For the first time since lawmakers filed a bill seeking to create the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) two weeks ago, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. broke his silence on Sunday night and publicly expressed support for the proposed sovereign wealth fund.
Russia’s McDonald’s successor replacing Big Mac with ‘Big Hit’
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2022
Starved of Big Macs since McDonald’s Corp MCD.N closed its Russian restaurants in March, Russians will from next year be treated to an alternative from the burger chain’s successor – the “Big Hit.”
Russian fast food chain Vkusno & tochka, or “Tasty & that’s it,” on Monday said the Big Hit, complete with a new signature sauce, will be available in February and a similar product to the McDonald’s Happy Meal will be making a comeback as “Kids’ Combo.”
McDonald’s closed its Russian restaurants soon after Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February, eventually selling to a local licensee, Alexander Govor, who unveiled the new brand in June.
Vkusno & tochka CEO Oleg Paroev said the company has overcome supply chain issues and was growing its share in a market traditionally dominated by foreign chains.
There are restrictions on the colours and products that Vkusno & tochka can use. It can no longer serve Big Macs, nor use the McDonald’s-style sauce, Paroev explained.
“(The Big Hit) has its own sauce and a slightly different composition, a different layout of ingredients, but in terms of quality and taste it is very good,” Paroev said.
“We hope Russian consumers will appreciate the Big Hit and that it will become as much of a symbol of Vkusno & tochka as the Big Mac is a symbol of McDonald’s.
Since acquiring Russia’s McDonald’s restaurants, Govor has snapped up Finnish packaging company Huhtamaki’s HUH1V.HE Russian business and a logistics firm, set to be renamed “Logistics & that’s it.”
On Monday, he said Vkusno & tochka may try to find a partner to produce children’s toys for the Kids’ Combo, which currently includes a free book, but that his M&A appetite had been satisfied for now.
Vkusno & tochka and meat producer Miratorg on Monday said they had agreed to build a factory in 2023 to supply the chain with chips and potato wedges. Some Vkusno & tochka restaurants had to take fries off the menu this year when faced with a potato shortage.
“We were simply forced to do this,” Govor said. “We were looking for partners because some of our suppliers, including of potatoes, have doubled their prices from February to today.”
New Report Reveals Biosecurity Risks of Donkey Skin Trade
MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2022
Findings from The Donkey Sanctuary details the possibility of another incident in Thailand like the 2020 AHS outbreak due to the unregulated, unsanitary, and often illegal trade in donkey skins used in traditional Chinese medicine
Around the world, over 4.8 million donkeys are traded and slaughtered for their skins each year.
The demand for donkey skins is driven by the production of ejiao, or donkey-hide gelatin, a traditional Chinese remedy believed by some with no scientific basis to have medicinal properties.
A new report from The Donkey Sanctuary reveals the trade is also contributing significant and previously unrecognised risks to international biosecurity, including in Thailand, a common waypoint for donkey skins.
The import of donkey skins into Thailand is currently legal. However, Thailand is not a major market for donkey skins. Rather, donkey skin traders circumvent and undermine recipient country safeguards on biosecurity controls by shipping to ports in Thailand (or others such as Hong Kong) first before shipping to China.
The most recent FAO data, from 2018, shows the total number of horses in Thailand as 6,069, while just 30 donkeys were reported.
However, the donkeys’ locations were uncertain and it is likely they were underreported due to the unregulated nature of the trade.
Donkeys can easily play a role in outbreaks of African horse sickness (AHS), as they can spread the disease without displaying severe clinical signs. AHS is spread by biting and feeding on the blood of horses and donkeys.
A 2020 outbreak of AHS in Thailand, likely due to the importation of live equids (the group that includes horses, donkeys, and zebras), saw infection across six provinces before an equine movement lockdown curtailed its progress.
It infected 610 horses in 17 provinces, 568 of which died, including both high-value sports horses and working equids who support hundreds of thousands of people’s livelihoods.
No new cases have been found ever since a surveillance programme for animal diseases was initiated, but the unregulated trade of live donkeys and donkey skins could change that.
The report Biosecurity Risks and Implications for Human & Animal Health on a Global Scale contain the findings of donkey skin testing conducted by The Donkey Sanctuary and the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya (ILRI).
This testing identified multiple specimens contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) and African horse sickness (AHS). In the case of S.aureus contaminated skins, 44 of 108 tested were found to be carrying the drug-resistant MRSA variant, and three of the positive samples were carrying the PVL-toxin – known to cause invasive necrotising diseases in humans.
Donkeys are generally susceptible to the same infectious diseases as horses, many of which can also infect humans via ingestion, inhalation and skin contact. Close contact with sick equids puts people at risk, as does eating, inhaling, or touching infectious by-products.
Diseases vary in severity and impacts on human health can range from mild conditions such as ringworm to potentially deadly diseases like rabies and glanders.
These are occupational hazards for farm workers, abattoir staff and any person involved in the transport and handling of donkeys or the processing, packing, haulage and shipping of donkey skins.
Diseases that are endemic in source countries may not be present at all in transit or destination countries, leading to potential outbreaks of diseases in local, naïve equine populations.
This is what happened with AHS in Thailand in 2020, as the disease’s prior absence in the country made the outbreak more difficult to contain.
Worryingly, the donkey skin trade currently operates without adequate veterinary and biosecurity protocols. The unregulated and clandestine nature of much of the trade also means that shipments are often impossible to track, and contaminated skins therefore unable to be traced.
However, even skins processed in licenced slaughterhouses constitute a biosecurity risk.
Marianne Steele, Chief Executive of The Donkey Sanctuary said: “The global trade in donkey skins is cruel and inhumane, unregulated and unnecessary, which results in suffering for donkeys and donkey-dependent communities on a devastating scale. While many may choose to turn away from the direct impacts on animals and people, I would implore consumers, governments and the wider public to take notice of the risks to animal and human health.
“If nothing else, the recent lessons of Covid-19, and the current outbreak of avian flu, should make us sit up and take notice of the emerging threats that zoonotic diseases pose.”
Considering this high level of risk, The Donkey Sanctuary is calling on the governments of China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand to immediately stop the import of donkey skins, and on the national governments of exporting countries to take immediate steps to stop the trade in donkey skins.
Dr Faith Burden, Executive Director of Equine Operations at The Donkey Sanctuary, said: “The findings throughout the report are shocking, although not altogether surprising – the disease risks for animals and humans are obvious, with poor hygiene at all stages of the trade. The lack of traceability and basic biosecurity puts people and animals in general at significant risk. The skins tested were sourced from one slaughterhouse on one day, but it is likely that skins from other sources around the world if tested, would indicate the presence of dangerous pathogens such as glanders, equine influenza and African swine fever.”
Terraform CEO Do Kwon hiding in Serbia: prosecutors
MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2022
Do Kwon, the wanted co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs accused of fraud following the massive collapse of the blockchain firm’s cryptocurrencies, is currently in Serbia, prosecutors said Monday.
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office obtained intelligence that Kwon has stayed in Serbia for about month after leaving the United Arab Emirates. He was most recently spotted in Singapore in early September.
The disgraced entrepreneur has been under investigation for alleged fraud and tax evasion after investors in TerraUSD and Luna filed complaints against Kwon in May, accusing him of a Ponzi scheme over the loss of billions of won following the crash of both coins.
The prosecution office sought an arrest warrant for Kwon on charges of providing false information to investors, and Interpol also issued a red notice, used for the highest level of wanted suspects and criminals.
Kwon’s passport has since been invalidated.
Kwon has denied most of the allegations and insisted on his Twitter account that he is not running.
Prosecutors are also investigating Daniel Shin, another co-founder of Terraform Labs, on charges of gaining illegal profits before the collapse of the coins.
Nasa’s Orion capsule returns to Earth, capping Artemis I flight around moon
MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2022
NASA’s Orion capsule barreled through Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday after making an uncrewed voyage around the moon, winding up the inaugural mission of the U.S. agency’s new Artemis lunar program 50 years to the day after Apollo’s final moon landing.
The gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins wired with sensors, plunked down in the ocean at 9:40 a.m. PST (1740 GMT) off Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, demonstrating a high-stakes homecoming before flying its first crew of astronauts around the moon in the next few years.
“From Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of Nasa’s journey to the moon comes to a close. Orion, back on Earth,” said Nasa commentator Rob Navias on a live stream of the return, referring to the lunar sites the capsule soared over during its mission.
A US military helicopter and a group of fast boats approached the capsule after splashdown for inspections that will last roughly two hours. Standing by some 5 miles (8 km) away was the USS Portland, a US Naval vessel that will welcome Orion aboard to transport the capsule to San Diego, California.
The splashdown capped a 25-day mission less than a week after passing about 79 miles (127 km) above the moon in a lunar fly-by, and came about two weeks after reaching its farthest point in space, nearly 270,000 miles (434,500 km) from Earth.
Atmospheric friction slowed the capsule from 24,500 miles per hour (39,400 kph) to 325 mph, followed by two sets of parachutes that helped brake its speed to an expected 20 mph at splashdown. The capsule showed a “perfect” descent rate, Navias said.
The debut SLS-Orion voyage kicked off Apollo’s successor program, Artemis, aimed at returning astronauts to the lunar surface this decade and establishing a sustainable base there as a stepping stone to future human exploration of Mars.
Mission engineers will spend months examining data from the Artemis I mission. A crewed Artemis II flight around the moon and back could come as early as 2024, followed within a few more years by the program’s first lunar landing of astronauts, one of them a woman, with Artemis III.
Though the capsule encountered some unexpected communication blackouts and an electrical issue during its voyage around the moon, Nasa has given high marks to the performance of both SLS and Orion so far, boasting that they exceeded the US space agency’s expectations.
Re-entry marked the single most critical phase of Orion’s journey, testing whether its newly designed heat shield can withstand atmospheric friction and safely protect astronauts that would be on board.
Nasa officials have stressed the experimental nature of the Artemis I mission, marking the first launch of the Boeing Co-built SLS and the first combined with Orion, which previously flew a brief two-orbit test launched on a smaller Delta IV rocket in 2014.
Compared with Apollo, born of the Cold War-era US-Soviet space race, Artemis is more science-driven and broad-based, enlisting commercial partners such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the space agencies of Europe, Canada, and Japan.
It also marks a major turning point for Nasa, redirecting its human spaceflight program beyond low-Earth orbit after decades focused on space shuttles and the ISS.
Belgium charges four people in European Parliament corruption probe
MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2022
A Belgian judge charged four people on Sunday over allegedly receiving money and gifts from a Gulf state to influence decisions in the European Parliament, accusations that have caused consternation in Brussels.
Prosecutors searched 16 houses and seized 600,000 euros ($631,800) in Brussels on Friday (December 9) as part of an investigation into money laundering and corruption.
Six people were initially detained. Four have been charged and two released, prosecutors said in a statement. They did not name any of those involved.
Prosecutors said they had suspected for months that a Gulf state was trying to influence decisions in Brussels. A source with knowledge of the case said the state was World Cup host Qatar.
A Qatari official denied accusations of possible misconduct.
The European Parliament said at the weekend it had suspended the powers and duties of one of its vice presidents, Greek socialist Eva Kaili, in light of the Belgian investigation.
The Greek socialist PASOK party said in a statement that it was expelling Kaili from its ranks.
It was not immediately clear if she had been charged in the case. Her office did not answer telephone calls or respond to an email requesting comment.
Lockerbie bomb maker suspect is in US custody, Scottish prosecutors say
MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2022
A Libyan man accused of making the bomb that killed 270 people after it blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988 is in custody in the United States, Scottish and US law enforcement officials said on Sunday.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi was taken into custody about two years after former US Attorney GeneralBill Barr first announced the United States filed charges against him.
A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed to Reuters on Sunday that the United States has custody of the suspect. Mas’ud is expected to make his initial court appearance in a federal court in Washington.
Details about the timing of the hearing will be forthcoming, the spokesperson added.
Court documents described Mas’ud as an expert bombmaker who joined Libya’s External Security Organization intelligence service in the 1970s and took part in a number of operations outside Libya, reaching the rank of colonel.
A military source in the Libyan city of Misrata said Mas’ud had been flown from the airport there. Reuters could not immediately establish when.
The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told the suspect is in US custody, a spokesperson for Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said on Sunday.
The BBC first reported Mas’ud’s arrest.
The bomb on board the Boeing 747, which was flying from London to New York City, killed all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground, the deadliest ever militant attack in Britain.
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