Kryptobørsen FTX er kollapset

arne_v (4) skrev:

#2

I teorien er det måske det samme, men i den virkelige verden er der godt nok stor forskel.

Der er indskudsgaranti fra staten på indskud i banker (i den civiliserede verden).

arne_v (4) skrev:

Bank sektoren er en af de mest regulerede sektorer.

Og derfor er bank kunders risiko for at miste deres indskud mikroskopisk lille.

larsp (10) skrev:

arne_v (4) skrev:

#2

I teorien er det måske det samme, men i den virkelige verden er der godt nok stor forskel.

Der er indskudsgaranti fra staten på indskud i banker (i den civiliserede verden).

Jeg tænker på beløb over 100K euro grænsen.

larsp (10) skrev:

arne_v (4) skrev:

Bank sektoren er en af de mest regulerede sektorer.

Og derfor er bank kunders risiko for at miste deres indskud mikroskopisk lille.

Du har da ret, men systemet er baseret på en "too big to fail" tankegang hvor staterne holder hånden under bankerne. Mange europæiske banker burde været gået konkurs på grund af ekstrem gældsætning, men bliver holdt i live. Det er jo meget rart for os forbrugere, men det betyder at der kan hobe sig en masse dårligdomme op i finanssektoren. Måske det var bedre med små crashes ind imellem, end totale finansielle nedsmeltninger hvert 10 / 20 / 100 år.

arne_v (12) skrev:

Den regulering som er en naturlig konsekvens af garantierne eksisterer for at forhindres disse dårligdomme.

Og jeg har en stærk mistanke om at bankerne hellere vil have den nuværende regulering end en meget simplere men også mere indgribende regulering som ville overlade mere til markedet.

Bankman-Fried oversaw FTX, while Alameda Research was led by Caroline Ellison, a 28-year-old with only 19 months of prior experience as a junior trader at Jane Street. In 2021, she sparked controversy when she revealed on Twitter that she used amphetamines. “Nothing like regular amphetamine use to make you appreciate how dumb a lot of normal, non-medicated human experience is,” she wrote. Fast forward a year, Ellison has found herself at the epicenter of the FTX scandal after it emerged that Bankman-Fried moved around $10 billion of FTX customers’ money to help the firm battle an insolvency crisis. 

To help them understand what happened, John Ray, the liquidator of energy broker Enron, has just painted a picture of founder Sam Bankman-Fried's empire and how it worked. This description is an indictment of the Bankman-Fried years and his two associates Zixiao "Gary" Wang and Nishad Singh.

Ray, a veteran of restructurings, believes they have failed on many levels. For example, he has just revealed that company funds were used by employees and advisors to buy houses in the Bahamas in their own name. 

In other words, it is almost impossible to claim these homes back because they are not in the name of the company. Ray also indicates that there is no record of these transactions.

"In the Bahamas, I understand that corporate funds of the FTX group were used to purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors," Ray wrote in a 30-page document filed with the United States Bankruptcy court for the District of Delaware.

"I understand that there does not appear to be documentation for certain of these transactions as loans, and that certain real estate was recorded in the personal name of these employees and advisors on the records of the Bahamas," he added.

...

Finally, Ray says he still hasn't been able to locate some of the alleged employees, suggesting some either fled or don't exist.

"At this time, the debtors have been unable to prepare a complete list of who worked for the FTX Group," he said. "Repeated attempts to locate certain presumed employees to confirm their status have been unsuccessful to date."

...

FTX's financials showed that there was a "back door" in the books, created with "bespoke software," according to Reuters. It was described as a way that Bankman-Fried could alter the firm's financial records without raising any alerts.

But Bankman-Fried denied the existence of a "back door."

According to paperwork filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Alameda Research had $4.1 billion in related-party loans. Among those were $1 billion to Bankman-Fried, $543 million to FTX Director of Engineering Nishad Singh and $55 million to FTX Digital Markets head Ryan Salame. There was also a $2.3 billion loan between FTX legal subsidiaries Euclid Way Ltd. and Paper Bird Inc.

"Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here," John J. Ray III, FTX's new CEO, said in Thursday's filing.

Kommentar onsdag aften på TV2 News med Nadia Filt om Finanstilsynets besøg hos Danske Bank som ikke har haft helt styr på deres boliglån.

En stikprøve på 78 forskellige boliglån viser at beregningen af kundernes rådighedsbeløb har været forkert. Det betyder at der er danskere som har fået et boliglån som de ikke burde havde haft. 

Med andre ord: Danske Bank har sagt JA lidt for ofte - og det kan være fordi at man gerne ville tiltrække nye kunder som burde have haft et NEJ.

Det kan være svært at sige nej til en ny kunde og hvis man havde sagt nej var kunderne blot vandret over til en anden bank.

Finanstilsynet foretager løbende check af alle bankerne for at sikre at der ikke er udsigt til nye problemer i den finansielle sektor. 

At Finanstilsynet besøger Danske Bank lige nu er ikke fordi at der er udsigt til en ny nedsmeltning, men deres opgave er at sikre at det ikke sker igen. En slags rettidig omhu. 

Men det er også et tegn til resten af den finansielle sektor at man holder øje med bankerne om man holder sig indenfor den smalle sti og ikke begynder at blive for løs i kreditgivningen.

Hvis man får ind på Finanstilsynets hjemmeside kan man se at der for nyligt har været inspektion i Totalkredit, Banknordik, Coop Bank. Dog om forskellige ting.

Ofte mener bankerne at stikprøverne nogle gange er for stramme. Det er jo vanskeligt at sige noget om det, men at vi har et forsigtigt Finanstilsyn er også noget af det som kan være med til at sikre at vi ikke kommer i en ny Finanskrise. 

Back to the links to poker and it transpires that FTX’s former general counsel and current chief compliance officer is none other than Daniel Friedberg, who was involved in the Ultimate bet scandal and subsequent cover-up.

Friedberg was one of the Ultimate Bet lawyers present at a secretly-recorded meeting in which Ultimate Bet boss Russ Hamilton admitted to cheating and stealing players’ money.

Some $50million was robbed from other players in the super-user scandal, with Hamilton having “God-mode” access to everyone’s hole cards.

The audio recording, which surfaced in 2013 – five years after the meeting – reveals Friedberg actively conspiring to lie about what had actually happened.

Hamilton is heard on tape telling Friedberg: “I did take this money and I’m not trying to make it right, Dan, so we gotta get that out of the way right away, real quick.”

Friedberg advises Hamilton to not only claim he was also a victim of the cheating – “otherwise it [the concocted cover-up tale] is not going to fly” – but also to put out a story that “a former consultant to the company, uh, took advantage of a server flaw by hacking into the client.”

Sam Bankman-Fried showed a Bloomberg reporter a spreadsheet of company finances.

He said that problems were discovered after FTX and Alameda finances were added together.

The company, which had no accounting department, had double-counted $8 billion.

Sam Bankman-Fried says he "misaccounted" $8 billion after some FTX customer funds were mistakenly counted twice, Bloomberg reported.

...

When the Bloomberg reporter asked Bankman-Fried if he had "misplaced $8 billion," the FTX founder replied: "Misaccounted."

He said that some FTX customers sent money directly to Alameda's account because some banks were more willing to work with the hedge fund than the crypto exchange.

Then, FTX's internal accounting system counted this money twice by crediting it to both companies.

Bankman-Fried could face a host of potential charges – civil and criminal – as well as private lawsuits from millions of FTX creditors, legal experts told CNBC.

For now, this is all purely hypothetical. Bankman-Fried has not been charged, tried, nor convicted of any crime yet.

...

There are three different, possibly simultaneous legal threats that Bankman-Fried faces in the United States alone, Levin told CNBC.

First is criminal action from the U.S. Department of Justice, for potential “criminal violations of securities laws, bank fraud laws, and wire fraud laws,” Levin said.

...

Beyond criminal charges, Bankman-Fried could also be facing civil enforcement action. “That could be brought by the Securities Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and by state banking and securities regulators,” Levin continued.

“On a third level, there’s also plenty of class actions that can be brought, so there are multiple levels of potential exposure for [...] the executives involved with FTX,” Levin concluded.

...

The Department of Justice is most likely to pursue criminal charges in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal reported that the DOJ and the SEC were both probing FTX’s collapse, and were in close contact with each other.

That kind of cooperation allows for criminal and civil probes to proceed simultaneously, and allows regulators and law enforcement to gather information more effectively.

...

Wire fraud is the most likely criminal charge Bankman-Fried would face. If the DOJ were able to secure a conviction, a judge would look to several factors to determine how long to sentence him.

...

“In the federal system, each crime always has a starting point,” Perry told CNBC.

Federal sentencing guidelines follow a numeric system to determine the maximum and minimum allowable sentence, but the system can be esoteric. The scale, or “offense level,” starts at one, and maxes out at 43.

A wire fraud conviction rates as a seven on the scale, with a minimum sentence ranging from zero to six months.

But mitigating factors and enhancements can alter that rating, Perry told CNBC.

“The dollar value of loss plays a significant role. Under the guidelines, any loss above $550 million adds 30 points to the base level offense,” Perry said. FTX customers have lost billions.

“Having 25 or more victims adds 6 points, [and] use of certain regulated markets adds 4,” Perry continued.

In this hypothetical scenario, Bankman-Fried would max out the scale at 43, based on those enhancements. That means Bankman-Fried could be facing life in federal prison, without the possibility of supervised release, if he’s convicted on a single wire fraud offense.

But that sentence can be reduced by mitigating factors – circumstances that would lessen the severity of any alleged crimes.

“In practice, many white-collar defendants are sentenced to lesser sentences than what the guidelines dictate,” Perry told CNBC, Even in large fraud cases, that 30-point enhancement previously mentioned can be considered punitive.

By way of comparison, Stefan Qin, the Australian founder of a $90 million cryptocurrency hedge fund, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud. Roger Nils-Jonas Karlsson, a Swedish national accused by the United States of defrauding over 3,500 victims of more than $16 million was sentenced to 15 years in prison for securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison after striking a plea deal with the Justice Department.

That's according to Ellison's plea agreement with prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, dated December 18.

Ellison faces seven charges that collectively carry a maximum prison sentence of 110 years. These include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, and commodities fraud. She also faces a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Ellison has agreed to waive any defenses to the charges. Per her deal with prosecutors, she also agreed to pay restitution, the amount of which the courts will determine.

As part of the deal, Ellison must cooperate fully with prosecutors, the FBI, and any other law-enforcement agencies. She must also provide documents, records, and evidence to prosecutors, as well as testify to a grand jury or at court trials when requested.

New York-based law firm Sullivan & Cromwell is representing FTX in its Chapter 11 case and guiding its efforts to return assets to customers. FTX late Wednesday asked the Delaware federal judge overseeing the case for approval to pay the firm's partners and special counsel between $1,575 and $2,165 per hour for their work.

The top lawyers' rates far exceed the $1,300 per hour billed by FTX's new CEO John Ray, who also filed an application with the court late Wednesday.

arne_v (25) skrev:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftx-could-pay-over-2-164010182.html

New York-based law firm Sullivan & Cromwell is representing FTX in its Chapter 11 case and guiding its efforts to return assets to customers. FTX late Wednesday asked the Delaware federal judge overseeing the case for approval to pay the firm's partners and special counsel between $1,575 and $2,165 per hour for their work.

The top lawyers' rates far exceed the $1,300 per hour billed by FTX's new CEO John Ray, who also filed an application with the court late Wednesday.

Pæn timeløn!!