Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in Bahamas for handling of FTX crypto trading company

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced they have brought charges against Samuel Bankman-Fried for allegedly violating the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act.

The new charges come in addition to the federal indictment Bankman-Fried faces in New York. The former billionaire was arrested in the Bahamas on Tuesday, hours before federal prosecutors announced their indictment.

Tuesday’s SEC complained alleges “massive, years-long fraud.”

“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement.

Billionaire Elon Musk has lost his title as the world’s wealthiest person.

On Forbes’ real-time billionaires list, Musk currently holds the No. 2 spot, with his net worth estimated to be $176.6 billion. It has fallen roughly $4.7 billion since 5 p.m. Monday, according to the list.

Bahamas Chief Magistrate JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt on Tuesday denied a bail application by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, remanding him to the Bahamas State Department of Corrections until Feb. 8.

The judge said Bankman-Fried’s risk of flight was so great that he should be remanded to custody and adjourned the case until Feb. 8.

South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem and legislators announced proposed legislation to restrict foreign purchases of agricultural land in South Dakota.

The plan creates a new board, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States – South Dakota (CFIUS-SD), which will investigate proposed purchases of ag land by foreign interests and recommend either approval or denial to the Governor.

“With this new process, we will be able to prevent nations who hate us – like Communist China – from buying up our state’s agriculture land,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “We cannot allow the Chinese Communist Party to continue to buy up our nation’s food supply, so South Dakota will lead the charge on this vital national security issue.”

The United States is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine, a decision that could be announced as soon as this week, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Tuesday.

Ukraine has asked its Western partners for air defenses, including U.S.-made Patriot systems, to protect it from heavy Russian missile bombardment including against its energy infrastructure.

Ground-based air defense systems such as Raytheon Technology Corp’s RTX.N Patriot are built to intercept incoming missiles.

The Patriot is considered to be one of the most advanced U.S. air defense systems and is usually in short supply, with allies around the world vying for it.

Two of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the announcement could come as early as Thursday but was awaiting formal approval from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and President Joe Biden.

The Pentagon declined comment on reports about the Patriot system at a news briefing.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is facing federal criminal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission and commit campaign finance violations.

The charges in the Indictment arise from an alleged wide-ranging scheme by the defendant to misappropriate billions of dollars of customer funds deposited with FTX, the international cryptocurrency exchange founded by the defendant, and mislead investors and lenders to FTX and to Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency hedge fund also founded by the defendant.

Bankman-Fried was arrested yesterday in the Bahamas on these charges and will be presented before a Bahamian magistrate judge today.

All three of the major market averages rallied after November consumer prices eased and in preparation of the Federal Reserve’s meeting tomorrow which is the last of 2022. Energy and tech companies led the S&P 500’s gains. In commodities, oil rose 3% to $75.39 per barrel. 

Republican Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday announced bipartisan legislation to ban China’s popular social media app TikTok, ratcheting up pressure on owner ByteDance Ltd amid U.S. fears the app could be used to spy on Americans and censure content.

The legislation would block all transactions from any social media company in or under the influence of China and Russia, Rubio’s office said in a news release, adding that a companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives was sponsored by Republican congressman Mike Gallagher and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi.

ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bill comes as scrutiny of TikTok has grown in Washington in recent weeks, after a failed bid by the Trump administration to ban the video-sharing app.

United Airlines said Tuesday it is ordering 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 100 737 MAXs as it pushes for post-pandemic growth and replaces older, less-efficient aircraft.

The Chicago-based airline’s order for 200 airplanes is worth about $43 billion at list prices and represents a big boost to the U.S. planemaker after political and production issues for the two planes this year.

United said its new order for 100 737 MAX airplanes consists of exercising options to purchase 44 737 MAX aircraft for delivery between 2024 and 2026 and 56 additional MAX aircraft for delivery between 2027 and 2028. United now has a total of 443 MAXs on order.United’s big bet on the 787 reflects expectations for continued rising demand for long-haul travel and a desire to replace older airplanes.

Binance has registered $1.9 billion of withdrawals in the past 24 hours, blockchain data firm Nansen said on Tuesday, as the world’s biggest crypto exchange said it had “temporarily paused” withdrawals of the USDC stablecoin.

How crypto exchanges such as Binance and its now-bankrupt former rival FTX handle customer deposits is under close scrutiny from users and regulators. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday with defrauding investors.

The $1.9 billion of withdrawals of tokens based on the ethereum blockchain mark the largest daily outflow over a 24-hour period since June 13, the Nansen data showed, and accounted for the majority of the funds being pulled in the last seven days.

“Binance’s withdrawals are increasing due to the growing uncertainty about its reserves report,” a Nansen spokesperson said.The withdrawals were “business as usual,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted. “We saw some withdrawals today (net $1.14b ish). We have seen this before. Some days we have net withdrawals; some days we have net deposits.”

Current FTX CEO John Ray III says he has “never seen anything like FTX’s lack of controls in his 40 years of working on such cases. Ray steered bankrupt energy trader Enron through its bankruptcy.

In that case, former Enron CEOs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were found guilty on charges including conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements.

Ray is testifying before House Financial Services Committee on FTX’s collapse.

He also told lawmakers FTX did not have enough assets to cover its liabilities, adding that Sam Bankman-Fried could not have known about comingling of funds.Reuters contributed to this report.

JetBlue says expected strong close-in demand for December has been below its previous expectations.

As a result the discount air carrier now expects revenue per available seat mile for the fourth quarter of 2022 to be at the low-end of its prior guidance range for a 15% to 19% increase.

The airline also cited negative impact from Hurricane Nicole in November.

Wave Life Sciences and GSK announced a strategic collaboration to advance oligonucleotide therapeutics, including Wave’s preclinical RNA editing program targeting alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), WVE-006.The discovery collaboration has an initial four-year research term.

It combines GSK’s unique insights from human genetics, as well as its global development and commercial capabilities, with Wave’s proprietary discovery and drug development platform, PRISM.

Oligonucleotides are short strands of DNA or RNA that can reduce, restore, or modulate RNA through several different mechanisms.

Wave’s PRISM platform is the only oligonucleotide platform offering three RNA-targeting modalities (editing, splicing, and silencing, including siRNA and antisense).

A combination of Moderna Inc’s experimental melanoma vaccine and Merck & Co’s blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda cut the risk of skin cancer’s recurrence or death by 44% compared with Keytruda alone in a mid-stage trial.

The study is the first randomized trial to show that combining mRNA vaccine technology – which has been behind the development of successful COVID-19 vaccines – with a drug that revs up the immune response would offer a better result for patients with the most deadly type of skin cancer.

Takeda Pharmaceutical will buy U.S.-based Nimbus Therapeutics’ experimental psoriasis drug for up to $6 billion, the Japanese drugmaker said on Tuesday, as it looks to cut reliance on treatments facing loss of patents.

The drug, codenamed “NDI-034858”, last week showed statistically significant reduction in moderate-to-severe psoriasis in a mid-stage study and is expected to enter late-stage trials next year.

The company is also studying the drug to treat inflammatory bowel disease and psoriatic arthritis.

The deal involves an upfront payment of $4 billion and an additional $2 billion if the drug achieves certain sales-based milestones, the companies said.

The upfront payment will be primarily funded by cash on hand.

Stocks rallied across the board after consumer prices for November rose less than expected but still remain elevated at 7.1% as the Federal Reserve begins its two day meeting. In commodities, oil jumped 2% to the $74 level. 

FOX Business Opinion takes a look at the demise of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried ahead of the first hearing on the collapse of the crypto firm.

U.S. stock futures are in the green again on Tuesday as investors keep an eye on new inflation data and the Federal Reserve’s final meeting of the year.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released November’s consumer report ahead of the opening bell on Tuesday as inflation rose 0.1% month over month, reaching 7.1% year over year. 

Meanwhile, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up roughly 203 points, or 0.59%, while S&P and Nasdaq futures 0.58% and 0.60% higher, respectively.

Over the last five days, the Dow is now up by 1.37%, the S&P is up by 1.06% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up by 0.74%.

Pre-market, shares of Meta are up nearly 1.36%, Apple is higher by roughly 3.36%, while Microsoft
and Nvidia climbed approximately 4.78% and 6.93%, respectively.

In commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 0.93% to $73.85 a barrel, as gold jumped 0.44% to $1,800.20 an ounce.

Prices at the consumer level eased in November but remain elevated giving the Federal Reserve a dilemma as they begin their two day meeting.

United Airlines is buying 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner wide-body jets with an option to purchase 100 more, the carrier announced on Tuesday.

United said it now expects to take delivery of about 700 new narrow and wide-body aircraft by 2032 – with the ability to choose among the 787-8, -9 or -10 models – including an average of more than two every week in 2023 and three a week in 2024.

The company also exercised its options to purchase 44 Boeing 737 Max aircraft for delivery between 2024 and 2026, and ordered 56 more Max aircraft for delivery between 2027 and 2028.

“With this investment in its future fleet, the 737 Max and 787 will help United accelerate its fleet modernization and global growth strategy,” said Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal.

The final inflation report of the year is expected to show that while high consumer prices are slowly beginning to moderate, the path to a normal inflation level could be long and arduous.

The Labor Department is set to release the highly anticipated consumer price index (CPI) report Tuesday morning, providing a fresh look at just how hot inflation ran in November.

Economists expect the gauge
, which measures a basket of goods, including gasoline, health care, groceries and rent, to show that prices rose 0.2% from the previous month – down from the 0.4% reading in October. On an annual basis, inflation is projected to have climbed by 7.3%.

The report is likely to show underlying momentum in inflation as home and rent prices march higher. Core prices, which exclude the more volatile measurements of food and energy, are expected to climb 0.4% from the previous month (up from 0.3% in October) and 6.1% from the same time last year.

Sam Bankman-Fried
, disgraced founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday, authorities said.

Bahamian authorities said Bankman-Fried’s arrest came after the United States filed charges against him and was likely to request extradition. 

“The Bahamas and the United States in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law,” Prime Minister Philip Davis said in a statement.

“While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere.”