FBI Declares A Vietnam Man Wanted For Money Laundry Worth $3 Billion In Virtual Currency

On March 16, Sputnik radio quoted the US Department of Justice as saying that ChipMixer was dismantled due to its involvement in fraudulent activities, money laundering, hackers, private network market (darknet) ...

US authorities have coordinated with the German federal criminal police to carry out an operation to take down ChipMixer, confiscate servers and more than $ 46 million in cryptocurrency.

"This morning (Main coordination with domestic and foreign partners, the US Department of Justice disabled a cryptocurrency mixing tool that helps promote malware attacks. , state-sponsored purchases of cryptocurrencies and purchases in private network markets globally," the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

The US Department of Justice emphasizes that it will do everything to protect victims and fight criminals in the field of cryptocurrency, and asserts that the ChipMixer crackdown in particular has disrupted dangerous criminal activity. for global cybersecurity.

According to the allegation, from August 2017 to March 2023, ChipMixer was responsible for handling bitcoins used by a foreign intelligence agency. This allegation was first revealed in a joint cybersecurity advisory that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US National Security Agency (NSA) released in August 2020.

Washington also accused ChipMixer of processing nearly $1 billion in bitcoin linked to stolen funds or private network markets during the same period. Some of the funds are believed to be linked to North Korean hackers.

Regarding the ChipMixer case, US authorities have charged Minh Quoc Nguyen, a Vietnamese citizen, with money laundering, operating an unauthorized money transfer network and stealing other people's personal information. The maximum sentence for these crimes is 40 years in prison.

Minh Quoc Nguyen, born in 1973, is from Quang Binh. Minh Quoc Nguyen was charged on March 14 and is wanted by the FBI.

According to the court indictment, ChipMixer allowed customers to send bitcoins, then mix them with the bitcoins of other ChipMixer users, making it difficult for law enforcement and regulators to track their transactions.

ChipMixer serves a wide range of customers in the US but is not registered with the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) nor does it collect identifying information about its customers.

Bank Of England Worried About The Crisis At Credit Suisse

The news comes amid turmoil at Credit Suisse, stoking fears of a widespread banking crisis that is reshaping international financial conditions on a daily, even hourly basis.

However, the Bank of England have declined to comment about this issue.

Shares of Credit Suisse fell more than 20% on March 15, after the chairman of Saudi Nation Bank - Credit Suisse's largest money provider - announced that it would no longer provide financial support, although still rated Credit Suisse is a strong bank.

After European markets closed, the Swiss National Bank issued a statement saying it would provide additional liquidity support to Credit Suisse if needed. This news helped Credit Suisse's shares recover a bit, ending the trading day down 14%.

On March 14, Credit Suisse announced that it had discovered a "significant weakness" in the financial reporting process of previous years.

Shares of other European banks also fell, with Deutsche Bank losing 6.8%.

Many major US banks also suffered damage. Shares of Wells Fargo fell more than 3%, Goldman Sachs fell 3%, JP Morgan 4.7%, and Citigroup 5.4%.

Although Investors “Burned Out” Their Accounts With Over 10 Billion USD, An ETF Still “Carries” More Than 300 Million USD In Management Fees

With management fees twice as high as market rivals, Cathie Wood's Ark fund has consistently broken revenue records while the fund's value has fallen more than 70% since its peak.

Collect fees despite losses

According to the latest statistics of ft.com, the investment fund Ark Investment Management has earned more than 300 million USD in management fees since its inception 9 years ago, while "wiping" 10 billion USD from investors. in the same amount of time.

Investors have continued to pour money into the Ark Disruptive Innovation ETF over the past two years, even though most of their investments have been damaged by the tech stock downturn.

According to data from FactSet, the "loss" period is also when the Ark fund has the highest management fees, with 70% of total revenue coming from after the peak in February 2021, and through 2023, when The situation is still not good, Ark fund still brings in more than 230,000 USD in management fees per day.

"The management fee gave ARK and Cathie Wood employees a good life, but her investors weren't so lucky," said Elisabeth Kashner, director of research and analysis at FactSet. "

Investment style "risky":

The ARK Fund is always ready to "bet" with emerging businesses, especially when that model possesses technology that ARK assesses "will shape the future of technology, robotics, biotechnology or exploration. space danger."

Having achieved many successes in the period 2020 to early 2021, the ARK fund has attracted more than 3 billion USD in investments in just the first two weeks of February 2021, bringing the total asset value to a record 27, 9 billion USD.

However, followed by a series of "nightmare" days when the ARK fund's value dropped continuously, most of which came from a series of "falling" investment deals since the peak of 2021 such as Coinbase, Zoom, Shopify, Tesla…

Many experts have pointed to ARK's "unusually high" management fees of up to 0.75% per year, which is double that of other active ETFs on the market. But according to Morningstar data, the amount of investment in ARK has remained very stable after the crisis period.

"Many investors are running huge deficits, making it impossible for them to make withdrawal and stop-loss decisions," said Ben Johnson, head of client solutions at Morningstar. stuck at the high price they bought, and they'll keep investing in hopes that somehow, ARK will get back to that price."

According to Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi: "Few people decided to withdraw when the ARK fund certificate price improved slightly in early 2023."

On the other hand, with ARK's "horribly high" volatility, many investors have begun to use derivatives to buy and sell short the fund's value, making profits based on the "risky" investment style. network" by Cathie Wood.

What future for Ark's investors?:

"Captain" Cathie Wood told investors in late January that "innovation has been punished," but she continued to pledge that investing in "disruptive innovation" will lead to "exponential growth trajectory" despite incurring huge losses.

Said to be done, the ARK fund continues to launch "bottom-fishing" of many stocks that are on the decline due to unsatisfactory 2022 business results such as Tesla, Nextdoor, Unity Software, and Coinbase.

According to FactSet, since its inception, ARK investors have lost an average of 27% of their capital, meaning that each dollar invested in the fund is now only $0.73. The biggest losers were investors who bought at the peak of ARK's value, when their investment had fallen by more than 74%

This Explains Why The World Gold Price Increased Drastically, The Highest Level In The Past 6 Weeks

Today, the world gold price stood at 1,905 USD/ounce, a sharp increase of 30 USD/ounce compared to the same time the previous day, and also the highest level in the past 6 weeks.

The reason for the sharp increase in gold prices, according to experts, is the reaction of investors after the collapse of Silicon Valley banks and Signature Bank.

Basically, gold is acting as an investor's "haven" to hedge against risk and volatility. The USD price is also falling, which is part of the reason that pulls gold up.

The future of gold depends largely on the effectiveness of the Fed's measures. If the Silicon Valley Bank crash proves to be an isolated case, prices could go down.

However, if this crisis causes the Fed to reverse policy, the demand for gold will increase. This is the opinion of precious metals trader at Heraeus.

Mastercard And Vesta Partner To Deliver Cutting-edge Digital Fraud Detection Solutions In Asia Pacific

Mastercard and Vesta - a comprehensive aannounce the establishment of a new strategic partnership to bring the most advanced fraud management solutions to merchants in Asia - Pacific.

The partnership will include the integration of Mastercard's Cyber & Intelligence (C&I) products and solutions into Vesta's transaction assurance platform, helping merchants avoid online frauds, make more transactions, and expand their business.

The partnership with Vesta also reflects Mastercard's continued investment in market-leading cyber capabilities with the ability to strengthen a broader ecosystem. The combination of cybersecurity solutions, including behavioral biometrics, pre-dispute resolution, identity verification, and Mastercard's market expertise, will bring provides merchants with complete protection against chargeback fraud, and incorporates transaction information such as payment risk scores, or chargeback warnings.

A recent study by Juniper Research shows that the total damage caused by fraud in e-commerce to businesses globally will surpass the $48 billion mark by 2023, up sharply from more than $41 billion in 2022. The study also found that 22% of global fraud occurred in the Asia-Pacific region.

As more and more consumers choose to shop online, verifying identities, preventing data leaks and dealing with fraud in real time are becoming challenges for many consumers. enterprise.

Mastercard and Vesta's new partnership will help solve this problem and help businesses in the Asia-Pacific region simplify risk management by providing institutions Mastercard merchants with comprehensive protection before, during and after the transaction. The partnership also promises enhanced digital payment experiences for consumers in the region, while strengthening trust in e-commerce.

Businesses can start using this service in the second quarter of this year.

Karthik Ramanathan, Senior Vice President of Intelligence and Network Solutions, Mastercard, Asia Pacific, said: “QThe partnership with Vesta is a prime example of Mastercard's commitment to building strategic partnerships with key players in the payments and technology ecosystem. Mastercard is delighted to have the opportunity to partner with and meet the cybersecurity needs of users in the Asia-Pacific region, helping to ensure a safe and secure digital economy in the region. Safer, more seamless and more secure.

Shabab Muhaddes, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Asia Pacific, Vesta shared :We are honored to partner with Mastercard to bring innovations in the field of Cyber and Intelligence. Through this strategic partnership, merchants will benefit from integration into Vesta's decision engine to be able to approve more legitimate transactions, avoiding solely responsible for the fraud of the refund. This solution allows businesses to stop worrying about fraud and focus on increasing sales and improving customer experience."

Binance's Asset Shuffle Has Many Similarities To FTX's "Disaster"

By the end of 2022, Binance had quietly transferred $1.8 billion in customer stablecoin collateral to hedge funds, including Alameda and Cumberland/DRW.

Alameda Research hedge fund without the user's permission. While the temporary transfer of funds to Cumberland/DRW and elsewhere has not caused any harm to investors, it could cause trouble for business partners.

Cryptocurrency investigative firm Coin Argos was the first to raise concerns about Binance not following the rules of how it operates and about the ongoing lack of collateral to secure billions of dollars in tokens. issued by the exchange. "Someone received a loan worth about $1 billion in about 100 days," the company said in a January 17 report.

Fortune also reported that Binance liquidated USDC collateral and used the proceeds to pay US minting partner Paxos to generate new BUSD. Fortune speculates the goal could be to increase the market share of the USD-based stablecoin BUSD.

According to Forbes, it is hard to ignore the similarities with the transactions that contributed to the crisis and collapse at FTX. While FTX is accused of embezzling customer deposits to benefit the Alameda hedge fund also managed by founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Binance appears to have taken customer funds to use for its own purposes. its own destination. These actions may not be illegal, simply because Binance is not regulated like a regular financial company.

However, on February 28, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao spoke up and affirmed that “Binance is different from FTX”. He said that Binance has overcome the difficult period, users can still withdraw in full in December 2022.

This is not the first time that Binance's performance has been compared to that of FTX. At the end of December 2022, Reuters cited a report that showed Binance's financial situation as a blurry picture, even "more opaque than FTX".

At that time, users rushed to withdraw $ 900 million from the exchange. At the end of January, Binance lost another 2 billion USD citing “poor management”. In mid-February, BUSD was banned and users withdrew nearly 3 billion USD in just 24 hours.

Crypto Lender Genesis Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Following FTX Crash

According to the Wall Street Journal, cryptocurrency lender Genesis Global Holdco LLC and two of its subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy protection in New York. This is yet another company affected by the collapse of FTX.

According to reports, cryptocurrency prices will begin to plummet at the end of 2021. Before Genesis, cryptocurrency lenders Celsius Network LLC and Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy last July.

Specifically, Genesis and its two subsidiaries, Genesis Global Capital LLC and Genesis Asia Pacific, have filed for bankruptcy protection.

Genesis stated that it has more than US$150 million in cash on hand, which "can provide sufficient liquidity to support continued business operations and facilitate the restructuring process."

Genesis Global Trading cut 30% of its workforce earlier this month, people familiar with the matter said, in the latest sign of the company's financial troubles.

Coinbase To Cease Operations In Japan Amid Turbulent Market Conditions

All Coinbase Japan customers have until February 16 to withdraw their fiat and cryptocurrency holdings, Coinbase said in a blog post.

Pickpook learned that Coinbase announced last week that it will launch a second round of major layoffs, planning to lay off 950 people, accounting for about 20% of the company's employees, with the aim of retaining more cash during the downturn in the cryptocurrency market.

In June last year, Coinbase had already carried out its first round of layoffs, cutting 18% of its employees.

Bitcoin prices have fallen 58% over the past year, while Coinbase shares have fallen more than 83%, according to the data. In November last year, Coinbase's market value fell below $10 billion for the first time since its listing.

Genesis, The World's Largest Crypto Currency Lender, Announced A 30% Layoff Due To Financial Difficulties

According to the Wall Street Journal, Genesis Global Trading, the world's largest crypto lender, cut 30% of its workforce on Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal, in the latest sign of financial difficulties for the company.

US media pointed out that the company suffered huge losses due to loans provided to trading firm Alameda Research and cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. Alameda and Three Arrows both filed for bankruptcy last year.

Pickpook learned that a Genesis spokesperson said: “As we continue to overcome unprecedented industry challenges, Genesis has made the difficult decision to lay off employees around the world. These measures are part of our ongoing efforts to drive business development.”

Earlier, Genesis interim CEO Derar Islim said the company needed more time to resolve the financial crisis that was brewing in the business.

Sam Bankman-Fried, Former FTX CEO Pleads not Guilty of not Defrauding Investors and Causing Lost of Billion Dollars

According to Nikkei Asia, during the trial on January 3, the former CEO of FTX pleaded not guilty to eight counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and violation of war finance laws. election translation. The trial was presided over by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court.

Judge Kaplan set the date for the trial to be October 2. Federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon estimated that the trial could last four weeks and said the administration would soon turn over hundreds of thousands of documentary evidence to defense attorneys.

SBF is accused of taking billions of dollars in customer deposits on crypto exchange FTX to fund its Alameda Research hedge fund, buy real estate and contribute millions of dollars to political activities.

Defendants facing criminal charges often initially plead not guilty. However, they may change their mind after a few hearings.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Bankman-Fried "staged a multi-year scam" to conceal FTX investors' money transfers to Alameda Research, the firm. other cryptocurrency exchanges that this person established. The SEC also confirmed that it is conducting investigations into “other violations of securities laws” and investigating the organizations and individuals involved.

In fact, if convicted of all counts, Sam Bankman-Fried could face up to 115 years in prison.

Sam is one of the people who has fueled the explosion in the value of Bitcoin and other digital assets. During his peak, the founder of FTX had a net worth of $26 billion and became one of the richest cryptocurrency billionaires in the world.

However, after a wave of withdrawals, FTX collapsed and declared bankruptcy on 11/11/2022. This makes SBF's net worth almost zero. The founder of FTX once claimed that he only had about 100,000 USD left in his bank account.

Previously, on December 12, 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by the Bahamas authorities. This arrest was made after the US bar team of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) shared a sealed indictment with the Bahamas government, setting the stage for the extradition and trial of the billionaire money tycoon. One-time electronics will take place in America.

Since being released on $250 million bail on December 22, 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried has been under remote surveillance and has had to live with his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both teachers. professor at Stanford Law School in California.

Judge Kaplan granted Sam Bankman-Fried's request not to disclose the names of two of the people who signed the minutes of bail payments to the founders of FTX.

Sam's attorney said his parents have received numerous threats since the collapse of FTX. According to the same lawyer, the names that bailed out Sam Bankman-Fried may also face similar harassment, so their identities are kept private.

The judge also imposed a new bail condition on Bankman-Fried's inability to access FTX or Alameda assets. The charges brought against Sam Bankman-Fried by prosecutors were bolstered by confessions last month from two of his closest associates.

Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda, and Gary Wang, former chief technology officer of FTX, pleaded guilty to seven and four criminal charges, respectively, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. SBF, Ellison and Wang were also sued by the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Ellison and Wang settled those civil lawsuits.

FTX's new CEO, John Ray, said FTX is run by people who are "completely inexperienced".