Corruption is Everywhere > Billions in Bitcoin Lost to Criminals - FTX and Inner Mongolia

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Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried busted in Bahamas,

charged with defrauding investors out of $1.8B

By Emily Crane and Lee Brown

December 12, 2022 6:52pm  Updated

Accused crypto crook Sam Bankman-Fried has been busted in the Bahamas — accused of “massive, years-long fraud” that defrauded investors out of $1.8 billion through “a house of cards” built “on a foundation of deception.”

The fallen 30-year-old FTX mogul was arrested Monday night after the Bahamian government received formal notification from the US of charges against him.

The US attorney for the Southern District of New York is expected to charge him Tuesday with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering.

As he awaited his first appearance before a magistrate in the Bahamas on Tuesday, he was separately charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“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 while revealing the civil complaint.

“The alleged fraud committed by Mr. Bankman-Fried is a clarion call to crypto platforms that they need to come into compliance with our laws.”

Disgraced former FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday.

Getty Images

The SEC complaint says that “Bankman-Fried raised more than $1.8 billion from investors” who believed “that FTX had appropriate controls and risk management measures.”

“Unbeknownst to those investors (and to FTX’s trading customers), Bankman-Fried was orchestrating a massive, years-long fraud, diverting billions of dollars of the trading platform’s customer funds for his own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire.”

Bankman-Fried “portrayed himself as a responsible leader of the crypto community” and “touted the importance of regulation and accountability,” the complaint says.

A house in the Bahamas linked to disgraced FTX co-founder Bankman-Fried. Albany Bahamas

It just seems odd to me that the house and yard of such a chronic liar would be built with so many straight lines. Curious.

“Customers around the world believed his lies, and sent billions of dollars to FTX, believing their assets were secure.”

Bankman-Fried also “placed billions of dollars of FTX customer funds into Alameda,” his privately held crypto fund, without telling them, the complaint alleges.

“He then used Alameda as his personal piggy bank to buy luxury condominiums, support political campaigns, and make private investments, among other uses,” the complaint reads. 

“None of this was disclosed to FTX equity investors or to the platform’s trading customers.”

China arrests 63 in $1.7 billion crypto money laundering scheme

By Simon Druker

   

Police in northern China arrested 63 people over the weekend, accused of laundering nearly $1.7 billion worth of

Chinese Yuan using cryptocurrency. Photo courtesy of Public Security Bureau of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Police in northern China arrested 63 people accused of laundering nearly $1.7 billion worth of Chinese yuan using cryptocurrency.

The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau announced the arrests on Saturday, seizing around $4.5 million in Chinese currency in the process.

Those arrested have ties to a money laundering gang, which started operating in May 2021, according to police.

This comes amid a growing crackdown from Beijing on China's crypto market, which ranks fourth worldwide, despite an official ban on trading.

Police accused the gang of collecting illicit proceeds from online pyramid schemes, fraud and gambling among other sources. Those involved then converted the cash into Tether, a stablecoin on par with the U.S. dollar.

The money was eventually converted back into Chinese yuan, through several different cryptocurrencies.

Police say the participants used the messaging app Telegram, which is banned in China, to recruit international participants and help launder the money back into Chinese currency.

More than 200 police officers were involved in the operation in the northern region of the country. A pair of suspects were also traced to Bangkok, Thailand and extradited to China, according to police.

Investigators were first tipped off in July, after identifying a bank account with regular monthly deposits of around $1.4 million or 10 million yuan.

China has been trying to root out cryptocurrency from its financial markets for more than a year. In June 2021, Beijing publicized a multi-billion-dollar shutdown of the crypto trading industry.

Despite the official ban, the country still has a large underground community.

Chinese authorities arrested over 1,100 people in 2021 in relation to crypto-related money laundering.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, these two stories make it clear that you should only invest in crypto-currencies with money you can afford to lose.

Bits and Bites > 20 People Disappear on Fanatical Pilgrimage; Man catches shark with human body inside

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More than a dozen people vanished two weeks ago after following a woman into the Andes Mountains when she told them she received a revelation from the Virgin Mary

By ADRY TORRES FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 17:09 EDT, 7 September 2022 | 

Up to 20 people, including five children, remain missing in Venezuela after going on a spiritual retreat led by a woman who says the Virgin Mary told her the world was about to end. 

Rosa García, 57, is said to have initially persuaded as many as 40 people in the Táchira town of La Grita to join on her trip to Juan Pablo Peñaloza National Park on August 22, according to La Nacion newspaper.

García allegedly told the group that they would be having a spiritual encounter with God or the Virgin Mary at an unknown area in the park that is located along the border of the western states of Táchira and Mérida.

They were expected to return Thursday and were reported missing later that day after they failed to show up at their homes.

Authorities in Venezuela are searching for more than a dozen people who have been reported missing

after a 57-year-old woman in La Grita, Táchira convinced them to join her on a spiritual retreat. 

She apparently told her followers that the Virgin Mary told her the world was about to end

Some of the individuals dropped out of the group when García started behaving erratically, La Nacion reported.

García instructed the group that they could no longer worship the Holy Christ of La Grita, that they were not to look the Virgin Mary in the eyes and that they were to discard their cellular phones.

Authorities said Wednesday that nine of the individuals missing are from the same family and that the group is traveling in two vehicles.

La Grita Mayor Juan Carlos Escalante said that 160 members from a search and rescue team and law enforcement agencies were looking for the group. Drones and sniffer dogs were also deployed as part of a wider search.

The mountainous town of La Grita sits 4,725 feet above sea level.

On Monday, authorities discovered an abandoned farm where some of the people who are still unaccounted for discarded several clothing items and left food behind.

Locals said García dropped out of a neighborhood prayer group and formed her own, called 'Following Jesus.'  The group would frequently get together to hold prayer sessions for people battling illnesses.

Others recalled that García's group 'switched from religious practices to fanaticism' and noticed that group members 'spent their time beating their chests' while promoting their religious ideas.

Some said that García's family thought she was mentally unstable.

'She sent people to confession, to go to mass and to pray,' a resident told La Nacion. 'She said that many bad things were coming, that Christ cried tears of blood for what we all do. That the world was going to end.'

Since March, none of the group members were allowed to watch television and had to start praying at 3am every day, digital news outlet Impacto Venezuela reported. Women were also urged not to do their hair and could not show their faces when they left their homes.

During a mass held Sunday at the La Grita Minor Basilica of the Holy Spirit, Father Jesús Mora warned the congregation to be aware of people like García who could do more harm than good.

'You have to be afraid of fanatics, because a fanatic can do a lot of damage,' Mora said. 'God doesn't want us to be fanatics.'

García is not married and administered her own station at a food stand owned by her sister Teresa García - one of her 13 siblings.

She allegedly was able to influence Teresa to join the retreat along with her husband, two children, son-in-law and grandson.

Horrifying moment banker catches tiger shark with human remains

inside the beast’s stomach after foot pops out

Katie Davis

10:55, 8 Sep 2022

A BANKER was horrified after realising the tiger shark he had caught had human remains inside its belly after the beast coughed up a foot.

Humphrey Simmons was fishing in waters off the Bahamas with pals when he snared the "unusually heavy" 12-foot predator.

Authorities found the remains of a man inside the shark - except his head

But as Simmons went to cut the hook from the shark's jaws, a human foot suddenly popped out, The Tribune reported.

He said: "We were going to cut the hook out of his mouth and let him go when he regurgitated a human foot. Everything was intact from the knee down. It was mangled, but there was still flesh on the bone."

The stunned fishermen - fearing there may be more bodies inside - took the shark to shore in Nassau and it was cut open. Inside, disgusted authorities found the severed remains of a man - minus his head.

The shark had regurgitated the man's left leg, and his right leg, two arms and two - split in two - were found in its stomach.

Forensic examiners completed DNA tests on the mutilated body parts, confirming the remains appeared to be at least a couple of days old.

They could not say for sure whether the man was dead or alive when eaten by the beast.

Considering that his head was not present, my guess is that he was not alive at the time. That was one greedy shark - so full from the man it swallowed and yet it took the bait from the banker-fisherman.

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