Good morning. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers of the doomed crypto exchange, in what prosecutors called one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.

The verdict, delivered by a New York federal jury, capped the stunning fall of the onetime crypto king, whose shaggy-haired boy-genius persona helped catapult FTX into a powerhouse trading platform that sponsored sports teams and ran glitzy ads featuring football great Tom Brady, model Gisele Bündchen and comedian Larry David.

The crypto exchange abruptly crashed a year ago, with customers losing billions of dollars. Bankman-Fried, 31 years old, was indicted in December 2022 and agreed to leave his home in the Bahamas to face an array of fraud charges. Near the end of the monthlong trial, Bankman-Fried took the risky move of testifying in his own defense.

For federal prosecutors, the verdict was an expected victory after putting forward what many observers saw as a powerful case that included 18 witnesses. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued that he wasn’t the movie villain prosecutors described him as but a math nerd and entrepreneur trying his best to build a business in an emerging industry.

Uber, Lyft to pay New York $328 million over wage-theft claims.

Uber and Lyft have agreed to pay a combined $328 million to resolve the New York attorney general’s allegations that the ride-hailing giants cheated drivers out of their wages.

Attorney General Letitia James said Uber will pay $290 million while Lyft will pay $38 million to resolve claims that the companies’ policies withheld pay from drivers and prevented them from receiving valuable benefits available under New York’s labor laws.

The fight over return-to-office is turning into a disability dispute.

The return-to-office battle between workers and employers is entering a more combative phase. Workers are filing more charges of disability discrimination to federal and state agencies, and an increasing share of the charges are based on mental-health conditions such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Though agencies don’t disclose the events leading to the charges, the increase is driven partly by employers requiring that workers return to workplaces and denying some of their requests for exemptions, according to lawyers, government officials and disability advocates.

• The Justice Department’s investigation of Live Nation is focusing on whether the company uses anticompetitive agreements with venues and other partners to book top talent and serve as the ticketing provider for their shows, according to people familiar with the matter.
   
• Shein, known for its ultra-affordable clothes shipped from China, is enlisting top Western executives in its quest to go truly global. Beyond adding global expertise that could help Shein tackle compliance and image challenges, the effort to bring on board more diverse leadership could also help boost investors’ confidence ahead of a potential U.S. stock listing.
   
• The Internal Revenue Service won a $109 million victory in federal court this week that will help the tax agency combat aggressive corporate tax maneuvers and collect more money from other companies.
   
• Amazon.com discussed how its pricing policies had a “punitive aspect” on sellers, according to internal documents quoted in newly unredacted portions of the Federal Trade Commission’s monopoly lawsuit against the company.
   
• The Royal Bank of Canada agreed to pay $6 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it violated securities laws over its accounting for the costs of software it developed in-house, the regulator said Thursday.

Ukraine war risks stalemate, armed forces chief says.

The commander of Ukraine’s armed forces says the war with Russia is at risk of becoming a stalemate and Kyiv would need a major upgrade in weapons and technological capabilities to regain the initiative.

In an interview and essay for the Economist, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhniy, Ukraine’s top military commander, said the war was entering a new phase of “static and attritional fighting, as in the First World War.”

• Russia’s Wagner Group Plans to Send Air Defenses to Hezbollah, U.S. Says

• State and federal watchdogs want to know more about your cybersecurity risks and protections, as well as details about significant hacks.
   
• Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his deputies are speaking with their counterparts in Arab states about plans for governing Gaza after Israel finishes its main military operations there.
   
• Delta recently appointed company veteran Amelia DeLuca as its chief sustainability officer. DeLuca talked to WSJ Pro about Delta’s multistage approach to cutting its footprint, why the anti-ESG movement doesn’t make sense for an airline, and how she is thinking about carbon offsets and this year’s United Nations’ COP climate conference.
   
• Small-business owners in the U.S. are still dealing with a tight labor market, the National Federation of Independent Business said in its October Small Business Jobs Report.

• Layoffs, budget cuts and general skimping are putting pressure on cybersecurity teams, which are pausing hiring and tech investment.
   
• Wall Street firms are struggling to capture staff communications as regulators require while the ways employees talk to each other change.
   
• The collapse of one of the largest U.S. trucking companies is propping up competitors and raising prices in a lean freight market.
   
• Listen to Ulta Beauty’s chief marketing officer discuss how the right price strategy can play into beauty consumers’ desire to experiment, even in an inflationary environment.

• Ford Motor, General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis agreed to pay striking workers for their time on the picket lines, as part of new labor deals reached late last month with the United Auto Workers to end the union’s walkout.
   
• Apple said quarterly sales fell for the fourth consecutive quarter, including a decline in China that came as the company faces a broad economic slowdown in the country and new competition from rival Huawei Technologies.
   
• More than two dozen large law firms urged university deans to address antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assaults reported on college campuses in recent weeks.
   
• Toyota Motor is recalling more than 1.8 million RAV4 vehicles over a potential fire risk, the company said.
   
• Amazon is closing its physical clothing stores, ending a brief attempt to bring its fashion offerings to bricks-and-mortar spaces.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Follow Risk & Compliance editor David Smagalla @DSmagalla_DJ and reporters Mengqi Sun @_MengqiSun, Dylan Tokar @dgtokar and Richard Vanderford @VanderfordRich.

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