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The Morning Risk Report: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Charged With Bribing Chinese Officials
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Good morning. Prosecutors accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried of conspiring to bribe Chinese government officials to regain access to more than $1 billion in frozen cryptocurrency, in a new indictment that charged him with violating U.S. anticorruption law.
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The charges: The indictment, unsealed Tuesday, alleges that in 2021 Mr. Bankman-Fried authorized bribing one or more Chinese government officials with at least $40 million in cryptocurrency to regain access to accounts that the country’s law enforcement had frozen as part of a continuing investigation into a party that traded with his crypto-investment firm, Alameda Research.
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Allegations against SBF: Mr. Bankman-Fried directed Alameda employees to pay the bribe after months of failed attempts to regain control of the accounts, prosecutors said. The accounts were unfrozen at the time a first illicit payment was made, the indictment alleges. Mr. Bankman-Fried then authorized an additional payment of tens of millions of dollars to complete the bribe, the indictment alleges.
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Additional bail restrictions: Under new restrictions imposed by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, Mr. Bankman-Fried will be prohibited from using his parents’ computers and other devices, can visit only preapproved websites and may use only a phone without internet access. A security guard will also screen any visitors for electronic devices, which the guard will confiscate before the person enters Mr. Bankman-Fried’s home.
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WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum
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Join us on May 9 for the WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum, where we will be discussing export controls, sanctions, sustainability, privacy laws, workplace compliance, managing in a downturn and addressing risks at the board level. Sign up here.
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The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network says it is focused on implementing reporting rules to maximize its ability to conduct compliance and enforcement reviews.
PHOTO: EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
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U.S. Treasury to change proposed corporate-ownership reporting form.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it would change its plans for rolling out a corporate-ownership database, after its release of a draft reporting form appeared to give companies a way to opt out of providing certain information and prompted criticism by lawmakers and advocacy groups.
The latest criticism came after FinCEN released the proposed reporting form in January. The form appeared to give companies the option to say they were unable to identify their owners, and to mark “unknown” with respect to key information about them.
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William Hill to pay record $23.7 million in settlement with U.K. Gambling Commission.
Gambling company William Hill will pay about £19.2 million, equivalent to $23.7 million, in the U.K. Gambling Commission’s largest ever enforcement action, as the regulator presses an aggressive crackdown on anti-money-laundering failures.
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The collapse of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank are driving banks to increasingly search for technology tools that can shore up their own financial security and reduce risk. PHOTO: SETH WENIG/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Bank turmoil highlights critical role of risk-mitigation technology.
Turmoil in the banking sector is spotlighting the critical role technology plays in evaluating financial risk and the strengthening ties between IT and risk leaders.
The recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank—the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history, respectively—means banks are increasingly looking to technology tools to shore up their own financial security and reduce risk.
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In Walmart’s cyber risk formula, every bug has a backstory.
At Walmart Inc., a detailed procedure for calculating cyber risk aims to help the global retailer rank where it puts money and people to decrease exposure to hacking.
“Normally when people think of risk, they say, ‘Is it risky, is it not,’” said Russ Buckley, senior director of risk and compliance at Walmart. “We want to decide how risky.”
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Senators rebuked the Federal Reserve for failing to prevent the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank despite identifying risks beforehand, while the central bank’s top regulator blamed the firm’s executives for not fixing its problems.
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Semiconductor companies seeking federal grants under the Chips Act could face a tough decision: take Washington’s help to expand in the U.S., or preserve their ability to expand in China.
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After months of sparring by Washington and Beijing over the Ukraine war, a suspected surveillance balloon, TikTok and other issues, Taiwan is set to return to the center of great power tensions, with the island’s leader traveling to the U.S.
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Erica Williams has been chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for just over a year, and has increased its enforcement efforts. PHOTO: ALYSSA SCHUKAR FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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U.S. audit watchdog proposes move to get inspections started faster.
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board proposed cutting by more than half the amount of time auditors have to assemble final audit documentation, which might allow the audit watchdog to start its inspection process up to a month earlier and provide key information to investors sooner.
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Traders are pulling billions of dollars from Binance as problems plaguing the world’s largest crypto exchange continue to mount.
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tried to prod President Biden into starting talks over spending cuts as a condition for raising the debt ceiling.
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Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. plans to lower some bonus payouts and to assess employee performance more frequently, according to an internal memo.
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The U.S. has informed Russia that it will no longer exchange detailed data on its strategic nuclear forces following Moscow’s decision to suspend its participation in the New START treaty cutting long-range arms, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
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The Pentagon is gearing up for a future conflict in space as China and Russia deploy missiles and lasers that can take out satellites and disrupt military and civilian communications.
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He used to be boss of a tech giant. Now he’s studying fish and rice.
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The metaverse is quickly turning into the meh-taverse.
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