According to the latest figures, Metaplanet, a company listed on the Japanese stock exchange, witnessed its share price soar by nearly 90% in just one day. This significant jump came on the heels of the company’s announcement regarding its intention to incorporate 1 billion yen in bitcoin into its balance sheet. Metaplanet Joins Forces With […]
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Oil prices finished higher Thursday for a fifth straight session, buoyed by rising tensions in the Middle East after Israel’s recent strike on Iran’s consulate in Syria.
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NEW YORK (AP) — New York state lawyers increased their request for penalties to over $370 million Friday in Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial. He retorted, “They should pay me.”
The exchange came as lawyers for both sides filed papers highlighting their takeaways from the trial in court filings ahead of closing arguments, set for next Thursday. Trump is expected to attend, though plans could change.
It will be the final chance for state and defense lawyers to make their cases. The civil lawsuit, which accuses the leading Republican presidential hopeful of deceiving banks and insurers by vastly inflating his net worth, is consequential for him even while he fights four criminal cases in various courts.
The New York civil case could end up barring him from doing business in the state where he built his real estate empire. On top of that, state Attorney General Letitia James is seeking the $370 million penalty, plus interest — up from a pretrial figure of $250 million, nudged to over $300 million during the proceeding.
The state says the new sum reflects windfalls from wrongdoing, chiefly $199 million in profits from property sales and $169 million in savings on interest rates, as calculated by an investment banking expert hired by James’ office.
Trump bristled at the proposed penalty, calling it “a disgrace” at a campaign stop in Sioux Center, Iowa.
“There was no victim. There was no default. There was no damages. No nothing,” he said. In an all-caps post hours earlier on his Truth Social platform, he complained that the attorney general was seeking $370 million and instead “should pay me,” asserting that businesses are fleeing New York.
(According to the state Labor Department, the number of private sector jobs in New York increased 1% in the year that ended this past November, compared to 1.6% nationally.)
James’ office argued in a filing Friday that Trump, his company and executives clearly intended to defraud people.
“The myriad deceptive schemes they employed to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation,” state lawyer Kevin Wallace wrote.
The state alleges Trump and his company ginned up exorbitant values for golf courses, hotels, and more, including Trump’s former home in his namesake tower in New York and his current home at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. The numbers were listed on personal financial statements that netted him attractive rates on loans and insurance, leaving him money to invest in other projects and even his 2016 presidential campaign, James’ office says.
The defendants, including Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric, deny any wrongdoing. The former president has painted the case as a political maneuver by James, Judge Arthur Engoron and other Democrats, saying they’re abusing the legal system to try to cut off his chances of winning back the White House this year.
He asserts that his financial statements actually came in billions of dollars low, and that any overestimations — such as valuing his Trump Tower penthouse at nearly three times its actual size — were mere mistakes and made no difference in the overall picture of his fortune.
He also says the documents are essentially legally bulletproof because they said the numbers weren’t audited, among other caveats. Recipients understood them as simply starting points for their own analyses, the defense says.
None of Trump’s lenders testified that they wouldn’t have made the loans or would have charged more interest if his financial statements had shown different numbers, and 10-plus weeks of testimony produced “no factual evidence from any witness that the gains were ill-gotten,” attorneys Michael Madaio and Christopher Kise wrote in a filing Friday. Nor, they said, was there proof that insurers were ripped off.
Separately, defense lawyers argued that claims against Executive Vice Presidents Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. should be dismissed because they never had “anything more than a peripheral knowledge or involvement in the creation, preparation, or use of” their father’s financial statements.
The sons relied on the work of other Trump Organization executives and an outside accounting firm that prepared those documents, attorneys Clifford Robert and Michael Farina said, echoing the scions’ own testimony.
Their father also took the stand, disputing the allegations, decrying the case as political and criticizing the judge and the attorney general. James’ office argued in its filing Friday that Trump was “not a credible witness.”
“He was evasive, gave irrelevant speeches and was incapable of answering questions in a direct and credible manner,” Wallace wrote.
The verdict is up to the judge because James brought the case under a state law that doesn’t allow for a jury. Engoron has said he hopes to decide by the end of this month.
He will weigh claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records. But he ruled before trial on the lawsuit’s top claim, finding that Trump and other defendants engaged in fraud for years. With that ruling, the judge ordered that a receiver take control of some of the ex-president’s properties, but an appeals court has frozen that order for now.
During the trial, Engoron fined Trump a total of $15,000 after finding that he violated a gag order. The order, imposed after Trump maligned a law clerk, barred all trial participants from commenting publicly on the judge’s staff.
Trump’s lawyers are appealing the gag order.
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Contributing were Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak and Jill Colvin in New York and Hannah Fingerhut in Sioux Center, Iowa.
Kraken said it is “always looking to identify and solve for new industry challenges and opportunities,” in a Nov. 7 email sent to CryptoSlate. The exchange made this statement in response to recent speculations about its potential development of a layer-2 network.
While the email neither confirmed nor denied the rumors, it underscored Kraken’s commitment to identifying and resolving industry challenges.
Kraken’s co-founder Jesse Powell also failed to provide additional information about the development. Powell posted a gif on social media platform X on Nov. 7, claiming that he “has no idea.”
Layer 2 networks are scaling solution that builds and improves upon Layer 1. These projects usually aim at providing scalability and speed to the ecosystem.
Over the past week, reports have indicated that Kraken may be following in the footsteps of Coinbase by exploring the establishment of its layer-2 network.
Some reports also suggested that the exchange might collaborate with crypto firms like Polygon or Matter Labs to develop the rumored layer-2 protocol.
The specifics of such a partnership, if it materializes, remain undisclosed at this stage.
Meanwhile, the rumored scaling network gained further traction due to a recent job posting on Kraken’s website. The job posting advertised a position for a Senior Cryptography Engineer responsible for designing and implementing layer-2 solutions.
The job listing expressed enthusiasm for delving into layer-2 technologies and collaborating with others on on-chain scaling solutions. The exchange also mentioned its ongoing exploration of integrating more protocols and decentralized applications into its platform.
Meanwhile, Kraken’s potential move follows a pattern in the crypto industry, where major players are increasingly exploring layer-2 solutions to alleviate the strain on the Ethereum mainnet.
Earlier in the year, Coinbase launched Base, an initiative aimed at supporting Coinbase’s on-chain products and fostering an open ecosystem for developers.
Nokia’s cost reduction plan is a strategic move aimed at addressing the challenging market environment it currently faces.
Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia Oyj (HEL: NOKIA) has revealed plans to cut up to 14,000 jobs as part of a comprehensive cost reduction strategy, prompted by a substantial drop in Q3 2023 earnings.
According to reports, Nokia’s decision to cut jobs and streamline its operations is in direct response to its third-quarter earnings report, which made clear the extent of the company’s challenges. The company reported a substantial 20% year-on-year decline in net sales, which dropped to 4.98 billion Euros.
Additionally, profit for the period plummeted by a staggering 69% year-on-year, coming in at just 133 million Euros. One of the primary factors contributing to Nokia’s earnings decline is the slowing global economy.
The telecommunications industry is highly sensitive to economic fluctuations, and as the global economy faces headwinds, companies like Nokia inevitably feel the impact. Additionally, mobile operators’ decisions to cut back on infrastructure spending have also taken a toll on Nokia’s financial performance.
Nokia’s cost reduction plan is a strategic move aimed at addressing the challenging market environment it currently faces. The company intends to enhance its operational efficiency and trim down its cost base, starting in 2023.
Nokia has set a target to reduce its cost base by between 800 million Euros ($842.5 million) and 1.2 billion Euros by the end of 2026. This reduction is expected to result in a downsizing of the workforce, taking the number of employees from its current 86,000 down to a range between 72,000 and 77,000.
Nokia, like many other technology companies, has been affected by a slowing global economy. Reduced consumer spending and uncertainty in the market have had a ripple effect on the telecommunications industry.
The heart of Nokia’s operations, its mobile networks business, faced significant difficulties in the third quarter. Sales from this unit, which generates the most revenue for the company, declined by 24% year-on-year to 2.16 billion Euros. The division’s operating profit took an even more severe hit, plummeting by 64% year-on-year.
Nokia attributed much of this decline to struggles in North America, a key market for the company. Sales volumes in India were also described as “moderated,” with the company noting that 5G deployments were beginning to normalize.
Nokia’s cost reduction plan, while difficult for its employees, may be necessary to navigate these turbulent times. The company, which has a long history in the telecommunications sector, will need to adapt to shifting market dynamics and continue investing in research and development to stay competitive.
Meanwhile, Nokia is not the only technology giant facing financial challenges. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX: 005930), has also reported a significant drop in operating profit, largely due to the prolonged slump in memory chip prices. However, analysts remain hopeful that the semiconductor industry will rebound, potentially boosting profitability in the fourth quarter with significant production cuts.
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Benjamin Godfrey is a blockchain enthusiast and journalist who relishes writing about the real life applications of blockchain technology and innovations to drive general acceptance and worldwide integration of the emerging technology. His desire to educate people about cryptocurrencies inspires his contributions to renowned blockchain media and sites.
Decentralized social media protocol Friend.Tech has introduced a two-factor authentication (2FA) security feature following recent sim-swap attacks on its users.
In an Oct. 9 post on X (formerly Twitter), Friend.Tech disclosed that its users can further bolster the security of their accounts by implementing a 2FA that adds a layer of protection, especially in cases where a user’s mobile carrier or email service has been compromised.
With the new development, FriendTech users must enter their passwords each time they log in from a new device. This update follows a prior security improvement that allowed users to change their login methods on the platform.
Friend.Tech urged its users to exercise caution when using the feature as its team, nor that of privy can help its users recover or reset their passwords. The team had previously delayed the introduction of the 2FA because it wanted to address this password reset challenge.
This move is part of the protocol’s effort to curb an increase in the recent sim-swap attacks suffered by its users. CryptoSlate previously reported that around $20 million of the platform users’ funds were at risk of these attacks.
The crypto community has welcomed news of the introduction of the 2FA, with some projecting that this could help the platform soar to new highs.
One of the most popular accounts on Friend.Tech, “0xCaptainLevi,” emphasized the significance of the 2FA. According to the creator, the new security update could propel the total value of assets (TVL) locked on the social media platform to $100 million.
Data from DeFillama shows that the protocol’s TVL currently sits at $44.63 million as of press time.
Meanwhile, SlowMist founder Cos said Friend.Tech users should remain vigilant of their operating environment. Cos said:
“Once there are Trojans and the like, no 2FA can protect you. Including not being tricked into executing JavaScript code of unknown origin in the friend.tech running browser console, otherwise you will be finished.”
Earlier today, The Defiant head of news Yyctrader revealed that they lost 22 ETH to “an elaborate phishing scam.” It was unclear if the theft had occurred despite their implementation of the 2FA.
The post FriendTech rolls out two-factor authentication in response to sim-swap attacks appeared first on CryptoSlate.
The recent decision by Bybit to suspend its operations in the United Kingdom is not an isolated incident within the crypto industry.
In a sudden turn of events, crypto exchange Bybit has announced its decision to suspend its operations in the United Kingdom. This move comes just a week after the company expressed its commitment to explore all available options to continue operating within the country.
The company has outlined a timeline for these changes, providing clarity to its customers. As of October 1, new customers will be unable to open accounts on the platform, while existing customers will face further restrictions on their activities on the exchange, including the inability to add funds, create new contracts, or increase their positions by October 8.
However, existing customers of Bybit will still have some limited options after the restrictions come into effect. They will be able to reduce and close their positions, allowing them to manage their existing holdings.
Additionally, UK Customers who are affected by these measures are strongly encouraged by Bybit to take action by January 8, 2024, at 8 AM UTC, to manage and wind down their positions. After this deadline, any remaining open positions will be subject to liquidation, but the liquidated funds will be available for withdrawal.
The date of October 8th holds particular significance in Bybit’s decision to suspend its U.K. operations. This is the same date when firms operating in the crypto space must comply with UK rules governing advertising and promotions.
These regulations require crypto firms to be registered with the country’s market regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in order to approve advertisements and communications related to their services. Unfortunately for Bybit, the exchange is not listed on the FCA’s crypto register, rendering it ineligible to continue its advertising and promotional activities in the UK after October 8th.
The decision reflects the company’s commitment to complying with evolving regulations and maintaining transparency in its operations. By suspending its UK services, Bybit aims to avoid regulatory non-compliance and any associated consequences.
The recent decision by Bybit to suspend its operations in the United Kingdom is not an isolated incident within the crypto industry. Several other prominent crypto firms have taken similar actions in response to new regulatory changes and the evolving landscape of digital asset regulations in the U.K.
Last month, PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL), one of the world’s largest payment companies and a major player in the crypto space, revealed its decision to temporarily pause its crypto services in the U.K. until the following year.
Similarly, Luno, a crypto exchange owned by Digital Currency Group (DCG), has also taken steps to comply with the changing regulatory environment. The exchange has decided to restrict some of their UK clients from making further investments through their exchange.
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Benjamin Godfrey is a blockchain enthusiast and journalist who relishes writing about the real life applications of blockchain technology and innovations to drive general acceptance and worldwide integration of the emerging technology. His desire to educate people about cryptocurrencies inspires his contributions to renowned blockchain media and sites.
Changpeng Zhao, billionaire and chief executive officer of Binance Holdings Ltd., speaks during a session at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022.
Zed Jameson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Crypto exchange Binance is laying off employees in response to an ongoing Justice Department probe that is likely to end with a consent decree or settlement, according to a current employee who is familiar with the company’s plans.
The cuts will eliminate 1,500 to 3,000 of Binance’s global workforce, this person told CNBC, and will take place through the end of the year. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on Friday that 1,000 employees have already been laid off, and those layoffs are part of the total planned, the source told CNBC. This person asked to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to talk to the press about internal matters.
The Justice Department probe will likely reshape the company fundamentally, the employee told CNBC. If Binance opts to settle the DOJ allegations, it could result in a multi-billion dollar payment. Reuters has reported that federal prosecutors have been weighing anti-money laundering violations and sanctions evasion charges, allegations that would make it difficult for Binance or founder Changpeng Zhao to continue to get licenses to operate.
A Binance spokesperson disputed that the cuts would impact 3,000 employees, saying that the high-end number was “just not right.”
The spokesperson said, “As we prepare for the next major bull cycle, it has become clear that we need to focus on talent density across the organization to ensure we remain nimble and dynamic. This is not a case of rightsizing, but rather, re-evaluating whether we have the right talent and expertise in critical roles.”
Binance has faced significant regulatory challenges over the last few months, culminating in lawsuits from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over alleged mishandling of customer assets and the operation of an illegal, unregistered exchange in the U.S.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has repeatedly dismissed concerns about the future of the exchange, even after being personally named in the SEC’s lawsuit. Binance itself has suffered significantly since the lawsuits from U.S. regulators, with exchange outflows running into the hundreds of millions. The company has also seen a number of key executive departures.
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