Tag: Frauds and Swindling

Takeaways From a New Book on Sam Bankman-Fried

On the same day that Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial on federal fraud charges begins, the best-selling author Michael Lewis is set to publish a widely anticipated book on Tuesday about Mr. Bankman-Fried’s failed cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. Mr. Lewis, the author of “The Blind Side,” “The Big Short” and “Moneyball,” spent months interviewing Mr. Bankman-Fried and other […]

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Book Review: ‘Going Infinite,’ by Michael Lewis

GOING INFINITE: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, by Michael Lewis Reading “Going Infinite,” Michael Lewis’s strange new book about the disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, you soon get the sense that Lewis felt unusually flummoxed by his material. Among the reliable pleasures offered by a Michael Lewis book are his formidable storytelling […]

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What We Know About New York’s Fraud Case Against Donald Trump

When a New York judge ruled on Sept. 26 that Donald J. Trump had committed fraud by inflating his assets, he effectively said that the heart of the case against the former president would not be subject to debate during his trial. The civil case was brought by Letitia James, the New York attorney general, […]

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Trump’s Fraud Trial Starts With Attacks on Attorney General and Judge

The trials of Donald J. Trump began Monday in a New York courtroom, where the former president made an appearance to fight the first of several government actions against him — a civil case that imperils his company and threatens his image as a master of the business world. The case, brought by Letitia James, […]

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Who’s Rooting Hardest for a Sam Bankman-Fried Conviction? The Crypto Industry.

Travis Kling has spent a lot of time this year focusing on his mental, physical and spiritual health. That has been his coping mechanism since his cryptocurrency firm, Ikigai Asset Management, lost most of its assets from last year’s collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, where he was a customer. Mr. Kling said he harbored […]

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Crypto Goes on Trial, as Sam Bankman-Fried Faces His Reckoning

A year ago, Sam Bankman-Fried was a fixture on magazine covers and in the halls of Congress, a tousle-haired crypto billionaire who hobnobbed with movie stars and bankrolled political campaigns. On Tuesday, the founder of the failed FTX digital currency exchange is set to leave the jail where he has been confined for more than […]

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Trump’s Trial Starts Monday. It Will Spotlight What He’s Really Worth.

From his earliest days as a real estate developer to his renegade run for the White House, Donald J. Trump honed a very particular skill: the art of the boast. “I look better if I’m worth $10 billion than if I’m worth $4 billion,” he once said, disputing his ranking on the Forbes billionaires list. […]

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As His Trial Begins, Trump Looks to Capitalize On It

Former President Donald J. Trump is expected to attend the opening of the civil trial in the New York attorney general’s fraud case against him on Monday, as his political team seeks to turn it into a rallying cry for supporters. The decision to show up voluntarily in court by Mr. Trump, who has already […]

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Why the Donald Trump Fraud Case Matters

Ever since debt was invented in ancient Sumer, there have probably been people enriching themselves through bad investments. The trick is to make these investments using other people’s money. Suppose, for example, that a wheeler-dealer uses borrowed funds to make risky investments in New Jersey casinos. If the investments somehow end up making money, he […]

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Properties Trump May Lose Control of in New York Fraud Case

A New York judge put a spotlight on former President Donald J. Trump’s business empire this week, determining in a ruling that he had inflated the value of his properties by considerable sums to gain favorable terms on loans and insurance. If the ruling stands, Mr. Trump could lose control over some of his most […]

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Was Trump’s Real Estate Hype Fraud or Just Business as Usual?

The New York attorney general’s lawsuit against Donald Trump over his real estate business hinges on one question: Where does puffery end and fraud begin? To put it differently, how much can Mr. Trump overstate what he’s worth before he crosses the line into illegality? There’s no doubt that Mr. Trump vastly exaggerated his net […]

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What We Know About the NY Trump Fraud Case Ruling

When a New York judge ruled on Tuesday that Donald J. Trump had committed fraud by inflating his assets, he was effectively saying that the facts at the heart of the case against Mr. Trump would not be subject to debate during a trial that could begin Monday. The civil case was brought by Letitia […]

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Trump Fraudulently Inflated Property Values, NY Judge Rules 

The New York attorney general won a major victory in her civil case against Donald J. Trump on Tuesday when a New York judge determined that the former president fraudulently inflated the value of his assets to obtain favorable loans and insurance deals. The decision by Justice Arthur F. Engoron precedes a trial that is […]

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Trump’s Fraud Trial in New York Could Be Shaped by 2 Looming Rulings

After four years of investigating and litigating, Letitia James was finally due for her day in court against Donald J. Trump. But with that day fast approaching — a trial in her civil fraud lawsuit against him is scheduled to start on Oct. 2 — the former president’s lawyers threw a legal Hail Mary that […]

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You’ve Got (Scam) Mail

SCRATCH Is everyone being swindled all the time and just not talking about it? By Julia Rothman and Shaina Feinberg Julia is an illustrator. Shaina is a writer and filmmaker. Sept. 22, 2023 A few months ago, I received an email that, at first glance, looked like dozens of others that arrived in my inbox […]

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Sam Bankman-Fried’s Parents Sued by FTX

For months, John Jay Ray III, the corporate turnaround expert who was appointed to oversee the bankruptcy of the FTX crypto exchange, has attacked the company’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing him of “old-fashioned embezzlement.” Now, Mr. Ray has a new target: Mr. Bankman-Fried’s parents. On Monday, FTX filed a lawsuit in federal court in Delaware […]

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His Team Was a Chaotic Punchline. Then He Found a New Spot in the Sport.

The University of Louisville football team’s fortunes are unlikely to rise and fall on the squat legs of Mario Agyen, a 5-foot-7, 190-pound, walk-on running back who joined the team in the middle of last season after an end-of-summer tryout. Still, amid the daily reminders of where he stands in the team’s 114-player hierarchy, Agyen […]

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Trump Lawsuit Against Judge Could Delay N.Y. Fraud Trial

Donald J. Trump has sued the judge overseeing the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case against him, a move that could delay his upcoming trial. The lawsuit was not immediately made public, but two people with knowledge of the matter said that it accused the judge of ignoring an earlier appeals court decision that […]

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‘One of the Most Hated People in the World’: Sam Bankman-Fried’s 250 Pages of Justifications

At the end of a 15,000-word Twitter thread he never posted, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, offered a blunt assessment of his predicament. “I’m broke and wearing an ankle monitor and one of the most hated people in the world,” he wrote. “There will probably never be anything I can […]

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I.R.S. Freezes Pandemic-Era Tax Credit Amid Fraud Fears

The Internal Revenue Service said on Thursday that it is freezing a pandemic-era employer tax benefit that has been a magnet for fraud and has cost the federal government billions of dollars as the agency looks for ways to stop the program from being abused. The tax collector also said that it had referred thousands […]

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Trump Civil Trial Scheduled to Last Nearly Three Months

Donald J. Trump’s coming civil fraud trial, which stems from a lawsuit filed by the New York State attorney general against the former president and his family business, may last nearly three months, according to the state court judge who will preside over the proceeding. The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, had already set a start […]

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