China News Today TheBitTimes.com

Samourai Wallet developers Keonne Rodriquez and William Lonergan Hill have pleaded guilty to unlicensed money transmission in the Southern District of New York today. The money laundering charge, which the two developers were also indicted on, will be dropped. These pleas were part of deals between the two bitcoin mixer developers and the government. Who are Samourai Wallet’s Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill? Read more: What to do if you’ve used Samourai Wallet According to reporting from The Rage, Rodriguez was ordered to pay a $250,000 fine, and Hill was ordered to pay a $400,000 fine. Additionally, approximately $6 million will be paid against a $237 million judgement. The Samourai defendants agreed not to appeal any prison sentence of five years or less. Final sentencing procedures will start November 6, 2025. This case has drawn further attention to the ongoing Tornado Cash criminal prosecution. In May, the government filed a lette...

Ryan Salame, the former co-chief exec of FTX Digital Markets, has been sentenced to 90 months in prison for conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter. Salame has also been ordered to make $6 million in forfeiture and $5 million in restitution. Salame was directly involved in the usage of the ‘North Dimension’ entity to aid in maintaining access to bank accounts for FTX, despite it not being appropriately licensed to serve as a money transmitter. He was also instrumental in FTX’s political influence scheme, working with Sam Bankman-Fried and Nishad Singh to make hundreds of unlawful political donations. Additionally, FTX Digital Markets made hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of payments to Michelle Bond, a failed congressional candidate and romantic partner to Salame. Bond additionally received donations to her campaign from FTX US. Salame’s sentence weighs in at significantly less than t...

Due to some formalities in the criminal justice system, a world-class team of lawyers, and Fifth Amendment protections of due process, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao isn’t yet in prison despite receiving a four-month sentence. On April 30, 2024, a US district judge in Seattle sentenced Zhao to four months at Seatac, an administrative security federal detention center and prison. According to the judge’s signed judgment, Zhao “shall surrender for service of sentence as notified by the Probation or Pretrial Services Office.” Those offices have not yet notified Zhao that he must enter that California prison. Possibilities for sentenced criminals who don’t immediately go to prison According to federal statute 18 U.S.C. § 3585(a), a criminal’s sentence begins when that person is ‘received in custody awaiting transportation to, or voluntarily surrenders to, the official detention facility at which her sentence is to be served.’ Although that sentence can begin i...

Polygon Labs’ chief legal and policy officer , Rebecca Rettig, recently shed light on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) ongoing legal battles with Coinbase, a crypto exchange, and Ripple, a blockchain company. On a recent episode of The Block’s exclusive podcast, Rettig provided a detailed examination of the SEC’s actions, including the legal challenges that question the commission’s authority. Rettig’s perspective on SEC’s designations Rettig expressed her understanding of the SEC’s cases against both Coinbase and Ripple, articulating that the motions for judgment in these cases are an attempt to align with the law rather than pre-existing notions. The instances she examined reveal a need to bring the cases back to the fundamental principles of the law, emphasizing that the situations may not conform to previous examples. She also addressed the court’s viewpoint on the SEC’s previous actions towards Coinb...

UK crypto firms will be required to introduce a “cooling-off” period for new investors and warn traders that they won’t be protected should their investments not pan out. This is under new rules, set to come into force from October. The new regulations, imposed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), state that firms offering crypto services and products will need to include clear risk warnings in their adverts. According to the watchdog, one example would include telling customers they shouldn’t expect protection “if something goes wrong” and should be prepared to lose all the money they invest. Customers should also be advised to “ take two mins to learn more ,” and bonuses for introducing friends to products will also be banned, the FCA also said. “It is up to people to decide whether they buy crypto,” the FCA’s executive director of consumers and competition told The Guardian. “But research shows many regret making a hasty decision. Our rules give people the...