Griner for Bout: WNBA star freed in US-Russia prisoner swap

  Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, with the U.S. releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, American officials said. The swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieved a top goal for President Joe Biden, but carried a heavy price — and left behind an American jailed for nearly four years in Russia.

Viktor Bout during his  animated sentencing in 2012 making his statement pointing to FBI agents

Biden's authorization to release a Russian felon once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death" underscored the escalating pressure that his administration faced to get Griner home, particularly after the recent resolution of her criminal case and her subsequent transfer to a penal colony.

The swap was confirmed by U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations who were not authorized to publicly discuss the deal before a White House announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity. Biden spoke with Griner on the phone Thursday while her wife, Cherelle, was in the Oval Office. The president was to address reporters later in the morning.

Viktor Bout watching his defense attorney Albert Dayan during his sentencing in 2021 
Artwork by Elizabeth Williams 

In releasing Bout, the U.S. freed a a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the Justice Department once described as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers. Bout, whose exploits inspired a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S officials said were to be used against Americans.

French Company LaFarge and the Islamic State

 https://www.hjnews.com/nation/french-company-islamic-state/image_4d122757-ca36-520b-98c1-060e8e781319.html

NEW YORK (AP) — French cement company Lafarge pleaded guilty Tuesday to paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State group to keep a plant operational in Syria — at a time when the militant group was engaged in torturing kidnapped Westerners — and agreed to pay roughly $778 million in penalties.

The Justice Department described it as the first case of its kind, accusing the company of turning a blind eye to the conduct of the Islamic State as the militant group gained new territory and as Syria was mired in a brutal civil war. The company's actions, already investigated by French authorities, occurred before it merged with Swiss company Holcim to form the world’s largest cement maker.

Magali Anderson CEO of LaFarge pleading guilty on behalf of the company. 
Artwork by Elizabeth Williams

United States District Judge William Kuntz addressing Magali Anderson 
Courtroom art by Elizabeth Williams 

Justice Department officials described it as the first instance in which a company has pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Lafarge and a long-defunct Syrian subsidiary entered the plea, agreeing to criminal fines of $90.78 million and a forfeiture of $687 million.

Magali Anderson CEO of LaFarge standing during hearing speaking to Judge Kuntz

Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud: Courtroom Artwork by Elizabeth Williams

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/14/nikola-nkla-founder-trevor-milton-found-guilty-of-fraud-.html

Trevor Milton looking at jury while verdict is read
courtroom sketch by Elizabeth Williams 

Trevor Milton, the founder and former chairman and CEO of electric heavy truck maker Nikola, was found guilty in federal court Friday of three of four counts of fraud relating to false statements he made to drive up the value of Nikola’s stock.

Milton was charged with two counts of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud, all related to statements he made about Nikola’s business while he was chairman and CEO of the company. Jurors found him guilty on one count of securities fraud and both of the wire fraud counts.

Assistant US Attorney Jordan Estes Summation
courtroom sketch by Elizabeth Williams 

“Trevor Milton lied to Nikola’s investors — over and over and over again. That’s fraud, plain and simple,” said Damien Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Williams said that the case against Milton should “serve as a warning” to others who make misrepresentations to investors.

“It won’t end well,” he said.

WIlliams’ office in Manhattan had alleged that Milton lied about “nearly all aspects of the business” he founded in 2014 during his time leading the company. Those lies, prosecutors said, were intended to induce investors to bid up the price of Nikola’s stock.

“On the backs of those innocent investors taken in by his lies, he became a billionaire virtually overnight,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos said in his opening statement in September.

Judge Ramos reading jury instructions before deliberation
courtroom sketch by Elizabeth Williams 

Nikola’s stock price briefly surged to over $90 per share in June 2020, just days after it went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. For a short period, Nikola — a company with no revenue — was more valuable than century-old Ford Motor.

That ambitious valuation didn’t last. Nikola’s shares fell sharply once Milton was forced out of the company in September 2020, after the company’s board of directors found that some of the fraud allegations made by short-seller Hindenburg Research had merit.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission both opened investigations in the months following Milton’s departure. In July 2021, a grand jury indicted Milton on three counts of fraud; a fourth count was added in June 2022.

 Milton will be sentenced on Jan. 27. He faced up to 25 years in prison if convicted on all four counts.

Former OpenSea employee charged in first-ever NFT insider trading case

 U.S. prosecutors in New York’s Southern District have charged and arrested Nathaniel Chastain, a former product manager at the online marketplace OpenSea.

The 31-year-old faces one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, in connection with a scheme to commit insider trading in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, “using confidential information about what NFTs were going to be featured on OpenSea’s homepage for his personal financial gain.”

Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the Department of Justice wrote in a press release. 

Nathaniel Chastain being arraigned in Manhattan Federal Court by Elizabeth Williams 

U.S. prosecutors are now going after insider trading in the crypto industry.
On Wednesday, prosecutors in New York’s Southern District charged and arrested Nathaniel Chastain, a former product manager at the online marketplace OpenSea. The 31-year-old faces one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, in connection with a scheme to commit insider trading in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, “using confidential information about what NFTs were going to be featured on OpenSea’s homepage for his personal financial gain.”
Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the Department of Justice wrote in a press release. 
DOJ officials say it is the first time they have pursued an insider trading charge involving digital assets.
Chastain’s alleged scheme was relatively simple.
According to the indictment, Chastain was tasked with selecting NFTs to be featured on OpenSea’s homepage. OpenSea kept those homepage selections confidential until they went live, since a main page listing often translated to a jump in price for both the featured NFT, as well as NFTs made by the same creator.

From roughly June to September of 2021, the indictment says, Chastain would secretly buy an NFT just before OpenSea featured the piece on the front page of its website. Once those NFTs hit the main page, he would allegedly sell them “at profits of two- to five-times his initial purchase price.”

To cover his tracks, he conducted transactions with anonymous digital currency wallets and anonymous accounts on OpenSea, according to the DOJ, which alleges this happened dozens of times.

New York man admits to insider trading, after being linked to reporter's tips: Reuters

 

Jason Peltz Pleading Guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court
Drawing by Elizabeth Williams 

NEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) - A New York City man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to insider trading and tax evasion charges, a year after prosecutors accused him of using information from a Bloomberg News reporter about certain deals to trade.

Jason Peltz, 39, entered the plea in Brooklyn federal court to two counts of insider trading and tax evasion a year after initially pleading not guilty. He has been engaged in plea negotiations with prosecutors since at least September 2021, court records show. read more

"This office will vigorously prosecute traders who seek to cheat the system, harm the investing public and undermine the integrity of our financial markets," Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.

In March 2021, a federal grand jury indicted Peltz for trading on "material nonpublic information" obtained from a company insider and a financial reporter. read more

The indictment does not name the journalist or the media outlet, but Reuters and other media outlets have identified him as Ed Hammond, a deals reporter with Bloomberg in New York, based on a review of articles mentioned in the indictment. Hammond is not accused of any wrongdoing.

"Ed Hammond is a very accomplished reporter," a Bloomberg News spokesperson said in a statement. "We're not aware of any facts to suggest any wrongdoing on his part."

The scheme ran from November 2015 to October 2020, according to the indictment.

In a statement read to U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in court on Tuesday, Peltz said he purchased securities in chemical manufacturer Ferro Corp based on information, obtained from a friend, that Ferro had received a takeover offer. He said he knew trading off that information was illegal.