Some breaking news crossing the wire while Ed was in the middle of that
interview. This surrounding FTSE X and the
continued fallout we're now learning, according to people familiar familiar
with the situation, the government authorities are now looking into one of
Sam Bateman friends associates Nissan seen and scrutinizing his role in the
collapse of FTSE X.. Again, this is based on people familiar
with the situation, a very emotionally basic standing by right now to go
through this here. So we know sandbag mayor for his office.
He has pled not guilty. Two of his closest associates, Caroline
Ellis and Gary Wang, have actually pleaded guilty right.
In cooperating. Michonne Singh, who was also very
integral in the founding of RTX and running it, has not been charged with
anything. But now his name has come up.
And there's concern that he may be charged with something.
And this is the next natural shoe to drop.
Remember, we're talking about U.S. authorities.
We're also wondering what will happen with the S.E.C.
and see FTSE. To your point, he has not been charged
with anything, charged with no wrongdoing up till this point.
But the question is, is he cooperating? We do not know that yet at all.
However, what we do know is that, of course, this is the number four.
This is a scheme that has said to be kept in a small, tight circle.
And why is he shot seeing so integral here?
He was part of that Baha, a bohemian penthouse right there.
This group of people that lived with sandbags been freed.
He was really close friends with Sam's brother, Gabe Beckman.
Freed, who has also been very close to Sam and other entities when it comes to
his place in politics and philanthropy. So the question of what role did this
shard seeing play here is interesting. And will he ultimately be part of the
group and how, to your point? Well, we do know that he was basically
there from the start with the Garcia FTSE and under seal Alameda Engineering.
He was basically there from the start. He came from Facebook.
I remember. Interesting to hear.
Remember Gary Wang, who is one of the people ISE said have been pleading,
pleading guilty here and cooperating. Remember, part of the allegation from
the CFTC here is that code was written to help Alameda take out this unlimited
line of credit, essentially. That has been found to be customer
money. So what role then did the shots play?
Let's talk about who else was in the penthouse.
Who else was in the inner circle? Because clearly, I mean, we've already
seen Caroline Ellison. We've seen Gary's way.
Now we're seeing the shot saying who else might prosecutors be looking at
here? Listen, one question that has been
looming from the beginning is the cooperators for this investigation.
You have Damien Williams of the U.S. attorney's office saying that they have
thousands of pages of documents, signal messages and so forth.
The question is, is it just the penthouse that you're looking at or is
it the broader FTSE empire? There are other people, for example,
like Ryan Salem was very interesting. He was found early on in the court
documents in Bahamas to have tipped off Bahamian authorities.
And then there's the entity at RTX. You asked, for example, which is said to
be more shielded as a what we know right now, especially because you have Brett
Harrison, who is separately been sake seeking to raise money for a separate
venture, according to the information. So there are others and you wonder what
people knew and what this kind of penthouse suite kept away from them.
Yeah, this house is going to be the a lot of people's attention.
In all seriousness, I mean, we go back to, as always, the money.
You follow the money, whether you and all these investigations and things name
first came up when the new sort of I guess control is about just took over.
They put out that report and they talked about this idea of the sandbank before
he had taken out like a billion dollars in loans.
I guess through Alameda, if I got that correct.
Right. They also suggested that seeing himself,
I'm going to make sure I get this right. And Wang also borrowed hundreds of
millions of dollars. That's the allegation.
I don't know necessarily what their response to that is.
We don't know what that is. And it's interesting, because the point
you're making here is the information is not just coming from the complaints, the
civil and criminal ones that the investigators are putting forward.
Some of this is coming from the bankruptcy filing.
And something that the bankruptcy experts, as well as the United States
and by the way, the prosecutors in court the other day said we're no bankruptcy
experts. So there is a big complication here
between the two processes going on at the same time.
They're working right now on tracking whose loans went where to buy what.
Because ultimately, you're going to have to seize those assets and get that money
back. And Janell, I want to get your thoughts
on one of the other big crypto stories happening at this moment.
Headline Crossing that crypto broker Genesis eliminates 30 percent of its
staff, Gen.. What is going on?
Because the withdrawals have been halted for over a month now.
Well, and what's so important here is that that's a genesis lending.
And now we're talking about Genesis, global trading being part of this group
here that's laying off such a significant of staff.
Right. A lot of this question is around how
much is this contained to lending and how much is this a bigger problem for
the empire run by Barry Silbert, who is, by the way, a big Wall Street voice,
former Houlihan Loki banker. They're firms now.
They're different entities are all working with different investment
bankers that are calling around the street, asking for ways to kind of get
Genesis lending, not trading out of this trouble, by the way.
And to your point. Gemini, the Winklevoss twins, cheese to
many genes. I got to get it right.
But the thing is a Gemini urn, right? You have Cameron looking at what's
really coming out here and saying a lot of allegations here, really saying that
he. That they're engaging in bad faith,
stall tactics. What they agree on here we are on
January 5th. They are days away from that deadline.
That camera is January 8th, where Gemini says that they want to see a better
proposal here on the table or else or else or else or else
for Elsa. That was a fiery letter totally lost
over the weekend. And it's very rare because when these
things are kind of hashed out and typical Wall Street, they are done
behind investment bankers and lawyers. But in crypto, they're done on Twitter.
So.