Legal issues and news

Markus Braun makes his first public appearance in court on Thursday, more than two years after his highflying digital-payment company Wirecard collapsed under the weight of fraud allegations.

U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown and Patrick Toomey have asked Sam Bankman-Fried to testify at a hearing on Dec. 14 about the cryptocurrency exchange FTX's collapse, according to a letter issued Wednesday.

Galaxy Digital is paying $44.1 million to buy Celsius Network's GK8 business — more than 60% lower than what the bankrupt crypto lender paid to acquire the self-custody platform just last year.

The bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network won court approval to give out bonuses totaling as much as $2.8 million to workers in a bid to keep them from quitting.

Citigroup and creditors of Revlon fighting over an accidental $900 million payment the bank made two years ago said they are close to resolving their litigation over the mistake.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is investigating how the Jack Dorsey-led company handles fraud on its person-to-person payments app. After the bureau accused Block of dragging its feet, a federal magistrate judge gave the company a Jan. 5 deadline.

A federal judge will soon decide whether depositors at Celsius Network gave up ownership of their cryptocurrencies in exchange for interest payments, a key legal issue that could echo through other crypto bankruptcies.

The crypto lender Nexo Inc. is phasing out its products and services in the U.S. market after facing cease-and-desist orders from multiple states over its interest-earning products.

Marijuana shops across the U.S. are rushing to find alternative ways for customers to pay after networks that supported a popular workaround to the banking system began to shut down last week.

U.S. authorities are asking crypto investors and trading firms that worked closely with FTX to hand over information on the company and its key figures, including founder Sam Bankman-Fried and the former head of his Alameda Research investment arm, Caroline Ellison.

Banking companies are increasingly using application programming interfaces that transfer customer information to third-party money-management apps popular with consumers. But fraudsters are exploiting vulnerabilities in the technology to steal information.

Financial technology companies that distributed Paycheck Protection Program loans often employed lax oversight that allowed fraudsters or ineligible individuals to receive relief funded by taxpayers, a congressional report found.

The Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan remains stalled, after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift an order blocking the sweeping program.

Mystery continues to shroud the missing billions at the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX after its disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried denied trying to perpetrate a fraud while admitting to grievous managerial errors.

LedgerX — one of the few corners of Sam Bankman-Fried's crumbled crypto empire that remain solvent — is preparing to make available $175 million for use in FTX's bankruptcy proceedings, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Christopher Jordan was openly resentful of his colleagues on the JPMorgan Chase precious-metals desk for getting him fired. Now he's facing a fraud trial just like them.

Early next year the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals is slated to consider whether certain loans are actually securities.

The bankrupt cryptocurrency lender BlockFi will try to collect about $680 million it is owed by a part of Sam Bankman-Fried's failed crypto empire, a lawyer told the federal judge overseeing BlockFi's insolvency case.

Mastercard lost a bid to narrow the size of the U.K.'s largest- ever class action claim over its payment fees after appeal judges rejected its attempt to exclude some 3 million people who died since the claim was first filed.

The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has agreed to pay a little over $360,000 to settle allegations that it violated U.S. sanctions against Iran.