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Breaking: U.S. Regulator CFTC Charges Binance For Wilfully Violating Compliance Rules!
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced it had filed a civil enforcement action against Changpeng Zhao and Binance Holdings Limited, Binance Holdings (IE) Limited, and Binance (Services) Holdings Limited (together, Binance) with numerous violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations. The complaint also charges Samuel Lim, Binance’s former chief compliance officer, with aiding and abetting Binance’s violations.
Latest Updates
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Why The U.S. Regulator CFTC Goes After Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao!
According to the U.S. CFTC, Binance operates the world’s largest centralized digital asset exchange through an opaque web of corporate entities, all ultimately controlled by Changpeng Zhao (CZ). Much of Binance’s reported trading volume and profitability has come from its extensive solicitation of and access to customers in the United States. Allegedly. CZ was responsible for the circumvention of Binance's compliance approach. Not sued, however, is Binance.US, which is owned by BAM Trading Services Inc.
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Consob Follows FinTelegram And Orders Black-Out Of Already Vanished CrystalsCapital Website!
We recently issued several warnings against Bulgarian Shadlake Ltd, which runs various broker scams. Deluxe Royals is one of the currently active scams. Others have vanished, including Crystals Capitals, Royal Capitals, and EuroTrade Invest. Finally, the Italian Consob followed our warnings and ordered the blackout of the Crystals Capitals website. Too late; the site has already vanished! Please be very cautious when considering opening an online trading account.
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Consob Orderes Black-Out of Five Illegal Financial Websites!
On 27 March 2023, Italian regulator Consob announced that it ordered five illegal financial websites to be blacked out. The total number of black-out orders increase to 860. The Italian financial watchdog has the authority to order ISPs to inhibit access from Italy to illegal financial websites. So far, the Italian regulator is, unfortunately, the only one in Europe with this authority. Below are the websites Consob has ordered to be blacked out:
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Whistleblower Request: Please Let Us Have Information About Gennaro Lanza’s DBX Consultants!
DBX Consultants (website) is a company builder and merchant service provider in Dubai controlled by the boiler room veteran Gennaro Lanza. It offers consultancy services and arranges bank accounts for businesses, company incorporations, and PSP merchant accounts. A few weeks ago, the company's CEO, Gennaro Lanza, announced they would establish a branch in Cyprus to build a bridge to Dubai. Lanza is the owner and director of the Maltese boiler room operator Capital Solutions Ltd.
Payment Processors
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What Happened With The Vanished Crypto Payment Processor Finanic?
Finanic, a payment processor in Estonia with a crypto license from the FIU, has been involved as a payment facilitator in numerous broker scams. Now Finanic OÜ, founded by Latvian Arturs Eglitis, has been deleted. Already in June 2022, the license was archived, and liquidation was announced. Finanic Ltd, which is registered in the UK, is still active. The website www.finanic.io also vanished. We would like to know more about the disappeared payment processor and their operators.
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Attention! The Many Victims Of The CTMatador Broker Scam!
FinTelegram has already issued many warnings about the super-aggressive broker scam CTMatador. The last one was in November 2022. Standard payment options have been disabled for some time now. It seems that CTMatador is preparing to vanish, but victims continue to report their losses. Most recently, many victims may have made crypto deposits to CTMatador and lost them. The boiler rooms behind the scam are still active. If you have lost money, please get in touch with us!
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Another Urgent Warning Against Offshore Brokers SpotInvest And BBanc!
FinTelegram has warned several times against the offshore broker scams SpotInvest and BBanc. However, they are still chasing victims. In the past, both scams were operated through Primis LLC, which is registered in St. Vincent & The Grenadines. Various financial market regulators and FinTelegram issue some warnings. Since then, the websites of SpotInvest and BBanc stated the fake companies SpotInvest Inc. and BBanc Inc., respectively, as the operators. Stay far away and do not lose money; protect your financial health.
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Investor Warning Against Broker Scam Fuelta!
Today we received an email welcoming us as a new client of Fuelta broker. The trading account was already opened, we were told. Strange, because we have never registered with Fuelta. This is just one of the countless white-label scams that disappear after a few weeks and are replaced by a new scam brand. The customer data is used and abused again and again. Stay far away.
Cybercrime Court Cases
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Wirecard Trial: The Questionable Role Of The Payabl Founders!
The Wirecard trial in Munich against Markus Braun, Oliver Bellenhaus, and Stephan von Erffa is closely followed on Twitter. The private investigator @csfa continuously publishes background information on the trial, which he also attends. Most recently, he shared that he emailed the prosecutors to point out the role of former Wirecard director Ruediger Trautmann and Payabl (formerly PowerCash21). He also exposed some interesting new companies connected to Trautmann and Payabl.
Regulatory Updates
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Banking Turmoil: First Citizen Acquires Assets Of Collapsed Silicon Valley Bank!
First-Citizens Bank, one of the largest regional banks in the U.S., is buying big pieces of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) more than two weeks after the lender’s collapse sent tremors through the banking system, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) announced. The purchase includes $119 billion in deposits and about $72 billion of SVB’s loans at a discount of $16.5 billion. Some $90 billion of SVB’s securities will remain in receivership.
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Elon Musk Values Twitter AT $20 Billion In Employee Stock Option Offering!
Allegedly, Elon Musk offered Twitter employees stock grants at a $20 billion valuation, less than half the $44 billion Musk paid for the social media platform last year. This would, in theory, offer a significant upside if the company’s value recovers. However, Twitter will generate less than $3 billion in revenue this year. Considering Twitter’s $13 billion in debt, the $20 billion valuation implies a multiple of 11 times this year’s revenue to an implied enterprise value of $33 billion.
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Embattled U.S. Crypto Market: SEC Warns Investors About Crypto Securities!
This week the U.S. SEC warned Coinbase about enforcement actions and filed a lawsuit against BitTorrent by Justin Sun for violating U.S. securities laws. Moreover, the regulator has warned investors about crypto securities. The SEC urges investors to be cautious with crypto asset securities. They would be exceptionally volatile and speculative. Crypto platforms may lack essential protections for investors. The wording crypto asset securities implies a regulatory obligation.
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