February 2024 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Atlanta DA Admits To Romance With Trump Prosecutor
by Gunnar Larson 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

Subject: Atlanta DA Admits To Romance With Trump Prosecutor Atlanta DA Admits To Romance With Trump Prosecutor <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793515?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Kelcey Caulder Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis admitted Friday she is involved in a personal relationship with a special prosecutor hired to work on the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants, but said the "meritless" and "salacious" rumors raised by the defense do not justify disqualifying her from prosecuting the case. 2 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793515?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793515?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

Atty Says Feds Duped Grand Jury In $12M Somali Fraud Case
by Gunnar Larson 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

Subject: Atty Says Feds Duped Grand Jury In $12M Somali Fraud Case Atty Says Feds Duped Grand Jury In $12M Somali Fraud Case <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793543?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Cara Salvatore Newly disclosed evidence of prosecutorial misconduct should end charges against a Maryland lawyer headed to trial in March over the alleged misappropriation of over $12 million in Somali state assets, his legal team told a federal judge Friday. Motion attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793543?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793543?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

FTX Looks To Sell $175M Crypto Claim Against Genesis
by Gunnar Larson 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

Subject: FTX Looks To Sell $175M Crypto Claim Against Genesis FTX Looks To Sell $175M Crypto Claim Against Genesis <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793415?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Rick Archer Defunct cryptocurrency giant FTX has asked Delaware's bankruptcy court for permission to sell a $175 million claim it was granted against Genesis Global through a settlement last year with the also-insolvent virtual assets business. Motion attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793415?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793415?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

Jamie Dimon Has Spent $117 Billion Propping Up JPMorgan’s Share Price with Buybacks in 10 Years; He’s Counting on Trump’s MAGA Crowd to Rescue Him
by Gunnar Larson 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/02/jamie-dimon-has-spent-117-billion-pr… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: February 5, 2024 ~ Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase On January 19, Jamie Dimon stunned CNBC viewers when he launched into what sounded like a TV commercial for Republican Presidential candidate and 91-count indictee Donald Trump. Dimon stated: “Take a step back, be honest. He was kind of right about NATO, kind of right about immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Tax reform worked. He was right about some of China…He wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues.” Dimon also said that Democrats need to be more respectful of their fellow citizens that identify as MAGA Republicans. Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich was one of the folks who caught Dimon’s act and published a sharp retort the same day, writing: “Kind of right about NATO? Trump wanted the U.S. to withdraw from NATO — and may get his way if he becomes president again. This would open Europe further to Putin’s aggression. “Kind of right on immigration? Even the conservative CATO Institute found that Trump reduced legal immigration but not illegal immigration. Trump refused to grant legal status to children of immigrants born in the United States or who grew up in the U.S. He banned Muslims from America, and when the Muslim ban was found to be unconstitutional, banned people from Muslim countries. He fueled the flames of nativism by describing poorer nations as ‘shit holes’ and has used Nazi terms to describe foreigners as ‘poisoning the blood’ of Americans. “Grew the economy quite well? In fact, under Trump the economy lost 2.9 million jobs. Even before the pandemic, job growth was slower than it has been under Biden. The unemployment rate increased by 1.6 percentage points to 6.3%. The international trade deficit Trump promised to reduce went up. The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services in 2020 was the highest since 2008 and increased 40.5% from 2016. The number of Americans lacking health insurance rose by 3 million. The federal debt held by the public went up, from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion.” (Read Reich’s full column here.) What has caused Jamie Dimon to appear to be auditioning for the job of advance man for Donald Trump and his MAGA followers? Dimon is Chairman and CEO of the largest Wall Street mega bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase. Under Dimon’s tenure, the bank has the dubious distinction of having admitted to an unprecedented five felony counts brought by the U.S. Department of Justice as well as being labeled the riskiest bank by its regulators. Now Dimon is in a pitched battle with federal banking regulators over their proposed new rules that would make JPMorgan Chase hold more capital against its riskiest trading positions. (This is, after all, the bank that secretly used deposits from its federally-insured Chase Bank to gamble in derivatives in London and lose $6.2 billion. The notorious scandal, known as the “London Whale,” occurred just two years after Congress had passed the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation in 2010 — legislation that was supposed to rein in the reckless activities of the Wall Street mega banks which had brought on the worst financial crash in the U.S. in 2008 since the Great Depression of the 1930s.) Running to the aid of Dimon in his battle to stop the proposed new capital rules by federal regulators – which would impact just the 37 banks (out of 4,600) in the U.S. that hold $100 billion or more in assets – is the MAGA-controlled House Financial Services Committee. Its website is so brazenly pro-Trump that yesterday it featured under a heading of “Latest on Twitter” a 2020 Tweet heaping praise on Trump along with a photo of Trump in the Oval Office. (See screenshot to the right.) On January 31, the MAGA-dominated House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the proposed new capital rules under the biased title: “Rules Without Analysis: Federal Banking Proposals Under the Biden Administration.” The witness panel was stacked three-to-one against an honest debate on the topic. The one speaker who was not a lobbyist, law firm or sycophant for Wall Street mega banks was Professor Jeremy Kress, Assistant Professor of Business Law at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. (Clearly, Democrats were allowed to select just one of the four witnesses on the panel.) Professor Kress told the Committee the following: “The pending Basel III Endgame rules will foster— not threaten—credit availability, as most of the proposed capital increase is associated with large banks’ trading and fee-generating businesses—not their lending activities—and the risk-weights for many categories of traditional loans actually decrease under the proposal… “…the banking sector is trying to invent new legal standards in a brazen attempt to defeat these rules. Requiring banks to fund themselves with more equity will not impair credit availability, but it will modestly reduce bank stock prices, share buybacks, and executive compensation. To avoid this outcome, large banks are attempting to hold their regulators to legal standards that simply do not exist. Congress has subjected rulemaking by some agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, to various types of cost-benefit tests. However, Congress has not imposed any cost-benefit requirement on the federal banking agencies. And for good reason: quantifying the benefits of a banking crisis averted is a nearly impossible task. The law that does govern rulemaking by the federal banking agencies—the Administrative Procedure Act—requires only ‘reasoned decision making,’ a standard the current proposals assuredly meet. Indeed, the level of analysis in the current proposals is at least equal to, and in many cases exceeds, prior federal banking agency rules. Make no mistake: if the current proposals are legally deficient, so too are the vast majority of the deregulatory rules adopted under the Trump Administration with far less reasoned analysis.” Jamie Dimon has been able to keep his job at the helm of JPMorgan Chase because his Board of Directors has chosen to look the other way at how Dimon keeps the stock price moving higher despite a Rap Sheet that rivals an organized crime family. As Professor Kress points out, under the proposed new capital rules the Wall Street mega banks would have to reduce their spending on share buybacks to prop up their share prices and use at least part of that money instead for an accounting category called “retained earnings,” which increases equity capital at the bank and helps to prevent taxpayer bailouts. Over the past decade, from January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2023, Dimon has overseen $116.8 billion in stock buybacks of JPMorgan Chase stock as his Board made Dimon a billionaire with stock options. (Not shown in the first link in this paragraph is the $2.3 billion JPMorgan Chase spent in the fourth quarter of 2023 on buybacks — per the 8K the bank filed with the SEC.) In another move that shows Dimon is getting nervous about banking regulators breathing down his neck, Dimon announced in October that he and his family planned to sell a whopping one million shares of their JPMorgan Chase common stock.

1 0

NYC Sues FDIC For $7M Of First Republic's Back Taxes
by Gunnar Larson 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

We have received some records concerning closure our First Republic innovation accout. I was going to share the First Republic records with the list, but have decided to keep quite for now on First Republic until we get a response from NY-DFS concerning the matter. In other news: --- NYC Sues FDIC For $7M Of First Republic's Back Taxes <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793331?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Sydney Price New York City sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in D.C. federal court in the agency's capacity as receiver for failed First Republic Bank, alleging the bank understated its rent and income taxes it owed to the city for several years and now owes more than $7 million. Complaint attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793331?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793331?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

FDIC Going 'Backwards' On Innovation, GOP Lawmakers Say
by Gunnar Larson 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

xNY.io - Bank.org is a proud leader in this type of innovation design described here: ----- FDIC Going 'Backwards' On Innovation, GOP Lawmakers Say <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793519?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Jon Hill Republican lawmakers on Friday called out the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. over a move last year to scale back a Trump-era innovation unit at the agency, saying they are concerned about a shift in regulatory posture chilling banks' engagement with fintech. Letter attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793519?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1793519?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

Fintech Firm SS&C Seeks $889 Million in Appeal of BNY Data-Misuse Case
by Gunnar Larson 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

Fireblocks: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BA1F6/ ---- Fintech Firm SS&C Seeks $889 Million in Appeal of BNY Data-Misuse Case https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-05/fintech-firm-ss-c-seeks-… Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and a financial technology company are going back to a Canadian court in a long-running legal dispute over the New York-based firm’s alleged misuse of data it licensed.

1 0

Re: [EXTERNAL] Chelsea School Flag Poll
by Gunnar Larson 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

Jordan: How are you? It has been just over a year from my first message to your office on the Chelsea School flag pole. Any updates on that? I was going to send the councilman a message on Instagram, because we talked about the flag pole and Story Hour on Instagram, but I think he blocked me. Can you let me know on that as well? Have a great day! Thank you, Gunnar -- Gunnar Larson xNY.io - Bank.org MSc - Digital Currency MBA - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ip) G(a)xNY.io +1-917-580-8053 New York, New York 10001 On Wed, Oct 11, 2023, 12:23 PM Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> wrote: > Jordan: > > Great, thank you for letting me know. > > Gunnar > > On Wed, Oct 11, 2023, 11:49 AM Feiner, Jordan <JFeiner(a)council.nyc.gov> > wrote: > >> Hello Gunnar, >> >> >> >> I just checked back in to get the latest. Can’t imagine that this process >> would have to take 8 months. Thank you. >> >> >> >> Jordan >> >> >> >> *From:* Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> >> *Sent:* Friday, October 6, 2023 8:39 AM >> *To:* Feiner, Jordan <JFeiner(a)council.nyc.gov> >> *Subject:* Re: [EXTERNAL] Chelsea School Flag Poll >> >> >> >> Jordan: >> >> >> >> The flag is still not fixed since our last conversation on February 13, >> 2023. >> >> >> >> Any update on this? >> >> >> >> >> >> Gunnar >> >> >> >> On Mon, Feb 13, 2023, 10:27 AM Feiner, Jordan <JFeiner(a)council.nyc.gov> >> wrote: >> >> Hi Gunnar, >> >> >> >> Thanks for reaching back out on this. We reached out to the Schools >> Construction Authority to move this forward and they also reached out to >> the Division of School Facilities team and I am awaiting a response on how >> to move this forward. >> >> >> >> We were informed that the DSF are in the process of repairing pulleys, >> ropes, and repainting the flagpole at the present moment. But let me circle >> back when them right now. >> >> >> >> Thank you, >> >> Jordan >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> *From:* Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> >> *Sent:* Saturday, February 11, 2023 4:55 PM >> *To:* Feiner, Jordan; District3 >> *Subject:* Re: [EXTERNAL] Chelsea School Flag Poll >> >> >> >> Jordan: >> >> >> >> I spoke with Erik and just checking in on the progress. >> >> >> >> Thank you, >> >> >> >> Gunnar >> >> >> >> On Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:20 AM Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> wrote: >> >> Jordan: >> >> >> >> It's not necessarily that we don't want to work with the school directly. >> It is that if this project on the flag poll goes well, we have another >> funded project we want to get going as well through your office. >> >> >> >> Thank you, >> >> >> >> Gunnar >> >> >> >> On Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 1:03 PM Feiner, Jordan <JFeiner(a)council.nyc.gov> >> wrote: >> >> Hi Gunnar, >> >> >> >> Great. Let me see if this can be done through our office specifically >> with funding. Do you not want to be connected directly to the school? >> >> >> >> Thanks, >> >> Jordan >> ------------------------------ >> >> *From:* Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> >> *Sent:* Monday, January 30, 2023 12:09:31 PM >> *To:* Feiner, Jordan >> *Subject:* Re: [EXTERNAL] Chelsea School Flag Poll >> >> >> >> Jordan: >> >> >> >> It would be at 26th and 9th. >> >> >> >> Can we work through the City Council's office on the matter? >> >> >> >> Thank you, >> >> >> >> Gunnar >> >> >> >> On Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 11:49 AM Feiner, Jordan <JFeiner(a)council.nyc.gov> >> wrote: >> >> Thanks Patrice, moving you to BCC. >> >> >> >> Gunnar, thank you for your outreach on this. Is this PS33? The school at >> 24th and Ninth? I can see about connecting you with them directly. Just >> want to make sure I am reaching out to the correct team. >> >> >> >> Thank you >> >> Jordan Feiner >> >> Liaison to Community Board 4 >> >> Office of Council Member Erik Bottcher >> ------------------------------ >> >> *From:* Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> >> *Sent:* Monday, January 30, 2023 10:46:04 AM >> *To:* Comerford, Patrice >> *Cc:* Feiner, Jordan >> *Subject:* Re: [EXTERNAL] Chelsea School Flag Poll >> >> >> >> Ms. Comerford: >> >> >> >> Thank you. >> >> >> >> Gunnar >> >> >> >> On Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 10:41 AM Comerford, Patrice < >> PComerford(a)council.nyc.gov> wrote: >> >> Dear Mr. Larson, >> >> >> >> Thank you for your email, I am copying our representative for the area, >> Jordan Feiner who is familiar with the school. >> >> >> >> Regards, >> >> >> >> Patrice Comerford >> >> Director, District Office >> >> Office of NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher >> >> pcomerford(a)council.nyc.gov >> >> 212-564-7757 >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> *From:* Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> >> *Sent:* Saturday, January 28, 2023 4:02 AM >> *To:* District3 <district3(a)council.nyc.ny.us> >> *Subject:* [EXTERNAL] Chelsea School Flag Poll >> >> >> >> *CAUTION:* This email originated from outside of the organization. Do >> not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and >> know the content is safe. Forward suspect email to phish(a)oti.nyc.gov as >> an attachment (Click the More button, then forward as attachment). >> >> >> Dear Eric: >> >> >> >> My name is Gunnar Larson and I live in Chelsea (25/9). >> >> >> >> For sometime now, my associate and I have noticed the flag poll at the >> Chelsea School is in disrepair. We would like to donate a nice new flag >> poll to fix the job. >> >> >> >> How can we go about doing this? >> >> >> >> Have a great day. >> >> >> >> Thank you, >> >> >> >> Gunnar >> >> >> >> Gunnar Larson >> >> xNY.io - Bank.org >> >> 646-454-9107 >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> >> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message is intended only for the >> person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain CONFIDENTIAL or >> PRIVILEGED material. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or >> distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please >> contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original >> message. If you are the intended recipient but do not wish to receive >> communications through this medium, please so advise the sender immediately. >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> >> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message is intended only for the >> person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain CONFIDENTIAL or >> PRIVILEGED material. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or >> distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please >> contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original >> message. If you are the intended recipient but do not wish to receive >> communications through this medium, please so advise the sender immediately. >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> >> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message is intended only for the >> person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain CONFIDENTIAL or >> PRIVILEGED material. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or >> distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please >> contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original >> message. If you are the intended recipient but do not wish to receive >> communications through this medium, please so advise the sender immediately. >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> >> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message is intended only for the >> person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain CONFIDENTIAL or >> PRIVILEGED material. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or >> distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please >> contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original >> message. If you are the intended recipient but do not wish to receive >> communications through this medium, please so advise the sender immediately. >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message is intended only for the >> person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain CONFIDENTIAL or >> PRIVILEGED material. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or >> distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please >> contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original >> message. If you are the intended recipient but do not wish to receive >> communications through this medium, please so advise the sender immediately. >> >

1 0

Cryptocurrency: Adoption of Chaumian Ecash in Bitcoin
by grarpamp 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

On 2/5/24, pro2rat(a)yahoo.com.au <pro2rat(a)yahoo.com.au> wrote: > The adoption of Chaumian Ecash in Bitcoin is still in its early days, > with projects like Fedimint and Cashu showing promise. > https://www.verdict.co.uk/bitcoin-scaling-the-reserve-of-the-wealthy/ Lol. Any plan Bitcoin-BTC had to actually scale as Satoshi's "P2P Electronic Cash" died with Satoshi. Maxi's like to claim all their wonderous tabs and layers and feds and "non-custodial" custodials and "settled" un-settled's and "un-centraled" centraled's and "p2p" not-p2p's and "private" non-private's and other nonsense they keep dreaming up, were and are a Bitcoin thing. And that the facts they keep denying are not a thing. Bitcoin-BTC will eventually be out-competed, and whatever out-compete's it will no longer be recognizable as Satoshi's bitcoin whitepaper genesis, even if they do manage to fork its nominal UTXO's into an unfair premine which no one will want. To fix "bitcoin" is to change it away from the limitations inherent in the Satoshi model. They already had to add SegWit and LN and Inscriptions, and they still have nothing to show for it, and now they're trying to contort it out even further. They should admit and fess up to that reality and stop lying about it, but they can't, because they'll lose face. An OG P2P Distributed Global Private Electronic Cash System will eventually prevail... and it will be Cash Currency Sound Money Store, and won't claim to conform to or be the "Bitcoin" whitepaper. Until then enjoy the Maxi's killer centralized price adoption app... ETF's ;) While creating the actual real OG-P2P-DG-PEC's the world needs.

1 0

Trump 2.0 Tops Chinese Investors’ Concerns, Goldman Sachs Says
by Gunnar Larson 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

xNY.io - Bank.org has thriving business in Hong Kong. ---- Trump 2.0 Tops Chinese Investors’ Concerns, Goldman Sachs Says https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-04/trump-2-0-tops-chinese-i… On top of tumbling stocks, an embattled property market and a struggling economy, there’s at least one more thing keeping domestic Chinese investors up at night: a potential win by former US president Donald Trump in the November general election.

1 0