August 2024 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Fwd: FBI: Reaching Out to Assist Victims of Crime
by Gunnar Larson 10 Aug '24

10 Aug '24

Got this today... ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: FBI <fbi(a)subscriptions.fbi.gov> Date: Sat, Aug 10, 2024, 6:26 AM Subject: FBI: Reaching Out to Assist Victims of Crime To: <g(a)xny.io> [image: Federal Bureau of Investigation] <https://www.fbi.gov/?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_content=%5B1878078%5D…> Reaching Out to Assist Victims of Crime <https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/reaching-out-to-assist-victims-of-crime?ut…> Our Victim Services Division informs and assists victims navigating the aftermath of crime and the criminal justice process. One piece of that mission involves coordinated outreach to victims to support their needs, a specialty that falls under the FBI Victim Outreach Support and Strategy (VOSS) Program. Subscribe <https://delivery.fbi.gov/subscribe> | Unsubscribe <https://delivery.fbi.gov/subscriber/c57956fe9830b3f02d21fe7a2581942df706f0b…> | Subscriber Account <https://delivery.fbi.gov/account-reminder> | Help <https://www.fbi.gov/e-mail-updates/help?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_co…> | Privacy Policy <https://www.fbi.gov/privacy_policy?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_content…> If you have questions about this service, e-mail us at delivery(a)subscriptions.fbi.gov . Follow Us On: Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/FBI> | YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/user/FBIDOTGOV> | Twitter <https://twitter.com/FBIPressOffice> | iTunes <https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/inside-the-fbi/id284702151?mt=2>

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Fwd: Your Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) Request FOIL-2024-097130-022519 - The Alliance for Regulatory Innovation and Brex, Inc.
by Gunnar Larson 09 Aug '24

09 Aug '24

2024-097130: 3/8/24: We would like to revisit this FOIL request. Can you please update update us if DFS has any records concerning BREX and the The Alliance for Regulatory Innovation and Brex, Inc. SENT VIA EMAIL g(a)xny.io August 8, 2024 Gunnar Larson Re: FOIL Tracking No. 2024-097130 Dear Gunnar Larson: I write with respect to your above-referenced FOIL request. The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) requires additional time to respond to your request, assigned the tracking number 2024-097130, because we are still working on your request. DFS intends to provide its determination of your request by September 9, 2024. We appreciate your continued patience. Thank you. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: <Edward.Meltzer(a)dfs.ny.gov> Date: Thu, Aug 8, 2024, 9:39 AM Subject: Your Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) Request FOIL-2024-097130-022519 To: <g(a)xny.io> Good morning, Attached please find correspondence from the NYS Department of Financial Services, pertaining to your FOIL request. Thank you. Tracking Number:FOIL-2024-097130-022519

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NYC Courts' $9.5M Accounting Error Quietly Broke The Law
by Gunnar Larson 09 Aug '24

09 Aug '24

NYC Courts' $9.5M Accounting Error Quietly Broke The Law <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1866056?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> By Frank G. Runyeon Internal audits found New York City courts violated state law by failing to turn over $9.5 million to the state treasury — the result of clerks not keeping tabs on public money in recent years.

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Fwd: Your Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) Request FOIL-2024-097305-022521 - Adrienne Harris titled Crypto’s Most Powerful Regulator
by Gunnar Larson 09 Aug '24

09 Aug '24

2024-097305: 3/11/24: Dear Madam or Sir: On March 30, 2022 New York Magazine published a profile of NY-DFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris titled "Crypto’s Most Powerful Regulator Is Here Adrienne Harris, New York’s financial watchdog, has enormous sway over the industry’s future" ( https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/03/adrienne-harris-is-cryptos-most-pow…) The profile of Superintendent Harris quotes "... that she would recuse herself from any dealings with companies she has conflicts with." xNY.io - Bank.org seeks access to any and all records specific to Superintendent Harris' recusal(s) as of February 1, 2024. 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 SENT VIA EMAIL G(a)xny.io August 9, 2024 Gunnar D. Larson 406 W. 25th Street New York, NY 10001 Re: Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) Tracking No. 2024-097305 Dear Gunnar D. Larson: I write in response to the FOIL request that you submitted to The New York State Department of Financial Services (“Department”), which has been assigned tracking number 2024-097305. The Department requires additional time to respond to your FOIL request because we are still working on your request. The Department intends to provide its determination of your request by September 9, 2024. Thank you. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: <Idel.Lendoff(a)dfs.ny.gov> Date: Fri, Aug 9, 2024, 10:57 AM Subject: Your Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) Request FOIL-2024-097305-022521 To: <G(a)xny.io>, <Pascale.JeanBaptiste(a)dfs.ny.gov> Good morning, Attached please find correspondence from the NYS Department of Financial Services, pertaining to your FOIL request. Thank you. Tracking Number:FOIL-2024-097305-022521

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Former U.S. Labor Secretary Says Billionaires Have No Right to Exist Because their Wealth Comes from Five Illegal or Bad Practices
by Gunnar Larson 09 Aug '24

09 Aug '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/08/former-u-s-labor-secretary-says-bill… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: August 7, 2024 ~ Robert B. Reich, the former U.S. Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton, a bestselling author and Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley, penned an essay in May on why billionaires should not exist. Reich declares that there are only five ways someone can become a billionaire. (Reich narrates his essay in the video below, complete with cool graphics.) Reich lists the following five methods of becoming a billionaire: (1) exploit a monopoly; (2) exploit inside information; (3) buy off politicians; (4) defraud investors; (5) get money from rich relatives. You are likely thinking that there is nothing wrong with inheriting wealth from a rich relative. But if the money is inherited from a billionaire relative, it means that he or she likely got that wealth through one of the first four methods. Thus, dirty money is simply moving from generation to generation. That’s our thought; Reich has other thoughts on the matter involving the wealthy using tax loopholes “lobbied for by the wealthy.” Another way to think about that is the reality that the old Mellon bank wealth, a chunk of which was handed down to Tim Mellon, enabled him to write a check for $50 million in May to a Super PAC supporting Donald Trump for President. That check came on top of tens of millions more that Mellon had already contributed to the same Super PAC in this election cycle. And, it was billionaires who pushed for and won the Citizens United decision in 2010 at the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court that made that $50 million political donation possible from one man. Super PACs are also a key source of the hate and divisiveness that has engulfed the United States since the ironically-named Citizens United decision was handed down in 2010 because these Super PACs strategically run hateful attack ads against the opponents of the candidate they wish to install in public office. But what we really want to focus on is how the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 by a fat cat on Wall Street, together with sycophants in President Bill Clinton’s administration, and cheerleading from the New York Times’ Editorial Board, has created a whole new method of becoming a billionaire without any risk of jail time, while undermining the safety and soundness of the U.S. financial system. We’re talking about obscene stock option compensation at the megabanks on Wall Street. The repeal of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 allowed the trading casinos on Wall Street to merge with deposit-taking commercial banks – a practice which had been banned for 66 years because it was responsible for the 1929 stock market crash, thousands of insolvent banks, and ensuing Great Depression. Just nine years after the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, Wall Street collapsed in the worst crisis since the Great Depression, taking the U.S. economy and housing market along for the ride. The chief architect of the repeal of Glass-Steagall, Sandy Weill, was still listed as a billionaire by Forbes as of three years ago. This is how he became a billionaire: Despite it being illegal at the time, in 1998 Weill combined his Travelers Group with Citicorp, the parent of the federally-insured commercial bank, Citibank. Travelers Group consisted of a large insurance company, an investment bank (Salomon Brothers) and a retail brokerage firm, Smith Barney. It would become the first of the megabanks (“universal banks”) on Wall Street. The New York Times’ Editorial Board heralded the illegal and dangerous combination with this on April 8, 1998: “Congress dithers, so John Reed of Citicorp and Sanford Weill of Travelers Group grandly propose to modernize financial markets on their own. They have announced a $70 billion merger — the biggest in history — that would create the largest financial services company in the world, worth more than $140 billion… In one stroke, Mr. Reed and Mr. Weill will have temporarily demolished the increasingly unnecessary walls built during the Depression to separate commercial banks from investment banks and insurance companies.” The Bill Clinton administration repealed the Glass-Steagall Act the following year and handed Weill a pen from signing the repeal legislation into law. Weill became the surviving Chairman and CEO of Citigroup after he eventually pushed Reed out. Weill amassed a fortune from the bank through a technique that compensation expert Graef “Bud” Crystal called the Count Dracula stock option plan. You couldn’t kill it; not even with a silver bullet. Nor could you prosecute it, because Citi’s Board of Directors gullibly signed off on it. The plan worked as follows: every time Weill exercised one set of stock options, he got a reload of approximately the same amount of options, regardless of how many frauds the bank had been charged with during that year. Crystal detailed in an article for Bloomberg News that between 1988 and 2002, Weill “received 96 different option grants” on an aggregate of $3 billion of stock. Crystal says “It’s a wonder that Weill had time to run the business, what with all his option grants and exercises. In the years 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000, Weill exercised, and then received new option grants, a total of, respectively, 14, 20, 13 and 19 times.” By the time Weill stepped down as CEO in 2003, he had received over $1 billion in compensation, the majority of it coming from his reloading stock options. (Weill remained as Chairman of Citigroup until 2006.) One day after stepping down as CEO, Citigroup’s Board of Directors permitted Weill to sell back to the corporation 5.6 million shares of his stock for $264 million. This eliminated Weill’s risk that his big share sale would drive down his own share prices as he was selling. The Board negotiated the price at $47.14 for each of Weill’s shares. Three years after Weill stepped down as Chairman, Citigroup’s stock was trading at 99 cents as the bank was being propped up with what would become $2.5 trillion in secret revolving loans from the Federal Reserve, according to an audit released in 2011 by the Government Accountability Office. To window dress the share price of Citigroup for beleaguered shareholders after the financial crisis, the bank did a 1-for-10 reverse stock split on May 9, 2011. (For each 100 shares of stock, the shareholder was left with just 10 shares.) While Weill has lived the fat cat life with mansions on both coasts, Citigroup’s long-term shareholders have been on a dismal journey as has the U.S. banking system. (See Former New York Fed Pres Bill Dudley Calls This the First Banking Crisis Since 2008; Charts Show It’s the Third.) Jamie Dimon, who had been Weill’s first lieutenant at Citigroup, is the Chairman and CEO of the largest megabank in the U.S. – JPMorgan Chase. He has become a billionaire on his bank’s stock option compensation as well. And while other CEOs at the megabanks may not make it to billionaire status, they are becoming obscenely rich despite their banks needing repeated bailouts from the Fed. As Louis Brandeis said: “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

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Testimony of 3 Experts Limited In PNC's TM Suit Against Plaid
by Gunnar Larson 09 Aug '24

09 Aug '24

Testimony of 3 Experts Limited In PNC's TM Suit Against Plaid <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1867858?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> By P.J. D'Annunzio A Pennsylvania federal judge has approved several suggested expert witnesses but limited the testimony of others in PNC Financial Services Group's trademark infringement lawsuit against Plaid Inc. claiming the company copied its logo and login screens when linking bank accounts to financial apps. Decision attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1867858?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1867858?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…>

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Crypto Co. Owes NBA's Pelicans $400K Over Sponsorship Deal
by Gunnar Larson 09 Aug '24

09 Aug '24

Crypto Co. Owes NBA's Pelicans $400K Over Sponsorship Deal <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1867753?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> By Emilie Ruscoe Cryptocurrency mining company PrimeBlock owes the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans $400,000 with interest after failing to hold up its end of a sponsorship agreement, a New Orleans federal judge has ruled. Order attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1867753?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1867753?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…>

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Delta's Boies Attys Slam CrowdStrike's 'Blame The Victim' Ploy
by Gunnar Larson 09 Aug '24

09 Aug '24

Delta's Boies Attys Slam CrowdStrike's 'Blame The Victim' Ploy <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1868027?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> By Linda Chiem Delta Air Lines' attorneys at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP on Thursday blasted CrowdStrike's "blame the victim" defense over last month's catastrophic global IT outage, and pledged to haul both the cybersecurity firm and Microsoft to court to recoup what Delta estimates to be over $500 million in revenue losses. 2 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1868027?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1868027?nl_pk=4126fe73-…>

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Watchdog Says Murky Goals, Boeing Hinder NASA Rocket
by Gunnar Larson 09 Aug '24

09 Aug '24

Watchdog Says Murky Goals, Boeing Hinder NASA Rocket <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1867874?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> By Daniel Wilson NASA's $5 billion moon rocket project faces ongoing delays and cost overruns due to issues such as the agency dragging its feet on setting clear goals and quality control problems at key contractor Boeing, according to a report released Thursday. Report attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1867874?nl_pk=4126fe73-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/governmentcontracts/articles/1867874?nl_pk=4126fe73-…>

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Funder Nera Capital Buys 50,000 Spanish Car Cartel Claims
by Gunnar Larson 09 Aug '24

09 Aug '24

Funder Nera Capital Buys 50,000 Spanish Car Cartel Claims <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1867178?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By William Janes Litigation funder Nera Capital has bought 50,000 claims for compensation valued at an estimated €1 billion ($1.1 billion) over a Spanish auto cartel involving many of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world, including General Motors and Honda. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1867178?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1867178?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

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