Techmeme
December 13, 2022, 1:45 PM

Top News

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:
The SEC charges Sam Bankman-Fried with defrauding investors and concealing diverting FTX customer funds to Alameda while raising $1.8B+ since at least May 2019  —  Defendant concealed his diversion of FTX customers' funds to crypto trading firm Alameda Research while raising more than $1.8 billion from investors
CNBC:
Bahamas AG Ryan Pinder and US SDNY Attorney Damian Williams confirm Bahamas police arrested Sam Bankman-Fried, who is under indictment and could be extradited  —  - The cofounder and former CEO of bankrupt crypto trading firm FTX was arrested in the Bahamas after the U.S. attorney …
CNBC:
The Southern District of New York charges SBF with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, money laundering, and more  —  - Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed eight separate charges against disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried …
Bloomberg:
The CFTC sues Sam Bankman-Fried for fraud, alleging FTX “misappropriated customer funds”, violated its own TOS, extended unlimited credit to Alameda, and more  —  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX and Alameda Research for violations of federal commodities laws.
Steven Ehrlich / Forbes:
A look at a draft of Sam Bankman-Fried's planned US House testimony, including accusations against John Ray III and screenshots of a chat with Changpeng Zhao  —  Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, was scheduled to testify Tuesday before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services.
Stephanie Murray / The Block:
John Ray III tells the US House that FTX's bankruptcy is “paperless” due to an “unprecedented” lack of documentation, FTX and Alameda are not distinct, and more  —  - New FTX CEO John Ray III said top executives at FTX had “free rein” over the company's many entities.
Bloomberg:
FTX lawyers say Bahamas officials worked to help SBF regain access to FTX Trading's systems, asking him to mint a coin to transfer funds to island officials  —  Bahamas government officials worked closely with Sam Bankman-Fried and tried to help him regain access to key computer systems …
U.S. House Committee on Financial Services:
Adam James / The Block:
Changpeng Zhao addresses major USDC outflows, saying Binance users can “withdraw any other stablecoin”; Nansen shows users withdrew $1.6B+ in ETH in 24 hours  —  - Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has addressed major USD Coin outflows.  — Some $1.6 billion has been withdrawn …
Reuters:
China files a trade dispute at the WTO against the US over its chip export controls, arguing the curbs threaten the stability of global industrial supply chains  —  China has launched a trade dispute at the World Trade Organization against the United States over its chip export control measures, China's commerce ministry said.
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Urvi Dugar / Reuters:
Elon Musk says Twitter Blue subscribers will see half the number of ads as non-subscribers and that the company plans to offer a higher tier with no ads in 2023  —  Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted on Monday that Twitter's Basic blue tick will have half the number of advertisements …
Melissa Heikkilä / MIT Technology Review:
A reporter tries Lensa, but unlike her male peers whose avatars were astronauts, warriors, and the like, many of hers were “pornified”, with 16 of 100 topless  —  My avatars were cartoonishly pornified, while my male colleagues got to be astronauts, explorers, and inventors.
Beatrice Peterson / ABC News:
Meta plans to share its free, open-source Hasher Matcher Actioner moderation tool, which helps platforms identify terrorist or human trafficking content  —  It said it will help prevent the spread of violent images on the internet.  —  Meta, formerly named Facebook, said it's opening …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
DoNotPay announces an AI-powered chatbot that can renegotiate bills and cancel subscriptions by chatting to customer service, rolling out in the coming weeks  —  DoNotPay, the company that bills itself as “the world's first robot lawyer,” is launching a new AI-powered chatbot that can help …
Cordilia James / Wall Street Journal:
Instagram rolls out Notes, a friend-focused status updates feature that appear atop the inbox, and begins testing BeReal-like Candid Stories in South Africa  —  With fresh ways to connect with friends, is Instagram trying to be Instagram again?  —  Polished is out and authentic …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Sensor Tower: Lensa tops the US App Store with 3.6M installs in December so far, out of 12.6M global installs by December 11, up 600% from November 20 to 30  —  Lensa AI's popularity has had a notable impact on the App Store's Top Charts.  The popular photo and video editing app recently went viral …
More: 9to5Mac
Wall Street Journal:
The EU publishes a draft approval of its preliminary US data sharing deal, struck in March to ease business sharing, after the US promised surveillance changes  —  Brussels gives tentative approval as part of pending deal to allow companies to transfer European data across the Atlantic
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Ngrok, which helps devs deploy sites, services, and apps, raised a $50M Series A led by Lightspeed, says ~5M devs use the service and ~30K are paying customers  —  Ask Alan Shreve why he founded Ngrok, a service that helps developers share sites and apps running on their local machines or servers …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
iOS 16.2 arrives with improved encryption for iCloud data, Freeform app, AirDrop limitations, Apple Sing, a karaoke-like feature for Apple Music, and more  —  Apple is rolling out its iOS 16.2 update for all users today along with iPadOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1.

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