Crypto-crime keeps exploding, often aimed at Americans by a worldwide network of criminals who don't care about whose lives they destroy. One victim, a professional woman, was willing to talk about the financial devastation.U.S. savings and retirement accounts are prime targets because America is where the money is. "It's a personal drive for me that I don't want this to happen to others," said Mary, in her sixties, and a professional who oversees that her employer adheres to all applicable laws, regulations, and policies.Over her life, she amassed a $1.2 million retirement fund, some to pay for her son's college education. The money is now gone. "It's absolutely humiliating, devastating, I cried for weeks," she said.Mary was initially contacted on LinkedIn, Microsoft's business and employment-focused social media platform with over a billion members worldwide. Last March, Kenneth Ouyang, whose professional LinkedIn post claims he's a Google artificial intelligence and machine learning engineer, contacted Mary and told her he wanted to discuss AI in the context of her industry.Ouyang said he wanted to discuss AI in the context of her industry. "He's technically, very technically savvy," she said. Over several months, they built trust by discussing common interests such as cooking and outdoor activities. They spoke via FaceTime and WhatsApp. Ouyang even sent a copy of his Seattle driver's license.Eventually, he brought up his side business, cryptocurrency. "I did have trepidations, but I thought, 'well, in the industry, crypto does exist. There's a lot of apps. People do it. They channel funds,'" said Mary.He convinced Mary to try it by investing $1,000 in a platform called Xexbit.com. Almost instantly, she got $1,340 back, cash in her bank account.More transfers eventually exhausted the retirement fund, with Ouyang claiming he was co-investing with her. She says he even tried to get her to participate in what appeared to be a multi-level crypto-Ponzi scheme to attract more investors but declined.Nonetheless, Mary says she was told she had amassed a $9 million profit. But to retrieve it, she would have to put yet another 10% into her account; money she did not have. "That didn't happen. And they also put a deadline that it would be due by Sept. 7," she said.Ouyang took down his LinkedIn post and was gone with all her money. She is in contact with local police, the FBI, and the IRS.With her nest egg gone, she is now rethinking the rest of her life. "I was hesitant, and still, I fell for it," said Mary.Users who fall for carefully crafted crypto scams often bear ill will to LinkedIn, believing they are dealing with legitimate organizations and professionals.Aware of that, LinkedIn told CNBC that increased fraud last year caused it to remove 32 million bogus, fake and fraudulent accounts.Nonetheless, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Cyber Crime Unit says social media needs to do a far better job of ridding their sites of scammers. "Last year, $50 billion was scammed from everyday Americans by transnational organized crime...the problem is sophisticated scammers who know who to target, how to target them and how to target them in order to take everything," said Santa Clara County Deputy D.A. James Gibbons-Shapiro.KTVU reached out to LinkedIn but did not hear back for comment.

Crypto-crime keeps exploding, often aimed at Americans by a worldwide network of heartless criminals who don’t care about whose lives they destroy. One victim, a professional woman, was willing to talk about the kind of financial devastation few of us can ever imagine.

Mary, a professional in her sixties, lost her entire $1.2 million retirement savings to a sophisticated scheme involving a fake Google engineer. Over several months, the scammer built trust with Mary, eventually convincing her to invest in a platform called Xexbit.com. Despite initial trepidations, she was lured in by promises of high returns.

Crypto scammer swindles more than $1 million from Bay Area woman

The crypto world hit a major milestone earlier this year with the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, a clear sign that digital assets are gaining traction on Wall Street and Main Street alike. As traditional financial institutions come around, more Americans are eyeing cryptocurrencies as a serious investment option, signaling a shift in the financial landscape that could impact the presidential race."It has been clear throughout this election cycle in the United States that cryptocurrency is a bigger priority for both parties than it has been in the past, which is exciting to see from an industry growth perspective," says Hany Rashwan, co-founder and CEO of 21Shares, one of the biggest issuers of the cryptocurrency exchange-traded products globally.Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris made her first public comments on crypto earlier this month, telling donors in New York that her administration would "invest in America's future" by supporting digital assets and other technologies while ensuring consumer protections, according to Bloomberg . Harris' remarks signal that Democrats, like Republicans, are beginning to embrace the crypto industry.While both presidential campaigns are stepping up their efforts to win over crypto voters, there is still a long road ahead to craft comprehensive Web3 policy that would make the U.S. competitive in the world, according to industry analysts who are closely watching the race."We have seen Harris and Trump both trying to use crypto and befriend crypto. It looks like they want to tap into the community," says Art Malkov, a New York-based advisor at Columbia University's Lab to Market Blockchain accelerator and co-founder of the Web3Lab accelerator. Malkov noted that the crypto market has reached a critical mass of adoption and development that it can no longer be ignored by mainstream politicians."We got the election speeding up the process where now Harris cannot afford not embrace crypto because Trump is embracing it," he says.This may prove to be a landmark year in the history of crypto development and mainstream adoption. In a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Sept. 24, Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the committee, said she wants to "strike a grand bargain on stablecoins" before the end of the year, as reported by The Block . This follows two years of bipartisan negotiations on a bill to create a regulatory framework for stablecoins — which are typically pegged to another currency or reserve — and could signal potential progress in crypto regulation as the year comes to a close.Morningstar's Bryan Armour says it has already been a "pivotal year" for crypto adoption by US investors. He notes IShares Bitcoin Trust became the fastest exchange-traded fund (ETF) to reach $10 billion in assets under management, and spot bitcoin ETFs already reached a total of $50 billion in net assets as of Sept. 10."It's remarkable to think of an industry that is about 15 years old and now it's a part of one of our leading parties' platforms," says Patrick Kirby, policy counsel at Crypto Council for Innovation, noting that crypto has become a legitimate campaign issue for the first time in American presidential history. "It's important to remind ourselves, as an industry and for folks interested in this space, just how far we've come."Together with traditional institutions that have warmed up to crypto this year, about 40% of American adults now own crypto, a jump from 30% in 2023, according to recent data compiled by Security.org . Bitcoin ETF approval has certainly been a big boost in confidence, with 21% of non-owners saying they're more likely to invest in cryptocurrency now given the exchange-traded fund wrapper.In a major milestone for the crypto world, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the launch of several Bitcoin ETFs in January, allowing shares in trusts holding Bitcoin to be traded on SEC-regulated exchanges.Then in May, the SEC unexpectedly approved proposals for the first spot Ethereum ETFs. Spot Ethereum ETFs will directly hold Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, allowing investors to own a share of the cryptocurrency through grantor trusts.In addition to milestone crypto products getting approvals, lawmakers came together in May to pass the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act , which proposes a regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States.It's an important milestone as the bill aims to provide clarity for the digital asset industry while mandating cooperation between regulatory agencies to avoid duplicate regulations. It assigns oversight responsibilities to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for assets on decentralized blockchains and to the SEC for those on non-decentralized blockchains, with specific criteria for each category.Still, there is plenty of uncertainty about the next steps and the future of this bill. It's not just the top of the ticket and federal regulation that will matter in the November election, the makeup of Congress and relevant committees will play a crucial role in shaping America's crypto policy in months to come.Increasingly, lawmakers are looking to address this growing interest and demand for crypto products at the state level as well.State legislatures have been actively engaging with digital asset regulation, as evidenced by the introduction of more than 165 bills this year in current legislative sessions, according to data compiled by Crypto Council for Innovation. These proposed laws cover a wide range of topics within the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, addressing issues such as stablecoin standards and cryptocurrency mining.Notably, about 70% of these bills have either successfully passed or remain under active consideration, indicating a strong momentum in state-level efforts to establish regulatory frameworks for digital assets.State governments are actively shaping crypto policy through new laws and regulations, according to a report by Crypto Council for Innovation."Crypto swing states could emerge given the close nature of many of the races," Liz Mills of Crypto Council for Innovation wrote in a report . "Crypto voters want politicians to set clear rules for cryptocurrency, providing investors with choices and allowing the sector to continue to grow and create jobs."<h2>Trump going all-in on crypto</h2>Republicans have been especially proactive in recognizing digital currencies markets as an important issue, as recent polling shows crypto becoming a significant issue for many voters. Among Republicans not initially planning to vote for former President Donald Trump, 13% said his support for crypto increased their likelihood of voting for him. Additionally, 38% of non-white Republican supporters reported feeling more excited to vote for Trump due to his pro-crypto stance.Trump is aggressively courting crypto-friendly voters ahead of the 2024 election, releasing a new batch of NFT trading cards in August and promoting a cryptocurrency project run by his sons.This marks a significant reversal from his previous skepticism of cryptocurrencies, with Trump now dubbing himself the "crypto president."In a speech at a bitcoin conference in July, Trump pledged that, if elected, his administration would retain all bitcoin held by the U.S. government, as reported by Axios . This sentiment aligns with the "hodl" mentality popular among cryptocurrency enthusiasts."For too long, our government has violated the cardinal rule that every bitcoiner knows by heart, never sell your bitcoin," Trump said at the event.Trump also promised to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on his first day in office, a statement that received enthusiastic applause from the audience.In the absence of a comprehensive crypto policy plan, Trump's agenda is a compilation of promises and crypto ventures that seem poised to benefit the Trump family. His latest DeFi project, World Liberty Financial, aims to promote U.S. dollar dominance through widespread adoption of dollar-pegged stablecoins in decentralized finance, according to CoinTelegraph .The venture has hinted at a partnership with Aave, which is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that operates on the Ethereum blockchain. Trump's latest project positions itself as a way to maintain America's financial leadership globally, though details remain scarce and the project has already been targeted by scammers and hackers.Notably, there are some questions about whether the new venture is more grift than digital innovation. A white paper obtained by CoinDesk earlier this month showed World Liberty Financial's ownership structure relies on a "governance" token, with 70% allocated to insiders like Trump and his sons—a proportion described as "significantly higher-than-normal" for such ventures.Still, crypto enthusiasts and advocates – from crypto billionaires, CEOs and the Winklevoss twins – are backing Trump and see his presidency as favorable to the industry's continued development. Kraken co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell is one of the corporate leaders who has publicly supported Trump's crypto venture by donating $1 million in Ethereum to the former president, describing him as the "only pro-crypto major party candidate" in a post on X.Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter , Crash Course.<h2>Harris campaign catching up</h2>According to Fortune 's reporting, Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas confirmed that Future Forward, Kamala Harris's official super PAC, has onboarded with Coinbase Commerce to accept cryptocurrency donations.This move by Kamala Harris's super PAC to accept cryptocurrency donations via Coinbase Commerce marks a significant departure from the Biden administration's generally cautious stance on crypto, potentially signaling a shift in Democratic policy."She has not rolled out the details yet, but she has made overtures that she would like to drive crypto legislation," Haas said, noting she was "cautiously optimistic."While the Harris campaign published more of its policy priorities ahead of the presidential debate on Sept. 10, few details were disclosed when it comes to crypto policy. The Harris campaign declined to elaborate further.Harris on Wednesday vowed to invest in the industry so that the United States would "remain dominant" in the blockchain space.There are still plenty of market risks associated with cryptocurrencies, outside of regulatory clarity and framework.As the latest milestones have been encouraging to crypto advocates, the U.S. still has a lot of catching up to do compared to other advanced economies when it comes to formulating its digital asset policy."The US has a less mature regulatory framework in place for cryptocurrency than other countries, particularly those in Europe where there is greater clarity around crypto regulations and buy-in from politicians," says Hany Rashwan, CEO of 21Shares, which has been operating in Europe for the last seven years.Cryptocurrencies' recent poor performance, volatility and a flat debut for spot ethereum ETFs are also stalling adoption, according to Morningstar's Bryan Armour."Unfortunately, we're seeing the US lag behind: We saw the European Union, Singapore, Hong Kong, the U.K. put different regulatory frameworks in place," says Kirby of Crypto Council for Innovation. "We're seeing momentum on the US side, but no comprehensive market structure bill has become law yet and there's still an opportunity to catch up."

Kamala Harris seeks to make inroads with crypto industry after Trump goes all in

40% of Americans now own cryptocurrency, a significant jump from 30% in 2023. The push for crypto regulation is also evident, with over 165 state bills addressing various aspects of the space. However, the US still lacks a comprehensive crypto policy despite key milestones like the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act.

Rise of the "crypto voter": The surprising group that could swing the election

The crypto world hit a major milestone earlier this year with the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, a clear sign that digital assets are gaining traction on Wall Street and Main Street alike. As traditional financial institutions come around, more Americans are eyeing cryptocurrencies as a serious investment option, signaling a shift in the financial landscape that could impact the presidential race."It has been clear throughout this election cycle in the United States that cryptocurrency is a bigger priority for both parties than it has been in the past, which is exciting to see from an industry growth perspective," says Hany Rashwan, co-founder and CEO of 21Shares, one of the biggest issuers of the cryptocurrency exchange-traded products globally.Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris made her first public comments on crypto earlier this month, telling donors in New York that her administration would "invest in America's future" by supporting digital assets and other technologies while ensuring consumer protections, according to Bloomberg . Harris' remarks signal that Democrats, like Republicans, are beginning to embrace the crypto industry.While both presidential campaigns are stepping up their efforts to win over crypto voters, there is still a long road ahead to craft comprehensive Web3 policy that would make the U.S. competitive in the world, according to industry analysts who are closely watching the race."We have seen Harris and Trump both trying to use crypto and befriend crypto. It looks like they want to tap into the community," says Art Malkov, a New York-based advisor at Columbia University's Lab to Market Blockchain accelerator and co-founder of the Web3Lab accelerator. Malkov noted that the crypto market has reached a critical mass of adoption and development that it can no longer be ignored by mainstream politicians."We got the election speeding up the process where now Harris cannot afford not embrace crypto because Trump is embracing it," he says. This may prove to be a landmark year in the history of crypto development and mainstream adoption. In a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Sept. 24, Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the committee, said she wants to "strike a grand bargain on stablecoins" before the end of the year, as reported by The Block . This follows two years of bipartisan negotiations on a bill to create a regulatory framework for stablecoins — which are typically pegged to another currency or reserve — and could signal potential progress in crypto regulation as the year comes to a close.Morningstar's Bryan Armour says it has already been a "pivotal year" for crypto adoption by US investors. He notes IShares Bitcoin Trust became the fastest exchange-traded fund (ETF) to reach $10 billion in assets under management, and spot bitcoin ETFs already reached a total of $50 billion in net assets as of Sept. 10. "It's remarkable to think of an industry that is about 15 years old and now it's a part of one of our leading parties' platforms," says Patrick Kirby, policy counsel at Crypto Council for Innovation, noting that crypto has become a legitimate campaign issue for the first time in American presidential history. "It's important to remind ourselves, as an industry and for folks interested in this space, just how far we've come." "Crypto swing states could emerge given the close nature of many of the races."Together with traditional institutions that have warmed up to crypto this year, about 40% of American adults now own crypto, a jump from 30% in 2023, according to recent data compiled by Security.org . Bitcoin ETF approval has certainly been a big boost in confidence, with 21% of non-owners saying they're more likely to invest in cryptocurrency now given the exchange-traded fund wrapper. In a major milestone for the crypto world, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the launch of several Bitcoin ETFs in January, allowing shares in trusts holding Bitcoin to be traded on SEC-regulated exchanges.Then in May, the SEC unexpectedly approved proposals for the first spot Ethereum ETFs. Spot Ethereum ETFs will directly hold Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, allowing investors to own a share of the cryptocurrency through grantor trusts.In addition to milestone crypto products getting approvals, lawmakers came together in May to pass the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act , which proposes a regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States. It's an important milestone as the bill aims to provide clarity for the digital asset industry while mandating cooperation between regulatory agencies to avoid duplicate regulations. It assigns oversight responsibilities to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for assets on decentralized blockchains and to the SEC for those on non-decentralized blockchains, with specific criteria for each category. Still, there is plenty of uncertainty about the next steps and the future of this bill. It's not just the top of the ticket and federal regulation that will matter in the November election, the makeup of Congress and relevant committees will play a crucial role in shaping America's crypto policy in months to come.Increasingly, lawmakers are looking to address this growing interest and demand for crypto products at the state level as well. State legislatures have been actively engaging with digital asset regulation, as evidenced by the introduction of more than 165 bills this year in current legislative sessions, according to data compiled by Crypto Council for Innovation. These proposed laws cover a wide range of topics within the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, addressing issues such as stablecoin standards and cryptocurrency mining. Notably, about 70% of these bills have either successfully passed or remain under active consideration, indicating a strong momentum in state-level efforts to establish regulatory frameworks for digital assets.State governments are actively shaping crypto policy through new laws and regulations, according to a report by Crypto Council for Innovation. "Crypto swing states could emerge given the close nature of many of the races," Liz Mills of Crypto Council for Innovation wrote in a report . "Crypto voters want politicians to set clear rules for cryptocurrency, providing investors with choices and allowing the sector to continue to grow and create jobs."<h2>Trump going all-in on crypto</h2>Republicans have been especially proactive in recognizing digital currencies markets as an important issue, as recent polling shows crypto becoming a significant issue for many voters. Among Republicans not initially planning to vote for former President Donald Trump, 13% said his support for crypto increased their likelihood of voting for him. Additionally, 38% of non-white Republican supporters reported feeling more excited to vote for Trump due to his pro-crypto stance.Trump is aggressively courting crypto-friendly voters ahead of the 2024 election, releasing a new batch of NFT trading cards in August and promoting a cryptocurrency project run by his sons. This marks a significant reversal from his previous skepticism of cryptocurrencies, with Trump now dubbing himself the "crypto president." There are some questions about whether the new venture is more grift than digital innovation.In a speech at a bitcoin conference in July, Trump pledged that, if elected, his administration would retain all bitcoin held by the U.S. government, as reported by Axios . This sentiment aligns with the "hodl" mentality popular among cryptocurrency enthusiasts. "For too long, our government has violated the cardinal rule that every bitcoiner knows by heart, never sell your bitcoin," Trump said at the event.Trump also promised to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on his first day in office, a statement that received enthusiastic applause from the audience.In the absence of a comprehensive crypto policy plan, Trump's agenda is a compilation of promises and crypto ventures that seem poised to benefit the Trump family. His latest DeFi project, World Liberty Financial, aims to promote U.S. dollar dominance through widespread adoption of dollar-pegged stablecoins in decentralized finance, according to CoinTelegraph . The venture has hinted at a partnership with Aave, which is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that operates on the Ethereum blockchain. Trump's latest project positions itself as a way to maintain America's financial leadership globally, though details remain scarce and the project has already been targeted by scammers and hackers.Notably, there are some questions about whether the new venture is more grift than digital innovation. A white paper obtained by CoinDesk earlier this month showed World Liberty Financial's ownership structure relies on a "governance" token, with 70% allocated to insiders like Trump and his sons—a proportion described as "significantly higher-than-normal" for such ventures.Still, crypto enthusiasts and advocates – from crypto billionaires, CEOs and the Winklevoss twins – are backing Trump and see his presidency as favorable to the industry's continued development. Kraken co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell is one of the corporate leaders who has publicly supported Trump's crypto venture by donating $1 million in Ethereum to the former president, describing him as the "only pro-crypto major party candidate" in a post on X.Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter , Crash Course.<h2>Harris campaign catching up</h2>According to Fortune 's reporting, Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas confirmed that Future Forward, Kamala Harris's official super PAC, has onboarded with Coinbase Commerce to accept cryptocurrency donations. This move by Kamala Harris's super PAC to accept cryptocurrency donations via Coinbase Commerce marks a significant departure from the Biden administration's generally cautious stance on crypto, potentially signaling a shift in Democratic policy."She has not rolled out the details yet, but she has made overtures that she would like to drive crypto legislation," Haas said, noting she was "cautiously optimistic." While the Harris campaign published more of its policy priorities ahead of the presidential debate on Sept. 10, few details were disclosed when it comes to crypto policy. The Harris campaign declined to elaborate further.Harris on Wednesday vowed to invest in the industry so that the United States would "remain dominant" in the blockchain space.There are still plenty of market risks associated with cryptocurrencies, outside of regulatory clarity and framework. As the latest milestones have been encouraging to crypto advocates, the U.S. still has a lot of catching up to do compared to other advanced economies when it comes to formulating its digital asset policy."The US has a less mature regulatory framework in place for cryptocurrency than other countries, particularly those in Europe where there is greater clarity around crypto regulations and buy-in from politicians," says Hany Rashwan, CEO of 21Shares, which has been operating in Europe for the last seven years.Cryptocurrencies' recent poor performance, volatility and a flat debut for spot ethereum ETFs are also stalling adoption, according to Morningstar's Bryan Armour."Unfortunately, we're seeing the US lag behind: We saw the European Union, Singapore, Hong Kong, the U.K. put different regulatory frameworks in place," says Kirby of Crypto Council for Innovation. "We're seeing momentum on the US side, but no comprehensive market structure bill has become law yet and there's still an opportunity to catch up."

Kamala Harris seeks to make inroads with crypto industry after Trump goes all in.

This year has seen major milestones for crypto in the U.S. Roughly 40% of Americans now own crypto, up from 30% in 2023. The Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, passed in May, proposes a regulatory framework for digital assets, assigning oversight roles to the CFTC and SEC.

Crypto-crime keeps exploding, often aimed at Americans by a worldwide network of criminals who don't care about whose lives they destroy. One victim, a professional woman, was willing to talk about the financial devastation.U.S. savings and retirement accounts are prime targets because America is where the money is."It's a personal drive for me that I don't want this to happen to others," said Mary, in her sixties, and a professional who oversees that her employer adheres to all applicable laws, regulations, and policies.Over her life, she amassed a $1.2 million retirement fund, some to pay for her son's college education.The money is now gone."It's absolutely humiliating, devastating, I cried for weeks," she said.Mary was initially contacted on LinkedIn, Microsoft's business and employment-focused social media platform with over a billion members worldwide.Last March, Kenneth Ouyang, whose professional LinkedIn post claims he's a Google artificial intelligence and machine learning engineer, contacted Mary and told her he wanted to discuss AI in the context of her industry.Ouyang said he wanted to discuss AI in the context of her industry."He's technically, very technically savvy," she said.Over several months, they built trust by discussing common interests such as cooking and outdoor activities. They spoke via FaceTime and WhatsApp. Ouyang even sent a copy of his Seattle driver's license.Eventually, he brought up his side business, cryptocurrency."I did have trepidations, but I thought, 'well, in the industry, crypto does exist. There's a lot of apps. People do it. They channel funds,'" said Mary.He convinced Mary to try it by investing $1,000 in a platform called Xexbit.com. Almost instantly, she got $1,340 back, cash in her bank account.More transfers eventually exhausted the retirement fund, with Ouyang claiming he was co-investing with her. She says he even tried to get her to participate in what appeared to be a multi-level crypto-Ponzi scheme to attract more investors but declined.Nonetheless, Mary says she was told she had amassed a $9 million profit. But to retrieve it, she would have to put yet another 10% into her account; money she did not have."That didn't happen. And they also put a deadline that it would be due by Sept. 7," she said.Ouyang took down his LinkedIn post and was gone with all her money. She is in contact with local police, the FBI, and the IRS.With her nest egg gone, she is now rethinking the rest of her life."I was hesitant, and still, I fell for it," said Mary.Users who fall for carefully crafted crypto scams often bear ill will to LinkedIn, believing they are dealing with legitimate organizations and professionals.Aware of that, LinkedIn told CNBC that increased fraud last year caused it to remove 32 million bogus, fake and fraudulent accounts.Nonetheless, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Cyber Crime Unit says social media needs to do a far better job of ridding their sites of scammers."Last year, $50 billion was scammed from everyday Americans by transnational organized crime...the problem is sophisticated scammers who know who to target, how to target them and how to target them in order to take everything," said Santa Clara County Deputy D.A. James Gibbons-Shapiro.KTVU reached out to LinkedIn but did not hear back for comment.

Perpetrator posed as Google engineer to convince Mary to invest in Xexbit.com. Initial gains led to Mary investing her entire retirement savings, totaling around $1.34 million. Criminals exploited LinkedIn, losing Americans $50 billion last year to transnational organized crime, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Cyber Crime Unit.

A professional woman, Mary, lost her entire $1.2 million retirement fund to a sophisticated crypto scam orchestrated via LinkedIn. The fraudster, Kenneth Ouyang, impersonated a Google engineer, building trust over months before convincing Mary to invest in a platform called Xexbit.com. He then pressured her for more money, claiming she had amassed a $9 million profit but needed to investment another 10% to withdraw.

Veteran financial executive Jim Sharp has been appointed chief financial officer of Extenet, a privately held, Frisco-based digital infrastructure provider.His appointment is effective Oct. 1."We're delighted to welcome Jim to the Extenet team," Rich Coyle, the company's president and CEO, said in a statement. "His vast experience and track record in financial leadership will be invaluable as we continue to expand our market presence and innovate within the digital infrastructure industry."Sharp will be based in Frisco overseeing Extenet's financial strategy and capital markets activities and driving long-term growth objectives. The company said Sharp's appointment underscores its commitment to strategic growth.Sharp brings a wealth of experience from his previous roles, including SVP of finance and financial reporting at Austin-based Amherst, where he was instrumental in enhancing the company's financial operations and strategic planning, Extenet said. Sharp's career also includes significant roles as CFO and treasurer at TIER REIT Inc., and senior positions with Behringer Harvard and Ernst & Young."Extenet has a strong foundation and an ambitious vision for the future, and I'm thrilled to be part of a team driving innovation and growth in the telecom industry," Sharp said in a statement. "I look forward to working closely with the teams and contributing to the company's ongoing successes."<h2>Get on the list. Dallas Innovates, every day.</h2> 's new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.

Jim Sharp will be based in Frisco, where he'll oversee the digital infrastructure provider's financial strategy and capital markets activities and drive long-term growth objectives.

Jim Sharp will be responsible for Extenet's financial strategy, capital markets activities, and long-term growth objectives. He brings extensive experience from previous roles, including SVP of finance at Amherst and CFO at TIER REIT Inc. Sharp's appointment reflects Exte's commitment to growth and innovation in the telecom industry.

North Texas' Extenet Taps Seasoned Financial Exec as CFO

TechCrunch Binance founder 'CZ' released from custody after four-month sentence </h4> Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao was released from US custody on Friday after serving out his four-month sentence in a low-security correctional facility. CZ's sentence was the product of a federal investigation that found Binance had failed to stop widespread criminal activity on the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. CZ pleaded guilty to the DOJ's charges, paid a $50 million fine, and agreed to never be a Binance executive again. Yahoo Sports A's last game in Oakland, current postseason situation, Dodgers & Yankees clinch | Baseball Bar-B-Cast </h4> Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman talk about the A's playing their last game in Oakland, the current postseason picture, the Dodgers and Yankees clinching their divisions and make their picks for The Good, The Bad and The Uggla. Yahoo Life Shopping Amazon Prime Day 2024: Deals we're shopping and what to know about October Big Deal Days </h4> The biggest shopping event of the fall kicks off next month. Here are all the details, along with stellar sales you can score right now. Canoo hit with two supplier lawsuits as last remaining co-founder leaves </h4> EV startup Canoo has been hit with two new lawsuits from suppliers linked to the drivetrains that power its electric vehicles, just weeks after the company kicked off a major reorganization that included the departure of its chief technology officer. Canoo has also parted ways with senior director of advanced vehicle engineering Christoph Kuttner, who was the last remaining co-founder from the team of nine that created the startup in late 2017, TechCrunch has learned. Kuttner was one of nine co-founders who split off from Faraday Future at the end of 2017 to start up Evelozcity, the original incarnation of Canoo. Yahoo News Vance-Walz vice presidential debate: How to watch live as candidates face off on Oct. 1 </h4> Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio will go head-to-head on Tuesday for the first and only scheduled vice presidential debate. Here's when and how to tune in.

CBS' “Face the Nation — Gov. Roy Cooper, D-N.C. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao was released from US custody after serving a four-month sentence at a low-security correctional facility.  His sentence stemmed from a federal investigation uncovering Binance's failure to prevent criminal activity on its platform.  CZ pleaded guilty to charges, paid a $50 million fine, and agreed to never hold an executive position at Binance again. 





Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows

By Allison Morrow, CNNNew York (CNN) — What do you get when you combine lower interest rates and a viral baby pygmy hippo ?Moo Deng crypto.Given the sudden popularity of Moo Deng, the Thai national treasure whose name roughly translates as "bouncy pork," it was only a matter of time before someone turned her into a digital asset. And given the nature of such memecoins, which have zero underlying value and trade purely on vibes, it's no surprise Moo Deng Coin has shot up 1,400% since it was created less than three weeks ago.To be clear: This is an asset about as valuable as Beanie Babies were in the 1990s, though at least then you got to hold a Beanie Baby.Memecoins, no matter how cute, are not a smart financial play, even if one trader appears to have turned an $800 buy into $3.5 million. (It should be noted that crypto traders suspect this anonymous Moo Deng booster is an "insider," since they bought the coin four hours after its creation, per the crypto news site Decrypt. And once that person sells their stake, the coin becomes as worthless on paper as it is in reality.)Moo Deng coin is just the latest product of a niche online culture that also birthed Dogecoin (created as a joke to dunk on bitcoin) and Shiba Inu coin (a joke to dunk on Dogecoin). Like any fun internet sensation, memecoins tend to have a short lifespan, soaring as their newnesses inspires FOMO in crypto traders and then cratering shortly after when early investors take their profits and bolt for the exit.Obviously, Moo Deng's unbearable cuteness is the driving force behind the new coin, which was up 90% over 24 hours on Friday, trading at about 25 cents a coin.But the Fed's super-sized rate cut last week, and signals of more cuts to come, are also powering a surge in crypto broadly, from the Moo Dengs to the more mainstream bitcoin and ethereum, as looser monetary policy tends to benefit high-risk assets like crypto.Bitcoin, the most popular crypto token, is up about 14% over the past week.

By Allison Morrow, CNN New York (CNN) — What do you get when you combine lower interest rates and a viral baby pygmy hippo? Moo Deng crypto. Given the sudden popularity of Moo Deng, the Thai national treasure whose name roughly translates as “bouncy pork,” it was only a matter of time before someone turned

Moo Deng Coin, a memecoin, has skyrocketed 1,400% since its launch three weeks ago. Despite its charm, the coin holds little value, akin to Beanie Babies. One trader allegedly turned $800 into $3.5 million, this is suspected to be an "insider" trade.

Moo Deng now has her own crypto, because of course she does

Automated teller machines for Bitcoin, the latest innovation appropriated by fraudsters to get money out of the hands of victims and into their own, are increasingly showing up in San Diego County.One Bitcoin website identified 17 locations around the county for its machines, from Alpine to Tijuana to Encinitas.The way it works is as follows: Customers insert cash or a debit card into the ATM to exchange traditional currency for bitcoin currency. Only identification is needed to access the machines. Victims, many of whom are seniors, are instructed to change the money and then send the bitcoin currency to an encrypted address. Not long after that, the money is moved quickly across the county or around the globe. The machines can be found anywhere that traditional ATMs can be found. The multiple locations are easy conduits for fraudulent withdrawals. San Diego's Elder Justice Task Force — a collaboration between the DA's office, FBI, APS, local law enforcement, and the US Attorney's Office — reports that in 2023, victims in San Diego County alone lost a total of more than $5,000,000 to fraud by placing money into the machines. Nationally, the FBI reports that in 2023, more than 12,000 victims aged 60 and older indicated that cryptocurrency was a medium or tool used to facilitate the scam or fraud that targeted them. At a U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing last week, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal discussed a letter he and other senators had written to large Bitcoin ATM operators on their failures to prevent elder scams.Several witnesses testified that the problem is rampant and needs to be addressed immediately.Among those speaking was San Diego Deputy District Attorney Scott Pirrello, who was invited because of his breadth of experience with the many types of elder abuse fraud.Pirrello, who heads Elder Abuse Prosecutions within the DA's office, told the senators on the panel that a victim in Escondido who withdrew $15,000 from her bank went into a liquor store in a dangerous part of town in the middle of the night. That's how convincing these con men are in motivating victims to actand how so much is being stolen, Pirello said.Pirrello added that in San Diego and around the country, there's frustration growing within law enforcement."We have a victim that runs to the police station and says, I just put $10,000 into this machine, and my money is sitting right there in that machine. Can you get it back for me? And so far, there is an inability to do that because of the nuance of how these cryptocurrency transactions work.""The window is so tight for there to be any intervention, and so there should be as many safeguards as possible to prevent these victims from putting their money in these machines in the first place," he said, noting that it took just twelve minutes to send the Escondido victim's money to southeast Asia, outside U.S. jurisdiction.The lies take many forms, but right now tech and personal information scams top the list, according to data collected by the FBI. The scams take advantage of the lack of familiarity by older citizens with computers and cybersecurity issues. For example, a pop-up message might appear, falsely warning that a device is damaged or needs fixing, or that a bank account needs immediate attention. When the victim calls or emails for "support" help, the scammer often requests remote access to the their computer. And more and more often, the senior ends up taking a trip to a local bitcoin ATM , which is the address provided by the scammer.Kathy Stokes with AARP Fraud Watch , who also testified before the committee, estimates that multiple millions of dollars are being stolen and routed through the ATMs. The victims "go to their bank, take out tens of thousands of dollars in cash, then telling them where to go to find the crypto machine, and then them standing there and putting $100 at a time into these machines, and coaching them on how to get that money to the electronic wallet." The victim "thinks that this is going to solve a problem," not realizing they "just created all that much more," she says.Virtually nothing is being done by the companies themselves to try to forestall these frauds, witnesses said. Pirrello added that some of the ATM companies are being responsible in the sense that they will submit suspicious activity reports — but well after that victim's money is unrecoverable. He and Stokes called for more and better regulation, clearer warnings about the risks inherent in anonymous systems such as Bitcoin, and legislation targeting scams such as these. SB 401 , which goes into effect in 2025, creates a transaction limit of $1,000 a day per customer per machine. But Pirello says his office is already seeing cases where victims are being instructed to move from machine to machine to overcome this transaction limit.

San Diego’s Elder Justice Task Force -- a collaboration between the DA’s office, FBI, APS, local law enforcement, and the US Attorney’s Office -- reports that in 2023, victims in San Diego County alone lost a total of more than $5,000,000 to fraud by placing money into the machines.

Bitcoin ATMs are increasingly being used in San Diego County for scams. Victims, many of whom are seniors, lost over $5 million in 2023 alone. Law enforcement frustrated by the speed of these transactions, which often involve sending money internationally within minutes. SB 401, effective in 2025, will limit transactions to $1,000 per day per customer per machine.

At Least $5 Million Lost to ATM Bitcoin Fraud in San Diego in 2023: Reports

The Justice Department's antitrust case against Visa , which was announced Tuesday, is best understood as an important (and, in my view, overdue) new stage in the history of money, which is basically a sad tale of tangible currency becoming ever-less-tangible and therefore ever-easier for a private third party (typically banks; in this case, Visa) to siphon away a portion without attracting notice from nice people like you and me. Other, less-nice people may notice, but when they do the third party can buy their silence. Eventually the government catches on and puts a stop to this anti-competitive behavior. But as we'll see in the case of Visa, the arc of the moral universe is long.I'm getting ahead of our story. According to the American Numismatic Society, money was first used in Mesopotamia and Egypt about 4500 years ago. Gold and silver, then (as now) precious metals, were traded "in the form of metal bars or bits of wire." Later, starting around 650 B.C. in Lydia (situated in modern-day Turkey), money came in "little round lumps of electrum (a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver)." These were "the first coins ." About a century later, King Croesus accumulated enough of these lumps to be remembered as the richest person in history, though in fact Croesus doesn't even crack 's top 25 . (More on the history of extreme wealth here .)At this early stage, money was free. Every transaction was a straight-up exchange of coins for whatever goods or services were desired. Manufacturing the coins created an external cost, of course, but this was absorbed by emperors and kings. When you bought something, you paid no additional transaction fee.Eventually it became a nuisance to cart around a lot of gold and silver coins, prompting the Chinese, in the seventh century AD , to invent paper money. Paper money wasn't real money, because pretty obviously a piece of paper is not in itself worth anything. It was an IOU promising to fork over a certain quantity of silver or gold, which worth something, in exchange for some item or service. For a long time, such promises aroused suspicion, often justified, that the IOU would never be honored. Consequently, western nations looked askance at paper money until the 17th century, when the Swedes started experimenting with it. By the 18th century paper money was in common use. With paper money, currency shifted from being an item of intrinsic value (the British "pound sterling" being quite literally a quantity of silver that weighed one pound) to an item of no intrinsic value except as a promise to furnish something of value on request (the British pound note). The recipient extended credit; the giver incurred debt; and the government balanced the scales with precious metals—silver at first, then later gold, which, being more scarce, made the paper flow less freely (thereby bequeathing America Populism , , and William Jennings Bryan ). As with coins, purchases by paper money incurred no transaction fee. The emperors and kings who printed it had by this time devised an infinite variety of superior means to extract wealth from their populations—methods that did not impede commerce.Eventually governments figured out that they didn't really need gold to control the circulation of money; indeed, going off the gold standard, as the United States did temporarily during the Great Depression and, later, permanently in the 1970s, gave governments control. (It took the Federal Reserve about a decade to master that control, greatly worsening in the meantime what's now remembered as the Great Inflation.) With the United States off the gold standard, a dollar bill became an item of no intrinsic worth that was valuable not because it could be redeemed in gold but because we all chose to believe it was valuable. But paper money was almost as big a nuisance to cart around in large quantities as silver and gold, necessitating the creation of checking accounts, which first gained widespread use in the United States around the middle of the 19th century. A check was a paper IOU redeemable for another paper IOU (cash). Its value, rather than fixed in advance, as paper money was, varied according to the transaction. The guarantor of this do-it-yourself currency was not a government, but a private bank. The snake had entered the garden.Paying by check incurred a transaction fee (direct or indirect) because the bank needed to cover the cost of printing the check, or of moving your money from Point A to Point B, or of providing some other banking service such as mailing you a monthly statement. For the first time, it cost (slightly) more to buy something than the price of the thing itself. The next stage in money's march toward intangibility arrived in 1958 with the advent of Bank Americard, which we know today as Visa. Credit cards came into being because carting around a checkbook—like carrying pieces of silver and paper money before it—became a nuisance. With Bank Americard, you could carry a small piece of plastic in your wallet, use it pay for stuff, then decide when to hand over the cash. There had been charge cards before (Diners Club, Carte Blanche, American Express among them), but these required that you pay off your entire tab every month. Bank Americard did not. In fact, it preferred that you didn't, because then it could charge you interest on the unpaid portion. Everyday consumption became everyday debt. This feature allowed Bank Americard (then an arm of the Bank of America) to greatly increase what your bank charged you to buy stuff, spawning a new industry. Let's call it the Buying Stuff Industry. Then, in 1969, something terrible happened. Terrible for the Buying Stuff Industry, anyway. Chemical Bank installed in Rockville Centre, New York, something called a Docuteller, which turned out to be the first Automatic Teller Machine , or ATM. The ATM, which took about a decade to catch on—I saw my first one in 1976—allowed you to extract cash from your account at any time of day or night; all you had to do was insert a card that looked exactly like a credit card but was called a debit card. The debit card was not an instrument to borrow money and pay interest to credit card companies and banks. It was an instrument to withdraw money in your possession and pay interest, or even a check fee, to anyone. For many years debit cards incurred no transaction fees at all. You didn't pay a transaction fee during bank hours when a human teller handed you cash from your account. Why should you pay a fee when a machine (my first was called, I kid you not, " the Cool-O-Mat ") did the same thing?To the Buying Stuff Industry, the ready availability of cash at all hours was bad. But much worse was that, within a few years of the debit card's debut, it could be used to buy stuff in stores, displacing purchases by credit card. Suddenly people were buying stuff not by incurring debt but by spending money in their bank accounts. This was intolerable! Then, in the early 1990s, the point-of-sale terminal came to the rescue.Credit cards were processed initially with a manual imprinter ("knuckle buster" ) that made a carbon copy of your credit card. The cashier also had to call the issuing bank to make sure the card number wasn't stolen. Later, these two functions were combined digitally, but the process still took about five minutes. Only in the 1990s did point-of-sale technology become available that could process credit card payments as quickly as cash or a paper check.In theory, this same technology also enabled a retailer to process a debit card payment as quickly as cash or paper check. But the credit card companies owned the computer networks that processed point-of-sale transactions, charging a swipe fee for each transaction, and they didn't feel like sharing them with debit cards. For a while this slowed the spread of debit cards. Eventually, though, debit cards became too popular to exclude. The credit card companies then created a new kind of "offline" debit card. You couldn't use this card to withdraw cash from an ATM, but you could use it to make a retail purchase that took money out of your bank account. Unlike an ATM card, the offline debit card incurred swipe fees comparable to those for credit cards. Later, ATM cards started charging swipe fees, too, but these were only half those for offline debit cards. Still later, ATM cards and offline debit cards were combined into a single "general purpose" debit card—and these new hybrids incurred retail swipe fees as high as 44 cents per transaction . Buying stuff with your own money was now an invisible transaction conducted silently with a stripe or a chip on a piece of plastic. It had lost all sense of being an interaction between two humans. And it was getting very expensive.The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law directed the Fed to put a ceiling on debit-card swipe fees. But after considering a ceiling of about 12 cents per transaction, the Fed settled for a too-generous 21 cents, plus an "ad valorum" equal to 0.05 percent of the purchase price and a 1-cent charge to cover fraud protection. Last November, the Fed issued a proposed rule that would lower the ceiling to 14.4 cents and the ad valorum to 0.04 percent. (Credit cards can still charge whatever swipe fee they want.)All this happened well outside the consciousness of the ordinary shopper. When you buy something with a debit or credit card, the receipt doesn't include an entry for a swipe fee, because that's charged directly to the merchant (who has already raised prices to cover it). On rare occasions the merchant may tell you that an item will be more expensive if you purchase it with plastic, but most of the time he just charges everybody a little bit more. Debit card usage has now grown to the point where it matches or outpaces credit card usage. In 2020, debit card spending for the first time exceeded , in dollars, credit card spending. Back in 1969, Bank Americard would have considered this a catastrophe. But, in fact, it was very good news for the successor company, Visa, because Visa now dominates the debit card business, and has for many years. Sixty percent of all debit transactions run on Visa's network; only about 25 percent run on Master Card's network, which ranks a distant second. There have been years (for instance, 2022) when Visa earned more revenue from its debit business than from its credit card business. Think about that. Credit cards charge interest, whereas debit cards can at best incur overdraft fees. That's why the Buying Stuff Industry used to hate them! Visa was handed a lemon and turned it into lemonade. Last year its swipe fees on debit cards brought in $7 billion.How did this happen? According to the Justice department, Visa got there "through exclusionary and anticompetitive means." In large part, that consisted of buying off potential competitors—companies like Apple Pay, PayPal, and Square. The Justice Department complaint quotes Visa's CFO actually saying, "Everyone is a friend and a partner. Nobody is a competitor." More from the Justice Department complaint:The Dodd-Frank law increased the number of available networks by requiring banks to put at least two unaffiliated networks on every debit card. When this provision took effect in 2012, Visa lost market share to other networks. To fight back, the Justice Department says, Visa got really aggressive with discounting.For any given debit-card purchase to work, the bank that issued Customer A's card has to be on the same network as Merchant B's bank. Sometimes there are multiple overlapping networks from which the merchant may choose, but sometimes there's only one. When there's only one, it's usually Visa's. The many "non-contestable" transactions that require Visa's network, the Justice Department says, gives the company leverage to pressure merchants to also use Visa's network for contestable transactions that could be processed by some different network that charges lower fees. If the merchant says "no thanks" to Visa and goes with the competitor instead, then Visa can punish him by charging a high sticker price ("rack rate") on Visa's non-contestable transactions. If the merchant says yes, however, he avoids the rack and gets a discount. According to the Justice Department, "this effectively insulates at least 75 percent of Visa's debit volume from competition." And the consumer? You're pretty much a bystander to all this, because you didn't choose your debit card, did you? Your bank chose it for you. You could close your bank account and move your money to some other bank that doesn't use Visa's debit network. But Visa is so ubiquitous that such banks can be hard to find. Alternatively, you could get rid of your debit card and go back to writing checks. But increasingly debit cards, like credit cards, do things that paper checks can't, like get you into the New York City subway or the London Underground.Really, you're at the mercy of the Justice Department's antitrust division. One thing you can do, though, is vote for Kamala Harris, because it's anybody's guess whether Trump, who's aggressively business-friendly, would allow this important monopoly-busting litigation to continue. We may have found one Visa Trump will turn out to like.

Transaction fees on debit-card purchases are out of control. The Biden administration's anti-trust cops are on the case.

Throw the Book at Visa

Vice President Kamala Harris is cozying up to the cryptocurrency industry in the final stretch of the presidential campaign, embracing an industry scorned by progressives and giving hope to moderates who want her administration to take a more business-friendly approach to the economy.Progressive policy makers largely celebrated the economic approach of President Joe Biden, whose administration embarked on an effort to reverse what liberals saw as 40 years of corporate dominance of policy-making in Washington. The approach also kept the Democratic Party, which seemed at the edge of an ideological fracture during the 2020 primaries, largely united. Harris' embrace of crypto ― coming just two years after the collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that embarrassed the industry and erased more than $1 trillion of investment, including many people's life savings ― is her most noteworthy reversal from Biden's economic approach so far.Her crypto-friendly approach is partially a reflection of how the industry has used money to conquer Washington. It has won allies throughout Congress and managed to enlist a small army of digital asset holders to do its political bidding. Whether it's a sign of a broader ideological shift on Harris' part is unclear, and the Democratic nominee may have an interest in keeping it that way as she tries to keep every possible element of the coalition happy ahead of an ultra-close November election. Interviews with crypto supporters, opponents and Harris allies, however, point to a scenario where Harris may be seeking to correct what moderate Democrats view as a major mistake by the Biden administration ― an unwillingness in their eyes to even engage with the business community, including crypto ― without wholly abandoning many of the policies the party's progressive wing loves."I find it telling that Vice President Harris is proactively signaling openness to embracing emerging technologies like blockchain," Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), one of the biggest boosters of crypto in the Democratic Party, told HuffPost, referring to the decentralized ledger that undergirds the crypto system. "I actually think as a product of Silicon Valley, she has a natural openness to new technology, more so than the Biden administration."But a slightly more friendly approach to Silicon Valley (Harris mentioned AI, quantum computing and blockchain as "sectors that will define the nation the next century" in an economic speech in Pittsburgh on Wednesday) does not inherently mean an abandonment of many of the labor-friendly, climate change-fighting industrial policies the Biden administration pursued."It's easy to see why people think this is the Biden Administration plus Silicon Valley," said Michael Madowitz, the principal economist at Roosevelt Forward, the political arm of the progressive think tank, the Roosevelt Institute. "But that doesn't mean she can't focus on balancing corporate power, on making sure American workers get a fair shake."Many of those progressive-friendly policies were included in an , "A New Way Forward For The Middle Class," which Harris' campaign released alongside her speech in Pittsburgh. They include hyping the Biden-Harris administration's antitrust agenda, including their fight against junk fees. The manifesto also promises to take on anti-competitive practices in the pharmaceutical, food and housing industries. In the same speech, however, she took care to deliver some calming words to the business community, saying she knows "the limitations of government." She added: "I've always been and will always be a strong supporter of workers and unions, and I also believe we need to engage those who create most of the jobs in America."What may ultimately determine the ideological direction of Harris' administration is who she hires. Crypto supporters are determined to oust Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, for instance. And the presence of Harris campaign advisors with closer ties to big tech means the door may be open more for policy hands with private sector experience. One obvious instance: Tony West, Harris' brother-in-law who is on leave from his job as the chief legal officer at Uber is almost certain to get a top role in her administration. And allies of Silicon Valley in D.C. are hopeful Harris' closer geographical and generational ties to tech mean more open lines of communication than existed with Biden."There's going to be a greater willingness to hire people who worked in the private sector. That doesn't mean there's no room for people on the left," said Caitlin Legacki, who worked as a top aide to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, one of the more moderate figures in the Biden administration's economic policy-making world. "You don't have to sell the White House to corporations, but you should have someone to pick up their phone calls."In 2020, while Biden mostly appointed mainstream, experienced hands to lead roles at agencies and cabinet departments, progressives took many critical behind-the-scenes roles . This led to frequent grumbling, from both Republicans and moderate Democrats, about Biden's administration looking like one assembled by Warren, whom he vanquished in the 2020 primary. Now, as some of those same progressives fight for their jobs, popularity looms as a potentially deciding factor. Khan, for instance, has kept an aggressive schedule appearing with influential progressives like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, old hands like Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, and swing-state senators like Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Jacky Rosen of Nevada. (Even still, Legacki predicted Harris would "be more selective about fighting ideological battles" when it came to antitrust.)These same popularity contests, however, may doom Gensler, who has emerged as a unique target of industry ire, and who seems to lack the same popular backing benefiting Khan. And while the Biden administration's anti-monopoly posture has been generally popular with the public ― Kahn and Harris both have linked it to lower housing and health care costs ― its antagonistic relationship with crypto is seen as unlikely to win over many voters.Politically, Harris' approach seems to be working. The economy had been a huge advantage for former President Donald Trump in his matchup against President Joe Biden, but Harris has closed the gap. Forty-three percent of voters said they trusted Trump on the economy in an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey last week, compared to 41% for Harris, with 15% saying they trusted both or neither. <h3>How Crypto Came Back</h3>The FTX collapse in November of 2022 scared off most Democrats from engaging with crypto, which the Biden administration did not exactly consider a critical issue when they took office in 2020. Many top officials in both parties viewed the industry as a sideshow, good for little more than slurp juice jokes as some rushed to return the substantial donations they accepted from FTX Chairman Sam Bankman-Fried and his allies. That left an opportunity for crypto critics like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and SEC Chair Gary Gensler.As the Biden White House focused on other topics, the SEC continued bringing dozens of cases against crypto firms for failing to comply with the securities laws enacted in the 1930s to protect investors from financial scams ― laws requiring basic disclosures such as the identities of the people in charge.As the FTX collapse faded from public memory, crypto advocates resumed their quest for new rules, claiming the old securities laws shouldn't apply. In May, the House of Representatives obliged by passing a bill that would diminish the SEC's oversight of the industry. Nevertheless, the legislation passed with bipartisan support ― 71 Democrats joined nearly every Republican in favor ― but it was ignored by the Democratic-controlled Senate. Senate Democrats have sought to advance their own proposals that would reduce the role of the SEC in overseeing digital assets, but those too, have due to GOP opposition. Meanwhile, the influence of the crypto lobby only grew.Crypto super PACs have spent tens of millions of dollars against Democratic candidates across the country, including in several critical Senate races that could determine control of the chamber next year. And it's not just Republicans who are courting crypto donations: Future Forward, the leading super PAC supporting Harris' presidential campaign, began cryptocurrency donations earlier this month. "What's alarming is the capacity of billionaires and the crypto folks to put $40 million in Ohio, maybe put $60 million in Pennsylvania," said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). "You know, it's just as a reminder how messed up our political system is that folks with that kind of cash have such outsized influence.""Most people don't understand it, but it's powerful, and it's money," the senator added. Earlier this summer, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats joined a "Crypto4Harris" virtual town hall to show support for digital assets. The event featured billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who has emerged as one of Harris' top corporate go-betweens. Harris has also dispatched her top policy aide, Brian Nelson, to woo crypto industry figures."There's been a real tangible effort from them to listen to us, hear from us, and reassure us — without making any hard commitments — and talk about crypto in a constructive way," a source familiar with the Harris campaign's outreach to the crypto community told HuffPost.Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has spent substantial time courting the crypto fan base, which skews younger, male and caucasian. He even rolled out his own cryptocurrency business earlier this month. (The former president has had his own evolution on crypto. As recently as 2021, Trump called Bitcoin a "scam" and said cryptocurrencies in general were "potentially a disaster waiting to happen.")Whatever the reason, the tone shift has seemingly affected even some of crypto's top critics. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said this week " crypto is inevitable ," while Warren took a non-confrontational tone when asked about Harris's openness to digital assets. "I'm fine with people buying and selling crypto," Warren told HuffPost. "It's very important that crypto follow the same rules as every other part of our financial system, and making sure it's not exploited by drug traffickers, terrorists and countries like Iran." Following the same rules as the rest of the financial system, however, is exactly what crypto does not want to do.More than anything, crypto proponents also want the next president to fire Gensler. Cuban said on social media this week the Harris campaign told him they opposed the administration's current approach to crypto, and he suggested that Gensler would be going away. "CYA Gensler," Cuban wrote. "You leaving is worth a point in GDP growth."Meanwhile, Republicans are skeptical that Harris' embrace of crypto is legitimate and claim that she has little familiarity with the industry. "She's very close to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Elizabeth Warren hates digital assets," Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a top GOP advocate of the sector, said of Harris. "I am more concerned with what I see, than what I hear."

Harris wants to open the door to business, without shutting down progressive priorities.

As Harris Embraces Crypto, Her Coalition Holds — For Now

LOADINGVice President Kamala Harris is cozying up to the cryptocurrency industry in the final stretch of the presidential campaign, embracing an industry scorned by progressives and giving hope to moderates who want her administration to take a more business-friendly approach to the economy.Progressive policy makers largely celebrated the economic approach of President Joe Biden, whose administration embarked on an effort to reverse what liberals saw as 40 years of corporate dominance of policy-making in Washington. The approach also kept the Democratic Party, which seemed at the edge of an ideological fracture during the 2020 primaries, largely united. Harris' embrace of crypto ― coming just two years after the collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that embarrassed the industry and erased more than $1 trillion of investment, including many people's life savings ― is her most noteworthy reversal from Biden's economic approach so far.Her crypto-friendly approach is partially a reflection of how the industry has used money to conquer Washington. It has won allies throughout Congress and managed to enlist a small army of digital asset holders to do its political bidding. Whether it's a sign of a broader ideological shift on Harris' part is unclear, and the Democratic nominee may have an interest in keeping it that way as she tries to keep every possible element of the coalition happy ahead of an ultra-close November election. Interviews with crypto supporters, opponents and Harris allies, however, point to a scenario where Harris may be seeking to correct what moderate Democrats view as a major mistake by the Biden administration ― an unwillingness in their eyes to even engage with the business community, including crypto ― without wholly abandoning many of the policies the party's progressive wing loves."I find it telling that Vice President Harris is proactively signaling openness to embracing emerging technologies like blockchain," Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), one of the biggest boosters of crypto in the Democratic Party, told HuffPost, referring to the decentralized ledger that undergirds the crypto system. "I actually think as a product of Silicon Valley, she has a natural openness to new technology, more so than the Biden administration."But a slightly more friendly approach to Silicon Valley (Harris mentioned AI, quantum computing and blockchain as "sectors that will define the nation the next century" in an economic speech in Pittsburgh on Wednesday) does not inherently mean an abandonment of many of the labor-friendly, climate change-fighting industrial policies the Biden administration pursued."It's easy to see why people think this is the Biden Administration plus Silicon Valley," said Michael Madowitz, the principal economist at Roosevelt Forward, the political arm of the progressive think tank, the Roosevelt Institute. "But that doesn't mean she can't focus on balancing corporate power, on making sure American workers get a fair shake."Many of those progressive-friendly policies were included in an , "A New Way Forward For The Middle Class," which Harris' campaign released alongside her speech in Pittsburgh. They include hyping the Biden-Harris administration's antitrust agenda, including their fight against junk fees. The manifesto also promises to take on anti-competitive practices in the pharmaceutical, food and housing industries. In the same speech, however, she took care to deliver some calming words to the business community, saying she knows "the limitations of government." She added: "I've always been and will always be a strong supporter of workers and unions, and I also believe we need to engage those who create most of the jobs in America."What may ultimately determine the ideological direction of Harris' administration is who she hires. Crypto supporters are determined to oust Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, for instance. And the presence of Harris campaign advisors with closer ties to big tech means the door may be open more for policy hands with private sector experience. One obvious instance: Tony West, Harris' brother-in-law who is on leave from his job as the chief legal officer at Uber is almost certain to get a top role in her administration. And allies of Silicon Valley in D.C. are hopeful Harris' closer geographical and generational ties to tech mean more open lines of communication than existed with Biden."There's going to be a greater willingness to hire people who worked in the private sector. That doesn't mean there's no room for people on the left," said Caitlin Legacki, who worked as a top aide to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, one of the more moderate figures in the Biden administration's economic policy-making world. "You don't have to sell the White House to corporations, but you should have someone to pick up their phone calls."In 2020, while Biden mostly appointed mainstream, experienced hands to lead roles at agencies and cabinet departments, progressives took many critical behind-the-scenes roles . This led to frequent grumbling, from both Republicans and moderate Democrats, about Biden's administration looking like one assembled by Warren, whom he vanquished in the 2020 primary. Now, as some of those same progressives fight for their jobs, popularity looms as a potentially deciding factor. Khan, for instance, has kept an aggressive schedule appearing with influential progressives like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, old hands like Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, and swing-state senators like Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Jacky Rosen of Nevada. (Even still, Legacki predicted Harris would "be more selective about fighting ideological battles" when it came to antitrust.)These same popularity contests, however, may doom Gensler, who has emerged as a unique target of industry ire, and who seems to lack the same popular backing benefiting Khan. And while the Biden administration's anti-monopoly posture has been generally popular with the public ― Kahn and Harris both have linked it to lower housing and health care costs ― its antagonistic relationship with crypto is seen as unlikely to win over many voters.Politically, Harris' approach seems to be working. The economy had been a huge advantage for former President Donald Trump in his matchup against President Joe Biden, but Harris has closed the gap. Forty-three percent of voters said they trusted Trump on the economy in an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey last week, compared to 41% for Harris, with 15% saying they trusted both or neither. <h3>How Crypto Came Back</h3>The FTX collapse in November of 2022 scared off most Democrats from engaging with crypto, which the Biden administration did not exactly consider a critical issue when they took office in 2020. Many top officials in both parties viewed the industry as a sideshow, good for little more than slurp juice jokes as some rushed to return the substantial donations they accepted from FTX Chairman Sam Bankman-Fried and his allies. That left an opportunity for crypto critics like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and SEC Chair Gary Gensler.As the Biden White House focused on other topics, the SEC continued bringing dozens of cases against crypto firms for failing to comply with the securities laws enacted in the 1930s to protect investors from financial scams ― laws requiring basic disclosures such as the identities of the people in charge.As the FTX collapse faded from public memory, crypto advocates resumed their quest for new rules, claiming the old securities laws shouldn't apply. In May, the House of Representatives obliged by passing a bill that would diminish the SEC's oversight of the industry. Nevertheless, the legislation passed with bipartisan support ― 71 Democrats joined nearly every Republican in favor ― but it was ignored by the Democratic-controlled Senate. Senate Democrats have sought to advance their own proposals that would reduce the role of the SEC in overseeing digital assets, but those too, have due to GOP opposition. Meanwhile, the influence of the crypto lobby only grew.Crypto super PACs have spent tens of millions of dollars against Democratic candidates across the country, including in several critical Senate races that could determine control of the chamber next year. And it's not just Republicans who are courting crypto donations: Future Forward, the leading super PAC supporting Harris' presidential campaign, began cryptocurrency donations earlier this month. "What's alarming is the capacity of billionaires and the crypto folks to put $40 million in Ohio, maybe put $60 million in Pennsylvania," said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). "You know, it's just as a reminder how messed up our political system is that folks with that kind of cash have such outsized influence.""Most people don't understand it, but it's powerful, and it's money," the senator added. Earlier this summer, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats joined a "Crypto4Harris" virtual town hall to show support for digital assets. The event featured billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who has emerged as one of Harris' top corporate go-betweens. Harris has also dispatched her top policy aide, Brian Nelson, to woo crypto industry figures."There's been a real tangible effort from them to listen to us, hear from us, and reassure us — without making any hard commitments — and talk about crypto in a constructive way," a source familiar with the Harris campaign's outreach to the crypto community told HuffPost.Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has spent substantial time courting the crypto fan base, which skews younger, male and caucasian. He even rolled out his own cryptocurrency business earlier this month. (The former president has had his own evolution on crypto. As recently as 2021, Trump called Bitcoin a "scam" and said cryptocurrencies in general were "potentially a disaster waiting to happen.")Whatever the reason, the tone shift has seemingly affected even some of crypto's top critics. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said this week " crypto is inevitable ," while Warren took a non-confrontational tone when asked about Harris's openness to digital assets. "I'm fine with people buying and selling crypto," Warren told HuffPost. "It's very important that crypto follow the same rules as every other part of our financial system, and making sure it's not exploited by drug traffickers, terrorists and countries like Iran." Following the same rules as the rest of the financial system, however, is exactly what crypto does not want to do. More than anything, crypto proponents also want the next president to fire Gensler. Cuban said on social media this week the Harris campaign told him they opposed the administration's current approach to crypto, and he suggested that Gensler would be going away. Meanwhile, Republicans are skeptical that Harris' embrace of crypto is legitimate and claim that she has little familiarity with the industry. "She's very close to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Elizabeth Warren hates digital assets," Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a top GOP advocate of the sector, said of Harris. "I am more concerned with what I see, than what I hear."

In late August, Donald Trump released an ad for the fourth series of Trump-themed digital playing cards. "These cards show me dancing and even me holding some bitcoins," the former President says, referring to the most popular cryptocurrency. If you buy fifteen or more digital cards—at ninety-nine dollars apiece—you'll get one "beautiful physical trading card," he adds, with "an authentic piece of my suit that I wore for the Presidential debate" in June, against Joe Biden. Buying seventy-five cards earns you a dinner with Trump in Jupiter, Florida. The pitch was in keeping with Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Wine, and Trump's other fly-by-night merchandising ventures. But the reference to bitcoin, and another claim in the ad—"you know, they call me the crypto President"—signalled his attempt to court a new kind of voter. After calling bitcoin "a scam," in 2021, the former President has done a one-eighty; last week, he announced the launch of a new crypto platform called World Liberty Financial. According to its white paper, Trump's eighteen-year-old son, Barron, is the project's "DeFi visionary" ("DeFi," or decentralized finance, is a branch of the crypto industry that offers financial services); another executive is the former head of a company called Date Hotter Girls. "We're embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind," Trump said, offering few further details. The announcement came after he attended a bitcoin conference in Nashville, earlier this summer, where he announced his intention to create a "strategic national bitcoin stockpile" and make America the "crypto capital of the planet." Even Kamala Harris is getting in on the game. On Sunday, at a fund-raiser on Wall Street, she told attendees that she would use her Presidency to "encourage innovative technologies" like "digital assets"—her first reference to crypto since embarking on the campaign trail. Still, it's unclear whether crypto enthusiasts really represent a significant untapped voting bloc. Cryptocurrency is notably—and, to many of its fans, attractively—pseudonymous, making it hard to gauge the total number of people who own it. In 2023, the Federal Reserve estimated that there are roughly eighteen million crypto users in the United States. Anthony Scaramucci, the former Trump adviser turned Trump critic, who runs a hedge fund, has put the number at eighty-five million. ("You have more crypto owners than you have dog owners," he said, earlier this year.) Only a small number of these people appear to be using crypto as a medium of exchange, given its dramatic fluctuations in value. Many seem to treat it as a stock. What is clear, though, is that crypto is a trillion-dollar industry that the government has been increasingly interested in regulating. In 2023, U.S. lawmakers proposed a regulatory framework for it, and this could have significant financial repercussions. Crypto companies have reportedly poured more than a hundred and nineteen million dollars into the current Presidential campaign. Lately, several companies have also published research arguing that crypto users' votes can be swayed by candidates' stances on the technology. In early September, Gemini, a crypto exchange, published a report saying that nearly three-quarters of crypto owners in the U.S. "plan to consider a candidate's policies toward digital assets" in November. Grayscale, a publicly traded bitcoin fund, put out a report of its own on the 2024 election, in which it claims that "nearly half of voters (47%) now expect some of their investment portfolio to include crypto." The Grayscale report also states that, while crypto is probably owned by roughly the same number of Democrats as Republicans, crypto-adjacent issues, like inflation, "seem to be valued relatively more by Republicans." Joseph Uscinski, a professor of political science at the University of Miami who has studied cryptocurrency users, told me that there is limited academic research on crypto-related questions, but he echoed this general characterization. "Some crypto owners are quite skeptical of the political establishment—that's why they're buying crypto in the first place—and Trump is sort of the candidate for that voter," Uscinski said. "He exudes their skepticism of the system writ large." But he speculated that there are also "plenty of people who own crypto who are not gonna vote for Trump." Recently, I attended a crypto meetup near Atlanta titled "Bitcoin Enters the Mainstream Political Arena." It was organized by Rich Clarke, a real-estate agent in his early forties. Clarke runs Bitcoin Atlanta, a group with a few thousand members. This was Clarke's first event dedicated to the intersection of cryptocurrency and politics, which, he said, "has always been a touchy subject." Most crypto enthusiasts have historically been "apathetic to or disillusioned by politics," he said. Bitcoin, in particular, has long been attached to a pseudo-philosophy of "financial sovereignty," and its proponents tend to be vocal about what they perceive to be government overreach, in the forms of regulation, censorship, and central banking. Clarke's interest in crypto began in 2012, after twice supporting Ron Paul for President. "What I walked away with is that operating within the existing system is not gonna get us anywhere," Clarke told me. "We'll have to make a new system or a parallel system. I don't know." He went on, "At that same time, bitcoin was gaining notoriety. So I was, like, Here's something I can work on to help lay a new set of tracks." In late 2020, Clarke, who had worked as an audio engineer in the past, opened a cryptop-consulting business, which never took off. In the early days of his interest, he mined some bitcoin. "Having been involved in crypto for as long as I have, people assume I'm a multimillionaire," he told me. "Truth is, I've gambled most of it away. I was irresponsible. But being divorced from the financial aspect has helped me see things more clearly." Since immersing himself in crypto, Clarke has voted in Presidential elections, "but only begrudgingly"—until this cycle. He was an alternate Trump delegate to the G.O.P. Convention in July, in part because of Trump's embrace of crypto. "It's one issue, but it touches other issues," he said. Clarke thinks that making bitcoin, instead of the U.S. dollar, the world's reserve currency could encourage peace. "Since World War One, all U.S. wars are funded largely via inflation," he argued. "Bitcoin has no central issuer and a fixed supply, so such funding mechanisms would be largely unavailable." Clarke doesn't expect Trump to necessarily accomplish this, but, he said, "he can give the technology more room to breathe." I asked Clarke whether he knew people for whom Trump's recent support for cryptocurrency would earn him their vote. He related the story of a friend in his thirties who had never voted before but resolved to do so this year, after Trump said that he would pardon Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht is the founder of Silk Road, an online black market that, before it was shut down, facilitated an untold number of illegal transactions through bitcoin, giving the currency one of its first major use cases. In 2015, he received two life sentences without the possibility of parole, for crimes related to drug trafficking, money laundering, and computer hacking. "He's a folk hero to our community," Clarke went on. I asked whether he trusted Trump to follow through on his promises. "If you're trying to weigh voting for somebody who said unambiguously that he likes crypto and that he'd pardon Ross versus somebody who is completely radio-silent on the issue, I think you have to go with the former option—whether he's lying or not." The meetup began on the patio of a co-working space in Chamblee, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. In mid-August, Clarke's plan had been to stage a debate between representatives of the three most prominent Presidential candidates, but they couldn't find anyone to represent Vice-President Kamala Harris, and then Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., suspended his campaign. Clarke figured the attendees that day would be mostly right-leaning and male. "When a woman comes to your crypto meetup," he said, "it's, like, 'Hey! What's up!' " Crypto enthusiasts are aware of the stereotypes that cling to them. "We're used to being portrayed as crazy, fringe weirdos," Clarke told me. In July, the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One published a paper titled "The Political, Psychological, and Social Correlates of Cryptocurrency Ownership," which gave an academic imprimatur to some of these perceptions. The paper, co-authored by Uscinski and based on a 2022 survey of two thousand Americans, made the rounds in the crypto world. Clarke read to me from the abstract; individuals who own crypto, it said, "exhibit a diversity of political allegiances and identities. We also found that crypto ownership was associated with belief in conspiracy theories, 'dark' personality characteristics (e.g., the 'Dark Tetrad' of narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism), and more frequent use of alternative and fringe social media platforms." Many in the community feel that social networks like X are legitimate news sources. The paper reported that crypto owners tend to spend a lot of time online, one of its few findings with which Clarke agreed. "It's obviously completely biased," he eventually concluded. "But you can judge for yourself whether you think crypto people have a tendency towards these 'dark traits' or whatever." There was free barbecue at the meetup, and around thirty people were enjoying it when I arrived. Most were male, as anticipated, and bearded. Many were quite friendly. The first person I spoke to at length was Joey, a theatre director in his sixties, who wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "SINGLE," "TAKEN," and "HODLING." Each word had a box beside it. The "HODLING" box was checked: a bitcoin joke. ("HODL" is an acronym for "hold on for dear life," a bunker-mentality acknowledgment of crypto's volatility.) As we sat down to eat some brisket, with Counting Crows blaring in the background, Joey told me that he'd learned about cryptocurrency more than a decade earlier, from his son, who was mining it in their basement. Joey was drawn to "the philosophy around it—the whole concept of how it potentially has the ability for us to have a space to store money without it losing value as our country continues to print money." I asked about Trump. "He follows what Kennedy thinks," Joey said, noting his preference for the latter. (Kennedy, who disclosed owning as much as a quarter million dollars' worth of bitcoin last year, described falling "in love" with it during an interview at the North American Blockchain Summit, last November. "It's democracy," he said.) "So is it really the truth? It might be." He went on, "Trump used to not like bitcoin, now he does. Biden didn't like it. Maybe he would have changed? Harris doesn't really have a voice about it yet." With Kennedy out of the race, Joey was undecided. I bumped into Kamil, a thirty-five-year-old mechatronics engineer born in Poland, who became a U.S. citizen in the late nineties, and has been involved in crypto trading since 2011. He'd once owned hundreds of bitcoins, but, he said, "I was a poor college kid with free magic Internet money, so I was definitely dipping in." Crypto aligned with Kamil's belief in "economic freedom." He'd voted Republican since his first election, in 2016, largely because of crypto policy. "The opposition was heavily against crypto in every way. They wanted to monitor it, restrict it, tax it. So that was an automatic no." Trump's new support thrilled him, but he doubted that many crypto enthusiasts who weren't already voting Republican would switch parties. "I hope Trump's embrace moves people, but I haven't seen people change their vote yet. Even people who'd heavily benefit." Andrew, a bearded fifty-eight-year-old software developer, stood by an amp. "People who've studied sound-money principles are pretty much one-issue voters," he told me, referring to the idea, mostly promulgated by libertarian economists, that financial systems should have limited government intervention and be based around currencies with a limited supply. "Money has to be addressed first. Everything else is nibbling around the edges. Whoever advocates for the best position on that issue is who they vote for." He went on, "I wouldn't vote for Democrats normally. But if they'd come out with advocating for protection—to have your own wallet, buy and sell crypto—and Trump had continued calling it scammy, I would have been in a tough spot. But it hasn't gone that way." The Wallflowers came on as I sat down next to another bearded and bespectacled man, formerly in I.T., who didn't initially want to share his name but offered his X handle. (Of all the major social-media platforms, X seems to be the crypto community's favorite, possibly owing in part to Elon Musk's fervent support for a cryptocurrency called Dogecoin.) "There were ten U.S. senators in Nashville," he told me, referring to the conference where Trump spoke. "Donald Trump and R.F.K., Jr. It was amazing." He described himself as a "centrist" who "doesn't trust any of the parties," but his mind was made up. "I was already in Trump camp before I went to Nashville. But I was very pleasantly surprised by Trump. I think Vivek"—Ramaswamy, the Trump-supporting former Republican Presidential candidate and entrepreneur—"told him, 'Look, there's free votes sitting here.' Trump just went and scooped them up. He's practical." An I.T. developer named Solomon was having a conversation with Joey, the theatre director. Solomon was talking favorably about Trump "throwing sand in the system." Joey lauded what he described as Kennedy's desire "to feed kids good food and prevent all of these sicknesses." They decried corn subsidies as fiscally and nutritionally suspect—market intervention and corn syrup were both best avoided, they felt. When there was an opening, I asked what Solomon thought about Trump's shift. "I know some crypto investors who are now more for Trump," he said. "Those guys . . . they're open to appeasement. The baby boomer kind of moving towards 'the economy is messed up, uni-party, pedophiles.' . . . Not just because of crypto, but in part." "I've been to four or five crypto conferences, and eighty per cent of people I talk to have always been for Trump," Joey countered. "But when Kennedy came along, and he's for bitcoin, Trump said, 'Oh, shit, I'm gonna start losing people over bitcoin.' So he shifted. He doesn't know anything about what it is or how it works." On that point, at least, most of the attendees I spoke to agreed. Rain suddenly blew in—the first in weeks—and the crowd relocated. On the way inside, a man in jeans and a polo shirt pulled me aside. He was "the only liberal" from "the 2012 era," he said, before quietly telling me that most of his net worth was in bitcoin. As such, policy favorable to crypto was high on his list of priorities, but he thought that it would ultimately succeed as a widely used currency regardless of the election's outcome. "They can't kill it. So it doesn't fucking matter." If Trump were elected, he said, "it would probably be better for my net worth in the short term, but what good is it being rich if you have to live on an empire of ash?" He added, referring to the meetup, "I almost didn't come. The rhetoric has gotten antagonistic." Clarke, at the microphone, lightened the mood. He told the crowd that he was wearing a five-thousand-dollar T-shirt. "It's actually an anti-flex," he said. "I bought it for twenty dollars in bitcoin, in 2014. That value of bitcoin is now five thousand dollars." There was some sympathetic laughter. He introduced a large man named Wes, who'd provided the brisket and bought his first bitcoin back in 2010, Clarke said, making him among the earliest bitcoin owners present. Wes gave a brief PowerPoint presentation comparing the Presidential candidates' positions on cryptocurrency. As he recounted Trump's pledge to free Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road founder, much of the crowd nodded. He then listed some of Trump's pro-crypto appeals, including his promises to fire the crypto-skeptic S.E.C. chairman, Gary Gensler, and to end "hostile" regulation. "Next up we have Biden," he said. In what appeared to be a choreographed moment, Clarke interrupted him. "Um, it's not Biden anymore. It's Harris." The crowd chuckled. "Harris isn't part of the Biden Administration, is she?" Wes said. "I want to be fair." He listed a few Democrat-authored bills proposing regulation. People shook their heads. Before closing, Wes concluded, "You guys might be jaded, but we are bitcoin owners." He went on, "Vote for what you think is gonna be the best for bitcoin owners." Someone asked if a supporter of Harris would like to give a rebuttal. No one did. Before I left, Clarke introduced me to Michael Tidwell, a man in his thirties who wore a "FREE ROSS" T-shirt. "Biden and Harris could free him and they're not," he told me. "At least Trump is saying he'd do it." I asked how he identified politically. "I just like when good shit happens," he said, adding that he's for "true liberty." He used the words "kinda stupid" to describe some of Kennedy's actions and noted that Trump carried "weird baggage." He went on, "Typically, I wouldn't consider voting for someone like that." He'd never voted for a Presidential candidate before, he added, unless you counted writing in "Rare Pepe" in 2016, in a reference to a crypto-community spinoff of Pepe the Frog. He concluded, "If you want bitcoin to succeed, you've got to stand up for the guy in the worst position. Right now, Ross is in the worst position." He'd be voting for Trump.

Charles Bethea writes about how policy toward cryptocurrency is likely to affect the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election.

The People Casting Their Ballots for Crypto

Guernsey Post has called off the planned release of cryptocurrency stamps after concerns were raised by the financial regulator. It said the stamps did not meet the requirements of the Lending, Credit and Finance (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2022. The postal service said the Guernsey Financial Services Commission considered the collection to be a virtual asset. Featuring Billy and Nanny the golden Guernsey goats, the collection was initially due to be released on 24 July . Guernsey Post said the stamps would instead be launched as a miniature sheet containing two traditional postage stamps. Boley Smillie, chief executive of Guernsey Post said: "Our proposed crypto stamps have been considered to be a virtual asset by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission and that means they would be unlikely to licence Guernsey Post for the sale of this type of product. "Unfortunately, this opinion was not consistent with the legal advice that we received on the matter, but we have chosen to launch the Guernsey goat stamps in a different way."

The collection was considered a virtual asset and could not be released, Guernsey Post says.

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission classified the stamps as virtual assets. Despite initial legal advice to the contrary, Guersey Post decided to launch a miniature sheet with two traditional postage stamps instead. The release, originally planned for July 24th, will proceed in this revised form. It has been announced that the release will go ahead as planned on July 25th.

Guernsey Post plan for cryptocurrency stamps scrapped

When you invest, you'll find that knowledge is power. The more you know about your investment choices, and who is offering them, the better prepared you'll be to make good decisions. And this diligence can also help protect you against investment scams.How widespread is this activity? Consider this: Investment fraud losses totaled more than $4.5 billion in 2023, according to the FBI's Internet Crime Report. Register for more free s. Log in Sign up Here are some common types of scams:<li><li>– Not all cryptocurrency offers are scams, but many are. The scammers will contact you via social media, claiming they've made a lot of money in crypto and are willing to help you do the same. They may direct you to a website or app to invest, but the "company" taking your money may not even exist, and, after taking your money, may disappear.</li><li>Investment Programs<li>– These programs claim to have "proven" strategies that can enable you to get rich by investing in financial products. But these strategies are dubious at best and can cost you thousands of dollars that could otherwise go into an investment plan based on your goals, risk tolerance and time horizon.</li><li>Real Estate<li>– Typically, a real estate scam tries to get you to invest in a "world-class" or "luxury" property development, but these properties may take years to build, if they're built at all. Also, various real estate "seminars" claim they can teach you how to get wealthy by buying and selling real estate, but these programs are expensive and usually worthless.</li><li>Gold and Other Precious Metals<li>– Scammers who call themselves "rare coins" merchants may try to sell you gold coins, bullion or other types of precious metals, claiming that these assets will always go up in value (which isn't true) and that "now is the best time to act." You can find legitimate ways to invest in precious metals, possibly through mutual funds, but you'll need to determine whether these assets can be an appropriate part of your investment portfolio.</li>So, how can you avoid these scams? Here are some suggestions from the Federal Trade Commission:Don't be pushed into snap decisions<li>. Scammers will pressure you to act quickly because "space is limited" in an investment offering or a "special deal" won't last long. If someone won't give you time to consider an offer, it's not worth considering.</li>Be suspicious of "risk-free" claims.<li>All investments carry risk, and no variable investments can claim to provide "guaranteed returns." If an individual or organization downplays the risk of an investment and doesn't want to provide risk disclosures, just walk away.</li>Ask about licensing or registration<li>. Legitimate investment professionals must be registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and be licensed by your state's securities regulator before they can sell you any investment product. You can check the status of an individual or firm by using FINRA's BrokerCheck tool at brokercheck.fina.org .</li>Do some research.<li>You can search online for the name of the company or individual offering you an investment opportunity. By entering terms such as "review," "scam," "fraud" or "complaint," you may well find that other people have experienced problems or been victimized.</li>To achieve your financial goals, you'll likely need to invest for decades—so, be wary of scammers who claim to offer a shortcut to success.This was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.</li></li></li></li>Respond: Write a letter to the editor Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community.(0 Ratings)

When you invest, you’ll find that knowledge is power. The more you know about your investment choices, and who is offering them, the better prepared you’ll be to make good

Investment fraud is a serious problem, with losses exceeding $4.5 billion in 2023 according to the FBI. Common scams include fraudulent cryptocurrency offers, dubious investment programs promising unrealistic returns, deceptive real estate schemes, and manipulative sales of precious metals. To protect yourself, avoid quick decisions, be wary of "risk-free" claims, verify the licensing and registration of investment professionals, conduct thorough research.

Watch Out for Investment Scams

Federal prosecutors call him "The Godfather," and like the fictional mafia boss, he allegedly had cops on the payroll to do his criminal bidding.Adam Iza, who ran a cryptocurrency trading platform known as Zort, allegedly paid several L.A. County sheriff's deputies — sometimes tens of thousands of dollars — to perform unlawful searches and arrests as part of an extortion scheme, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed this week.Iza hid millions of dollars from tax collectors by failing to report income and funneling money through shell companies with co-conspirators, according to the complaint. He allegedly spent the funds on numerous luxury vehicles, including a Lamborghini Aventador and a Rolls Royce Phantom, nearly a million in rent for a Bel Air mansion and around $64,000 on cosmetic surgery to extend the length of his legs.Iza stands accused of conspiracy against rights and evasion of tax assessments. Authorities arrested him on Sept. 23, according to federal court documents. Records show he is ordered to appear before a judge on Oct. 8."Things aren't what they seem to be," said Josef Sadat, an attorney representing Iza in the federal case. "The truth is going to come out, hopefully soon."Iza boasted about paying "active duty" law enforcement $280,000 per month, according to the complaint.The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on whether the deputies — who are not named in the complaint — will be charged.Several deputies, including a detective on the department's notorious anti-gang unit, were recently relieved of duty in connection with a federal investigation, authorities said earlier this week. The Sheriff's Department confirmed the move was linked to a probe "involving the U.S. Attorney's Office.""These egregious allegations contradict our Department's values and mission," the agency said in a statement Thursday. "Individuals who use their badge as a license to abuse their power to personally profit on illegal misconduct have no place in law enforcement and must be held accountable."The department said it is fully cooperating with the investigation, adding, "Once we have all the details of this case, we will evaluate the actions internally to ensure that this behavior does not occur again."Tom Yu, an attorney representing one of the three current deputies mentioned in the complaint, told The Times that his client had not been arrested and stressed that he was only being investigated at the moment."I don't think he did anything criminal," Yu said.<h2>A cryptocurrency battle</h2>A few days before Thanksgiving 2021, the complaint alleges, Iza was involved in a kidnapping and robbery attempt in Riverside County that attracted the FBI's attention.The intended target, federal investigators say, was a business associate of Iza's identified only as "E.Z."The two men had known each other for about two years, the complaint says, and they'd recently talked about a business deal involving a medical service platform and cryptocurrency.On Nov. 21, 2021, according to a Riverside County Sheriff Department report reviewed by the FBI, E.Z. was driving his car with Iza in the back seat when Iza asked to stop at a gas station for food.Afterward, according to the complaint, as the two men stood near the back of the car with the trunk open, an SUV pulled up and two men, who authorities later identified as a former L.A. sheriff's deputy and a former custody assistant, hopped out. One of the men allegedly approached with a gun in hand and told E.Z. to "get in the car."Instead, E.Z. turned and fled, then called 911. He later told investigators he thought Iza was trying to have him kidnapped in order to get access to digital assets stored on his phone.A responding Riverside County sheriff's deputy interviewed Iza, who claimed he was the one who feared being kidnapped.Iza told the deputy E.Z. had promised to give him $300,000 for cryptocurrency, but that as they were driving, Iza grew worried about where they were really going and texted his bodyguards for help.When the Riverside County deputy talked to the men in the SUV, they offered a similar story. One — the former L.A. County deputy who wielded the gun during the incident — said he owned a security company and had worked for Iza for about two weeks. He told investigators he was supposed to pick up Iza from a restaurant after a business meeting when he got a text from Iza saying, "Follow me."When the former deputy got to the gas station, he drew his gun because he feared E.Z. might be armed, according to the complaint. Instead, E.Z. turned out to be carrying an electric screwdriver, according to the complaint.Riverside County authorities decided the information wasn't complete enough to make an arrest, though the complaint says E.Z. continued to feel threatened in the following weeks.On Dec. 2, 2021, E.Z. allegedly got some menacing texts from an unknown number showing pictures of his personal information in a law enforcement database. Next to it was part of a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department business card.About two weeks later, according to a letter to law enforcement from E.Z.'s lawyer that is referenced in the complaint, Iza and his bodyguards showed up looking for E.Z. at the home of one of his associates. That visit came soon after E.Z. got another threatening text — from a phone number Iza had used — demanding that he turn over his laptop with cryptocurrency.It's unclear from the complaint whether E.Z. turned over the laptop, but he allegedly "suffered other instances of harassment by Iza and his associates." At one point, he received text messages with pictures of his family members and the words: "Everyone you know."As the FBI dug into the case, the complaint says, authorities began interviewing people in Iza's circle. That included a private investigator identified in the complaint as "K.C.," whom The Times was able to identify from related civil litigation as Kenneth Childs.According to the criminal complaint, Iza hired Childs in November 2021 to find E.Z. and surveil him. E.Z. allegedly had a laptop that Iza claimed he'd stolen.As Childs worked on the case, Iza allegedly texted him photos of sensitive law enforcement data, including images of a computer screen showing DMV license info and photos of a search warrant for E.Z.'s phone. At times, according to the criminal complaint, Iza boasted that he'd paid law enforcement officials to give him the information."How's you guys find him Did this location come up on databases?" Childs wrote in a text, according to the complaint."We pinged his phone," Iza replied.A few texts later, he added: "The ping was done by law enforcement themselves ... It took a Warrant ... And had to get signed by judge."In January 2022, federal prosecutors said, a current Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy — identified as Deputy 1 in the complaint — got a warrant for GPS location information on several telephones, including one used by E.Z.The affidavit used to justify the warrant described a gun case that didn't involve or mention E.Z."It appears that LASD Deputy 1 added Victim E.Z.'s phone number to a list of phone numbers associated with the firearms investigation and falsely stated that Victim E.Z.'s phone number had been used by the firearms suspect," FBI Special Agent Barbara Johnson wrote in the complaint. "This sworn affidavit resulted in a warrant for GPS tracking information that identified Victim E.Z.'s residence."After getting the warrant approved, prosecutors allege, Deputy 1 sent Iza screenshots to prove it."Damn my guy actually filed the warrant," Iza wrote in a text. "That's some serious shit to do for someone...risking 24 years career."Sometime in early 2022, prosecutors allege, Iza called a meeting to plan the heist of E.Z.'s laptop. Childs attended, as did Iza, another L.A. County deputy — identified in court filings as Deputy 2 — and the deputy's brother.Childs told federal investigators he stayed in his car as the robbery unfolded. He alleged that the deputy's brother grabbed E.Z.'s associate.The complaint says Iza made payments to Childs for the job, then fired him and took back the money. That same year, in 2022, Childs filed a civil lawsuit against Iza's company related to the nonpayment. That case is still ongoing."I've been litigating this narrative for two years plus now," said James Whitemyer, an attorney representing Childs and his company. "I was hoping to have the case settled."<h2>A party planner</h2>Even before the relationship between Iza and E.Z. turned sour, prosecutors say, the crypto mogul had spent several months harassing another target, an event planner identified as R.C.In the summer of 2021, prosecutors say R.C. got an email from Zort asking for help planning a party for Iza's 21st birthday.In exchange for $50,000, R.C. organized an August 2021 bash at Iza's Bel Air home. But during the event, R.C. was escorted into Iza's office, where Iza told him he was unhappy with the party and that he wanted to be reimbursed for half the cost, according to the complaint.He allegedly demanded R.C.'s phone, but R.C. refused until Iza's bodyguards pulled their guns. After Iza forced R.C. to reveal the passcode, Iza allegedly transferred $25,000 back to himself.Before letting R.C. leave, Iza took pictures of his license, passport and credit cards, according to the complaint. In the days that followed, Iza allegedly made multiple money transfers from RC's accounts.The following month, R.C. was driving in Lakewood with a woman he was seeing when a sheriff's deputy pulled him over to arrest him on a bench warrant. The deputy searched the car and found drugs that R.C. said he didn't know were there. At one point during the arrest, R.C. saw Iza drive up to the scene in a black SUV, talk to the deputy, look at RC and drive away.R.C. spent three days in jail and the charges were later dropped for lack of sufficient evidence, according to the complaint.Afterward, R.C. allegedly received taunting texts from a number linked to Iza, showing photos of the arrest and telling him he'd "f—ed with the wrong people."A few weeks later, deputies raided R.C.'s home, but didn't find any drugs.Months later, when the FBI tracked down a copy of the paperwork used to justify the search, investigators discovered that Deputy 1 had based it on information from an unnamed confidential informant.The complaint accuses Iza of other extortion schemes for cryptocurrency, including one where he allegedly impersonated an FBI agent and stole a laptop containing cryptocurrency. Altogether, investigators estimate, Iza and his then-girlfriend — identified only as "Co-conspirator 1" — pulled in more than $30 million from 2020 to 2022.The FBI said it learned that Iza planned to travel from Los Angeles to Zurich on Monday. They arrested him the same day. , features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

The wealthy operator of a cryptocurrency trading platform allegedly paid a number of L.A. County sheriff's deputies to perform unlawful searches and arrests, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday.

Adam Iza, owner of cryptocurrency trading platform Zort, is accused of paying L.A. County sheriff's deputies to conduct unlawful searches, arrests, and obtain sensitive law enforcement data. Prosecutors allege he hid millions of dollars from taxes and spent funds lavishly on luxury items. He is facing charges of conspiracy against rights and tax evasion.

Crypto mogul known as 'The Godfather' used L.A. deputies for extortion, feds allege

The U.S. government on Thursday charged two Russian nationals and sanctioned a virtual currency exchange in an effort to crack down on transnational cybercrime involving cryptocurrency.The departments of Justice, State and Treasury announced the coordinated effort against Russian nationals Timur Shakhmametov and Sergey Ivanov as well Cryptex, a virtual currency exchange accused of servicing Russia-based cyber criminals.The U.S. is sanctioning Ivanov and Cryptex, according to a release from the Treasury Department, while the Justice Department said Shakhmametov and Ivanov have both been charged with conspiracy to commit and aid and abet bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.Shakhmametov is accused of operating an online marketplace for stolen credit card data called Joker's Stash, while Ivanov is accused of laundering proceeds from Joker's Stash and other platforms since 2005, the Justice Department said, citing the U.S. Secret Service.The Department of State is offering a $10 million reward for information that leads to Shakhmametov and Ivanov's arrest."Today's actions underscore the United States's commitment, along with our allies and partners, to not allow cybercrime facilitators to operate with impunity," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement."We will continue to use all our tools and authorities to deter and expose these money laundering networks and impose costs on the cyber criminals and support networks," he added. "We reiterate our call that Russia must take concrete steps to prevent cyber criminals from freely operating in its jurisdiction."Cryptex is registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines but operates in Russia, according to the Biden administration. The U.S. government alleges Ivanov worked with several other Russian payment and exchange services providing money transfer and laundering services.The Treasury Department in its action Thursday also identified a Russian virtual currency exchanger tied to Ivanov as being of "primary money laundering concern."Brad Smith, acting under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said the action shows the U.S. is focused on preventing cybercrime facilitators from "operating with impunity.""Treasury, in close coordination with our allies and partners, will continue to use all tools and authorities to disrupt the networks that seek to leverage the virtual assets ecosystem to facilitate their illicit activities," he said in a statement.U.S. officials have been working to undermine Russian efforts to bolster their influence internationally after Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.The announcement came the same day President Biden was scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce additional U.S. financial assistance for Ukraine's war efforts."The United States will continue to raise the costs on Russia for its war in Ukraine and to deprive the Russian defense industrial base of resources," Biden said ahead of their meeting.

The U.S. government on Thursday charged two Russian nationals and sanctioned a virtual currency exchange in an effort to crack down on transnational cybercrime involving cryptocurrency. The departments of Justice, State and Treasury announced the coordinated effort against Russian nationals Timur Shakhmametov and Sergey Ivanov as well Cryptex, a virtual currency exchange accused of servicing…

Timur Shakhmametov is accused of operating Joker's Stash, an online marketplace for stolen credit card data. The U.S. is also sanctioning Cryptex, a virtual currency exchange, and is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrests.

US sanctions cryptocurrency exchange network accused of aiding Russia

The US government has imposed sanctions against Russian virtual financial platforms PM2BTC and Cryptex and selected Russian citizens for cybercrime and money laundering.: Ukrinform news agency, citing an official statement by the US Department of the Treasury on Thursday: "Today, the US Department of the Treasury is undertaking actions as part of a coordinated international effort to disrupt Russian cybercrime services," the statement said.In particular, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is imposing restrictions on the Russian virtual currency exchanger PM2BTC, which is involved in money laundering in Russia.Additionally, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on Russian citizen Sergei Ivanov, who plays a significant role in money laundering, as well as on the virtual currency exchange Cryptex, which is registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.It is noted that the FinCEN and OFAC sanctions are coordinated with the efforts of other US government agencies and international partners.The US Department of State has reportedly put up a reward of up to US$10 million for information leading to Ivanov's arrest and/or conviction.In addition, the US Secret Service and the Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia have announced formal charges against Ivanov and another Russian, Timur Shakhmametov, in this regard.: The United Kingdom imposed sanctions on five vessels and two related companies involved in transporting Russian liquefied natural gas.

The US government has imposed sanctions against Russian virtual financial platforms PM2BTC and Cryptex and selected Russian citizens for cybercrime and money laundering. Source: Ukrinform news agency, citing an official statement by the US Department of the Treasury on Thursday Details: "Today, the US Department of the Treasury is undertaking actions as part of a coordinated international effort to disrupt Russian cybercrime services," the statement said.

The US government has imposed sanctions on Russian virtual financial platforms PM2BTC and Cryptex for their involvement in money laundering. The US Department of State offers a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Sergei Ivanov, a key figure inMoney Laundering.

US imposes new sanctions on Russia over cybercrime and money laundering

WASHINGTON (AP) — A network of people and virtual currency exchanges associated with harboring Russian cybercrime were hit with sanctions on Thursday, in a government-wide crackdown on cybercrime that could assist Russia ahead of President Joe Biden's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.U.S. Treasury sanctioned alleged Russian hacker Sergey Ivanov and Cryptex — a St. Vincent and Grenadines registered virtual currency exchange operating in Russia. Virtual currency exchanges allow people and businesses to trade cryptocurrencies for other assets, such as conventional dollars or other digital currencies.Treasury alleges that Ivanov has laundered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of virtual currency for cyber criminals and darknet marketplace vendors for the last 20 years, including for Timur Shakhmametov, who allegedly created an online marketplace for stolen credit card data and compromised IDs called Joker's Stash. Ivanov laundered the proceeds from Joker's Stash, Treasury says.The State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information that would lead to the arrest and possible conviction of the two men and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Virginia has unsealed an indictment against them.Biden said in a statement announcing the sanctions Thursday that the U.S. "will continue to raise the costs on Russia for its war in Ukraine and to deprive the Russian defense industrial base of resources."He meets with Zelenskyy Thursday to announce a surge in security assistance for Ukraine and other actions meant to assist the war-torn country as Russia continues to invade.State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said, "We will continue to use all our tools and authorities to deter and expose these money laundering networks and impose cost on the cyber criminals and support networks. We reiterate our call that Russia must take concrete steps to prevent cyber criminals from freely operating in its jurisdiction."U.S officials have taken several actions against Russian cybercriminals since the start of the invasion in February 2022.Earlier this year, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 13 firms — five of which are owned by an already sanctioned person — and two people who have all either helped build or operate blockchain-based services for, or enabled virtual currency payments in, the Russian financial sector, "thus enabling potential sanctions evasion," according to U.S. Treasury.

A network of people and virtual currency exchanges associated with harboring Russian cybercrime were hit with sanctions on Thursday, in a government-wide crackdown on cybercrime that could assist Russia ahead of President Joe Biden's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  U.S. Treasury sanctioned alleged Russian hacker Sergey Ivanov and Cryptex — a St. Vincent and Grenadines registered virtual currency exchange operating in Russia.  Virtual currency exchanges allow people and businesses to trade cryptocurrencies for other assets, such as conventional dollars or other digital currencies.

Sergey Ivanov is accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars worth of virtual currency for cybercriminals. The State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest. President Biden announced these actions alongside a surge in security assistance for Ukraine aimed at supporting the war-torn country as Russia continues its invasion.

Cryptocurrency exchange network accused of helping Russia hit with sanctions

WASHINGTON — A network of people and virtual currency exchanges associated with harboring Russian cybercrime were hit with sanctions on Thursday, in a government-wide crackdown on cybercrime that could assist Russia ahead of President Joe Biden's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. U.S. Treasury sanctioned alleged Russian hacker Sergey Ivanov and Cryptex — a St. Vincent and Grenadines registered virtual currency exchange operating in Russia. Virtual currency exchanges allow people and businesses to trade cryptocurrencies for other assets, such as conventional dollars or other digital currencies. Treasury alleges that Ivanov has laundered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of virtual currency for cyber criminals and darknet marketplace vendors for the last 20 years, including for Timur Shakhmametov, who allegedly created an online marketplace for stolen credit card data and compromised IDs called Joker's Stash. Ivanov laundered the proceeds from Joker's Stash, Treasury says. The State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information that would lead to the arrest and possible conviction of the two men and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Virginia has unsealed an indictment against them. Biden said in a statement announcing the sanctions Thursday that the U.S. ''will continue to raise the costs on Russia for its war in Ukraine and to deprive the Russian defense industrial base of resources.'' He meets with Zelenskyy Thursday to announce a surge in security assistance for Ukraine and other actions meant to assist the war-torn country as Russia continues to invade. State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said, ''We will continue to use all our tools and authorities to deter and expose these money laundering networks and impose cost on the cyber criminals and support networks. We reiterate our call that Russia must take concrete steps to prevent cyber criminals from freely operating in its jurisdiction.'' U.S officials have taken several actions against Russian cybercriminals since the start of the invasion in February 2022. Earlier this year, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 13 firms — five of which are owned by an already sanctioned person — and two people who have all either helped build or operate blockchain-based services for, or enabled virtual currency payments in, the Russian financial sector, ''thus enabling potential sanctions evasion,'' according to U.S. Treasury. A Massachusetts woman accused of operating a high-end brothel network with wealthy and prominent clients in that state and the Washington, D.C., suburbs is planning to change her plea to guilty in federal court Friday, according to court documents.

A network of people and virtual currency exchanges associated with harboring Russian cybercrime were hit with sanctions on Thursday, in a government-wide crackdown on cybercrime that could assist Russia ahead of President Joe Biden's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Sergey Ivanov, accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in virtual currency for cybercriminals. The State Department offers a $10 million reward for information leading to their arrest and conviction. Biden announced these actions ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy to discuss increased security assistance for Ukraine.

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