Previous Crabgrass posting addressed SBF's sentencing due late in March, and the DOJ decision to scrub a second trial on Bankman Freid and related campaign spending, as possibly cumulative. Terminating such a follow-the-money possible exercise has pluses and minuses.
In Nov. 2023 The Economist published of Binance and Zhao - an "another one bites the dust" story:
Fictional money,
a shot at inordinate riches and a good chance of landing in jail at
some point. That, in a nutshell, is the popular board game of Monopoly.
But it describes just as accurately the experience of those who have
founded some of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges.
On
November 21st Changpeng Zhao, boss of Binance, resigned after pleading
guilty to criminal money-laundering charges. He becomes the third
founder of a major crypto exchange to be convicted of crimes. In May
2022 Arthur Hayes, who set up BitMEX, was sentenced to
six months under house arrest for violating anti-money-laundering laws.
And on November 2nd this year Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, was convicted on seven counts of fraud. He may face decades in prison.
Mr
Zhao will pay a $50m fine. He may also go to jail—probably for up to 18
months—after he is sentenced in Seattle in February. In the meantime he
has been released in return for posting a $175m bond. Binance also
pleaded guilty to violating money-laundering laws and the International
Emergency Economic Powers Act, the legislation under which America
imposes sanctions. As part of the plea agreement, Binance will be
allowed to continue operating under the supervision of a government
compliance team. It will also pay a $4.3bn fine. Janet Yellen, the
treasury secretary, called the enforcement action “historic”. It will be
the largest such settlement the Treasury has ever been paid.
The
indictment, which was unsealed on November 21st, does not allege that
Mr Zhao intentionally set up a platform that criminals or those under
sanctions could use to evade scrutiny. Instead, it says that he put his
relentless pursuit of market share, growth and profits ahead of all
else.
Binance paid a big-time fine, and Zhou fell on his sword, but Binance is still a going concern. The Economist's story continues, so check out the original post.
Next, the news reader you may follow on YouTube or TV, if TV is your habit, might itself be news; an artifice, not a person. Ars Technica, beginning:
Brands are turning to hyper-realistic, AI-generated influencers for promotions.
Enlarge/ Aitana Lopez, an AI-generated influencer, has convinced many social media users she is real.
FT montage/TheClueless/GettyImages
Pink-haired Aitana Lopez is followed by more than 200,000 people on
social media. She posts selfies from concerts and her bedroom, while
tagging brands such as hair care line Olaplex and lingerie giant
Victoria’s Secret.
Brands have paid about $1,000 a post for her to promote their
products on social media—despite the fact that she is entirely
fictional.
Aitana is a “virtual influencer” created using artificial
intelligence tools, one of the hundreds of digital avatars that have
broken into the growing $21 billion content creator economy.
Their emergence has led to worry from human influencers their income
is being cannibalized and under threat from digital rivals. That concern
is shared by people in more established professions that their
livelihoods are under threat from generative AI—technology that can spew
out humanlike text, images and code in seconds.
But those behind the hyper-realistic AI creations argue they are merely disrupting an overinflated market.
On TV ads those joyously enjoying their new Lexus might be artifices too, with only the Lexus real, and it is happening because there's money in it; and less money for real actors. So the phony Lexus-thrill ad might not be an actor phonying up to make a buck, it might be some geek venturer's brain fart.
LATEST AND GREATEST -
Put the two stories together, crypto and phony influencers, and what do you get. Your likely guess is right. And this is a lesson about trust. Trust and crypto.
For years, rumors spread on social media that Steven Reece Lewis, the
chief executive officer of a now-shuttered cryptocurrency hedge fund
called HyperVerse, was a "fake person" who "doesn't exist." After its investigation, The Guardian has confirmed that no organization cited on his resume "can find any record of him."
According to The Guardian, Reece Lewis's qualifications all appear to
be falsified in an effort to woo investors to sink money into
HyperVerse. After HyperVerse collapsed, accused of operating as a
pyramid scheme, the company suspended withdrawals. According to
blockchain analysts, Chainalysis consumer losses in 2022 were estimated
to exceed $1.3 billion. Thousands of consumers lost millions, The
Guardian reported.
In a December 2021 video, Reece Lewis was introduced as CEO and
touted for making big moves before joining HyperVerse. He supposedly
went from working at Goldman Sachs to selling a web development company
to Adobe before launching his own IT startup.
Digging into his academic history, The Guardian found that neither of
the universities that Reece Lewis allegedly attended— the University of
Leeds and the University of Cambridge—had a record of him in their
databases.
His career background appeared similarly suspicious. Adobe "has no
record of any acquisition of a company owned by a Steven Reece Lewis in
any of its public SEC filings," and "Goldman Sachs could find no record
of Reece Lewis having worked for the company," The Guardian reported.
Fanning out their search, The Guardian uncovered no LinkedIn account
for Reece Lewis "or any Internet presence other than HyperVerse
promotional material." It appeared, too, that Reece Lewis' Twitter account was created just a month before the 2021 video launched.
And you bought some crypto thinking to diversify and hedge your portfolio. Shame on you.
Actually, I'd like Tom Emmer to acknowledge this story. Emmer and the entire Congressional Blockchain Caucus. Yes, they'd likely say it's the chain they love, and endorse no specific product. Which gets back to the start of the post, SBF/FTX mixing politics and money. This link, at the post's UPDATES, where you can quick search the one beginning, "Wouldn't you like to see the money followed?"
But, ain't that a hoot? Crypto, a Ponzi adventure with a phantom CEO, funny unless you bought into that particular product.
The Copilot key will, predictably, open up the Copilot generative AI
assistant within Windows 10 and Windows 11. On an up-to-date Windows PC
with Copilot enabled, you can currently do the same thing by pressing
Windows + C. For PCs without Copilot enabled, including those that
aren't signed into Microsoft accounts, the Copilot key will open Windows
Search instead (though this is sort of redundant, since pressing the
Windows key and then typing directly into the Start menu also activates
the Search function).
A quick Microsoft demo video
shows the Copilot key in between the cluster of arrow keys and the
right Alt button, a place where many keyboards usually put a menu
button, a right Ctrl key, another Windows key, or something similar. The
exact positioning, and the key being replaced, may vary depending on
the size and layout of the keyboard.
We asked Microsoft if a Copilot key would be required on OEM PCs
going forward; the company told us that the key isn't mandatory now, but
that it expects Copilot keys to be required on Windows 11 keyboards
"over time."
Microsoft hopes "Copilot" becomes a big thing. They've put a lot of money into that hope.
St. Cloud’s school board told it like it is about charters, and nothing’s happening
They did so back in August.
School leaders say they’re tired of losing money to
charter schools that prey on their enrollment and then return kids to
district schools who often barely meet state reading and math
requirements.
Because of this, the St. Cloud Area school district is asking the
state for better accountability over charter schools. It also wants to
be free from transportation requirements for charters that cost the
district $1 million a year. (StarTribune)
I looked around for a while this morning, and apparently since then
nothing’s happened. The DFL-controlled legislature may look into some
things, this upcoming session, but I have a strong feeling that it won’t
be prioritized and that little if anything will come of it. That is,
the failed charter movement
won’t even begin to be properly dealt with, here in Minnesota. [...]
The real problem that right-wingers have with public schools is that we are
getting results. Among other things, they’re turning out young people
who are knowledgeable and willing and able to reason from fact. Such
people are too, in a word, intelligent, to buy into right-wing imbecile
nonsense.
A newly released statement included endorsements from Reps. Tom Emmer, Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach and Pete Stauber.
The Emmer nod, which also came in a separate statement, is notable
because Trump sharply criticized Emmer and helped derail the
congressman’s run for House speaker in October.
Emmer is the House majority whip, the third-highest position in the
chamber. He said in his statement in support of Trump: “It’s time for
Republicans to unite behind our party’s clear frontrunner.”
The first votes of the 2024 nominating season come Jan. 15 in the
Iowa caucus, where polls show Trump with a commanding lead over Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey
Gov. Chris Christie and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
Minnesota’s presidential primary falls on March 5, part of Super Tuesday.
Microsoft, Google and Amazon last year struck a series of blockbuster
deals, amounting to two-thirds of the $27 billion raised by fledgling
AI companies in 2023, according to new data from private market
researchers PitchBook.
The huge outlay, which exploded after the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT
in November 2022, highlights how the biggest Silicon Valley groups are
crowding out traditional tech investors for the biggest deals in the
industry.
The rise of generative AI—systems capable of producing humanlike
video, text, image and audio in seconds—have also attracted top Silicon
Valley investors. But VCs have been outmatched, having been forced to
slow down their spending as they adjust to higher interest rates and
falling valuations for their portfolio companies.
“Over the past year, we’ve seen the market quickly consolidate around
a handful of foundation models, with large tech players coming in and
pouring billions of dollars into companies like OpenAI, Cohere,
Anthropic and Mistral,” said Nina Achadjian, a partner at US venture
firm Index Ventures referring to some of the top AI startups.
In a vote carrying a
contentious undercurrent, Anoka County commissioners elected Mike
Gamache as the new Anoka County Board chair Tuesday.
Gamache, a board member who
has represented parts of Andover, Coon Rapids and Fridley since 2014,
won the role on a 5-1 vote after an earlier motion to elect commissioner
Scott Schulte as chair failed on a 4-2 vote.
Commissioner Jeff Reinert was
elected vice chair, but his appointment on a 4-2 vote revealed just how
fractured the seven-member board is. Commissioner Julie Braastad
attended the meeting remotely, but technical difficulties prevented her
from casting any votes.
Schulte said he was
"surprised" by some of the votes for Reinert, and said he voted no
citing Reinert's disrespect shown to commissioners and county staff. He
also accused Reinert of intentionally misrepresenting facts to
commissioners and constituents, and for making racist comments in the
past.
[...] Commissioner Mandy Meisner
fired back. "This is the second board meeting in a row that you have
talked about coming together, that we need to be professional, and you
are bringing up topics that are opinion-based," she said. "You bring
this up to be divisive."
Reinert also railed against
Schulte, saying "this display of disingenuousness by Commissioner
Schulte has just shown us is why he is not chair."
Commissioner Julie Jeppson, who voted for Reinert, took umbrage with Schulte's bringing politics into the vote.
[...] "I finally said what
everybody says behind closed doors for the past 20 years," Schulte
responded. "It's been said on Facebook and Twitter. I just said it
publicly and it's now on the record. It's all true."
Gamache takes over for Matt
Look, who served as chair in 2023. Look will likely resign from the
board during the first quarter after he accepted a job as city administrator in East Bethel. If that happens, the county would need to hold a special election to fill his First District seat.
In that report there was mention of a new and bigger county jail. The smaller the jail the less the people will be put there. And when inmate death is a worry it's not a place you want more room to cram more people into a bigger place, unless supervision is up to the task. It is not an easy question with an easy answer and there are always other ways to spend money.
That said, it seems for now only Strib has an online report. Crabgrass web searching failed to find any others. Strib has a paywall, so the hope was other coverage.
The link given in the quote is to another Strib paywalled item. A quick short excerpt:
Anoka County officials have
been talking about building a new jail since 2017, but don't seem to be
getting any closer to agreeing on final designs — or on where a new
facility should be built.
Last week the Anoka County
Board rejected a resolution that would have approved designs from Wold
Architects for a new jail on property adjacent to the Anoka County
Government Center and the courthouse.
The measure would have
directed the county to submit plans to the city of Anoka for approval,
and allowed the city to present plans for a comprehensive justice center
at the Rum River Campus — the old state hospital campus — by March 29.
The current jail was built in
1983 as part of the Sheriff's Office. The building is outdated, does
not have enough room for inmates and is not safe for deputies nor
inmates, officials have said.
Once things quell to a full seven-member lame-duck-free board, jail spending vs. other priorities can be resolved. It will be interesting to see which conservative Republican files for the special election to replace conservative Republican Matt Look, (the seats nominally being non-partisan). Crabgrass will not rumor monger, but has heard a rumor. Don't be surprised if a familiar name surfaces.
And Rhonda's replacement as top administrator is another thing to watch.
