Crime

Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty in sprawling crypto fraud case

Accused cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried entered a not-guilty plea at his arraignment in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.

Judge Lewis Kaplan set a tentative trial date of Oct. 2, 2023, for the 30-year-old fallen wunderkind.

It was Bankman-Fried’s second appearance in Manhattan federal court since his extradition from the Bahamas.

He’s got about 10 months to ponder his non-existent defense.

Federal Sentencing Guidelines Spell Deep Trouble for Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to be arraigned in a federal district court in lower Manhattan today, on the indictment obtained by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York in December.

SBF is in deep, deep trouble. The main reason for that, besides what appears to be weighty evidence against him — including the prospective testimony of two close (alleged) accomplices who are cooperating with SDNY prosecutors — is found in the federal sentencing guidelines.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Digital Currency", Crime

Twilight of the Tech Gods

Maybe a few years in a federal prison will be good for Sam Bankman-Fried. The high-tech grifter went from billionaire to broke in a matter of days when investors realized that his FTX crypto-currency trading platform had vaporized their money. FTX was a Ponzi scheme purpose-built to snare investors like them—people who thought they were smarter than everyone else. Up until his arrest on December 11, SBF, as Bankman-Fried styles himself, was still giving interviews. Like a frat boy who got caught “borrowing” the college president’s car, he seemed to think he could still talk his way out of this mess. But he’s about to learn that embezzling money is a crime. Even when the alleged embezzler is a fuzzy-headed nerd who convinced everyone he was just trying to save the world.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Big Tech Oligopoly", "Digital Currency", Crime

Accused Idaho University murderer Bryan Kohberger ‘never slept’

PULLMAN, Wash. — Bryan Kohberger’s downstairs neighbor said the alleged quadruple slayer “never slept” — and looked too weak to kill.

The neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Post Sunday that Kohberger usually kept to himself but could always be heard at odd hours.

“He’s normally a very late night person, going to the bathroom and vacuuming at 1 or 12 in the morning,” she said “I have kids, so sometimes I thought of speaking to him or complaining, but never did.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime, WTF?

National Association of Police Chiefs Calls for Bail Reform After Murder of Constable

A national law enforcement organization has joined other law enforcement groups in calling for reform in Canada’s bail policies for violent repeat offenders and criminals who use firearms to break the law.

Following the shooting death of rookie Ontario Province Police (OPP) officer Grzegorz Pierzchala, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) issued a statement on Dec. 30, 2022, calling for changes to prevent criminal acts by offenders out on bail.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime

‘We will love and support our son and brother’: Idaho ‘killer’s’ family STAND BY criminologist

The family of the suspected Idaho quadruple murderer has said it will stand by him, adding: ‘We will love and support our son and brother’.

Bryan Kohberger’s family addressed the charges, shared condolences to the victims families and asked for people to refrain from judgement.

Kohberger, who has been called a ‘black sheep’ among his peers, was arrested Friday in his home state of Pennsylvania.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime

How Sam Bankman-Fried ‘Madoff’ with regulators

To his credit, Securities and Exchange Commission chief Gary Gensler is arguing that the Sam Bankman-Fried crypto scandal doesn’t mean we need more regulations to rein in digital-coin excess and fraud. Laws are on the books that give the current regulatory and legal system plenty of tools to prosecute bad actors. Plus theft has been illegal since the beginning of civilization.

But if our regulators are properly armed, how did the furry-haired alleged fraudster get away with something that could rival the wrongdoing of the notorious Bernie Madoff and his $65 billion Ponzi swindle?

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Digital Currency", Crime

Bryan Kohberger stalked Idaho victims before murders, wore gloves in grocery store weeks afterward: report

The criminology student accused of slaying four University of Idaho students had stalked his alleged victims before the November murders and wore gloves in a supermarket weeks afterwards, according to a new report.

Cellphone data shows that Bryan Kohberger, 28, was often in the same location as the three sorority sisters and one of their boyfriends before he allegedly slashed them to death as they apparently slept at an off campus house, a source close to one of the case’s investigators told The Daily Mail.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime, WTF?

We need a serious political discussion about crime in Canada

Despite what we might wish to believe, we have a real problem here. A Canadian was murdered every 11 hours in 2021; our homicide rate is four times worse than Italy’s.

The warmth of this year’s festive period was undeniably dampened by horrific incidents of violent crime that rattled Canadians to their core. A shocking mass shooting at a condo building in Vaughan, an appalling tale of young girls allegedly stabbing an unhoused man to death in downtown Toronto, and a spate of increasing random attacks on the TTC combined to produce a most dispiriting and tragic holiday news cycle.

But no matter the time of year in which these violent acts unfold, their occurrence and nature point to a deeper truth, one often buried or obscured but made all too clear in recent weeks: Canada has a serious crime problem.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime

The macabre research of PhD student charged over four gruesome murders

The mugshot showed him staring impassively into the camera after police descended on a house in the quiet community of Effort, deep in the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania, to lead him away.

Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doing a PhD in criminology, was wanted for the knife murder of four students at the University of Idaho 2,500 miles away. His arrest was the first big breakthrough in a case that had baffled police, sparked a series of online conspiracy theories and terrorised the small college town of Moscow, Idaho, where the murders were discovered almost seven weeks ago.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime

Could Sam Bankman-Fried’s girlfriend help send him to jail?

Squint and you might think that not much has changed for Sam Bankman-Fried. The 30-year-old crypto tycoon spends his days hanging out at his parents’ $4 million home near Stanford University, in a neighbourhood populated by fellow academics employed by the renowned institution. He can relax by the pool and is visited by the occasional crypto influencer, or Michael Lewis, the Moneyball author who has been shadowing the boy-genius for months.

Look closer, though, and you will see that the street is barricaded, with security checking IDs to ensure the press can’t get through. Bankman-Fried is fitted with an ankle monitor — a condition of his house arrest — and on Tuesday, he will appear in a Manhattan court to face eight criminal charges related to what the government has dubbed an “epic fraud”. The stakes are very high: he could be sent to prison for at least 30 years, and his family might be left financially ruined.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Digital Currency", Crime

‘Shocked’ Idaho ‘killer’ Bryan Kohberger plans to DENY murders, attorney says

The man accused of killing four University of Idaho students is ‘shocked’ by the allegations and will deny the charges as he’s extradited from Pennsylvania.

Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar said Bryan Kohberger – who was arrested on Friday for the brutal stabbings of Kaylee Gonvalves, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20 and Madison Mogen, 21 – will work with police to clear his name.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime, WTF?

Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger had ‘Vegan OCD eating’ tendencies

The suspect in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students worried his family with his bizarre eating habits, according to a relative.

Speaking exclusively to The Post Friday afternoon, a former aunt of Bryan Kohberger said his dietary restrictions were “very, very weird.”

“It was above and beyond being vegan,” said the aunt, who declined to be identified but said she was previously married into the family.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime

Cops are STILL searching for murder weapon used by Idaho murder suspect as he’s charged with four counts of murder

Idaho police say they’re still searching for the murder weapon used to slaughter four students as they arrested and charged a 28 year-old with the killings.

Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary – which he committed ‘with the intention to kill’ the University of Idaho students.

Moscow Chief of Police James Fry added that Kohberger was taken into custody by a SWAT team at a property in Albrighton, Pennsylvania at 3am on Friday morning.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime