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Federal prosecutors are investigating former FTX executive Ryan Salame’s involvement in Michelle Bond’s 2022 congressional race, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. 

As per the report, Manhattan prosecutors are investigating Salame for possible violations of campaign-finance laws tied to his support of girlfriend Bond, who ran in the Republican primary for New York’s first congressional district. The investigation, which dates back to at least April, is examining the funds Salame gave to Bond as well as the loans that funded her campaign, a source told The Journal. 

Bond, who ran on a conservative platform, raised over $660,000 in contributions including $54,000 from Salame. She was endorsed by Donald Trump Jr. and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. 

The investigation into the financial relationship between Salame and Bond is separate from the ongoing case against FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is charged with improperly spending customer deposits. Salame is not charged in that case. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

A major Ethereum conference set for Paris is not drawing the same criticisms and concerns around last year’s DevCon in Bogota, Colombia. If the industry wants to grow, it must take a truly global perspective.

The candidate isn’t necessarily biased just because he owns BTC.

Coinbase shares rose as much as 11% amid confirmation that trading giant Cboe would rely on the crypto exchange to surveil market manipulation for proposed exchange-traded funds to be listed on its venue.

Cboe on Tuesday submitted amendments for five proposed spot bitcoin ETFs to say that it has “reached an agreement on terms” with Coinbase to enter into surveillance sharing agreements.

Shares were up 9.9% to $89.25 at 1:11 p.m. in New York, according to TradingView.

Tuesday’s rally adds to gains clocked in by the crypto exchange since the beginning of the year, which ratcheted up after BlackRock announced it would file for a spot bitcoin ETF. The firm’s stock is up 144% since the beginning of the year. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The U.S. Department of Justice arrested a security engineer on wire fraud charges, alleging he stole $9 million worth of crypto from an unnamed decentralized cryptocurrency exchange.

Boldstart Ventures led the round for the startup, which helps developers avoid vulnerabilities in smart contract code.

Matic, the native token of layer-2 blockchain Polygon, has surged by 10% from Monday’s low of $0.67 as traders anticipate the upcoming Polygon 2.0 upgrade.

An Information-Sharing Agreement, which appears to be absent from public spot Bitcoin ETF filings, compels a crypto exchange to share trading data up to and including personal information such as a customer’s name and address.

A former security engineer was arrested on Tuesday morning over what law enforcement says is the “first criminal case” involving an attack on a smart contract that was operated by a decentralized exchange. 

Shakeeb Ahmed, 34, was charged with wire fraud and money laundering after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said he defrauded an unnamed decentralized crypto exchange, stealing about $9 million in crypto.

“We also allege that he then laundered the stolen funds through a series of complex transfers on the blockchain where he swapped cryptocurrencies, hopped across different crypto blockchains, and used overseas crypto exchanges, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement. “But none of those actions covered the defendant’s tracks or fooled law enforcement, and they certainly didn’t stop my Office or our law enforcement partners from following the money.”

In July 2022, Ahmed exploited “a vulnerability” in one of the exchange’s smart contracts and put in false pricing data which led the smart contract to “generate approximately $9 million dollars’ worth of inflated fees that Ahmed did not legitimately earn,” law enforcement said.  

Afterwards, Ahmed told the exchange, which operates on the Solana blockchain, that he would return all of the funds, except for $1.5 million, if it didn’t go to law enforcement, according to the statement. 

‘Can I cross border with crypto?’

Ahmed allegedly searched online to find out more information about the attack and criminal liability. He also read news articles about the hack. 

“Ahmed also conducted internet searches or visited websites related to his ability to flee the United States, avoid extradition, and keep his stolen cryptocurrency: he searched for the terms ‘can I cross border with crypto,’ ‘how to stop federal government from seizing assets,’ and ‘buying citizenship’; and he visited a website titled ’16 Countries Where Your Investments Can Buy Citizenship,'” according to the attorney’s office. 

Wire fraud and money laundering each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York also separately charged Soufiane Oulahyane, 25, with fraud over an alleged scheme to impersonate the OpenSea marketplace to get access to crypto and NFTs, stealing $450,000 worth in the process. 

“This is the second case we are announcing this week to shed light on fraud in the cryptocurrency and digital asset ecosystem,” Williams said on Tuesday after announcing the charges against Ahmed. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Network effects and ease of use rule the day. And, a lot of people clearly don’t care about decentralization and privacy all that much, says CoinDesk’s Emily Parker.