“The Justice Department said it would drop some of the criminal charges against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried if the Bahamas says they violate the terms of his extradition to the U.S.
Federal prosecutors said in a filing late Monday that they were waiting on the Bahamian government’s approval of three additional counts that they brought against Bankman-Fried after his arrest and extradition in December.
‘The government will proceed on the new charges…if The Bahamas consents to trial on these charges, and will not proceed on those counts if The Bahamas denies the Government’s request,’ prosecutors said.
Bankman-Fried is accused of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers while defrauding investors and lenders to his crypto-investment firm, Alameda Research. Prosecutors initially charged Bankman-Fried with eight counts, including several fraud charges, a money-laundering conspiracy and conspiring to violate campaign-finance law in a scheme to mask the true source of political donations.
“Hundreds of artificial intelligence scientists and tech executives signed a one-sentence letter that succinctly warns AI poses an existential threat to humanity, the latest example of a growing chorus of alarms raised by the very people creating the technology.
‘Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,’ according to the statement released Tuesday by the nonprofit Center for AI Safety.
The open letter was signed by more than 350 researchers and executives, including chatbot ChatGPT creator OpenAI’s Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, as well as 38 members of Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence unit.
Altman and others have been at the forefront of the field, pushing new ‘generative’ AI to the masses, such as image generators and chatbots that can have humanlike conversations, summarize text and write computer code. OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot was the first to launch to the public in November, kicking off an arms race that led Microsoft and Google to launch their own earlier this year.
Since then, a growing faction within the AI community has been warning about the potential risks of a doomsday-type scenario where the technology grows sentient and attempts to destroy humans in some way. They are pitted against a second group of researchers who say this is a distraction from problems like inherent bias in current AI, the potential for it take jobs and its ability to lie.”
“A top US financial regulator is inquiring about how private equity firms steered deposits, including client funds, out of Silicon Valley Bank before its collapse.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s examinations unit has requested records of some investment firms’ money transfers and investor communications over the first three weeks of March, as well as emails with SVB, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. Some questions focused on whether executives with personal accounts at the bank cashed out before clients — and where deposits went, they said.
The inquiries send a warning to venture capital and private equity firms over how they handle client funds at troubled banks. Under Chair Gary Gensler, the agency is taking a stronger stance against the industry on several fronts, ramping up scrutiny of fees and mandating more disclosure from firms that have long been more lightly regulated than mutual funds.
It couldn’t be determined which firms are the focus of the SEC unit’s inquiries. The division has directed its inquiries to smaller private equity firms, one of the people said.
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“Holiday Hangover Tuesday,” Ripped From The Headlines. Things To Ponder:
“Hey, If It’s An Issue… We Just Won’t Do Our Job!”
That’s the thought process of US prosecutors today in the case of Sam Bankman-Fried…
You remember him right?
That’s the guy who scammed people out of a ton of money, and funneled it to lots of politicians, and the guy who we said would likely get away with it…
Now, the US government is saying that it will only add extra charges if it doesn’t violate the extradition laws of the Bahamas…
Yes, we do understand how extradition laws work…
The point we’re making is that this is all incredibly convenient given the situation…
Here’s the next question to ask yourself:
Will the US government even be able to get a conviction in this case?
Click Here and follow the money. Ripped From The Headlines connected the dots to where Bankman-Fried was sending the money, and why there’s a chance he gets away with it.
Know. Your. Foe.
“AI Is As Scary As Nukes… What Could Go Wrong?”
Well, according to some of the masters of the “grifter-verse” that built this stuff and sold it to you for crazy prices, quite a bit.
They got together and signed a letter that basically says that the AI they created is as dangerous to you as nuclear weapons are.
But hey, since they told you, it’s all good, right? No harm, no foul!
That’s what they’re hoping to do…
Help you to forget they did it and blame it on someone else.
Unfortunately for them, the AI they built won’t forget…
Now, Microsoft’s Chief Economist is saying it’s dangerous…
And that’s the same Microsoft that’s behind ChatGPT…
Which accelerated this mess.
Keep this quote handy for future reference. It’s a masterful “CYA:”
‘Once we see real harm, we have to ask ourselves the simple question: ‘Can we regulate that in a way where the good things that will be prevented by this regulation are less important?’ Schwarz said. ‘The principles should be, the benefits from the regulation to our society should be greater than the cost to our society.’”
We’ll share now what we shared then: Know Your Foe.
“Oh, We Should Probably Try & Figure Out What Happened!”
The CYA powers are strong at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) these days…
After pretty much every financial regulator was either complicit or ignorant of what with happening with Silicon Valley Bank, the SEC has finally decided that it’s a good idea to see what happened…
We’ll spare you another rant on the SEC, but we want to leave you with a reminder of what they are really about:
Click Here for the November 22, 2022 edition of Ripped From The Headlines, where we provided a detailed breakdown of regulator failures.
You need to be prepared… there’s just too much crazy stuff happening.
We’ve found the 4Patriots solar generators to be light and easy to use. Plus, they are quiet and don’t require fuel.
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The economy Your future is hanging in the balance… literally.
The people running things have no clue how to fix the problem… Even if they did, it’s too big to fix now.
They’ll be using any assets you have left in their hands (i.e.: pensions, 401k’s), and rob you blind to try and “fix” the problem.
You’ll be less wealthy, with fewer supplies, and less freedom to speak your mind.
Those aren’t good things.
Why should I care?
There’s so much to unpack…
Your wealth…
Your legacy…
Anything you plan to leave for future generations…
Getting the basics to live…
All of these things are teetering on the edge.
You should REALLY care.
What Should I Do?
Start thinking about the basics that people will need, and look at those things as potential avenues to protect yourself and as an investment.
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They touch 90% of your life every day, and you don’t even realize it. That’s inflation/deflation/recession/depression insurance. You’ll still need toilet paper and toothpaste.
You should also tell as many people as you can about what’s happening. Don’t leave people behind, while we still have a window to help them.
A quick way to do that: Share this newsletter… heck, take from it, and do your own. We give you permission…
Take the time to learn more about Parallel Economies, and find alternatives to the things you use today… food, money, and transportation.
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Ripped From The Headlines is your daily digest of what’s happening in the world. We help you to understand what it means, why you should care, and what you should do.
Have a tip on a story, case, or issue that needs to be covered? Email us: asksherloc@protonmail.com. Confidentially assured.
