HyperVerse’s Alleged Ponzi Scheme Raked in Nearly $2B, Hired Actor as Fake CEO

Reported by Jesse Hamilton HyperVerse was a nearly $2 billion fraudulent crypto investment scheme with a fake CEO at its helm, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a grand jury allege in a lawsuit and criminal indictments against two of its leaders. The online investment business, which variously carried brands including HyperFund, HyperCapital and HyperTech, is said […]

Customer Advisory: AI Won’t Turn Trading Bots into Money Machines

Reported by The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Office of Customer Education and Outreach (OCEO) Scammers claim AI-created algorithms can generate huge returns—sometimes tens of thousands of percent—or yield 100 percent “win” rates. These dubious claims have been made about algorithms that automatically place trades, known as “bots,” and algorithms that provide buy and sell signals […]

AI heralds the next generation of financial scams

Reported by Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan Increasing sophistication Identifying the scale of AI use by scammers is a difficult task, says Alex West, banking and payments fraud specialist at consultant PwC. He was one of the authors of a report into the impact of AI on fraud and scams last December in collaboration with cross-industry coalition Stop Scams UK. […]

Jamie Dimon tells Davos that Bitcoin is a ‘pet rock’ that does nothing—except help with fraud and money laundering

Reported by PAOLO CONFINO JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is done talking about Bitcoin—again.  In a CNBC interview from Davos, a visibly amused Dimon declared he was swearing off opining about the crypto currency. When asked about the new Bitcoin ETF the Securities and Exchange Commission approved last week, Dimon interrupted CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin, also of The […]

Tether responds to UN report about ‘illicit activity’ of USDT

Reported by HELEN PARTZ Major stablecoin firm Tether has responded to a United Nations (UN) report highlighting the alleged involvement of its Tether USDT $1.00 stablecoin in illicit activity. On Jan. 15, the Southeast Asia and the Pacific division of the UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued a report on the use of cryptocurrencies in […]

US SEC begrudgingly approves Bitcoin trades but warns investors it’s a ‘speculative, volatile asset that’s also used for ransomware, money laundering, sanction evasion, and terrorist financing’

Reported by Rich Stanton The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) following years of opposition—though not without stern warnings about the “myriad risks” of investing in cryptocurrency. The news was greeted with enthusiasm by crypto-lovers and has led to a minor spike in Bitcoin’s value, with one Bitcoin being worth around $44,000 […]