The FBI created their own crypto token called NexFundAI as part of an investigation into price manipulation in crypto markets. As a result of the investigation, the SEC charged three “so-called market makers” and nine individuals for allegedly engaging in schemes to boost the prices of certain crypto assets. The Department of Justice charged 18 people and entities for “widespread fraud and manipulation” in crypto markets. Patrick's Books: Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0 Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPF Corporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvC Ways To Support The Channel Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinance Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/patrickboyle Visit our website: https://www.onfinance.org Follow Patrick on Twitter Here: https://twitter.com/PatrickEBoyle Additional Links: SEC Press Release: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024-166 U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/eighteen-individuals-and-entities-charged-international-operation-targeting-widespread Link To Report Losses: https://forms.fbi.gov/seeking-information-in-cryptocurrency-investment-fraud-investigation Business Inquiries ➡️ sponsors@onfinance.org Patrick Boyle On Finance Podcast: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7uhrWlDvxzy9hLoW0EYf0b Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/patrick-boyle-on-finance/id1547740313 Google Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/62862nve Join this channel to support making this content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCASM0cgfkJxQ1ICmRilfHLw/join

Send us a textPrices for the most in-demand luxury watches have been in freefall on the secondary market since March 2022 as a pandemic-era rally fizzled. Are luxury watches a good investment, how do watch prices perform in the long run?Patrick's BooksStatistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvCSupport The ChannelPatreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleO...

Send us a textThis Monday was one of the worst days for global stock markets in years, Stocks in the US, Europe and Japan tanked on Friday and again on Monday before a partial rebound. Bond yields and foreign exchange rates swung around wildly too.The Magnificent seven stocks lost about $1 trillion dollars in value in just two days. So, what exactly is going on in markets, and how much should we worry?Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives F...

Send us a textFederal prosecutors and the SEC earlier this week charged seven Influencers with using Twitter, Discord and YouTube to commit securities fraud that netted them more than $100 million.An eighth influencer was charged with aiding and abetting the alleged scheme in the SEC’s civil complaint and with conspiracy to commit securities fraud in the Department of Justice’s criminal case.Each of the defendants had well over 100,000 Twitter followers as of this month, they ran a podcast ca...

Send us a textSam Bankman-Fried has been arrested, accused of engineering “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”In a Department of Justice indictment unsealed on Tuesday, Bankman-Fried has been charged with eight counts including conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers and lenders, money laundering and violations of campaign finance laws. Bankman-Fried, who was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday, faces years in prison if convicted.The charges point to a long-running sc...

Send us a textFrom Enron to Wirecard to Theranos and FTX, elaborate investment scams can remain undetected long after the warning signs appear. What are investors missing?Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvCPatreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinanceVisit our website: www.onfinance.orgFollow Patrick on Twitter Here: https://...

Send us a textStephen Schwarzman and Jonathan Gray of Blackstone have built the best fundraising machine on Wall Street, but now, the billionaire pair are in an unfamiliar position — having to return cash to clients who are asking for their money back.Blackstone’s stock price fell last week after it limited withdrawals from its $125bn real estate investment fund BREIT, after a surge of redemption requests.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivativ...

Send us a textSam Bankman Fried did two interviews with Tiffany Fong to explain what happened at FTX and where the customers money went. The first interview went out on the YouTube channel Coffeezilla yesterday.The Full Sam Bankman Fried Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP54LZB3WRw&t=1sCoffeezilla Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rL35_WV3lE&t=85sPatrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: ...

Send us a textSince its launch in 2019, FTX has raised $1.8bn and was most recently valued at $32bn. Among its shareholders are some of the world’s most-respected hedge fund managers and Venture Capitalists. Now with FTX having filed for bankruptcy, their investments look to be a complete wipeout. Investors including Sequoia, SoftBank and Paradigm, which was co-founded by former Sequoia partner Matt Huang, have marked their holdings in the company to zero, vaporising hundreds of millions...

Send us a textThe new chief executive of FTX, an insolvency professional who oversaw the liquidation of Enron, has said that the bankruptcy of the crypto group is the worst case of corporate failure he has seen in more than 40 years.John Ray III, who was appointed to run the FTX bankruptcy, said in a US court filing that he had never seen “such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information”.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading ...

Send us a textFTX, the cryptocurrency exchange recently valued at $32 billion dollars, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US.The filing in Delaware federal court on Friday included the main FTX international exchange, FTX US a US crypto marketplace, Sam Bankman-Fried’s proprietary trading group Alameda Research and about 130 affiliated companies.In today's video we discuss what went wrong at FTX, and discuss the influencers who pitched FTX to their audiences.Patrick's Books:Statistics...

Send us a textThe term robber baron is frequently used to describe men like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, along with other powerful 19th-century American industrialists. These men came from nowhere and made fortunes building out Americas industrial infrastructure. In their pursuit of wealth, they put railroads in place, provided energy to American homes and manufactured the steel that built American cities. Many of the 19th Century American industr...

Send us a textChina’s crackdown on property developers and its “Zero Covid" policy are harming its economy and the economies of countries selling raw materials to China. But there is an upside to Xi's actions, these policies are reducing inflationary pressures in the rest of the world. Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvCPatreon Page: ...

Send us a textBig Tech is slashing hundreds of thousands of jobs and blaming artificial intelligence, but there may be more to the story than that. Intel just announced fifteen thousand layoffs yesterday, causing their stock price to plunge. Big Tech, who for over a decade provided all sorts of employee perks may no longer be the dream place to work.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cj...

Send us a textRussian oligarchs have kept their money in London for twenty years, encouraged by British bankers' lawyers and politicians. Critics say that the 'London laundromat' cleans dirty money from kleptocrats all over the world. This video looks at where dirty money comes from, how money laundering works why it took Russia's invasion of Ukraine to put this issue in the spotlight. From One Hyde Park to Bishops Avenue. Where is oligarch money kept in London?Patrick's Books:Statistics...

Send us a textThe United States has introduced new export controls to restrict Chinese companies access to the most advanced computer chips which can be used to develop cutting-edge technologies with military applications.The commerce department announced these restrictions last week which will make it extremely difficult for Chinese companies to obtain or manufacture advanced computer chips and will slow their progress in artificial intelligence.The measures are also designed to make it much...

Send us a textThe Bank of England had to step in to calm markets after the British government's economic plan sparked a fall in the pound and caused borrowing costs to surge.The Bank warned that if the market volatility continued there would be a "material risk to UK financial stability."Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvCPatreon Page: htt...

Send us a textThe British pound plummeted on Friday after the government announced huge tax cuts in its mini-budget. It then plunged again on Monday, reaching $1.04 - the lowest level the pound has ever been against the dollar. Why is the British Pound Falling?Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvCPatreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/P...

Send us a textFrom 1991 through 2001, Japan experienced a period of economic stagnation and price deflation known as "Japan's Lost Decade." This was caused by the collapse of an asset price bubble in late 1991. The term originally referred to the 1990s, but the 2000s and the 2010s can be added to the list due to the country’s economic stagnation. We’ll look at the postwar Japanese economic miracle, the bubble economy of the late 1980’s and the lost decades that Japan has experienced since.&nb...

Send us a textVladimir Putin announced in a speech last month that Russia had weathered the worst of the Economic sanctions imposed by Western nations. He said that “gloomy predictions about the Russian economy’s future didn’t come true” and that the sanctions had hit foreign economies much harder than they had hit Russia. He added that “The weaponry of sanctions is a double-edged sword… and European countries had dealt a serious blow to their own economies all on their own.” So are the sanct...

Send us a textJohn Keely was the founder of the Keely Motor Company. He announced that he had discovered a new physical force, one that, if harnessed, would produce unheard-of power. He claimed to be able to produce from a quart of water enough fuel to move a 30-car train from Philadelphia to New York City.Scientists and engineers scoffed at his unverified claims. After his death, an investigation was carried out, and examination of his apparatus - a supposed perpetual motion machine - showed...

Send us a textIn China, a major financial crisis is unfolding. A few months ago, four rural lenders in the northern province of Henan froze the deposits of hundreds of thousands of customers and Chinese citizens in 86 cities are boycotting mortgage payments towards their homes. Confidence in the financial sector has plunged. In this video we look at the story behind the bank scandals.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Flo...

Send us a textThe United States and China appear to have reached a landmark deal that would allow Chinese companies to remain listed on US exchanges, halting the threatened delisting of about 200 stocks that trade in New York.The announcement by US and Chinese regulators is a breakthrough after a prolonged standstill. Beijing has not allowed foreign regulators to inspect Chinese company audits, citing a desire to protect state secrets. US law requires Chinese companies to leave American stock...

Send us a textThe first global financial crisis erupted in the autumn of 1987 on a day known as “Black Monday.” A chain reaction of market distress sent stock exchanges around the world plummeting in a matter of hours. In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 22.6 percent in a single trading session, a loss that remains the largest one-day stock market decline in history. At the time, it marked the sharpest market downturn in the United States since the Great Depre...

Send us a textThe activist short seller Andrew Left surrendered to authorities in Los Angeles on Monday to face federal criminal securities fraud charges, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office there said.Both the SEC and a federal grand jury in the Central District of California brought charges against Andrew Left a prominent activist short seller with multiple counts of securities fraud for a long-running market manipulation scheme reaping profits of at least $20 million.As alleged in t...

Send us a textRising energy prices could push UK inflation as high as 18% next year according to Citi. European gas prices rose sharply this week due to supply fears, after Gazprom Russia’s energy firm announced it would shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline - the main gas supply line to Europe - to complete three days of unplanned maintenance.Right now, Britain and the EU are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis driven by energy inflation. What can be done to prevent this from happening a...

Send us a textThis Tuesday Joe Biden signed into law a sweeping tax, healthcare, and climate bill, called the Inflation Reduction Act, a significantly pared back version of the “Build Back Better Plan” which he was pushing for last year.Fans of the new law claim that it will improve citizens’ finances while reducing the federal deficit and critics say it will lead to higher taxes for individuals and corporations, and that it will be ineffective at dampening inflation. Let’s look at the new le...

Send us a textThis week, let's talk about Cathie Wood and The Ark Invest Disruptive Innovation Fund to see if there is anything we can learn from the rise and fall of ARKK? What mistakes do investors make when selecting funds to invest in.Jack Schwager - Market Sense & Nonsense: https://amzn.to/3SKBRgt Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to...

Send us a textIn late June, Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that the country’s economy had “collapsed.” There was no money left to pay for imports of necessities like food, fuel and medicine, and the country was seeking help from neighboring countries and the IMF.Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis since it gained independence from Britain almost 75 years ago. In today's video we ask the question, "What Killed Sri Lanka's Economy?"Patrick's Books:Sta...

Send us a textIn 2013 President Xi Jinping announced the launch of his signature policy, the Belt and Road Initiative, the largest transnational infrastructure program ever undertaken by a single country. Today though, many of the loans financing these huge infrastructure projects are going bad and going bad in record numbers. Today's video looks at the Belt and Road Initiative, how the projects are going and how recent events like Russia's invasion of Ukraine are affecting debtor natio...

Send us a textThis Tuesday, Twitter’s sued Elon Musk to force him to honor his legally binding agreement to buy the company. Twitter asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to fast-track a trial for September. According to the complaint “Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away.”The Delaware court will examine the case on its merits...

Send us a textLast week, three DeFi (decentralized finance) groups stepped in with emergency plans to protect their projects and users from economic turbulence in the face of collapsing cryptocurrency prices.These DeFi crypto networks which had pledged to put users in control ended up taking charge themselves in order to survive the ongoing crisis in the digital asset market.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: ...

Send us a textInflation has turned from transitory to pernicious, with some economists even raising the specter of a 1970s-style wage-price spiral. Should you reposition your investment portfolio for an inflationary environment, shifting some of your money to sectors or asset classes that tend to do well during inflationary periods? Or should you leave your investments alone and let the markets control their long-term destiny? In today’s video we look at market history to see how securities p...

Send us a textBlitzscaling is what you do when you need to grow really, really quickly according to Reid Hoffmann the Founder of LinkedIn, and Elon Musk’s former partner at PayPal. Blitzscaling is high-impact entrepreneurship, it’s the science and art of rapidly building out a company to serve a large and usually global market, with the goal of becoming the first mover at scale.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor:&nb...

Send us a textRussian Oligarchs have become synonymous with superyachts, luxury mansions and the shady political maneuvering of post-Soviet Russia. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian billionaires like Roman Abramovich, Vladimir Potanin, Alisher Usmanov and Oleg Deripaska have been all over the news.The word Oligarch conjures up images of opportunistic, well-connected businessmen who made billions by plundering the remains of the collapsed Soviet state. But how exactly did Russia’s...

Send us a textA Texas District Judge Andrew S. Hanen has dismissed all charges against seven social-media influencers the SEC and Justice Department had accused of perpetrating a “stock manipulation scheme” on Twitter and Discord, ruling that the prosecution failed to state an offense in a case alleging securities fraud. The influencers were accused of securities fraud through a Pump and Dump scheme as they posted on social media that they owned or were buying various penny stocks but did not...

Send us a textThe widely accepted idea of a cost-of-living crisis does not begin to capture the gravity of what may lie ahead according to António Guterres, the UN secretary general. He warned earlier this week that the coming months threaten “the spectre of a global food shortage” that could last for years. The high cost of staple foods has already raised the number of people who cannot be sure of getting enough to eat by 440m, to 1.6bn. Nearly 250m are on the brink of famine.Patrick's...

Send us a textThe $1.3tn cryptocurrency industry was on Thursday hit by one of its toughest challenges when stablecoin Tether — a critical cog in the market — failed to maintain its link with the US dollar. The company refuses to provide details on the Treasury holdings that back the stablecoin claiming their fear of revealing the ‘secret sauce.’Tether tumbled as low as 95.11 cents yesterday, far below the $1 peg that it seeks to maintain. Its price later recovered, but the slip-up, days afte...

Send us a textXi Jinping has reaffirmed his commitment to China’s controversial zero-Covid strategy, warning against “any slackening” in the effort and vowing to crack down on criticism of the policy despite signs of damage to the economy.“Our prevention and control policies can withstand the test of history; our measures are scientific and effective. We have won the battle to defend Wuhan, we can also win the battle to defend Shanghai,” the statement said.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The T...

Send us a textBill Hwang, founder of Archegos Capital Management, has been arrested by US authorities and charged with racketeering, fraud and market manipulation.The indictment accuses Hwang and former chief financial officer Patrick Halligan, of using Archegos as an “instrument of market manipulation and fraud” with “far-reaching consequences for other participants in the United States securities markets”.The case marks the first criminal charges against Hwang, one of the so-called Tiger Cu...

Send us a textElon Musk - The world’s richest man has allegedly hired the investment bank Morgan Stanley and is trying to gather financing, so he can buy Twitter for $43 billion.According to The New York Times, Musk is evaluating various packages of debt and a loan against his shares of Tesla. Apollo Global Management, an alternative asset manager, is among the parties considering offering debt financing. The equity he needs is likely to be sizable.Last week, Elon Musk, made an unsolicited of...

Send us a textThe sanctions on Russia’s central bank use the reserve currency status of the US dollar to punish an American adversary. Will the US dollar lose its exorbitant privilege? What currency might replace the US Dollar as a reserve currency?Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvC Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/Patric...

Send us a textVladimir Putin has demanded payment in roubles for Russian gas sold to “unfriendly” countries, setting a deadline of 31 March for the transition.It is not clear whether he plans to tear up existing contracts that set the price in euros or dollars, but Germany, which relies on Russia for 40% of its gas supplies, is not taking any chances, warning large industrial gas users that a standoff is possible and rationing is one possible outcome.In todays video we ask why payment for Rus...

Send us a textAs the clock runs down to Monday's sanctions deadline for Russian airlines to hand back more than 450 leased planes worth almost $10 billion, foreign lessors are fast losing hope that they will get their planes back. As the owners rushed to repossess the planes, the Kremlin moved quickly to block this by passing a law allowing foreign airplanes to be re-registered in Russia, effectively nationalizing them.Aviation was an early business casualty of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, a...

Send us a textIn markets, there are few principles considered more important by traders than the idea that when a commitment to a deal is made, it should stand come what may. So, there was uproar in the commodities market last week over the London Metal Exchange’s decision to bring the global nickel market to a halt and cancel futures trades because of a “short squeeze” on a Chinese tycoon facing potential billions of dollars of losses.In one of the most controversial moments in its 145-year ...

Send us a textThe UK announced new sanctions yesterday relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, targeting seven oligarchs with links to Vladimir Putin. Among them is Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea FC.In today's video we try to answer three questions: Who owns Chelsea FC right now? What happens with the other Russian assets being seized around the world? And, what happens with Russian financial assets like stocks and bonds that westerners own that have stopped trading due to ...

Send us a textU.S. stocks are expected to get a short-term boost in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump over the weekend, as analysts say the likelihood of his victory in November has increased. Trump's lead has extended itself since Biden's poor debate performance two weeks ago which left his biggest supporters concerned about the president's ability to handle the rigors of another four years in office. Will the stock market do better under Tru...

Send us a textIn Today’s podcast we discuss if the west can place an embargo on Russian energy exports?Western leaders have threatened Vladimir Putin with sweeping sanctions over his invasion of Ukraine but, they have been clear that they would avoid disrupting energy supplies.Hitting energy exports is no longer as due to the brutality of Putin’s war and the idea of targeting oil and gas exports is no longer off the table — even if it damages western economies in the process.Canada - a tiny b...

Send us a textRussia’s invasion of Ukraine risks disrupting the export of critical commodities and rupturing supply chains. Industries from food to cars and fertilizer makers to aircraft manufacturers will be hit by disruption to exports.Patrick's Books:Statistics For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3eerLA0Derivatives For The Trading Floor: https://amzn.to/3cjsyPFCorporate Finance: https://amzn.to/3fn3rvC Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinanceVisit ou...

Send us a textThe US President said on Thursday that the United States and Europe were united in their efforts to confront Russian aggression toward Ukraine with aggressive sanctions. However, there was one area where he suggested that there was some disagreement: SWIFT.The messaging service, called the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, connects more than 11,000 financial institutions around the world. It is viewed as a potential nuclear option in the world o...