NFT News Today TheBittimes.com

“As soon as I start asking you to trust me, you shouldn’t.” That was Thomas “Papa” Smith’s pithy summation today of the fundamentally fraudulent nature of SafeMoon, a DeFi protocol whose centralized contract Features allowed a core team to extract tens of millions of dollars from liquidity pools (LP) it had represented as sacrosanct.  Smith testified for the third consecutive day in the trial of John Karony, former SafeMoon CEO. Smith, Karony, and SafeMoon creator Kyle Nagy are charged with wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering in connection with SafeMoon, which thrived for just a scant few months in 2021 before evidence of embezzlement emerged. Smith has pleaded guilty to the charges and is cooperating with government prosecutors . This morning, he detailed an array of deceptions and backdoors allegedly used to defraud investors. Prosecutors shared a series of 2021 “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) videos recorded by Karony, Smith, and Ben Phillips, an ...

Crypto.​com is facing its second regulatory battle in the European Union this year after its Malta-based operator Foris DAX MT was placed on an alert list by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). In a filing from November 6, Foris DAX MT is accused of providing financial services in Poland without the necessary authorization. This allegation comes eight months after the De Nederlandsche Bank — the Dutch central bank — hit the company with a $3.1 million fine over breaches of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing laws. Firms that are placed on a KNF alert list aren’t banned in Poland but their listing serves as a warning to users and potential investors that the company may be engaging in unauthorized financial activities. Crypto.com fined $3M by Dutch Central Bank over ‘severe’ violations Read more: Former Crypto.com compliance officer charged with money laundering, extortion Other crypto companies on the list includ...

TikTok has been accused of operating as an unlicensed crypto exchange in the UK in a letter sent to the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) by a former compliance consultant for a leading private bank. As reported by Financial News, the letter claims that TikTok’s virtual currency can be indirectly exchanged for fiat through the platform’s reward system. As a result, it says the social media giant should be placed under the FCA’s anti-money laundering and terrorist regulations. “TikTok via its rewards programme is facilitating money transmission to [money service businesses] and exchanging, or arranging or making arrangements with a view to the exchange of, cryptoassets for money or money for cryptoassets,” the letter says. Former Crypto.com compliance officer charged with money laundering, extortion Read more: TikTok ‘guru’ launders COVID loans with crypto, spoils girlfriend Users can purchase so-called TikTok Coins and use them to send ‘gifts’ to content cr...