OSBI has suspect, no arrest in quadruple homicide in Kingfisher County'

By Kelci McKendrick CNHI Oklahoma 15 hrs ago

LACEY, Okla. — Authorities are investigating a quadruple homicide that occurred Sunday night, Nov. 20, 2022, at a marijuana grow farm in Kingfisher County, according to Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Around 8:45 p.m. Sunday, Kingfisher County Sheriff's Office responded to a call regarding a possible hostage situation at a location on North 2760 Road, just north of Lacey, according to OSBI Capt. Stan Florence.

Upon arrival at the 10-acre marijuana grow farm, which Florence said appears to be an international grow operation, deputies found the situation had turned deadly and requested assistance from OSBI.

Four people — men and women — were found dead on the premises, Florence said, and one person who had been injured was flown via helicopter to an Oklahoma City hospital for treatment. He said he did not know the injured person's condition, nor what kind of injuries they sustained.

Florence said, at 12:24 p.m. Monday, that authorities have a suspect in mind but did not release further information. The suspect still was on the loose at that time and not believed to be in the area.

"We've done a thorough search with drones, helicopters and manpower throughout the night," Florence said. "Right now, it doesn't appear that there's anybody else here."

Authorities encountered one person at the scene, Florence said, but they don't believe that person is the suspect.

Regarding the relationship between the suspect and victims, Florence said authorities believe they were familiar with each other. Victims' ages and how they died have not been released.

"(The investigation) is still in the early stages," Florence said. "There's a lot to unravel with this case. It'll take a little time for us to process it, but in due time, I think we'll have more information to release."

Agents from Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics also were on scene Monday.

https://www.duncanbanner.com/news/osbi-has-suspect-no-arrest-in-quadruple-homicide-in-kingfisher-county/article_6f881fbe-69f4-11ed-99cd-bbbe4aa06a5b.html

Elon Musk fired Twitter's head of sales after she refused to sack more employees. He had previously begged her not to resign.'

Kate Duffy 5 hours ago

*Elon Musk sacked Twitter exec Robin Wheeler after she refused to fire more staff, sources said.

*Wheeler was sacked despite Musk persuading her to stay after she tried to resign, per Bloomberg.

*Some Twitter sales staff found out over the weekend and on Monday they were fired, per Platformer.

Elon Musk fired a top Twitter executive after she refused to sack more employees in the ad sales team, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to Insider.

Robin Wheeler, Twitter's global head of advertising sales, handed in her resignation on Thursday 10, but Musk persuaded her to stay in the job, the sources told Insider's Lara O'Reilly, and as Bloomberg earlier reported.

One week later, the billionaire changed his mind. Two sources said Wheeler was fired on Friday after she refused to cut the headcount of Twitter's ad sales team — a department that was already depleted.

Wheeler, whose Twitter bio now says "proud Ex-Twitter Sales Exec," tweeted on Friday in the past tense, saying: "To the team and my clients….you were always my first and only priority." She concluded the tweet with a salute emoji, a sign that has recently become symbolic for Twitter employees leaving the company amid layoffs and firings.

Platformer's Casey Newton reported that some Twitter staff in the sales team found out over the weekend and on Monday that they had been sacked after they couldn't access Twitter's systems.

This came after Musk sent an email to employees about his expectations for building "Twitter 2.0." If staff didn't sign up for "the new Twitter" by Thursday 5 p.m., they would receive three months of severance, Musk wrote in the email.

Twitter and Wheeler didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment made outside of normal US operating hours on Tuesday.

Wheeler joined Twitter in 2012 as a senior director of sales, which involved managing relationships with some of the company's biggest clients such as Coca-Cola, Google, and Microsoft, according to her LinkedIn page. She became the head of ad sales in April this year.

Chris Riedy, Twitter's former vice president of the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, replaced Wheeler at the weekend, per multiple Insider

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-fired-twitter-sales-exec-refused-sack-more-employees-2022-11

sources.https://twitter.com/robinw/status/1593777614983872512

GloriFi, Set to Close'

GloriFi, a Texas-based financial start-up that positioned itself as anti-woke, is set to shutter.

The company has been forced to lay off the majority of its workforce as crucial operational funding expected to sustain GloriFi into the beginning of 2023 unexpectedly fell through, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

In an email sent to employees Friday, GloriFi’s chief marketing and communications officer Cathy Landtroop explained that “financial challenges related to startup mistakes, the failing economy, reputational attacks, and multiple negative stories took their toll.”

Since the bank was first conceived, it blew through its initial investments, missed deadlines, encountered major legal obstacles, and suffered infighting among investors.

The company had made a point of calling out the liberal drift of Wall Street in recent years, offering clients the opportunity to celebrate their “love of God and country” instead.

Among the major initiatives that GloriFi vocally opposed were a slew of pledges from Citigroup, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase to prioritize environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in their investments. Other financial firms have severed relations with corporate clients due to their involvement in fossil fuels and the firearms industry.

GloriFi had brought together many personalities from across the conservative world. Close Trump ally and PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel invested in the firm, as did Vivek Ramaswamy (author of Woke Inc.) and Georgia’s former Republican senator, Kelly Loeffler. Former vice president Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, was one of the company’s senior business partners.

The Daily Wire‘s Candace Owens, who recently found herself in hot water for defending Kanye West in the wake of several antisemitic statements, served as GloriFi’s public persona in commercials and social-media blasts.

“I very much believe in GloriFi and view it to be the first true mark of what I perceive to be a competitive, conservative economy that is forming,” Owens told the Wall Street Journal in October.

The company raised $50 million last year to fund operations.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/peter-thiel-funded-anti-woke-bank-glorifi-set-to-close/

Obama returning to campaign for Warnock before Georgia Senate runoff'

By Bill BarrowPublished November 21, 2022 10:55AMGeorgiaFOX 5 Atlanta

ATLANTA - Former President Barack Obama, reprising his battleground blitz ahead of the midterm elections, will campaign again for Sen. Raphael Warnock as the Georgia Democrat tries to withstand a strong challenge from Republican Herschel Walker before their Dec. 6 runoff.

Obama’s return trip to Georgia is scheduled for Dec. 1, the eve of the final day of early in-person voting that has proven critical to Democrats in recent years, including Warnock’s runoff special election victory nearly two years ago. Obama first appeared with Warnock in late October during the general election early voting period.

Warnock led Walker by about 36,000 votes in the general election but fell short of a majority, triggering a runoff under Georgia law.

Obama is the only significant national Democrat to campaign in person for Warnock, who has spent much of his reelection bid aiming for independent voters and even moderate Republicans, in addition to Democrats’ core supporters. Republicans, in turn, have sought to frame the race more as a national referendum on the two parties, tying Warnock to President Joe Biden and generationally high inflation.

Democrats managed to defend their Senate majority, already securing 50 seats along with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote and managing to limit Republicans to a threadbare majority in the House. But Georgia remains a key seat because a 51st senator would give Democrats an outright majority, including on Senate committees, while giving the caucus insurance against defections.

Warnock and other Democrats around the country embraced Obama as well-positioned to carry the party’s banner because he remains intensely popular among the Democratic base and is still well-regarded among independents.

Trying to capitalize on that standing before the general election, Obama took on the GOP framing of voters’ midterm choice, arguing that Republicans were offering no real solutions to inflation that the former president stressed is a global phenomenon, not something that Biden and Democrats in Washington created. Obama also called Republicans a threat to democracy, pointing to many GOP leaders’ continued support for former President Donald Trump and his false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent.

In Georgia specifically, Obama hammered Walker, a celebrity athlete turned politician, as woefully unprepared for the Senate, an argument Warnock is pressing both in his campaign speeches and in paid advertising.

Walker has welcomed a parade of national Republican figures, including multiple visits from Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, the GOP’s Senate campaign chairman, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. But he has not appeared with Trump, despite their long-running friendship and the former president encouraging Walker to run and then endorsing him.

Most early in-person voting for the runoff is expected to occur from Nov. 28 through Dec. 2, the week prior to the runoff Election Day. Some counties plan to open early voting sites as early as Tuesday, but many counties said they couldn’t manage that in the days ahead of Thanksgiving. A state judge last week granted Democrats’ request to allow early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, though state officials have appealed. It’s not clear how many local elections offices would be able to mobilize to stand up early sites on the holiday weekend even if they are allowed to do so.

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/georgia-senate-runoff-election-obama-warnock

>>17799054

>>17799054

'Musk says he will be making content decisions despite moderation council

by Christopher Hutton, Technology Reporter

November 22, 2022 10:20 AM

Elon Musk has left the keys to all Twitter content moderation decisions, such as reinstating former President Donald Trump's account, in his own hands.

Musk said in a Zoom call on Saturday that while he intends to form the content moderation council he had proposed the first day he owned the company, the ultimate power to make decisions about content would be left to him. This revelation arrives days after Musk reinstated several banned accounts, including those of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump, and the Babylon Bee.

"We are going to do a content council, but it's an advisory council," Musk said in a recording acquired by TMZ. "It's not a … they're not the ones who actually … At the end of the day, it will be me deciding, and, like, any pretense to the contrary is simply not true. Because obviously, I could choose who's on that content council, and I don't need to listen to what they say."

Musk had proposed creating the council in late October to oversee the major decisions involving content moderation but did not provide additional detail. In the meantime, the billionaire has reinstated several accounts, including the whistleblower organization Project Veritas, psychologist Jordan Peterson, Greene, and others.

The billionaire also reinstated the former president's account on Sunday after more than 12 million users voted in a poll he posted.

Musk's approach to accounts such as Trump's has put several advertisers on edge.

While he reassured advertisers that the website would not become a "free-for-all hellscape" under his leadership, a number of brands and advertising agencies have temporarily frozen their marketing campaigns on Twitter.

Musk claimed that these companies are doing so under pressure from "activist groups" attempting to limit speech. Civil rights groups have asked that Musk stop misinformation.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/technology/musk-twitter-content-moderation-decisions

Democrats Renew Push For Cryptocurrency Regulations, Target Company That Serves As Both Exchange And Bank'

By Ben Zeisloft Nov 21, 2022 DailyWire.com

Democratic lawmakers on Monday called upon regulators to examine bank holding company SoFi Technologies, which owns a subsidiary cryptocurrency exchange.

Skepticism of the financial services company occurs after cryptocurrency platform FTX filed for bankruptcy following users’ discovery that trading firm Alameda Research borrowed millions in deposits to make investments, causing a liquidity crisis. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried controlled both companies and allowed ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison to lead the latter.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), all of whom sit on the Senate Banking Committee, requested that SoFi CEO Anthony Noto provide information regarding compliance with banking law and determinations on appropriate levels of exposure to digital assets.

“Over the past year, several meltdowns in the crypto market have wiped out trillions in value, including another huge crash last week,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Noto. “We are concerned that SoFi’s continued nonbank digital asset trading activities pose risks to consumers and safety and soundness risks to your institution.”

The Federal Reserve granted SoFi permission to operate as a national bank at the beginning of this year, noting that the company’s cryptocurrency unit must be divested or brought into compliance within two years of the approval. “We are concerned that SoFi’s continued impermissible digital asset activities demonstrate a failure to take seriously its regulatory commitments and to adhere to its obligations,” the lawmakers added.

Bankman-Fried, whose considerable fortune disappeared overnight as the company filed for bankruptcy, is reportedly seeking $8 billion from investors to cover withdrawal requests made by customers. FTX CEO John Ray III, an attorney overseeing the company’s bankruptcy proceedings who formerly represented plaintiffs harmed by the collapse of Enron, remarked in a court filing last week that he had never “seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information.”

The four lawmakers sent a second letter to leadership of the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, requesting that officials continue to “monitor” SoFi and other organizations engaged in cryptocurrency activities.

“As we saw with the crypto meltdown this summer, where crypto-assets lost over $1 trillion in value in a matter of weeks, contagion in the banking system was limited because of regulatory guardrails,” the letter said. “In the event of crypto-related exposures at SoFi Digital Assets ultimately require its parent company, bank holding company, or affiliated national bank to seek emergency liquidity or other financial assistance … taxpayers may be on the hook. Your agencies have publicly acknowledged these types of crypto-related risks.”

The House Financial Services Committee is preparing to host hearings regarding the collapse of FTX next month as the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission prepare their own investigations. Beyond members of Congress, officials in the Biden administration have revealed a willingness to implement more regulations on cryptocurrencies. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during an interview with CBS News that cryptocurrencies require “appropriate supervision and regulation,” adding that the administration has identified “regulatory holes that need to be filled for this to be a space where Americans can feel safe doing business.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrats-renew-push-for-cryptocurrency-regulations-target-company-that-serves-as-both-exchange-and-bank

>>17799059

>>17799059

'FTX holds $1.24 bln cash balance before bankruptcy hearing

November 22, 2022 08:23 am EST

Written by Tom Wilson and Manya Saini

Nov 22 (Reuters) - FTX has a total cash balance of $1.24 billion, a court filing by advisers on the stricken crypto exchange's restructuring showed ahead of U.S. bankruptcy hearings set for later on Tuesday.

The collapse of FTX, once one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has left an estimated 1 million creditors facing losses totaling billions of dollars.

Its cash balance as of Sunday was "substantially higher" than previously thought, Monday's filing by Edgar Mosley of Alvarez & Marshal, a consultancy firm advising FTX, said.

It includes around $400 million at accounts related to Alameda Research, the crypto trading firm owned by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and $172 million at FTX's Japan arm.

FTX, which said on Saturday it has launched a strategic review of its global assets and is preparing for the sale or reorganization of some businesses, had previously said that it owes its 50 biggest creditors nearly $3.1 billion.

The details of FTX's cash balances came ahead of a hearing on FTX's so-called first-day motions set for Tuesday morning before a U.S. bankruptcy judge.

Reuters has reported Bankman-Fried secretly used $10 billion in customer funds to prop up his trading business, and that at least $1 billion of those deposits had vanished.

CONTAGION FEARS

FTX's fall from grace has sent shivers through the crypto world, driving bitcoin to its lowest level in around two years and triggering fears of contagion among other firms already reeling from the collapse in the crypto market this year.

Major U.S. crypto lender Genesis said on Monday it was trying to avert bankruptcy, days after FTX's collapse forced it to suspend customer redemptions.

"Our goal is to resolve the current situation consensually without the need for any bankruptcy filing," a Genesis spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters, adding that it continues to have conversations with creditors.

A Bloomberg News report, citing sources, had said Genesis was struggling to raise fresh cash for its lending unit, and warning investors it may need to file for bankruptcy if it does not find funding.

The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources, that Genesis had approached Binance seeking an investment but the crypto exchange decided against it, fearing a conflict of interest. Genesis also approached private equity firm Apollo Global Management APO.N for capital assistance, the WSJ said.

Apollo did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the WSJ report, while Binance declined to comment.

Genesis Global Capital suspended customer redemptions in its lending business last week, citing the sudden failure of FTX.

Crypto exchange Gemini, which runs a crypto lending product in partnership with Genesis, tweeted on Monday that it was continuing to work with the company to enable its users to redeem funds from its yield-generating "Earn" program.

Gemini said on its blog last week there was no impact on its other products and services after Genesis paused withdrawals.

Since the implosion of FTX, some crypto players are taking to decentralized exchanges known as "DEXs" where investors trade peer-to-peer on the blockchain.

Overall daily trading volumes on DEXs leapt to their highest level since May on Nov. 10, as FTX imploded, according to data from market tracker DeFi Llama, but have since pared gains.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/ftx-holds-$1.24-bln-cash-balance-before-bankruptcy-hearing

>>17799060

>>17799060

Bankruptcy court starts @11am ET according to this yahoo video report…

Yahoo Finance Video

FTX heads to bankruptcy court Tuesday: What to expect

Tue, November 22, 2022 at 8:21 AM

BRAD SMITH: FTX is expected to make its first appearance in bankruptcy court today in an attempt to recount what led to the fallout of the company. High stakes for the crypto exchange with filings showing numerous creditors are due hefty sums here.

For more, let's bring in Yahoo Finance's Alexis Keenan. Alexis, what do we know from the legal proceedings that are about to commence here?

ALEXIS KEENAN: Yeah, Brad, a lot at stake here. So FTX's attorneys and its managers, they'll appear in bankruptcy court in Delaware that's where this case is being handled at 11:00 AM Eastern time today. And what they're gonna do is they're gonna make a series of requests to spend what's left of the company's money. Traditionally, in a bankruptcy case, this would have happened already within days.

And what the management needs is approval to pay its lawyers, its bankers, its employees, some of whom, many of whom have already left the company, and also things like utilities. Let's just keep the lights on. That's what they need here.

You can expect to hear also a narrative of FTX's collapse in this hearing. And also the steps that the company is making to shore up its assets. Now, as for its broader financial health, we're getting glimpses of that. But the picture is still far from complete.

The CEO of the company John J. Ray, he said that the company might need until January to complete that picture, to tabulate the company's assets and liabilities. The reasons cited there, last week, Ray had said that he was looking at a complete failure of corporate controls and also an absence of trustworthy financial information that existed at the company.

Though, in a filing on Saturday, FTX identified 216 bank accounts that hold approximately $564 million. The company also identified its top 50 creditors. These were all customers of FTX. And they owned, the company said, a collective $3.1 billion.

Now, here's the problem. The company further identified some of its cash on hand. Its combined cash balance, it said, was $1.2 billion. So we'll be watching in this hearing for what exactly the finances look like at this date and time. But we're certainly not expecting to get a whole picture today.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, especially since John J. Ray had said what a mess the finances were, right? That it's gonna take some time.

Talk to us about sort of the logistics or what we need to know today. When does this thing start? How long could it last? And who else is testifying? I mean, Sam Bankman-Fried, this is not, we won't be hearing from him today, right?

ALEXIS KEENAN: No, no, that's not expected. And this is really an omnibus procedure in bankruptcy court. Like I said, this would have usually happened within days of the filing. And the delay of it just speaks to how disorganized this company's finances are and its accounting across the board really must be.

Now, we might learn a little bit more at 11:00 AM. That's when this starts. And Julie, how long it goes, it shouldn't take the entire day. Although, the complexity of this case, I could see it definitely going until the court closes, probably around 5:00 PM.

We might learn, though, more about the $477 million in unauthorized transfers that went from FTX's Bahamas entity, that FTX Digital Markets right after the bankruptcy was filed, that flowed out of the company. Now, that entity is not part of the bankruptcy estate or the bankruptcy filing in the US. It's now managed by liquidators in the Bahamas.

It's said to have once held about $16 billion. And the Bahamas Security Commission, the regulator there, they said they indeed authorized that transfer. But that they only authorized it so far as to go into a government wallet for safekeeping.

We should also expect there to be some jurisdictional issues, perhaps, because the Bahamas authorities have said that local, the local entity is the one that controls the entire business. So we could definitely see a fight over where all of these bankruptcy proceedings across the board, across entities, will end up playing out, the US or the Bahamas.

JULIE HYMAN: And people who are missing their funds are going to be watching all of this very closely, as we will be. Thanks so much, Alexis. Appreciate it.

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/ftx-heads-bankruptcy-court-tuesday-142110102.html

>>17799060

>>17799060

>>>17799061

>>17799061

Full FTX Bankruptcy Filing: UNPRECEDENTED Disaster

Robert Gouveia Esq.

9,613 views Nov 18, 2022

More fall out from the FTX collapse reveals an "unprecedented" disaster, according to new Bankruptcy filings. The House Financial Committee promises investigations. Binance's CZ explains his perspective and his phone call with Sam. Rumors of a horrible tape involving Sam and his girlfriend Caroline. Mr. Wonderful explains his position with FTX during an interview.

https://youtu.be/9rvAefIxHGA