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In a closing argument, a prosecutor told New York jurors Wednesday to follow the overwhelming evidence of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried 's “pyramid of deceit” to find him guilty of defrauding customers and investors of at least $10 billion, while a defense lawyer said prosecutors were unfairly portraying an honest entrepreneur as a monster, Reuters reported. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos launched a day of closings in Manhattan federal court by saying Bankman-Fried was at fault for stealing billions of dollars from investors worldwide despite four days of testimony in which Bankman-Fried insisted that he was unaware that his customers' deposits were at risk until weeks before his companies collapsed. “He told a story and he lied to you,” Roos told jurors a day after Bankman-Fried concluded his testimony at the monthlong trial. The prosecutor said Bankman-Fried wanted jurors to believe that he had no idea what was happening at his companies or what was happening was wrong, but that his words conflicted with the testimony of his fellow executives, his “partners in crime,” and other evidence including financial documents and public statements Bankman-Fried had made.

Water Gremlin Co., rattled in recent years by pollution scandals, has filed for chapter 11 protection and is in the process of trying to sell the company, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The White Bear Township, Minn.-based company, founded in 1949, makes lead battery terminals and fishing sinkers. Water Gremlin had significant clashes with regulators in 2019 over pollution from its facility. The company had to pay more than $7 million in fines to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) over toxic air emissions. The MPCA's commissioner at the time said the company "put people's health at risk." The MPCA levied another $325,000 fine in 2021 over alleged violations of hazardous waste and industrial storm water rules. The MPCA issued a new air emissions permit with "more stringent emissions limits and operating requirements" to the Water Gremlin facility in June. In July, Tokyo-based Okabe Co. Ltd., parent company of Water Gremlin, said that the litigation could lead to Water Gremlin "incurring substantial liability." An affidavit filed in the bankruptcy case cites possible liability from lawsuits related to the pollution cases and a decline in sales. The company's sales fell from $57.8 million in 2018 to $46.8 million in 2022, according to the court papers.

Crypto exchange Bittrex received bankruptcy court approval on Monday to shut down its U.S. operations after a months-long effort to return crypto deposits to customers, Reuters reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon approved Bittrex's bankruptcy plan at a court hearing in Wilmington, Del., clearing the company to emerge from bankruptcy with a wind-down plan that would pay remaining creditors in full. Bittrex filed for bankruptcy protection in May, shortly after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged it with operating an unregistered securities exchange. Bittrex chose to shut down its U.S. operations and return assets to customers in the wake of the SEC complaint. It reached a $24 million settlement with the SEC in August. Seattle-based Bittrex said the bankruptcy filing would not impact Bittrex Global, which serves customers outside the United States. The company's non-U.S. operations are based in Liechtenstein.

Over and over on Tuesday, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, denied knowing that billions of dollars in customer money had been misappropriated until shortly before his company collapsed last year, as a federal prosecutor grilled him for a second day in his criminal fraud trial, the New York Times reported. The 31-year-old onetime crypto mogul fumbled for an answer when the prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, repeatedly asked whether he had told his employees not to spend FTX customer money on investments, pricey real estate and other expenditures. Mr. Bankman-Fried also couldn’t name any employees who might have authorized the use of FTX customer money for that spending. “I don’t recall giving any direction,” Mr. Bankman-Fried said three times about the spending of FTX customer money before he concluded his testimony. Both sides rested their case before lunchtime on Tuesday, with closing statements set to unfold on Wednesday. Mr. Bankman-Fried was on the stand for a third day testifying before a jury in his own defense for a trial that has come to symbolize the highs and lows of the volatile crypto industry. The entrepreneur has been accused of masterminding a yearslong fraud to steal as much as $10 billion from FTX’s customers and then funneling the money to extravagant real estate purchases and other spending, as well as using the funds to prop up a crypto trading firm he also founded, Alameda Research. FTX, which was valued at $32 billion at its peak, imploded spectacularly last year, leaving many customers unable to recover their deposits. Mr. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. If convicted, he could face what amounts to a life sentence.

The New York judge overseeing Celsius Network LLC’s bankruptcy urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to move quickly in deciding if it will authorize the failed crypto lender’s plan to transform itself through chapter 11 into a publicly-traded Bitcoin mining firm, Bloomberg News reported. Judge Martin Glenn told an SEC lawyer during a Monday court hearing he hopes the regulator will go through its own decision-making process expeditiously because Celsius and its creditors have moved through chapter 11 relatively quickly. “The SEC will make whatever decision it believes is the correct one,” Judge Glenn said. “I just hope the process will move forward, so if there are any bumps in the road we can try and work those out along the way.” Judge Glenn is considering whether to approve Celsius’s plan to partially repay customers whose accounts have been frozen since June 2022, weeks before the company filed bankruptcy. Celsius’s bankruptcy plan proposes repaying customers through a combination of crypto currency and stock in a new publicly traded Bitcoin mining company guided by a new management team led by Arrington Capital. Celsius and creditors would still need clearance from the SEC if its proposal to transform the company into a new business is approved by Judge Glenn, according to court documents. The crypto firm could liquidate if its plan to exit chapter 11 as a crypto miner fails. Celsius’s repayment proposal, though widely supported by creditors, is being challenged by some of its customers. Customers who spoke Monday against the restructuring plan said they’d prefer liquidation because they’d receive more Bitcoin and Ethereum as opposed to stock in a new, unproven venture.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried testified on Monday that the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange was precipitated by the head of his Alameda Research trading firm failing to adequately hedge against a downturn in the market, Reuters reported. Testifying in his defense for a second day, the 31-year-old former billionaire said that he asked Caroline Ellison — chief executive of Alameda Research and his former romantic partner — to make trades that would offset the risk of falling cryptocurrency prices starting in mid-2022. Answering questions from his defense lawyer, Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried said Ellison became emotional when he discussed the risk of Alameda — which had lent funds to FTX executives and invested in startup companies — going bankrupt. "She started crying," he said. "She agreed that Alameda should have hedged, she also said that maybe it shouldn't have made some of the venture investments." Ellison is one of three of Bankman-Fried's former close confidantes who pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. Prosecutors have said he looted billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to prop up Alameda, make speculative venture investments, and contribute to U.S. political campaigns. If convicted, he could face decades in prison.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried told a jury Friday that he didn’t commit fraud and didn’t take customer funds, beginning his defense against criminal charges that he stole billions from his cryptocurrency exchange and spent the money on investments, political donations, and real estate, YahooFinance.com reported. He did, however, say that he "made a number of small mistakes and a number of big mistakes." His biggest mistake, he said, was not having a chief risk officer. "A lot of people got hurt," he said. His highly anticipated testimony began Friday morning with questions from his attorney Mark Cohen that attempted to address the heart of the government’s case against his client. Prosecutors have alleged that Bankman-Fried deliberately stole funds that belonged to FTX customers and secretly lent the assets to his crypto trading firm Alameda Research. They produced several key witnesses over the last month who corroborated those claims.

Crypto platform Gemini Trust Co. is suing bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Holdco LLC in an attempt to determine who rightfully owns a slug of shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust now worth nearly $1.6 billion, Bloomberg News reported. In a bankruptcy-court lawsuit filed Friday, Gemini asked a federal judge to find that Genesis has no right to more than 60 million GBTC shares promised as collateral to users of Gemini’s Earn product. The shares at issue — most of which are still held by Genesis or its affiliates — should not be used to repay other Genesis creditors, the company argues. The lawsuit comes just days after Genesis said it was dropping a proposed settlement with its parent company, Digital Currency Group, in favor of suing the firm. The settlement was a cornerstone of a debt-repayment plan that could have allowed Genesis creditors to recover between 70 and 90 cents on the dollar, according to Genesis. Gemini disputed those estimates. Through its new lawsuit, Gemini says it intends to clarify the value of its claims against Genesis and eventually tap the GBTC shares to repay its users.

The National Hockey League’s Arizona Coyotes said that bankrupt sports broadcaster Diamond Sports Group owes the team nearly $18 million following the termination of its telecast deal, Bloomberg News reported. Diamond has said that it needed to end the deal because its regional sports channel, Bally Sports Arizona, was losing money and telecast agreements with the state’s major professional teams were only getting more expensive. The team said in a bankruptcy court filing on Thursday that it was owed money. Terminating the Coyotes deal effectively ended Diamond’s broadcasting of Arizona’s major professional sports teams. Diamond ended its broadcast deal with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks earlier this year and stopped broadcasting the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns after declining to match a competing offer. Earlier this month, the Coyotes announced a multi year agreement with Scripps Sports to broadcast its games locally on free TV channels. Diamond has said that rights fees it owed to the Coyotes “total tens of millions of dollars annually and increase yearly.” The hockey team’s claim for repayment is an unsecured debt which, in general, is repaid in chapter 11 for pennies on the dollar. Diamond filed chapter 11 in March and has been attempting to formulate a plan to get out of bankruptcy as the NBA and NHL regular seasons get underway.

Johnson & Johnson faces at least 18 jury trials over the next year tied to claims of tainted talc in its iconic baby powder, prompting the company to consider a third bankruptcy filing in hopes of fostering a global settlement, Bloomberg News reported. J&J has talc cases set for trial everywhere from Pennsylvania to California between November and December 2024, some of which involve consolidated claims by more than a half-dozen plaintiffs, according to their lawyers. Those trials were scheduled after a judge in July threw out a J&J unit’s latest chapter 11 case aimed at resolving all current and future talc claims. Since 2016, J&J has been hit with at least $570 million in damage awards over talc-related cancer claims and paid out at least $2.5 billion in settlements, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.