The former FTX CEO was convicted of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in November, a year after the once-giant cryptocurrency exchange collapsed.

FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday for his conviction on seven different fraud and conspiracy charges.
Bankman-Fried was accused of running a massive fraud in FTX and Alameda, which collapsed dramatically in 2022, losing customers some $8 to $11 billion.
NEW YORK — Sam Bankman-Fried must spend 25 years in prison for the fraud and conspiracy scheme that ultimately undid his once-giant cryptocurrency exchange FTX, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

As he prepared to deliver the sentence, Judge Lewis Kaplan said Bankman-Fried never offered "a word of remorse for commission of terrible crimes." Kaplan said Bankman-Fried's attempt to craft a positive and altruistic persona in the public eye was, at least in part, "an act." He rejected the defense's argument that Bankman-Fried was not at risk of committing future crimes., "Mr. Bankman-Fried's name is pretty much mud right now around the world," but he is "persistent" and "a great marketing guy," said the judge while explaining why the FTX CEO deserved a lengthy sentence.

Kaplan judge announced his decision after a two-hour hearing in a Manhattan courtroom during which prosecutors, Bankman-Fried's attorney, a victim, a lawyer who spoke on behalf of other FTX victims and Bankman-Fried himself delivered comments. This followed Bankman-Fried's conviction on seven criminal counts in November, a year after FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The former FTX CEO will appeal his conviction, according to his lawyer Thursday, a process that couldn't begin until Kaplan's sentencing decision.

Bankman-Fried was also fined $11 billion, which includes forfeiture agreements to sell assets like a private jet.

"Today's sentence will prevent the defendant from ever again committing fraud and is an important message to others who might be tempted to engage in financial crimes that justice will be swift, and the consequences will be severe," Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement on social media platform X. "The scale of his crimes is measured not just by the amount of money that was stolen, but by the extraordinary harm caused to victims, who in some cases had their life savings wiped out overnight."

“A beautiful puzzle”

Bankman-Fried’s attorney Mark Mukasey told Judge Kaplan that his client “doesn’t make decisions with malice in his heart – he makes them with math in his head,” adding “Anybody who really knows Sam, they’ll say he’s not a greedy, power hungry fiend…really, he’s an awkward math nerd.”

Mukasey repeatedly referenced Bankman-Fried’s autism and social awkwardness, and his commitment to altruism, calling him “a beautiful puzzle” with “a tireless work ethic and a completely, off the chart, mind-blowing intellect,” and asked the judge to not destroy the prime of his client’s life.

“Don’t deprive him of the opportunity to meet a partner and have a baby,” Mukasey told the court.

Bankman-Fried speaks

When it was his turn to speak, Bankman-Fried said he was more concerned with the FTX customers waiting for their money to be returned than his “emotional life” or “hypothetical future kids.”

"My useful life is probably over. It's been over for a while now," said Bankman-Fried, who has spent the last six months in the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn.

As he walked into the courtroom on Thursday – his parents and a crowd of assorted onlookers watching on from the court's viewing gallery – Bankman-Fried was noticeably thinner than he had been during last year's trial. Bankman-Fried's signature curly mop of hair – which had been trimmed down for his October trial – looked fuller but more unkempt than it had previously.

Bankman-Fried, wearing a tan prison jumpsuit with short sleeves, spoke for several minutes as a U.S. Marshall stood directly behind him. Bankman-Fried repeated his long-standing claim that "there were enough assets, there are enough assets" for FTX's creditors to get paid back in full.

Bankman-Fried told the court that righting the ship after his company’s self-induced “liquidity crisis” – which he called “in part, my doing” – would have made for “an unpleasant few weeks,” but he insisted “FTX would have survived” even if Alameda, the trading shop he tried to rescue using FTX customer funds, was forced to shut down.

Even if creditors do receive their funds back now, they would be "deprived of the gains" seen by the broader crypto market over the past several months, he said, echoing a concern stated by FTX creditors in victim impact statements filed by the DOJ over the past few weeks.

Bankman-Fried extended compliments to three of his former friends – and key government witnesses – Nishad Singh, Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, expressing regret for his lead role in FTX's collapse. “I’m sorry about what happened at every stage…at the end of the day, I failed everyone I cared about,” Bankman-Fried said, adding, "I was responsible."

Focus on customers

Bankman-Fried spoke after an FTX creditor and an attorney who represents a class action suit against the bankruptcy estate – both of whom used their time to claim that the FTX bankruptcy estate is mishandling customer funds. All three said the estate's proposed payouts to creditors are lower than they should be given current market prices.

continue reading

https://hayloaded..com/

First, it's the F key, then the R. Before you know it, your entire laptop keyboard has stopped working—and so have you. Not only can this be frustrating, it can be difficult to fix, unless you know what's causing the issue.

Why is my laptop keyboard not working?

There are several reasons you may be having trouble with your keyboard, from hardware failure to software issues. But most of the time, you can narrow it down to a few common laptop repair problems, including:

The driver

Your keyboard may be unresponsive because of a driver issue. If you've previously attached a different keyboard, that driver could be interfering with and disabling your current keyboard.

The motherboard

The ribbon or connector between your keyboard and your laptop's motherboard may have become loose, damaged, or broken, causing your keyboard to be unresponsive.

Hidden dirt and spills

Can't remember the last time you cleaned your keyboard? There could be dirt in or around specific keys causing them to stick, jam, or stop working.

Sensitivity settings

When you press a key once and it appears on your screen several times, your settings could have updated incorrectly or been changed, resulting in multiple entries per keypress.

How to fix your laptop keyboard

Check for Physical Obstructions:

Turn off the laptop and gently turn it upside down to shake out any loose debris, crumbs, or dust that may have accumulated under the keys. Use a can of compressed air to blow away stubborn debris. Be sure to hold the laptop at an angle to prevent debris from falling back into the keyboard.

1. Restart Your Laptop

Sometimes, keyboard issues can be resolved with a simple restart. Close any open applications and shut down your laptop. Wait a few seconds, then power it back on. This can help reset any software glitches or temporary system errors that may be affecting the keyboard.

https://hayloaded..com/2024/03/5-simple-steps-ways-to-fix-laptop.html

What is a 3D Pen? - These are What You Can Make With 3D Pen

If you’re new to 3D pens, this is a great place to start. In the pages that follow we have put together a quick intro to the what, why and how of 3D pens.

3D Pen 101

A 3D pen is a pen that extrudes heated or warm plastic from the pen’s nozzle. You don’t need any software. There are no files to transfer, and no difficult tech to master. In the words of a teacher we work with, “whatever you imagine, you can draw. It goes from your brain, to your hand, right there.”

Surreal? Modern day sorcery? A hybrid of Harry Potter meets Harold and the Purple Crayon? It can seem that way at first, but believe us and our 2 million+ users, it’s real, it’s creative, and it’s a lot of fun.
With a 3D pen you can draw a raised graphic on a piece of paper or any flat surface. But what makes a 3D pen truly unique is its ability to “draw” in mid-air, allowing you to instantly form 3D structures right in front of you, which you can pick up and hold in your hand.

How Do 3D Pens Work

Most 3D pens work by feeding plastic through the pen, which then melts it before it comes out of a nozzle at the end of the pen (that’s what we call “extrusion”). The pen heats up to a different temperature depending on the material you put inside the pen.

https://hayloaded..com/2024/03/what-is-3d-pen-these-are-what-you-can.html

1. Choosing the Right Filament:
Filament selection plays a crucial role in 3D pen creations. PLA (polylactic acid) and ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) are common filament types. PLA is eco-friendly and suitable for detailed designs, while ABS is known for its durability and flexibility.

In the right industry and with proper planning, running a business from your smartphone is absolutely possible. Most people already own a smartphone, and using it for business could save you the expense of a laptop purchase. For many, working from a cell phone may be preferable to running a business from a computer. Going mobile gives on-the-go business owners the opportunity to stay connected anywhere. Plus, depending on your line of work, anything you can do on a laptop, you can probably do on a smartphone.

With all of the apps geared toward remote work, a mobile-first business may even be more convenient. Emerging smartphone apps are supporting the notion that, from a hardware standpoint at least, small business owners can run their companies with a mobile device and a host of helpful apps.
If you ask a tech-savvy business owner whether they can run their business from their mobile phone, they’ll likely tell you yes. Expect that chorus to grow louder as more advanced business-friendly mobile apps hit the marketplace.

https://hayloaded..com/2024/03/12-ways-to-run-business-via-smartphone.html

“Yes, absolutely, you can do so,” said Sinan Eren, enterprise mobility expert and vice president of Barracuda. “Actually, you can especially run a small/midsize business with mobile apps much more effectively over legacy desktop software. … Contract drafting, payment processing, all the way to e-signature apps are the mainstay of scaling an SMB business.”

How do you run a business from a mobile device?
Even though it’s possible to run a business from your smartphone, it does require some planning and logistical considerations.