Florida man stole from SPACs to trade crypto.
Happy new year and welcome to The Free Press Report’s Weekly Digest. This week a lot has happened - Congress’s historic crisis reached a detente, a massive Twitter hack was uncovered, and another crypto fraudster was caught. Read on for more of the stories you might have missed.
Market Recap.
U.S. Politics.
McCarthy finally elected speaker. After a four-day holdout, a faction of far-right Republicans (who had been branding themselves the "never Kevins") finally backed Kevin McCarthy to become the new speaker of the House of Representatives, even as conservative stalwarts like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump called for their party to unite behind McCarthy. The deadlock took 15 votes to break - the most since before the civil war. The final vote was preceded by an altercation: with McCarthy just one vote short of victory on the 14th ballot, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz (who had previously jokingly nominated Donald Trump to be speaker) cast his vote for "present," denying McCarthy the victory. Moments later, Mike Rogers of Alabama charged at Gaetz, and had to be restrained by his fellow representatives. [ BBG ]
Social & Business.
Tragedy at Goldman Sachs. After receiving the news that bonuses were canceled and layoffs were incoming, bankers at the world’s second largest investment bank were met with an unwelcome surprise - the "Sky Lobby" at Goldman’s Manhattan HQ was no longer giving out free coffee. "I paid $2.99 this morning for a sh–ty cup of Seattle’s Best," one banker reported. "Nothing says ‘Happy New Year’ like ‘You’re already on the verge of losing your jobs — but let’s just make sure you lose your free coffee, too.’" [ NYPost ]
Twitter hack leaves 200 million accounts compromised . This week, Alon Gal, the co-founder of Israeli cybersecurity-monitoring firm Hudson Roc said that cyber criminals stole the email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users and posted them to an "online hacking forum." Gal warned that this would lead to unprecedented levels of "hacking, targeted phishing and doxxing" against Twitter users. Twitter has not commented on the alleged breach. [ Reuters ]
World View.
Drug violence erupts in Mexico. On Thursday, Mexican security forces captured the crime kingpin Ovidio Guzman - a son of famed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. A wave of violence broke out in the city of Culiacan, which was El Chapo’s home before his extradition to the U.S in 2017. So far, seven Mexican security force personnel have been killed, and where to copy trade crypto eight civilians have been injured. Across the country - which is receiving a visit from President Joe Biden this week - there have been 12 attacks on security forces, 25 acts of looting, and 250 vehicles set ablaze and used to block roads. [ Reuters ]
Putin baffles military strategists . The war in Ukraine is continuing, after the year opened with the heaviest shelling of the war followed by a brief ceasefire on Orthodox Christmas. Now, Russian forces are pressing towards the small city of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine. Western strategists are baffled by the heavy losses Russia has incurred in their push towards Bakhmut, and said that any victory would be "pyrrhic" because Ukraine’s defensive lines are built to easily fall back as the Russians advance. But this week, the founder of Wagner, Russia’s most famous mercenary group, said that Bakhmut contained "underground cities," which could hold "big groups of people at a depth of 80-100 meters" and best copy trade crypto allow tanks and military vehicles where to copy trade crypto "move about". [ Reuters ]
Prince Harry talks about losing his virginity. The younger son of Britain’s King Charles III and husband of actress Meghan Markle has written a scathing memoir, "Spare," which accidentally went on sale in Spain this week, five days before its official launch. It describes his first time having sex and taking drugs, and recounts a brawl in which he was knocked over by heir to the throne Prince William. Charles and Meghan abandoned royal duties in 2020 and now live in California. Royal biographer Tina Brown described the scandalous book as a "hand grenade" to the monarchy of the United Kingdom. [ Reuters ]
Crypto.
Florida man stole from SPACs to trade crypto. Cooper Morgenthau, the former CFO of multiple special purpose acquisition companies, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. Between June 2021 and August 2022, Morgenthau reportedly stole $1.2 million from the African Gold Acquisition Corp, covering up the fraud by falsifying account statements. He then lost all the money by trading securities including meme stocks. He subsequently got hold of another $4.7 million, which he lost trading crypto. Morgenthau will be sentenced in April, and faces a possible prison sentence of six to seven and a quarter years. [ Reuters ]