🧵1/Ω A few things about @crossriverbank, a tiny #a16z funded lender that originated more #PPP loans for "small businesses" than anyone besides Chase, BofA, and Wells Fargo, mostly for people who were not their customers.
🧵2/Ω They paid @McKinsey a bunch of money to tell the world that "while most banks originated PPP loans to their own customers, Cross River leads in originations to new customers" mckinsey.com/industries/fin…
🧵3/Ω Unlike other banks that blew up on "fund banking" recently (*cough* $SBNY $SIVB *cough*) @crossriverbank does their "fund banking" differently:
They package all the loans and sell them to weird "fintech" companies like @Upstart. @mikulaja
🧵4/Ω
100,000 #PPP / covid relief loans, mostly to new customers, processed by a super tiny bank @crossriverbank
Basically claiming to have the most incredibly skilled and fastest fraud prevention team at any bank on the planet by orders of magnitude 🚩 nytimes.com/2020/06/23/bus…
🧵5/Ω
Much like criminal mastermind Alan Lane (CEO of $SI) and noted theologian #ScottShay (president of $SBNY), the CEO is deeply religious (and wants you to know it).
🧵9/Ω
$SRAX also was just apparently de-listed from the @Nasdaq for failure to comply with filing requirements last week. 🚩 sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archiv…
🧵10/Ω @crossriverbank is also now the main banking partner for @circle of recently de-pegged stablecoin $USDC fame now that their other banks have all blown up.
🧵12/Ω
So the story of @crossriverbank has a lot of drama. It's got #BrockPierce for the pedo connection, #Tether for some Putin, what appears to be massive #PPP / covid relief fraud for the $ part...
Why not sprinkle in a little Ukraine for good measure?
🧵14/Ω
If you wonder why a tiny bank like @crossriverbank might shovel fraudulent #PPP / covid relief loans out, maybe it's because they collected ~$233 million in fees according to NYT
ps the fact that NYT took this at face value is one of many reasons it's a national disgrace.
🧵15/Ω #CrossRiverBank has biz lines other than crypto. e.g. in 2022 they loaned $105mm to a luxury condo by shady developers #Bushburg and #Moinian deep in the lowest income neighborhood in all of NYC.
"deal makes no sense" - NY RE reporters.
if economy turns loan will fail.
🧵16/Ω
CrossRiver is also one of the only banks besides @silvergatebank / $SI (R.I.P.) to make loans and take crypto as collateral.
They also marketed $WAVES / $USDN, a now collapsed fraud, to customers.
🧵17/Ω @AmerBanker: A bank originating #PPP loan fraud, doing fraudulent round robin lending with $UPST, banking crypto, and lending out actual $ for crypto collateral is "best place to work" 5 yrs in a row.
Remind you of an "innovative" energy company?
"Let us build."
🧵18/Ω
So what does the @coinbase / Cross River relationship look like? Well.
Apparently the company that shoveled out fraudulent #PPP loans is in the "compliance" business.
Does @crossriverbank still do compliance for $COIN? Because if so lol.
🧵19/Ω
By number of #PPP loans @crossriverbank was #4 in the country. But by dollar figure?
🥈 2nd 🥈
As an aside this brochure seems to be marketed at "woke" which is interesting bc their Haredi employees are among the least "woke" people on the planet crossriver.com/sites/default/…
🧵20/Ω
Apparently @KabbageInc (R.I.P.) did some actual customer facing work w/r/t the enormous number of fraudulent loan applications @crossriverbank processed.
#Kabbage got bought by #AmEx but is now under federal investigation & bankrupt
🧵24/Ω
Perhaps now is a good time to mention that a recent study found that 5-14% of all emergency covid #PPP relief funds ended up being "invested" in crypto, particularly among the less educated.
🧵25/Ω
Perhaps now is a good time to mention that a recent study found that 5-14% of all emergency covid #PPP relief funds ended up being "invested" in crypto, particularly among the less educated.
🧵29/Ω
tfw you wasted time researching & screenshooting examples that @crossriverbank's #PPP covid lending was sus af to tweet when you could have just checked the nj biz news and found out #CrossRiverBank is currently under investigation for money crimes. njbiz.com/cross-river-ba…
@crossriverbank 🧵30/Ω
So @coinbase / @circle / $USDC's bank is under investigation for money crimes (probably because it committed money crimes).
🧵31/Ω
"@crossriverbank's less hands-on approach ... may have led it to approve riskier loans... U. of Texas graph shows ~20%¹ of CRB's loans had at least 1 suspicious indicator."
🧵32/Ω
😱WOW😱 missed this part about @crossriverbank: The US Government owes Cross River $300 million (⁉️) in loan forgiveness... that it's not willing to forgive.
No wonder so many CRB #PPP loans' status is "Not Disclosed" instead of "forgiven": they have a $300m hole.
🧵33/Ω
I did a whole other thread about the Congressional report on how fintechs (including @crossriverbank) had facilitated fraudulent #PPP / covid relief loans and are now under investigation.
🧵35/Ω
One thing that's weird here is that some of these job listings come up as being for something called #CrossTheRiver but logo and address are #CrossRiverBank.
🧵1/Ω
Just read #Chainalysis "2024 Crypto Crime Mid-Year Report". Obvs they have a habit of minimizing crypto crime stats but reading closely I realized this is kinda nuts. So nuts I that we need new rhyme akin to "pump & dump" vein. I give you:
"Minimize & Legitimize"
Ω👇Ω
🧵2/Ω
The report has two parts. I focused on the 2nd half because it makes a big deal about CSAM. Surprisingly to me it seemed like Chainalysis was for once maybe not downplaying something really bad...
🧵3/Ω
Below is the tweet I dashed off as did a quick scan. CSAM is bad. If CSAM number go up = really bad. Looked like Chainalysis was admitting bad number go up!
Which, speaking as someone who's checked their work on terrorism financing, was surprising.
🧵1/Ω
It’s that time again. Gather round, children, for a thread about the closing arguments in the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried. #FTXTrial #FTXScam
Ω👇Ω
🧵2/Ω
The govt’s case revolves around a few things but fundamentally it’s about risks that were not disclosed to customers/investors.
According to the govt not only were these risks not disclosed SBF took steps to conceal them. Which is, you know, a crime
Text from my 📌 twt 👇
🧵3/Ω
It’s conceded by everyone including SBF himself that there were undisclosed risks so the question becomes one of intent. The govt’s argument is that the many steps taken to conceal the risks reveal ill intent. SBF's argument is basically "being irresponsible is not illegal"
🧵1/Ω
Thoughts from SBF’s 2nd day of cross examination:
Today went very, very badly for Mr. Bankman-Fried but it was still kind of a shame the jury didn’t get to witness the absolute train wreck of his first attempt especially this part:
🧵2/Ω
Things got off to a rough start when SBF tried to say that the million and one times he claimed that Alameda was just like any other FTX customer in every way he secretly was communicating that “every way” meant “one way”: Alameda didn’t front run FTX's customers.
🧵3/Ω
Cue AUSA bringing up approximately a bazillion tweets, emails, slack messages, etc. where SBF said Alameda was just like any other customer followed by the question “does it say ‘in terms of frontrunning customers’ here?”
1. I never imagined it would be so grimly satisfying to watch a man hang himself before my eyes. The only disappointing part was that today wasn’t in front of the jury.
🧵2/Ω
SBF’s “my view from the perspective of the data I had available to me at the time” and “I’ll try to answer the question I think yr asking”¹ schtick did not play well with the judge.
¹ he actually said this, after which the prosecutor said “you didn’t answer my question".
🧵3/Ω
His testimony today was about whether he would be able to use the “but my lawyer said it was OK” defense in front of the jury. Let me summarize how it went:
🧵1/Ω
Things I Learned From Caroline Ellison's Testimony That CoinDesk Has Declined to Mention, a Thread:
1. The billion dollars that SBF had to bribe Chinese officials to give back was held on Huobi and OKX.
🧵2/Ω
That bribe was for $150 million.
🧵3/Ω
Multiple people at FTX/Alameda had family ties to the Chinese government. One of those people thought the bribe was a bad idea and quit shortly thereafter. The other one was the guy who suggested the bribe.
🚨Ω🚨
Pumping my bags: another issue of #TheCryptocalypseChronicles is out on The Blogging Site That Shall Not Be Named concerning the actions of one #AxosFinancial AKA "#Binance's new US bank".
Link in bio because Elmo is pathetic and demonetizes links to That Other Site. $AX
🧵2/Ω
Perhaps unsurprisingly Axos Financial / $AX appears in the list of #FTX creditors.
🧵3/Ω
Also looks like the infamous #ReggieFowler, Crypto Capital Corp's main money launderer, invested $1.3 million with $AX according to court documents filed by #Tether / #Bitfinex begging for their money back.
Also $5 million to something related to Wacky Cathie's $ARKK? lol.