Ex-Deutsche Bank investment banker faces up to 30 years behind bars

  • The former Deutsche Bank employee, Rashawn Russell, was arrested in April 2023.
  • Russell is accused of causing at least 29 investors to lose not less than $1.5 million.
  • Russell fabricated multiple documents and misled investors regarding the status of their investments to orchestrate his scheme.

Rashawn Russell, formerly employed as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank, has admitted his guilt in connection with allegations of embezzling funds from investors enticed by promises of substantial returns from cryptocurrency trading, as confirmed by the US Justice Department. The news comes right on the heels of Deutsche Bank tapping Swiss crypto firm Taurus for crypto custody services.

This plea comes on the heels of Russell’s arrest in April, which implicated him in an intricate fraudulent operation. He now confronts the possibility of a prison sentence of up to 30 years, in addition to the obligation to reimburse investors with a sum exceeding $1.5 million.

Why was Rashawn Russell arrested?

US Attorney Breon Peace issued a statement in which he remarked:

“Russell exploited the fascination of investors in cryptocurrency markets to orchestrate a deception against trusting clients.” He further emphasized, “The expeditious conviction in this instance underscores our commitment to holding those engaging in deceitful practices within the digital asset sector accountable.”

Details unveiled during the plea hearing, in conjunction with court records, reveal that between November 2020 and August 2022, Russell, who formerly worked as an investment banker and was registered as a broker with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, played a pivotal role in an intricate fraudulent endeavour. He duped investors into investing their capital into his R3 Crypto Fund by offering false assurances of substantial, at times guaranteed, profits stemming from cryptocurrency ventures.

In reality, a significant portion of the investors’ finances was diverted by Russell for personal enrichment, gambling, and repaying previous investors. As a result of this deceitful operation, at least 29 investors suffered losses that amounted to no less than $1.5 million.

Fabrication of documents and misleading investors

As part of the fraudulent scheme, the Justice Department revealed back in April that “Russell fabricated multiple documents and misled investors regarding the status of their investments.” At one juncture, Russell purportedly sent an investor a doctored image of a bank statement supposedly sourced from a bank’s website, falsely indicating the availability of substantial liquidity. In another instance, when an investor sought to retrieve their investment, Russell neglected to transfer the funds and instead dispatched a counterfeit bank wire transfer confirmation to the investor, falsely suggesting the return of their capital.

According to the April indictment, Russell’s duplicitous ploy targeted “numerous individuals, including his friends, former college classmates, and former colleagues at a financial institution,” the specific identity of which has been made known to the Grand Jury.

Russell’s LinkedIn profile, which has since been deleted, disclosed his employment history at JP Morgan, Moody’s, and Deutsche Bank, where he commenced his career as a banking analyst in July 2018, ultimately advancing to the position of associate in July 2020.

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Shibarium hits key milestone – good for SHIB price?

  • Shiba Inu (SHIB) price rose as Bitcoin and altcoins reacted to Grayscale’s win against SEC. 
  • Meanwhile, Shibarium’s wallet count has hit 336k to suggest sentiment flip after recent hiccups for the SHIB-backed Ethereum layer-2 platform.

Bitcoin’s jump to highs of $28k after Grayscale Investments’ win against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday ignited a brief rally for cryptocurrencies.

As the crypto industry celebrated yet another blow for the SEC, this time around its continued denial of a spot Bitcoin ETF, tokens such as Shiba Inu mirrored major altcoins in trending higher.

Shibarium wallet count spikes to 336k

Shiba Inu’s SHIB, which had recently dropped to lows of $0.00000064, jumped to above $0.00000083. The trading volume for the meme coin – Shiba Inu is looking to shed this tag after a major development in its ecosystem – rose 50% in 24 hours to over $182 million.

The flip in sentiment for SHIB also came as the Ethereum layer-2 platform Shibarium, which is backed by the native SHIB token, experienced a spike in new wallet addresses.

On-chain data shows the platform’s resumption after a shambolic launch is likely driving interest among retail investors. The total wallet count for Shibarium has swung in less than 48 hours – from just over 100,000 to more than 336,000. 

Also notable is the transaction count, which has also increased significantly after daily transactions plummeted from 132,000 on August 25 to nearly 40,000 on August 27.

According to Shibariumscan.io, daily transactions have inched up to nearly 80,000, with the total transaction count currently at over 529k as of 9 am ET on August 30.

SHIB price prediction

Can bulls ride the growth in daily transactions and addresses to push this altcoin‘s price higher? 

While other market conditions could dictate price direction, analysts see the positive market reaction to Grayscale’s win against SEC as a watershed moment likely to see further upside triggers. SHIB holders (like this one) are excited about Shibarium’s key milestone – and that could tell in short term price movement. 

SHIB bulls however need to hold support at $0.0000075 to avoid ceding ground to hungry bears. If this happens, primary resistance would be near $0.0000009, a key hurdle formed after the sharp sell-off seen on August 17.

The flip side would be for the SHIB price to fall below $0.00000070, in this case opening a downward path for bears to target lows of $0.00000061.

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PEPE continues to slide: trillions of tokens sent to exchanges

  • At press time, PEPE was trading at $0.0000008854, down 18.06% in 24 hours.
  • The token dropped to a low of $0.0000008058 after news of trillions of token movement emerged on August 24.
  • The tokens were moved to Binance and OKX among two other major exchanges.

On Wednesday morning, PepeCoin (PEPE) plunged after millions of dollars worth of PEPE were transferred from the team’s wallet to various crypto exchanges.

As news of the multi-million dollar token transfers emerged on social media, the token’s market capitalization dropped by $100 million, from $444.4 million to a low of $344.7 million.

16.045 trillion PEPE sent to four exchanges

The PepeCoin team sent 16.045 trillion PEPE tokens worth $16.85 million to four exchanges including Binance, Bybit, KuCoin, and OKX from a multi-sig Ethereum address. Normally, a multi-sig wallet requires approval from many parties before any transactions can be done from the wallet.

The PepeCoin team reduced the security requirements for its multi-sig wallet from five out of eight to just two out of eight signatures needed to complete a transaction after the tokens were moved to the exchanges.

After the transfer, PepeCoin’s multi-sig Ethereum wallet address was left with 10.697 quadrillion PEPE, worth $9.61 million.

Panic PEPE sell

The massive transfers and a lack of clarification from PepeCoin’s official Twitter account sparked concerns about the currency and led to a panic sale, which further pilled bearish pressure on the price of PEPE.

In most cases, whales move their tokens to crypto exchanges in readiness for selling, staking, or exchanging with more valuable tokens and crypto traders/investors are already speculating that the PepeCoin team is readying itself for any of the above.

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Six major cryptocurrencies on Coinbase’s chopping board

  • DerivaDAO (DDX), one of the delisted tokens, dipped the most after the announcement.
  • Multichain (MULTI), which has been facing serious setbacks with its bridge will also be delisted.
  • Coinbase regularly reviews its listed crypto assets to ensure they continually maintain the highest standards.

Coinbase Assets has announced that it has decided to temporarily halt trading for six particular cryptocurrency assets, effective September 6, 2023, at 9 AM PT. The affected cryptocurrencies are BarnBridge (BOND), DerivaDAO (DDX), Jupiter (JUP), Multichain (MULTI), Ooki (OOKI), and Voyager (VGX).

As a result of this move, these assets will experience a substantial shift as they will no longer have access to crucial Coinbase services like the Simple and Advanced Trade capabilities, Coinbase Pro, Coinbase Exchange, and Coinbase Prime platforms.

The official notification from Coinbase states that the trade for these assets will be suspended starting on September 7, giving interested parties around two weeks to adjust. Within hours, the news had thousands of views and likes on Twitter as it quickly gathered popularity across internet platforms.

Coinbase commitment to quality within its listed assets

Coinbase’s move was motivated by the crypto exchange’s unwavering dedication to sustaining the highest standards of quality in its listed assets. The exchange revealed that the six assets didn’t pass its strict listing requirements after completing a thorough investigation.

Notably, following the announcement, the prices of Ooki (OOKI), Multichain (MULTI), DerivaDAO (DDX), Jupiter (JUP), Voyager (VGX), and BarnBridge (BOND) and fell by 0.5%, 0.7%, 24%, 16%, and 6%, and 5% respectively.

One of the delisted assets, Multichain, has seen a string of setbacks, including the arrest of its CEO and the subsequent closing of its bridge due to significant Bitcoin (BTC) losses totalling more than $109 million.

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Shiba Memu presale hits $2.1M as Shiba Inu’s Shibarium faces challenges

  • The highly-anticipated Shibarium layer-2 network is having problems with its bridge contract.
  • Approximately $1.7 million worth of Ethereum is currently stuck on the bridge contract.
  • Shibarium launch was expected to add some impetus to the price of SHIB but that has not happened.

The much-hyped layer-2 network of Shiba Inu, Shibarium, is having significant problems a day after its launch. The network was expected to turn the tables of the SHIB token, which has been under bearish pressure for the last seven days; but that has not been the case. The token has dropped by over 10% since the Shibarium went live.

But as the future of Shiba Inu hangs on tenterhooks, another Shiba-themed meme coin called Shiba Memu (SHMU) is taking the crypto space by storm with its token presale which has hit $2.1 million in a little over a month. Shiba Memu is leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and the hype around meme coins.

What is happening with Shibarium?

According to an analysis of the Shibarium network’s bridge contract, which transfers money from Ethereum to the layer-2 solution, there is currently $1.7 million worth of Ethereum stranded between the two networks.

The locked status of the funds has been confirmed by the blockchain security team Beosin, who has advised people to stop using Shibarium temporarily.

In addition to the locked-up tokens, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT highlighted that $762,000 worth of BONE, a Shibarium governance token, was sent to the bridge contract.

According to the information on BlockScout, only 236 transactions had been validated on Shibarium Network almost two days after the network was launched.

Some users have pointed out issues with Shibarium’s remote procedure call (RPC) system, which allows access to a network’s server node to communicate with the blockchain.

The response by Shiba Inu’s developer

Interestingly, the pseudonymous Shiba Inu developer Shytoshi Kusama repudiated reports that what Shibarium was facing was “a bridge issue.” In a newsletter, Kusama said:

“Our technical difficulties are due to the massive amount of traffic we experienced within moments on Shibarium,” they said. “The team is working tirelessly to fix the issue and scale so that we can give the ShibArmy the experience they deserve. All funds are safe.”

A moderator in Shibarium’s Discord also stated that “as a precautionary measure,” admins “have temporarily restricted access to certain channels due to the spread of misinformation and fake websites.”

What Shibarium’s misfortunes mean for Shiba Memu

Well, Shiba Inu stands out as a major rival to Shiba Memu and its mishaps could only be translated to mean an advantage to the new Shiba Memu project, which is already on course to become the most popular meme coin project.

Shiba Memu is a revolutionary token combining AI and the latest technology to create an entirely self-sufficient marketing powerhouse, deviating from the norm of most meme coins which purely depend on community involvement.

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