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CEO Sam Bankman-Fried

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamian authorities Monday evening after the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York shared a sealed indictment with the Bahamian government, setting the stage for extradition and U.S. trial for the onetime crypto billionaire at the heart of the crypto exchange’s collapse.

His arrest is the first concrete move by regulators to hold individuals accountable for the multibillion-dollar implosion of FTX last month.

Before his arrest was announced, Bankman-Fried had been expected to testify virtually before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, but his attorneys told CNBC that he will not appear. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who oversees that committee, said that she was “surprised” at his arrest, and disappointed that Congress would not be able to hear from him on Tuesday.

Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said on Twitter that the federal government anticipated moving to “unseal the indictment in the morning.” The charges include wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering, according to the New York Times, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission has initiated a separate set of charges against Bankman-Fried, relating to “violations of our securities laws, which will be filed publicly tomorrow in the Southern District of New York,” enforcement director Gurbir Grewal said in a statement.

Bahamas Attorney General Ryan Pinder said that the United States was “likely to request his extradition.” The Royal Bahamas police force confirmed his arrest and said he would appear in magistrate court in Nassau on Tuesday.

In a statement, Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis said, “The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law.”

“While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere,” continued the statement.

Bahamian regulators and FTX’s attorneys had been engaged in a bruising battle in chambers and in the court of public opinion. Earlier Monday, FTX attorneys accused the Bahamian government of allegedly working with Bankman-Fried to spirit away FTX assets from company control and into crypto wallets controlled by Bahamian regulators.

Bankman-Fried’s arrest by Bahamas law enforcement, as well as his expected extradition, suggest that close cooperation between the Bahamas and the U.S. will continue to evolve throughout the bankruptcy proceedings. The Bahamas and the United States have had an extradition treaty in place since the early 20th century, when the Bahamas was still under British control. The current treaty was signed in 1990 and requires that the requesting party provide an arrest warrant issued by a judge or “other competent authority.”

In November, FTX and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried stepped down from his role as CEO. The crypto trading firm imploded in spectacular fashion following a run on assets similar to a bank run.

FTX’s collapse was precipitated when reporting from CoinDesk revealed a highly concentrated position in self-issued FTT coins, which Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund Alameda Research used as collateral for billions in crypto loans. Binance, a rival exchange, announced it would sell its stake in FTT, spurring a massive withdrawal in funds. The company froze assets and declared bankruptcy days later. Reports later claimed that FTX had commingled customer funds with Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research, and that billions in customer deposits had been lost along the way.

Bankman-Fried was replaced by John J. Ray III, who had overseen Enron’s bankruptcy. Ray is also scheduled to testify before Congress this week. In prepared remarks released Monday, Ray said that FTX went on a “spending binge” from late 2021 through 2022, when approximately “$5 billion was spent buying a myriad of businesses and investments, many of which may be worth only a fraction of what was paid for them,” and that the firm made more than $1 billion in “loans and other payments…to insiders.”

Ray also confirmed media reports that FTX customer funds were commingled with assets from Alameda Research. Alameda used client funds to do margin trading, which exposed them to massive losses, Ray said.

Legal experts told CNBC that if the federal government pursues wire or bank fraud charges, Bankman-Fried could face life in prison without the possibility of supervised release. Such a severe punishment would be unusual but not extraordinary. Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, an effective life sentence, for his massive ponzi scheme. FTX’s collapse has already triggered the demise of BlockFi Lending, and has thrown the entire space into disarray.

Sam Bankman-Fried faces an onslaught of regulatory probes

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Nvidia warns of growing competition from China’s Huawei, despite U.S. sanctions

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Nvidia warns of growing competition from China's Huawei, despite U.S. sanctions

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

BEIJING — Chip giant Nvidia has flagged heightened competition from Huawei, despite U.S. restrictions on the Chinese telecommunications company.

In an annual filing Wednesday, Nvidia listed Huawei among its current competitors, including it in the list for a second straight year. The company, blacklisted by the U.S. for national security reasons, did not feature among Nvidia’s competitors for at least three prior years.

Nvidia listed Huawei among its competitors in four of five categories, including chips, cloud services, computing processing and networking products.

“There’s a fair amount of competition in China,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC’s Jon Fortt Wednesday.

“Huawei, other companies, are … quite vigorous and very, very competitive,” Huang said.

Since 2019, the U.S. has restricted Huawei’s ability to access technology from American suppliers, from advanced 5G chips to Google’s Android operating system.

Nvidia CEO Huang: Revenue in China before export controls was twice as high as it is now

Huawei’s revenue exceeded 860 billion yuan ($118.27 billion) in 2024, state media reported, a 22% jump in revenue from 2023, and the fastest growth since a 32% increase in 2016, according to CNBC calculations of publicly released figures. Huawei typically publishes its annual reports in March.

The company’s revenue barely grew in 2020, and plunged by nearly 29% in 2021. Its consumer segment was hit hard, and even as revenue rose 17% year on year to 251.5 billion yuan in 2023, it was just over half of what the unit generated at its peak in 2020.

The telecommunications company started to make a comeback in the smartphone market in 2023 with the release of its Mate 60 Pro in China. Reviews indicated the device offers download speeds associated with 5G — thanks to an advanced semiconductor chip.

Just over a year later, Huawei launched the Mate 70 smartphone series that uses the company’s first fully self-developed operating system, HarmonyOS NEXT.

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Meta says it fixed ‘error’ after Instagram users report a flood of graphic and violent content

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Meta says it fixed 'error' after Instagram users report a flood of graphic and violent content

Illustration of U.S social network Instagram’s logo on a tablet screen.

Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | Getty Images

Meta apologized on Thursday and said it had fixed an “error” that resulted in some Instagram users reporting a flood of violent and graphic content recommended on their personal “Reels” page. 

“We have fixed an error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended. We apologize for the mistake,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement shared with CNBC. 

The statement comes after a number of Instagram users took to various social media platforms to voice concerns about a recent influx of violent and “not safe for work” content in their feeds. 

Some users claimed they saw such content, even with Instagram’s “Sensitive Content Control” enabled to its highest moderation setting.

According to Meta policy, the company works to protect users from disturbing imagery and removes content that is particularly violent or graphic. 

Prohibited content includes videos “depicting dismemberment, visible innards or charred bodies,” as well as content that contains “sadistic remarks towards imagery depicting the suffering of humans and animals.” 

However, Meta says it does allow some graphic content if it helps users to condemn and raise awareness about important issues such as human rights abuses, armed conflicts or acts of terrorism. Such content may come with limitations, such as warning labels.

On Wednesday night in the U.S., CNBC was able to view several posts on Instagram reels that appeared to show dead bodies, graphic injuries and violent assaults. The posts were labeled “Sensitive Content.”

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Teladoc shares tumble on wider-than-expected loss, disappointing revenue guidance

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Teladoc shares tumble on wider-than-expected loss, disappointing revenue guidance

Teladoc Health Inc. signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 31, 2024.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Teladoc Health shares fell in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported a wider loss than analysts expected and issued disappointing quarterly guidance.

Here’s how the company did, compared to analysts’ consensus estimates from LSEG:

  • Loss per share: 28 cents vs. 24 cents expected
  • Revenue: $640.5 million vs. $639.6 million expected

Revenue at the telehealth company decreased 3% in the fourth quarter from $660.5 million during the same period last year, according to a release. Teladoc’s net loss widened to $48.4 million, or 28 cents per share, from a loss of $28.9 million, or 17 cents per share, a year ago.

Teladoc is in the middle of a deep slump, with its stock price dropping in each of the past four years due to hefty competition in remote health, challenges at mental health division BetterHelp and high operating costs.

When Teladoc acquired digital health company Livongo in 2020, the companies had a combined enterprise value of $37 billion. Teladoc’s market cap was around $1.9 billion as of market close on Wednesday.

“As we look forward in 2025, execution will continue to be a top priority as we advance efforts to unlock growth opportunities and position the company for long term success,” Teladoc CEO Chuck Divita said in the statement. “We will also remain focused on our cost structure, building on the significant improvements achieved in 2024 over the prior year.”  

Teladoc reported adjusted earnings of $74.8 million in its fourth quarter, a 35% decrease from a year ago. Adjusted earnings for the company’s Integrated Care segment declined 5% to $53.2 million, and BetterHelp saw adjusted earnings drop 63% to $21.7 million.

For the first quarter, Teladoc said it expects revenue of between $608 million and $629 million, while analysts were expecting $632.9 million. The company said adjusted earnings will be between $47 million and $59 million for the period.

Earlier this month, Teladoc announced it will acquire preventative care company Catapult Health in an all-cash deal for $65 million. Teladoc said its outlook includes the anticipated contribution from the deal but not the effect of potential impairments or purchase accounting. Teladoc said the acquisition should close at the end of the month.

Teladoc will host its quarterly call with investors at 4:30 p.m. ET.

— CNBC’s Bertha Coombs contributed to this report.

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