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WASHINGTON Millions of dollars from US pension funds including those of New York’s police officers and firefighters are likely invested in ByteDance, the Chinese-controlled parent company of TikTok that is under a standing order from Congress to sell off the popular social media platform or face its banning.

The non-profit investment-watchdog group Future Union has identified 48 pension funds that have entrusted their money with venture capital and private equity firms known to have invested in ByteDance since 2012, according to a new report obtained by The Post Tuesday.

Six of the largest are directly tied to New York, including the state’s common retirement fund and teacher’s retirement system, as well as New York City’s employees’ retirement system, police pension fund and teachers’ retirement system.

Future Union was unable to track down exactly how much money was directly invested into ByteDance because its proprietary data “is not required to be publicly provided by the pensions funds.”

However, it confirmed that at least some of the investments went to ByteDance by assessing the investment firms handling their money.

“Future Union devised a [system] based on the amount of capital committed to known investors in ByteDance, combining the proprietary data on institutional investors with the timeline of ByteDance investments to report rank-order and show the magnitude of capital commitments,” nonprofit founder and venture capitalist Andrew King told The Post.

The report also found that some of the most notable American nonprofits and foundations have used investment funds that place their money in ByteDance, including the Mayo Clinic, the Bush Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

As Americas largest source of private investment dollars, the capital allocators the pensions, endowments and foundations make up the lion’s share of source funding for venture capitalists and private equity firms.

“Commitments by US public pension funds to venture and private equity funds that are known investors in ByteDance reached $8.1 billion, while US university endowments’ past commitments were $1 billion,” explained King, who advises the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

US nonprofit and foundations overall have made more than 620 commitments to Chinese and China-related venture capital and private equity funds, including some of the most powerful players in the field such as Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital and Qiming Venture Partners, according to the report.

President Biden last month signed into law a bill that will force ByteDance to divest from TikTok after both Republicans and Democrats in Congress raised concerns about the social media platform’s tracking and reporting of its American users’ data to the Chinese Communist Party the US’ top adversary.

Beijing, through its state-run Internet Investment Fund, owns about 1% of TikTok shares, “illustrating the nearly indecipherable nature of the state and private sector companies in China,” according to the report.

Under Chinese law, the investment grants the government access to the social media platform’s data collected from its users, creating a national security risk for the US that led to the TikTok legislation’s passage.

“TikToks rise owes itself to the dozens of venture capitalist firms investing hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars from university endowments and US public pension funds into the Chinese company that Congress has forced to sell off the social media platform,” said King.

Experts also believe Beijing is using the app which is not available in China to influence US opinions in its favor, geopolitical consultant and former US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Kellie Currie told The Post.

“ByteDance is not a normal tech company and TikTok is not a normal social media app. It should be clear to anyone paying attention that TikTok is an enormously successful Chinese influence operation,” she said. “It has succeeded beyond the CCPs wildest imagination in advancing both direct CCP agendas as well as indirect influence operations that weaponize polarized issues.”

Aside from the moral quandary of investing in a company that presents national security risks to the US, the investment firms have now endangered their clients’ funds by tying them to a company that may soon be forced to give up its US operations.

“Many of our most powerful and prominent pension funds, university endowments and nonprofits/foundations have subsequently been involved in, and now may remain to subject to, a geopolitical risk premium in private market investing,” the report said.

That risk has always existed but was “long ignored,” according to Future Union, but is now unavoidable since the TikTok legislation passed, “resulting in vastly reduced exit opportunities for Chinese companies like ByteDance.”

As investors, were all capitalists here and the goal is to make money. Yet we can no longer make investments that directly imperil the long-term success of our free market system,” King told The Post. “As TikTok shows, the investment choices that venture capitalists and private equity investors made today, at the earliest stage and in the most critical technologies, have ramifications that reverberate for years.”

Future Union, which has produced two other reports on US investments in Chinese competitors, added that the ByteDance investments are part of a troubling trend of American firms risking financial and national security in exchange for the possibility of big short-term returns from the Asian market.

“This highlights a general trend that, despite the geopolitical tensions, US fund managers continue investing in the startups they view as leading in technology advancement and capable of generating higher returns even if it means ignoring the long-term implications of supporting an adversarial ecosystem,” the report said.

Still, Currie said that “nobody should feel the least bit sorry for (US investors in ByteDance) if they lose money,” since the professional investment and VC firms either were or should have been aware of the associated dangers.

“Every investment carries risk, and this one more so than most,” she said. “These are very sophisticated investors … [who] knew or should have known the risks they were taking by investing in a Chinese company that has been marked with major political, regulatory and operational problems from day one.”

While the US funding is important, that’s not the only benefit reaped by Chinese companies.

Because venture capitalists are required to make the most money possible for their clients, they also offer “intangible relationship elements and knowledge that is far more impactful and dangerous if transferred to an adversary like China,” King said.

“Venture capitalists are a conduit, and if they invest in Chinese startups, their duty to prioritize returns requires them to help these startups, and thus China,” he said. “In doing so, they offer China the nearly priceless value of some of a lifetime of experience and learnings from … expertise in business best practices and the networks developed over a career touching the smartest founders, wealthiest investors, and most politically connected powerbrokers.

“This is an invisible threat worse than mere capital.”

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Politics

Crypto investor charged with kidnapping, torturing an Italian for passwords

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Crypto investor charged with kidnapping, torturing an Italian for passwords

Crypto investor charged with kidnapping, torturing an Italian for passwords

A Manhattan crypto investor is facing serious charges after allegedly kidnapping and torturing an Italian man in a disturbing bid to extract access to digital assets.

John Woeltz, 37, was arraigned on Saturday in Manhattan criminal court following his arrest on Friday. He stands accused of holding a 28-year-old Italian man captive for weeks inside a luxury townhouse in Soho, reportedly rented for $30,000 per month.

According to police reports cited by The New York Times, the victim arrived in the US on May 6 and was allegedly abducted by Woeltz and an accomplice.

The attackers are said to have stolen the man’s passport and electronic devices before demanding the password to his Bitcoin (BTC) wallet. When he refused, the suspects allegedly subjected him to prolonged physical abuse.

Crypto investor charged with kidnapping, torturing an Italian for passwords
Source: Mario Nawfal

Related: Violent crypto robberies on the rise: Six attacks that targeted investors

Crypto victim beaten, electroshocked

The victim described being beaten, shocked with electricity, assaulted with a firearm and even dangled from the upper floors of the five-story building.

He also told police that Woeltz used a saw to cut his leg and forced him to smoke crack cocaine. Threats were also reportedly made against his family.

Photographic evidence found inside the property, including Polaroids, appears to support claims of sustained abuse. The victim managed to escape on Friday and alert authorities, leading to Woeltz’s arrest.

Woeltz was charged with four felony counts, including kidnapping for ransom, and entered a plea of not guilty. Judge Eric Schumacher ordered him to be held without bail. He is expected back in court on May 28.

A 24-year-old woman was also taken into custody on Friday in connection with the incident. However, she was seen walking freely in New York the next day, and no charges against her were found in the court’s online database.

Authorities have yet to clarify the relationship between the suspect and the victim or whether any cryptocurrency was ultimately stolen.

Related: Crypto crime goes industrial as gangs launch coins, launder billions — UN

Crypto executives turn to bodyguards

Executives and investors in the crypto industry are increasingly seeking personal security services as kidnapping and ransom cases surge, especially in France.

On May 18, Amsterdam-based private firm Infinite Risks International reported a rise in requests for bodyguards and long-term protection contracts from high-profile figures in the space.

French authorities have responded by introducing enhanced protections for crypto entrepreneurs and their families, including security briefings and priority access to police assistance.

This comes amid a recent surge in kidnappings and ransom attempts. David Balland, the co-founder of hardware wallet company Ledger, was kidnapped in January 2025 and held for ransom for several days before being rescued by French police.

In May 2024, the father of an unnamed crypto entrepreneur was freed from a ransom attempt after French law enforcement officials raided the location in a Paris suburb where the individual was being held hostage by organized criminals.

Magazine: Bitcoiner sex trap extortion? BTS firm’s blockchain disaster: Asia Express

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Business

Gail’s backer plots rare move with bid for steak chain Flat Iron

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Gail's backer plots rare move with bid for steak chain Flat Iron

A backer of Gail’s bakeries is in advanced talks to acquire Flat Iron, one of Britain’s fastest-growing steak restaurant chains.

Sky News has learnt that McWin Capital Partners, which specialises in investments across the “food ecosystem”, has teamed up with TriSpan, another private equity investor, to buy a large stake in Flat Iron.

Restaurant industry sources said McWin would probably take the largest economic interest in Flat Iron if the deal completes.

They added that the two buyers were in exclusive discussions, with a deal possible in approximately a month’s time.

The valuation attached to Flat Iron was unclear on Sunday.

Flat Iron launched in 2012 in London’s Shoreditch and now has roughly 20 sites open.

The chain is solidly profitable, with its latest accounts showing underlying profits of £5.7m in the year to the end of August.

It already has private equity backing in the form of Piper, a leading investor in consumer brands, which injected £10m into the business in 2017.

Flat Iron was founded by Charlie Carroll, who retains an interest in it, but the company is now run by former Byron restaurant boss Tom Byng.

Houlihan Lokey, the investment bank, has been advising Flat Iron on the process.

McWin has reportedly been in talks to take full control of Gail’s while TriSpan’s portfolio has included restaurant operators such as the Vietnamese chain Pho and Rosa’s, a Thai food chain.

A spokesman for McWin declined to comment.

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US

The anniversary of George Floyd’s murder is a reminder of America’s racial divides

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The anniversary of George Floyd's murder is a reminder of America's racial divides

In Minneapolis, the spot where George Floyd was murdered has been turned into a mural.

His face is depicted in street art on a pavement covered in flowers, rosaries, and other trinkets left by people who have come to pay their respects in the last five years.

His final moments, struggling for breath with white police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on his neck, were captured in a viral video that provoked anger, upset, and outrage.

Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck
Image:
Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck

In Minneapolis and other parts of America, there were protests that at points boiled over into unrest.

The events to mark the fifth anniversary of his death took on a very different tone – one of celebration and joy.

Behind a wooden statue of a clenched fist on one end of a junction now renamed George Perry Floyd Square, people gathered in the morning.

There was a moment of prayer before a brass band began to play and the group marched, while singing and chanting.

George Perry Floyd Square, a makeshift memorial area
Image:
George Perry Floyd Square, a makeshift memorial area

‘It made us want to fight harder’

Among those gathered in front of a makeshift stage built in the square were two of Floyd’s family members – his cousin Paris and aunt Mahalia.

To them, the man whose death sparked a racial reckoning in America and further afield, was simply “Perry,” a larger-than-life figure whose presence is missed at family gatherings.

Speaking to me while the speakers behind them thumped and people danced, they didn’t just reflect with sadness though.

There was also pride at a legacy they felt has led to change.

“It made us want to fight harder,” said Mahalia, “and it’s a feeling you cannot explain. When the whole world just stood up.”

George Floyd's aunt Mahalia and cousin Paris
Image:
George Floyd’s aunt Mahalia and cousin Paris

Referring to Chauvin’s eventual murder charge, Paris added: “I think that from here on out, at least officers know that you’re not going to slide through the cracks. Our voices are heard more.”

The tapestry of items outside the Cup Foods convenience store, now renamed Unity Foods, is not the only makeshift memorial in the area.

A short walk away is the “Say Their Names” cemetery, an art installation honouring black people killed by the police.

Meeting me there later in the day, activist Nikema Levy says the installation and George Floyd Square are called “sacred spaces” in the community.

As someone who took to the streets at the time of Floyd’s death and a community organiser for years before that, she’s constantly stopped by people who want to speak to her.

Activist Nikema Levy speaking to Sky News
Image:
Activist Nikema Levy speaking to Sky News

‘White supremacy on steroids’

Once we do manage to speak, Levy reminds me of a wider political picture. One that goes beyond Minneapolis and is a fraught one.

In the week of the anniversary, the US Department of Justice rolled back investigations into some of the largest police forces in the country, including in Minneapolis – a move she calls “diabolical.”

“That type of cruelty is what we have seen since Donald Trump took office on January 20th of this year,” she continued.

“From my perspective, that is white supremacy on steroids. And it should come as no surprise that he would take these types of steps, because these are the things that he talked about on the campaign trail.”

Read more from Sky News:
US-EU trade war fears reignite
Arsenal secure historic Champions League crown
Scientists are on the hunt for dolphin poo

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Has US changed five years after George Floyd’s death?

‘True healing has never taken place’

Trump has argued his policing reforms will help make America’s communities safer.

Even on a day of optimism, with a community coming together, Levy’s words in front of headstones bearing the names of black people who have died at the hands of the police are a reminder of how deep the racial divides in America still are – a sentiment she leaves me with.

“From the days of slavery and Jim Crow in this country, we’ve just had the perception of healing, but true healing has never taken place,” she says.

“So the aftermath of George Floyd is yet another example of what we already know.”

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