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A Labour MP hosted a man at the centre of a terror group probe in parliament just weeks before his arrest, Sky News can reveal.

Agit Karatas is one of six people who were charged on Tuesday with being members of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after an investigation by counter-terrorism police in London.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, has been a proscribed organisation since 2001 for its advocation of Kurdish self-rule through both political and armed struggle.

Karatas, a 23-year-old Kurdish rights campaigner, is part of the Centre for Kurdish Progress, a long-established group with links to MPs.

Pic: @APPGKurds
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Agit Karatas (second from right) at the APPG meeting. Pic: @APPGKurds

In October this year, he was given access to the parliamentary estate for the first meeting of a new All-Party Parliamentary Group, the APPG on Kurds, chaired by Labour MP for Exeter, Steve Race.

The group is cross-party, with Conservative MP Matt Vickers named as vice-chair – although he was not at the meeting – and parliamentarians from across the political spectrum listed as members.

In attendance at the meeting were Labour’s first Kurdish MP and science minister Feryal Clark, Labour MP Afzal Khan, Independent MP Shockat Adam and Lord Michael Cashman.

More on Kurds

Addressing the room, Karatas said the APPG would arrange for “a delegation to Iraq and Syria upon which MPs and UK officials can meet officials in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and in North East Syria”.

He was also linked to a previous APPG on Kurdistan in Turkey and Syria, which was chaired by former Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle.

His access to parliament is via the Centre for Kurdish Progress, founded by Ibrahim Dogus, who is well-known in Westminster through the annual kebab awards, which is often attended by high-profile political figures.

Mr Dogus is also a Labour councillor who has stood as a parliamentary candidate twice for the party, in 2017 and 2019.

Karatas was one of two women and four men charged on Tuesday with being PKK members after being arrested and detained under the Terrorism Act 2000 on 27 November.

Sky News approached Mr Race and the Labour Party but they declined to comment.

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US court freezes $57M USDC allegedly linked to LIBRA scandal

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US court freezes M USDC allegedly linked to LIBRA scandal

US court freezes M USDC allegedly linked to LIBRA scandal

A US federal court has frozen around $57.65 million worth of the stablecoin USDC in a class action case over the controversial Libra memecoin.

Onchain data shared with Cointelegraph by the class group’s lawyer, Max Burwick, shows nearly $57 million worth of USDC (USDC) was frozen on May 28 after a Manhattan court agreed to a temporary freeze.

“Yesterday, a federal court in SDNY [Southern District of New York] entered a Temporary Restraining Order at our request, Burwick Law, supported by Tim Treanor, freezing approximately 57.65 million USDC held at Circle,“ Burwick told Cointelegraph.

He added that the court is scheduled to hold a hearing on June 9 to determine whether the assets will remain frozen as the class-action lawsuit progresses.

Burwick is representing Omar Hurlock and other plaintiffs in a class-action suit against crypto venture firm Kelsier Ventures and its three sibling co-founders, Gideon, Thomas and Hayden Davis, on March 17, alleging they created the Libra (LIBRA) cryptocurrency and misled investors to siphon over $100 million from one-sided liquidity pools.

The suit also named blockchain infrastructure companies, KIP Protocol and its CEO, Julian Peh, along with Meteora and its co-founder, Benjamin Chow, as defendants.

Chow’s lawyer, Kelsier Ventures and KIP Protocol were contacted for comment. 

LIBRA reached a $4 billion market cap following an X post from Argentine President Javier Milei on Feb. 14 before crashing 94% hours later.

The saga caused a political scandal for Milei, prompting members of Argentina’s opposition party to call for his impeachment, though little traction was gained beyond those statements.

Data from polling platform Zuban Córdoba in March suggested that the Libra scandal negatively impacted Milei’s image and the national management approval rating.

Two Solana wallets with total USDC balances worth $57.65 million were frozen on May 28 at 3:15 am and 3:18 am UTC.

Data from Solana’s blockchain explorer, Solscan, shows that the address “3Fwr…ZQpK” had $44.59 million worth of the stablecoin frozen, while a little over $13 million was frozen from the wallet address “3nHw…xNgH.”

Both wallets were frozen by the Multisig Freeze Authority, Solscan data shows.

Milei closes Libra investigation in Argentina

On May 19, Milei signed a decree to shut down a task force established to investigate the Libra scandal.

Related: Solana may be a memecoin ‘one-trick pony’ — Standard Chartered

No action was taken against Milei or any other Argentine official allegedly tied to the scandal.

However, some critics say a legitimate investigation wasn’t properly conducted in the first place.

“It was always a fake, they never dared to investigate anything at all, and they’re covering each other up because they’re completely up to their necks in it,” Itai Hagman, an economist and member of the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina, said in a May 20 X post.

Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge

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Labor Department rescinds Biden-era guidance for crypto in 401(k) plans

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Labor Department rescinds Biden-era guidance for crypto in 401(k) plans

Labor Department rescinds Biden-era guidance for crypto in 401(k) plans

The US Labor Department has officially rescinded guidance issued during the Biden administration that limited the inclusion of cryptocurrency in 401(k) retirement plans.

On May 28, the Labor Department revoked a 2022 guidance that had urged fiduciaries to be “extremely cautious” when considering cryptocurrency for 401(k) retirement plans. The move could give asset managers more flexibility to include digital assets in retirement investment options.

The government agency removed the guidance asserting that it represented a departure from the department’s “historically neutral, principled-based approach to fiduciary investment decisions.”

“We’re rolling back this overreach and making it clear that investment decisions should be made by fiduciaries, not D.C. bureaucrats,” said US Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

The Labor Department under Biden criticized the practice of marketing cryptocurrencies to 401(k) participants. At the time, the agency claimed cryptocurrencies posed “significant risks and challenges” to participants’ retirement accounts due to their “speculative and volatile” nature and “valuation concerns,” among other reasons.

The American Banking Association (ABA) criticized the 2022 compliance release, claiming that it did not make the guidance available for public comment and review prior to issuance.

Related: Fidelity introduces retirement accounts with minimal-fee crypto investing

Trump administration shifts crypto landscape

President Trump has pledged to make the United States “the world capital of crypto” during his 2024 campaign.

Under his administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission has scaled back several enforcement actions and investigations involving Web3 companies such as Uniswap, Coinbase, and Kraken, while also engaging in policy discussions on topics like real-world asset tokenization and the regulatory status of certain tokens.

At the same time, some lawmakers have expressed concerns about Trump’s involvement in the crypto space, including calls for greater scrutiny of his associated ventures.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

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Pakistan announces Bitcoin strategic reserve

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Pakistan announces Bitcoin strategic reserve

Pakistan announces Bitcoin strategic reserve

Bilal Bin Saqib, head of Pakistan’s crypto council, announced on May 28 that the country is moving to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

Speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Saqib said the government of Pakistan followed the United States’ lead in establishing a Bitcoin strategic reserve and is embracing pro-crypto regulatory policies. The government official told the audience:

“Today is a very historic day. Today, I announce the Pakistani government is setting up its own government-led Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, and we want to thank the United States of America again because we were inspired by them.”

The announcement represents a significant departure from the government of Pakistan’s previous stance on cryptocurrencies, holding that crypto would never be legal in the country.

Pakistan’s shift reflects the broader trend of nation-states adopting pro-crypto policies following the regulatory shift in Washington, DC under the President Donald Trump administration.

Government, Bitcoin Reserve, Bitcoin2025
Bilal Bin Saqib at the Bitcoin 2025 conference announcing a Bitcoin strategic reserve. Source: Cointelegraph

Related: Pakistan appoints special assistant to PM on blockchain and crypto

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