All posts by MarketsMuse Curator

Not A Bubble! Just a Bull Market!

Stocks Benefit From Surge Pricing

A review of February equities market performance

The Drivers : AI + Economic Improvement + Corporate & Consumer Confidence

What’s Next?

Looking Back to Look Forward : Month End Equities Market Comment 2024 Episode 3

This being the 3rd edition of the year for our month-end equities market commentary, it’s worth noting that February, historically the second worst performing month of the year for stocks (Sept winning the top spot), Feb turned out just fine, and proved the technicians, chartists, and ‘seasonality pundits’ wrong, once again.

A look at the month-end stock price performance data finds nearly every sector with noticeable gains, despite the month’s uptick in interest rates across the yield curve. (More on that below).

Stocks Across Every Sector Gain in February, (just like Nov, Dec, & Jan!)

A round of applause to the assortment of Fortune 500 CFOs, corporate treasurers, and investor relations professionals who have played important roles in delivering financial performance numbers that have inspired your investors with solid results.

Yes, a handful of best-known “AI darlings” (aka Artificial Intelligence) has led the most recent 4 consecutive months of price gains of 20% in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 (QQQ). And yes, the PE Ratio for the S&P 500 has also expanded noticeably, which is often a worrisome sign for pension fund managers who are looking to allocate cash.

“It’s All About AI, Stupid!” (to paraphrase James Carvell) The AI revolution is still in the infancy stages and some less sanguine say that share prices in companies most rooted in providing AI and Generative AI picks and shovels “have gotten in front of themselves.” On the flip side, 92% of Fortune 500 CEOs polled by PwC say that “Gen AI is a top investment priority”, and 63% say that Gen AI tools are expected to deliver material improvements in productivity and efficiency, and ultimately, expansion in profitability. Last week, Travelers Corp (NYSE:TRV) Chairman & CEO Alan Schnitzer told the WSJ that a significant amount of the insurance giant’s $1.5bil technology investments in 2023 went to large language Gen AI models that “have already enabled us to process hundreds of thousands of broker submissions within a matter of minutes, as opposed to hours or days.  Along the way, underwriting expense ratios have improved materially. The workflow process improvements are staggering, and the math in terms of ROI is pretty simple to calculate.” To wit, the insurance company’s stock price is up 14% YTD.

And, No, It’s Not a Bubble, The Markets Have Simply “Re-Priced”. Even mega-billionaire investor Ray Dalio, the founder, and former Chairman & CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, and someone who is known for being skeptical in the face of skyrocketing asset prices, said as recently as March 1, “The Mag 7 sector is a bit frothy, yet the U.S. equities market is not really that bubbly (yet).” He details his views on LinkedIn.    

Wait, It’s (also) About the Economy! By many measures, whether it be GDP, employment, manufacturing, consumer sentiment and consumer spending, the US economy has proven very resilient. As noticed by rates traders, February’s increase in interest rates across the curve (40bps on the 2’s, 37bps on the 5’s, and 29bps on the 10’s), equity prices have been impervious to interest rates at this point.” Underscoring that point, the spread between IG and HY debt has narrowed to historic levels, and February saw the largest number of IG corporate debt issuance for any February in history. $155bil was floated, including several large transactions from Abbvie and 3M that were dedicated to funding M&A transactions, a part of the market that is re-percolating, irrespective of the uptick in borrowing costs.

Convertible Debt Issuance v.4.0 The Drexel Burnham Award For Great Placement Goes to SMCI. For those not old enough to know the name Drexel Burnham, in the 1980’s, that investment bank pioneered the transformation of modern debt financing and enabled many borrowers to bolster their balance sheets. Convertible bonds, which were first created to finance railroads in the mid 19th century, and also one of the arrows in the Drexel quiver, have since been a mainstay for a cross-section of companies during the past few years.

As most readers of this note are aware, “converts” enable lower-rated corporate issuers to borrow at rates significantly lower than IG issuers can by offering buyers an equity kicker with an exercise option that can be 25% to +50% or higher than the prevailing stock price. In February, Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ:$SMCI), whose fortunes are greatly tied to that of Nvidia, floated a 5 year, $1.5b senior unsecured note with a ZERO interest coupon, but enables investors to convert into shares at a 37.5% premium. Said another way, based on a stock price of $900ish at the time the deal was struck ten days ago (up from a price of $281 since Jan 2!), investors can convert their notes into stock for a price $1341 per share.  This strategy can ostensibly work for a bevy of Issuers across multiple sectors, including those that are pivoting to AI empowerment.

That said, $SMCI price was added to the S&P 500 index after the close of regular day trading Friday, Mar 1, and the stock rocketed from $902 to an intra-day high of $1155 before noon Monday, Mar 4 (a 25% increase in a matter of hours, a near 50% increase in ten days, a 100% increase in three weeks, and a 175% increase since Jan 2).

Geopolitical Risks: Are there any Canaries in the Coal Mine? Russia, China, the Middle-East, North Korea, threats of US Government shut-down (on top of ballooning government debt), not to forget Cyber Attacks, or the most contentious Presidential election season in recent history, all present risks of one kind or another. Yet, the equities markets have continued to discount these tail risk topics. Likely because there hasn’t been a debilitating Black Swan since the global pandemic. “The clue is in the skew”; meaning that call option prices on major indices and large-cap stocks remain slanted to favor continued upside in equities prices as the ‘re-pricing’ regime remains intact.

What’s in store for the months ahead? For those administering share repurchase initiatives, which is expected to account for up to $1trillion of stock purchases in 2024, or those investors who have a traditional 60-40 (or perhaps 70-30) allocation to US equities, there is an assortment of historical data that suggests US equity indices will end the year appreciably higher than where they started 2024.

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2024 Financial Market Predictions

Knowing that nearly every reader has already consumed as many financial market predictions for the new year as they can stand, we decided to wait for the official first day of 2024 to publish our financial market predictions and outlook, if only because Santa Claus rallies that find Santa slipping from his sled during the last day of a year (one in which markets failed to close at an ATH), and followed by rinsing of markets the days into the first week of the new year (as is the case for 2024), can cause technical chart pundits to re-assess outlooks they made only a few weeks earlier. If the first day of 2024 is an indication (AAPL downgraded and down 3.5% and all major indices down .5% to 2%+) expect strategists to re-strategize! But that’s what pundits are best at doing: changing their views to address changes in price trends.

Here’s what we learned from 2023: Nearly all market prognosticators were wrong; at the outset of the year, and then they were caught “offsides” at least three or four times during the year; which is perhaps the only reliable statistic that we can confidently hang our hats on!

Let’s “go to the videotape”

At the close of 2022, after equities were pummeled (S&P 500 down 19.5%; Nasdaq Composite down 33%; Russell 2000 down 21.5% and DJIA down 8.9%), a December Bloomberg LP poll of 22 “top strategists”, had them proclaiming: “2023 will be, at best, a lackluster year”; with the mean prediction suggesting gains of 7% for the year.

At the time, those outlooks made sense. After all, the Fed was barely mid-way through a record-setting rate-hiking mode to battle inflation, and with [most] market participants of the view that we were moving towards an interest regime of 5% (which is actually within the historical 4%-6% range going back decades), equities and interest rate prognostics were certain that stocks would underperform historical average gains.

During the first month of 2023, SPX rallied 10%, inspiring the naysayers to turn bullish, raise their price targets, and get long on stocks at January month end. By the end of February, half of the gains achieved through January 30 were extinguished, and by the first week of March, SPX, the most-followed index, had reverted to exactly where the year had begun. That up-and-then-down price action led the crystal ball crowd to revisit and temper down their year-end outlooks.

As is typically the case, that exuberance encountered a dose of reality. Market participants chose to ignore the consistent signals sent by the Fed (i.e. “Do NOT expect a cut in interest rates, as our fight to bring inflation back to target levels is far from over!”). Instead, many called the ‘all clear’ signal—with an increasing number of strategists pointing to year-end 2023 SPX of 4500. Of course, equities swooned over the next three months into the end of October, albeit by a factor of a mere 9%; a classic ‘reversion to the mean’ that brought that major index back to 4115. That was approximately the level that had been the year-end 2023 forecast made by Pundits Inc in December 2022. And, by this time, most had dismissed any likelihood that equities, as benchmarked by SPX, could end the year higher than 4350. 

chart courtesy of Bloomberg LP all rights reserved

And, we all know what happened by the end of October. Thanks to a compilation of lower inflation and resilient economic data points that discounted the notion of a pending recession, and sweetened by a dovish voice from the Fed, every negative narrative turned upside down. SPX closed 2023 at 4775, up 24% on the year, NASDAQ ended the year with a gain of 34%, and to illustrate the broadening of the rally from the end of October to the end of December, the DJIA closed the year up 13%, the equal-weighted S&P 500 (see ticker RSP) gained 11%, and long-time laggard Russell 2000 index finished the year with a 15% gain.

Some predictors did get it right; select strategists from BMO, BofA, and the always bullish Tom Lee, who runs a firm called “Fundstrat” accurately guessed at the outset of 2023 that a variety of best-case scenarios would come to fruition.  These firms, as well as a majority of sell-side strategists, are determined that 2024 equity market returns will prove positive. The median projection calls for the S&P 500 to rise by 8% (5100), and the staunchest bulls, including market veteran Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Associates (who proved uniquely prescient for his 2023 outlook) believe the S&P 500 can reach 5400 by year-end 2024.  The most notable bears throughout the past three years i.e. Mike Wilson from Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan’s Marko “Kill Joy” Kolanovic remain pessimistic, yet less bearish than usual. Wilson is forecasting a slight drop for 2024 (year-end target of 4500) and Kolanovic believes that current (high) equities valuations, historically low volatility, and any of several prospective black swan events could find the SPX back at 4200.

FACTOIDS that lend [some] confidence to a positive 2024 equity market performance.

·According to LPL Research going back to 1950, 80% of the time in years following a gain of 20% or more have seen the S&P 500 rise an average of 10%.

·Since 1960, in periods where the SPX was down 10% or more, then up 10% or more the following year, there has been no instance where the SPX ended down in the third year. ·

chart courtesy of macrotrends.com

·Fortune 500 balance sheets remain relatively strong; debt levels remain manageable, and profit margins remain respectable, despite a long stretch of higher wages, higher cost of goods, and rising debt among consumers.

·The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI and Generative AI) has permeated throughout the corporate world; leading to increased spending and investments that will [presumably] lead to higher productivity, greater efficiency, and hence, greater profit margins for companies in nearly every sector, even if the bottom-line returns may not begin to be noticed until the end of 2024 at the earliest).

Irrespective of Federal Reserve decisions to continue to pause, lower, or even raise interest rates in the coming year, the yield on the 10 year UST is NOT a long-term harbinger of equities prices; the average 10-year yield going back to 1970 is approximately 5.5%*

Concerns to Be Mindful Of

·Too Early Rate Cut by Fed (in their effort to mitigate risks of recession). ·Geopolitical Risk | Black Swan Event* (Russia/Ukraine; China/Taiwan; Middle East)

·Vast Majority of Equities Strategists are Bullish.

*Caveat: Black Swan events, including the assortment of pandemics, wars, and bank failures, and major changes in government leadership that have occurred during the last three years alone (and may occur in the coming year) rarely cause extended (i.e. long-lasting) losses in major equity indices. 

andrew katz felony

Fintech Phony Andrew Katz Convicted on 4 Felony Assault Charges; Flees Florida

Andrew Katz, aka Ross Katz aka Drew Katz aka Stark Katz, a serial criminal who, at various times over the past seven years has claimed to be a “crypto entrepreneur” (operating through an entity known as “Seaquake”), and more recently, profiles himself on LinkedIn * as a “Fintech and “AI entrepreneur”, has fled Florida after being convicted on 4 charges of felony assault against law enforcement officers.

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Fugitive Andrew Katz, aka Drew Katz, aka Ross Katz

*Note: In addition to using multiple aliases, Katz has recently taken to creating at least two LinkedIn accounts in an effort to obfuscate. In addition to the above LinkedIn profile, he is apparently using this LinkedIn profile, while he remains a fugitive from Miami-Dade County law enforcement.

Katz has been profiled via this outlet multiple times for his role in advancing securities fraud schemes, including defrauding crypto industry pioneer Brock Pierce, and for arrests on charges of assault, harassment, and stalking in Los Angeles and New York City. After being convicted in New York, in February 2022, Katz had already fled Manhattan for Miami, and a fugitive warrant was issued by New York authorities.

The latest event, which had Katz assaulting three police officers while they were attempting to arrest him on a domestic violence charge, led to his being convicted on four felony charges.

Katz is now being sought by Florida state law enforcement agencies. Those who have information as to Katz’s latest whereabouts are requested to contact the Miami-Dade County Department of Probation via 305-694-2876. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO APPREHEND THIS INDIVIDUAL; HE IS CONSIDERED TO BE ARMED AND DANGEROUS.

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Crypto Criminal Andrew Katz Pleads Guilty to Felony Rap in Miami

Andrew Ross Katz aka Drew Katz aka Ross Katz aka Stark Katz, the former co-founder of a crypto criminal enterprise known to have used a labyrinth of shell companies under the name “Seaquake” to defraud investors such as crypto pioneer Brock Pierce, and an individual who claims to be a “fintech entrepreneur” whose criminal arrest record extends over 10 years across California, Colorado, New York, and Florida, pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges in Miami-Dade County Court this week.

Prior reporting of this incident can be found here.

Katz pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges displayed above, stemming from an April 2021 incident in which Katz assaulted three Miami-Dade County police officers that responded to a domestic violence call made by Katz’s girlfriend from his Miami Beach luxury condominium at 2020 North Bayshore Drive, Unit 1203.

Despite the nature of the charges, which called for a mandatory jail sentence, and despite a lengthy criminal arrest record for similar charges in other jurisdictions, Katz was sentenced to three years probation. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, led by Katherine Fernandez Rundle, did not respond to inquiries as to why no jail sentence was requested by the 28-year-old State Attorney Tyler Cass, the designated prosecutor assigned to the case.

Katz, who recently deleted all references on his LinkedIn profile to his former enterprise, Seaquake.io, now proclaims to be a founder of an “AI” initiative. Caveat Emptor.

mary-c.-daly-San-Francisco-Federal-Reserve-Board-President-Greg-Becker-CEO-SVB-

New Study: Venezuela Banking System Better Regulated Than U.S.

Failures of SVB, Signature Bank, and (pending failure) First Republic Bank Demonstate US Federal Reserve Bank Regional Divisions Stymied by Conflict, Cronyism, Blind Eye Syndrome

March Madness 2023: The failures of Silicon Valley Bank aka “SVB” (NASDAQ:SIVB), Signature Bank (NASDAQ:SBNY), and on-the-precipice of failing, First Republic Bank (NYSE:FRC) illustrate common denominators, aside from each having upside down balance sheets for months, if not years, each lending to highly-leveraged businesses, and each run by Muppets who should never have been allowed to oversee a Girl Scout cookie sale, no less a banking institution with billions of dollars in deposits and risky loans.

The collapse of SVB and Signature Bank and the looming collapse of First Republic Bank–all inside one week, has inspired independent experts to conclude that Venezuela has a more compliant and better-regulated banking system than the United States of America!

Each of the US Federal Reserve Bank divisions responsible for auditing and ensuring regulatory compliance for the banks in their respective regions is pockmarked with Board Directors who run the same banks that the FRBs are supposed to regulate.  Despite what many people have thought, this means that the banking industry is self-regulated, not regulated by real regulators, and is not regulated by independent, objective professionals. Are we shocked? Where is John Oliver?!

  1. As valiantly reported by the New York Times (and WSJ), the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco counted Greg Becker, the now former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank (NASDAQ:SVIB) as a board member since 2019. While Becker sat on the Board, whose President & CEO is one Mary C. Daly, whose bio on the Fed’s website states “Mary champions initiatives to make the San Francisco Fed’s policies and decision-making more transparent.
  • SVB bank was subject to MULTIPLE warnings over each of the years that Becker ran SVB. The lack of oversight and lack of control discovered by low-level Federal Reserve Bank examiners was documented multiple times, who reported those findings up the chain of command, and those reports were mysteriously buried. Translation: those warnings were never made public, stakeholders never had a clue there was a problem, ‘trusted’ Greg Becker when he said things were great and ‘trust me’, and Ms. Daly either turned a blind eye (actually two blind eyes), or her view of transparency is skewed towards opacity. Or she is batshit stupid.
  • President Biden on Friday said that bank executives who played hide the banana or otherwise failed to control risks in accordance with ‘regulations’ should be punished. What about Ms. Daly? Oh, she and the other FRB presidents are appointed by their respective board of directors—and those boards are populated by executives of the respective banks within those FRB districts. Again-this means that banks are ‘self-regulated’; NOT REGULATED BY A GOVERNMENT ENTITY!

Is it any wonder then, that 3 multi-billion dollar banks in as many days in the same week have suffered a run, and depositors in tens of dozens of banks throughout the country suffering massive outflows before the next bank goes under?

When will George Bailey to come to the rescue? Sadly, George is busy. He and his angel, Clarence Odbody, are having lunch with Warren Buffet—who offered Joe Biden that he would salve the FRC crisis, as he has many other banking catastrophes, but apparently President Biden didn’t like Warren’s term sheet: 12.5% interest on capital infused into FRC and backstopped by the U.S. Treasury.  So Warren Buffet said, “If you don’t like my terms, go to Jamie Dimon!”.  And that’s what Joe did. And late Friday, Jamie Dimon said, “OK, I’ll bring a few of the boys together and we will be patriotic and save FRC with less egregious terms than Warren.” 

FRC stock rallied on the news on late Friday, then cratered on Monday morning when Jamie & Co walked back on the supposed bailout. FRC trading was halted multiple times on Monday, and closed down 47% to $12.15. Shocking that Jamie & Co “re-evaluated” FRC’s value and walked back on his “handshake deal” from Friday?! Don’t Be. Welcome to Wall Street.

Former US Congressman Barney Frank

Let’s move on to Signature Bank ($SBNY); the one that former US Congressman Barney Frank sits on their Board of Directors. Remember Barney? He’s the one that credited himself with introducing the Dodd-Frank Bill-which introduced tight regulations on banks after the GFC of 2008.  So, Barney’s on the Board—which has been notorious for lax lending standards, which is alleged to have been one of the largest laundering machines for crypto industry crooks—and of course, has long been Donald Trump’s second favorite bank to borrow from after Deutsche Bank; whose reputation for enabling crooks and scoundrels goes back to the days of Adolph Hitler  

Signature Bank: Donald Trump, Barney Frank & Upside Down Balance Sheet

Now First Republic Bank. 111% Liability to Deposit Ratio. This means if all the depositors want to withdraw their money (if they can) at the same time, this wonderful financial institution would become insolvent.  This ratio is not new. The good news is that unlike the bizarre, high-risk loans extended by SVB and Signature, First Republic has a relatively reasonable mix of loans in various sectors. All told, the fair value of First Republic’s financial assets was $26.9 billion less than their balance-sheet value. The financial assets included “other loans” with a fair value of $26.4 billion, or $2.9 billion below their $29.3 billion carrying amount. So-called held-to-maturity securities, consisting mostly of municipal bonds, had a fair value of $23.6 billion, or $4.8 billion less than their $28.3 billion carrying amount.

Thank you, Bank Regulators, Thank You Elected Officials Who Don’t Know How to Balance Their Own Check Books, Thank You to the Greedy, Blind-Eyed, and Conflicted Muppets Who Decided to Hide Their Dirty Laundry Under the Bed. Then they shit the bed; causing stakeholders to wind up with nothing but shit, again.  

stay-calm-says-gregory-becker-svb-bank

Silicon Valley Bank aka SVB Financial Group Implodes Hours After CEO Says, “Stay Calm and Don’t Panic”

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“Stay Calm and Don’t Panic” SVB President and CEO Greg Becker

When a CEO of a publicly-traded company says that, you know it’s time to put your head between your knees and grab your ankles.  Especially after SVB CEO Gregory Becker, sold nearly 20% of his holdings in the company at $285 per share, ten days before the FDIC seized the bank.

Hours Before Bank Seized, SVB pays out annual bonuses to key employees

We should note; Becker’s stock sale, through the exercise of options, gave Becker a profit of $2.2mil, but he still owns 95,000 shares which were worth $27mil two weeks ago, yet are now likely to be worth no more than a few thousand dollars. That’s before the cost of the legal expenses Becker will undoubtedly be looking at in the days, months and years ahead).  So sad.

Yet, thanks to social media megaphones in the hands of folks such as Peter Thiel, who will likely be given the George Soros Award [for Causing a Major Bank to Implode], very few passengers on SVB’s Gulfstream G550 had enough time to grab a barf bag, no less tighten their seat belts, before the plane carrying doe-eyed passengers, whose CEOS and CFOs never thought to take out flight insurance (i.e. by having their companies cash in short-term government securities, as opposed to non-interest bearing, totally unsecured savings and checking accounts) crash landed.

stay-calm-says-gregory-becker-svb-bankAnd, in a matter of a few hours last Thursday afternoon, when SVB President and CEO Greg Becker hosted a Zoom meeting to calm investors and customers after the bank’s stock price dropped 80% in a single day, he proclaimed, “the bank is n a strong position with lots of liquidity, so stay calm and don’t panic”, government regulators stepped in and seized the bank.

Throughout the past 48 hours, there has been no shortage of media pundits and ‘experts’ opining across social media about the collapse of SVB, most using 20-20 hindsight, and more than a handful serving as bomb-throwers (e.g. Bill Ackman).

Perhaps the most hysterical comment came from non-other than Donald Trump (the former President who is facing multiple criminal indictments while insisting he will seek his old job in the 2024 presidential election). Trump has unabashedly blamed “Out-Of-Control Democrats” for the SBV collapse, despite the fact that Trump signed the 2018 bill that rolled back Dodd-Frank, legislation that was designed to prevent exactly the type of bank failure that SBV succumbed to!

MarketsMuse editorial team will let the media and financial industry pundits perform forensic post-mortems as to what caused the collapse of the “Silicon Valley Banker to the Bros’, even if a 1st-year undergraduate taking Econ 101 could do the autopsy within ten minutes.

And, we’ll allow everyone else to speculate on the prospective impact on the start-up community, whether SVB’s collapse will cause a banking sector contagion and result in more bank runs, or whether the ripple effect will lead to another (well-deserved) rinsing in the overall stock market this coming week.

However, the editorial team at MarketsMuse can only chuckle when noticing how many see fit to blame SVB’s implosion on Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell. Why is it his fault?

Because, according to these muppets, “Powell’s increasing interest rates aggressively for the past year impaired SVB’s balance sheet”. Nobody wants to acknowledge the balance sheet was loaded with long-term maturity mortgage bonds and government securities they bought (using leverage) when interest rates were under 2%, and that SVB finance geniuses failed to hedge or simply sell out of the long-dated bonds and buy securities with shorter maturities that were paying higher interest rates. Do we guess they didn’t want to suffer a loss on those lousy trades? MORONS?

Just like Fundstrat’s genius Tom Lee, or Cathie Woods, the “iconic investor in innovation”, along with a bunch of other stock bulls who have continuously chosen to attribute their investment losses throughout the past 2 years to wild claims that “the stock market [and in particular, the overvalued, unprofitable companies we recommend investing in] would do just fine if only Jay Powell didn’t raise interest rates to fight inflation!”

Other than perhaps legendary skeptic and short seller Marc Cohodes, very few of the ‘observers’ who are tweeting post-mortems about SVB (even before rigor mortis has set in), have said “The writing was on the wall for the past 18 months-and we told you this would happen!”  Harry Markopolos, the legendary skeptic who tried and failed to convince regulators that Bernie Madoff was running a multi-$billion Ponzi scheme would have been laughed at again if SVB were on his radar screen.  

Instead, since the FDIC seized SVB on Friday, many across the PE, VC, and hedge fund community are crying out that “the US Treasury should bailout SVB”,  with many insisting “it’s the Federal Government’s job to protect our investments in that bank..”

uncle billy, bailey bank and loan SVB FinancialWe think not. And for a host of reasons. Not because SVB is akin to the community bank Bailey Building and Loan, the bank portrayed in the iconic film starring Jimmy Stewart, “It’s a Wonderful Life”

Firstly, if Janet Yellin really thought SVB’s collapse will instigate a contagion that will threaten the national banking system, then she should reach out to JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, BofA’s Brian Moynihan, Morgan Stanley’s Jim Gorman (among others) and invite them to form a consortium to bailout SVB. This should not be (and must not be) a bailout that US taxpayers underwrite. 

In fact, if the pragmatic solution is to have the ‘too big to fail’ banks bail out SVB, Jamie Dimon should insist that Elizabeth Warren appear on national television and say “PLEASE, Jamie-Help Us Solve the Crisis! Pretty Please?!”     

Breaking News: The good news for those who are staunchly opposed to a government rescue (despite the whining of Bill Ackman who advocates the government to step in and rescue the Menlo Park bank) is that Janet Yellin said today (Sunday Mar 12) that the US Treasury WILL NOT BAIL OUT SVB!”

Thank goodness for Janet Yellin displaying sensibility. And, with all due respect, we say F U to Bill Ackman, Mark Cuban, and the assortment of conflicted hypocrites!

Above-referenced and iconic short-seller Marc Cohodes will say, “I told you so.” He was short SVB last year (but closed the position so he could use his firepower to short Carvana). And Cohodes is now advocating short-selling other banks, including Signature Bank (NASDAQ:$SBNY) “because it’s a notorious money-laundering operation for the crypto community.” (Editor Note: He’s not the only one that believes that).

BREAKING NEWS: COHODES SHORT OF $SBNY PROVES PRESCIENT HOURS AFTER HE DISCLOSED HE WAS SHORT; SUNDAY MAR 12 2023 NEW YORK REGULATORS SEIZE SIGNATURE BANK

FDIC APPOINTED RECEIVER FOR SIGNATURE BANK

Signature Bank Board Member Barney Frank has “no comment”. Trump’s favorite New York City Bank Gets Busted.

Cohodes was shorting SVB shares likely because of the following 6 Reasons:

  • he knows how to read a balance sheet, which was highly leveraged with long-term bond holdings (purchased on margin) in the face of a historic rising interest rate regime)
  • the SVB balance sheet was also comprised of billions of dollars of loans to unprofitable startups that collateralized those loans with warrants in their non-publicly traded stocks, with no visibility towards an IPO event,
  • SVB had no Risk Officer since last April until January of this year (Laura Izurieta, the former CRO cashed out in April after taking a $4mil severance and she wasn’t replaced until January of this year),
  • that there was no adult in the room overseeing risk management, and SVB’s Risk Committee included not a single independent individual who works in the banking industry
  • that when/if those start-ups actually figured out that their cash deposits at SVB were not insured or secured, and then determined it was prudent to pull their cash out, it would decimate SVB’s entire balance sheet, and leave them stuck without their cash
  • $SVIB was on CNBC’s Jim Cramer’s list of “best stock picks for 2023”   
  • Editor Note: Take a look at Matt Tuttle‘s overview of his latest ETF, the Jim Cramer Tracker Inverse ETF BATS:SJIM
  • The Board of Directors of SVB is INEPT.  Hindsight is not needed to appreciate SVB’s BOD is [mostly*] packed with startup founders who have NO risk management credentials, sitting alongside the former CEO of Barclays, a bank that that got hit with more fines for internal control failures than any bank of its size.

*Hard to understand what SVB Director Mary Miller has been doing or where she has been for the past 18 months. After all, she was U.S Treasury Under Secretary for Domestic Finance for a couple of years. She’s been a board member of SVB since 2015; one would think she should have raised her hand and asked a few questions at more recent SVB board meetings.

Will the SVB debacle lead to contagion across the regional banking industry? Maybe, if depositors who have not bothered to move their savings accounts into higher-yielding, short-term US Treasuries stampede in mass this week and withdraw their funds from their shitbanks, in turn, cause those bank asset balances to drop precipitously. Or Maybe Not.

Will there be a firesale of selling in shares of regional bank stocks in the coming days? Maybe. Maybe not.

Will the financial industry’s grave dancers, opportunistic PE firms, and larger banks step in to buy stakes in those banks at big discounts? If there is a firesale, count on Bill Ackman, Ken Griffin, Steve Cohen, Thomas Petterfy, and others in that crowd to step in alongside Jamie Dimon and brethren big banks to scoop up shares at big markdowns.

One very astute trader we spoke with, who is hopeful the markets this week will create lop-sided pricing cited the famous words of Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) in the classic film, “Apocolypse Now”; “I love the smell of napalm in the morning!”

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Bankrupt Crypto Firm Three Arrows Capital Has a New Pitch; Caveat Emptor

The founders of Singapore-based and now bankrupt crypto “investment firm” Three Arrows Capital (aka 3AC), Su Zhu and Kyle Davies seem to aspire to be profiled in “Ripley’s Believe It or Nuts” with their latest pitch to investors: “For a mere $25mil, we aim to build a ‘crypto bankruptcy claims platform’ that can enable [defrauded] investors to sell their claims against Three Arrows (which amount to $3.bil), as well as any of the several dozen other defunct crypto firms, via an online exchange, for what is likely to yield those investors pennies on the dollar.

3AC Founders Su Zhu (l) and Kyle Davies (r)

As reported by StraightsTimes.com, “Mr Zhu and Mr Davies’ proposed venture “is akin to arsonists returning to the scene of the crime and offering to charge their victims for buckets of water”, Mr Nic Carter, a partner at crypto venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures, said in an e-mail.

(The full article from Jan 18 2023 StraightsTimes.com)

The pitch deck that is being passed around suggests that the new platform, which they had initially dubbed “GTX” will compete with already-established Xclaim by offering “lower listing fees and lower transaction commissions than existing bankruptcy claims platforms.” They are teaming up with the founders of CoinFlex, a digital asset exchange that filed for restructuring in Seychelles last August. For those not aware, CoinFlex was among a cohort of “digital exchanges” that offered “yield farming” schemes with ‘guaranteed 8%-15% interest on deposits!’

Editors Note: The entire notion of yield farming has, until recently, been the underpinning of the crapto industry. The fact that hundreds of thousands of individual investors were lured into believing they could earn ‘risk-free’ interest on their deposits, with the interest payments far exceeding the interest on money market accounts, government bonds and/or other legitimate securities held in regulated financial institutions, speaks to a much deeper issue: A Fool and His Money Are Soon Parted.

Three Arrows imploded in 2022 and left behind ashes for lenders and investors, but not before enriching themselves . They bought a $50mil yacht, mansions, and took ‘loans’ from their own firm to fuel extravagant lifestyles.

A December 4, 2022 update from the 3AC bankruptcy trustee states, “We have had to effectively recreate the company and the records of the company from scratch” because Mr Zhu and Mr Davies are not cooperating, said Mr Russell Crumpler, a liquidator for Three Arrows in the British Virgin Islands.

But, according to several crapto industry insiders, these boys shouldn’t be tarnished; after all, “that’s what the vast majority of Crytpo Cool Kids have been doing for years; plundering the assets entrusted to them”.

According to informed sources, a draft of a Three Arrows Capital investor solicitation memo for the “GTX” claims platform initiative, written in gobbledygook and translated by this outlet, reads as follows:

Dear Investor:

We know that the “crypto winter” has resulted in many people’s investments turning into worthless crap. Many have lost life savings, and many others have had their accounts frozen by bankruptcy liquidators. We ourselves have had our $50mil yacht, which we acquired with Three Arrows Capital investors’ funds, seized by liquidators.

Our Dreams of Owning This Yacht Were Sunk!!!

All of this is a shame. This has been a difficult time for both myself and Kyle, and our investors in Three Arrows Capital, yet our respective academic and career pedigrees (we were both schooled at Phillips Academy, then Columbia University before we went to work as derivatives traders at esteemed banks Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank), have emboldened us to overcome all obstacles!

andrew-ross-katz-arrested-apr 1 2021 miami florida
Crypto Industry Scammer Andrew R. Katz

[BTW- Re mugshot photo, WE ARE NOTHING LIKE THE CRYPTO CRETIN PROFILED HERE!

Now, we can help you recover some (or as SBF suggests, much of your assets) via a new, online crypto bankruptcy claims platform that we are building. And, if you invest in our new scheme, we believe the profits generated by our business model will deliver 10x returns on your investment.

3AC-GTX-Crypto Bankruptcy Claims Exchange Pitch Deck
3AC-GTX-Crypto Bankruptcy Claims Exchange Pitch Deck

We are seeking $25mil for the new platform, the minimum investment in the new limited partnership is only $100k. The link to our pitch deck is here.

It is true that similar online platforms exist, and the cost to build such platforms is typically no more than $500k-$1.5mil. But, this cost to build doesn’t include the extra security software applications that will protect the online document exchange system and private email messaging application built into the system. The security software component that protects against hacking will cost us another $2mil.

The remaining $20mil from our capital raise will necessarily be needed to fund the lifestyles of our founders, including the legal fees that we are now subjected to for our past indiscretions. We will also be hiring five or six software engineers to build and maintain the new platform at princely sums, and there will be software licensing fees for chatbots to interact with system users.

According to Reuters, The Total Addressable Market (TAM) for the crypto bankruptcy claims marketplace is already $20bil when considering the travails of Genesis, Core Scientific, BlockFi, FTX, Celsius, Babel Finance, Ourselves/Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital, Zipmex, Hodlnaut, Blockchain Global, FCoin. among others.

We believe that we can capture 50% market share within 12 months of launch, and generate as much as $1 billion in revenue via listing fees and transaction fees within 2-5 years.

(It is true that our internal analysis shared via private txt messages [which Gary Gensler could never discover], predicts we might more likely generate as little as $5mil in top line revenue within 5 years. And, with a budgeted operating overhead of $5mil per month towards paying us (the GPs), along with the costs of sponsoring boondoggles, industry conferences, putting our firm’s name on sports venues, and compensating celebrity endorsers such as Mr. Wonderful, Anthony Scaramucci, the Winklevoss bros, Brock Pierce and others, it will require us to raise additional tranches of capital in the months ahead. But, instead of diluting your investment via multiple rounds, the good news for first-in investors is that we already plan on merging with an existing SPAC, whose share value should skyrocket, much like NYSE: DWAC surged after announcing it would merge with Donald Trump’s “Truth Social” enterprise.

If you would like a copy of the offering prospectus, please remit your indication of interest via Twitter to either myself ( @zhusu ) or Kyle .

Warm regards, Su Zhu and Kyle Davies.

If you’ve got a hot insider tip, a bright idea, or if you’d like to get visibility for your brand through MarketsMuse via subliminal content marketing, advertorial, blatant shout-out, spotlight article, news release etc., please reach out to our Senior Editor via cmo@marketsmuse.com

matthew krueger seaquake krugs consulting

Fraudster CFO Re-Invents Himself; Former Seaquake Executive Matt Krueger Has New CV

Matthew J. Krueger, who until October 2022 had displayed himself on both LinkedIn and the Seaquake.io website as the Chief Financial Officer for “digital asset infrastructure firm”, Seaquake.io, an enterprise that specialized in bilking investors out of their money, has apparently made efforts to re-invent himself and ‘erase’ his role for Seaquake.io, as his bio on that firm’s website, as well as that of the firm’s CEO and convicted felon Andrew R. Katz and that of “CTO” Dylan Knight were removed last month.

Krueger has apparently now re-invented himself as a venture building, consulting and financial modeling expert and offers his services through a newly-created entity called Krügs Consulting.

seaquake.io crypto scam-andrew katz-matthew krueger-dylan-knight
Seaquake.io principals Andrew Katz (l), “CFO” Matthew J. Krueger (c) and CIO Dylan Knight

Krueger’s updated bio on LinkedIn suggests that he is a finance consultant and ‘venture builder’ under the auspices of “Krugs Consulting“. His LinkedIn bio suggests that he has operated this entity since 2018, although prior to the LinkedIn update, he made no mention of this entity, which is not registered to do business in California, or any other jurisdiction.

In his bullet-pointed prior roles and responsibilities, Krueger advertises that he is “an expert in financial models, fintech enterprises, cash settlement, and managing investor expectations”, and that he “built the financial model for a startup’s crypto mining operations for SOSV Chinaaccellerator.” He also says he was a former Head of Finance for Venmo.

Causing those who are familiar with the Seaquake Scoundrels to smirk. The Krugs Consulting website linked to Krueger’s LinkedIn profile does not display a bio of any principals of the firm, yet it indicates having offices in San Francisco, Wyoming, and Estonia. No great surprise as to San Francisco, as this is where he lives. Wyoming? Matt Krueger has proven to be fluent in establishing corporate entities (and closing them), as he has created a number of shell companies on behalf of Seaquake that are registered in Wyoming. Yet there is no Krugs Consulting registered with the State of Wyoming. Office in Estonia? Perhaps that is a favored place to domicile a crypto account these days?

Matthew J. Krueger, former CFO of Seaquake, now “principal of Krügs Consulting”

Krueger (not surprisingly) now makes NO reference to his 4-year tenure as CFO of Seaquake (or “Seaquack” as some refer to it), yet the SOSV reference on his updated LinkedIn profile is a tell, as that China-based ‘venture firm’ went to great lengths to promote the fact it had invested in Seaquake in 2020 (well after news of Seaquake scamming other investors became a matter of public record.) Though few are familiar with SOSV Chinaaccellerator, one can guess that they enable scammers as easily as Sequoia Capital did for Sam Bankman-Fried and his FTX Crypto Exchange.

Regarding Krueger’s Venmo role, a seasoned background check expert will tell you that Venmo HR records indicate he was terminated for cause.

So, in view of Krueger’s role at Seaquake, those seeking an expert in money laundering via off-shore crypto accounts, or how to open a bank account using other people’s identities, or those hoping for a playbook on how to craft fraudulent financial statements who can help perpetuate investor fraud schemes would find Mr. Krueger to be just the kind of co-conspirator for your next initiative.

ftx-exchange-sam bankman-fried

FTX Crypto Exchange Debacle Simply Explained

Sam Bankman-Fried (aka “SBF”) Fries Clients and Customers

FTX Crypto Exchange Bankruptcy Explained; Investors Loss Estimated at $2bil; Exchange Customers Loss Estimated at $4bil-$5bil (so far..)

Comparisons Made to Lehman Brothers Scandal; Sam Bankman-Fried Scheme More Similar to Jon Corzine Shenanigans when he ran MF Global into the ground.

FTX & Alameda Research Found Sam Bankman-Fried with Carlyle Group Co-Founder and Billionaire David Rubenstein

By now, the travails and debacle of FTX Cryptocurrency Exchange, established by MIT wunderkind and former Jane Street Capital trader Sam Bankman-Fried aka “SBF”, has sucked up more oxygen in the media landscape than 1000x the electricity needed to mine $5trillion worth of crypto / craptocurrency*.  

(* Editors note: MarketsMuse hereby petitions the financial industry, the media, and all others to now refer to “Crypto Industry” as “Crapto Industry”; and we have secured trademarks for the new phrase, as well as the trademark for “CraptoCoins”).

As of this writing, Google has counted more than 120 million search inquiries for the search term Sam Bankman-Fried and 6,500,000 search inquiries for “FTX”; the former far eclipsing the 30 million searches for “FM Global Crisis” and the 11 million queries for “Lehman Crisis”, the story that profiled Lehman Brothers collapse, the poster-child for the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. At this pace, “FTX” queries will dwarf the 220 million searches on Google re: “Global Financial Crisis 2008”.

Shocked??

But, as pictured below, this ain’t the first and it won’t be the last financial scandal. Not by a long shot. When considering this generation’s more recent protagonists, why would anyone be shocked??

According to the assortment of news reports, a cohort of 80+ institutional investors who manage respective pension fund and HNW client assets, along with a handful of individual celebrity investors (e.g. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Millenium Management’s billionaire founder and chairman, Israel Englander, hedge fund legend Paul Tudor Jones, Shark Tank star, Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Reilly, and football legend/investor Tom Brady), had deployed more than $2bil to either FTX entities, and/or SBF’s proprietary trading firm, Alameda Research, both enterprises entirely controlled by SBF.

Former Jane Street trader and FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried aka “SBF”

“FTX is the high-quality, global crypto exchange the world needs, and it has the potential to become the leading financial exchange for all types of assets. Sam is the perfect founder to build this business, and the team’s execution is extraordinary. We are honored to be their partners.” — Alfred Lin, partner at Sequoia Capital

So, MarketsMuse editors have attempted to consolidate the coverage and unpack the events that inspired the venture capital’s ‘smartest investors’ (including Altimeter Capital to BlackRock, Greylock, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Ventures, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Pantera Capital, Sequoia Capital, Softbank, Temasek Holdings, Dan Loeb’s Third Point Ventures, and Thoma Bravo to disregard any standard or semblance of due diligence before they parted with their client’s money.

“We have watched with excitement as Sam and the FTX team have successfully built the most cutting-edge, sophisticated cryptocurrency exchange in the world. While this has been an incredible accomplishment in itself, their commitment to making a positive impact on the world through their business is what sets the company apart. We are thrilled to partner with FTX on their next phase of growth as they create a new ecosystem for crypto.” — Orlando Bravo, founder and managing partner at Thoma Bravo

In the simplest terms, all of these investors deployed their clients’ money because they all determined (or were told) that SBF was a genius trader who earned $100mil for himself while working for HFT firm Jane Street, and then left to set up his own firm, where he made himself into a billionaire by buying and selling crapto currencies. Believing he could build a better mousetrap for people to trade crapto, he took some of his profits to build a “world-class crapto currency exchange.” That exchange, FTX, quickly attracted as many as one million retail customers, all of whom were convinced they could make fortunes via “yield farming” (a bizarre means by which investors attempt to earn Madoff-level interest on their money via purchasing and then lending out ‘coins’ to others), or buying and selling a broad assortment of ‘currencies’ that dominate the Crapto Industry. 

Keep in mind, that the many “industry experts”, outspoken advocates, and the several dozens of ‘asset managers’ overseeing billions of dollars of investors’ money, who “specialize in digital assets”, all these people buy and sell what most industry insiders acknowledge to be nothing more than air bubbles.

A Leading Crypto Trader

According to one such insider (who has held corporate communications roles for several firms in the crapto industry, and who asked to remain nameless, for obvious reasons), “80% of the firms in this business laugh behind the backs of their investors every day; they are getting outsized compensation to simply speculate in tens of dozens of different valueless ‘tokens’ that they [the asset managers] know to be no more akin to being currencies than farts are.”

Added the insider, “just like traditional hedge funds, they get paid hefty management fees, and a fat percentage of the ‘profits’, but unlike traditional hedge funds that invest across a spectrum of legitimate assets and legitimate, industry-regulated derivatives, they are buying and selling the farts in a completely unregulated environment, and when they lose, its no skin off their back. In the interim, they promote themselves (using their clients’ money) at lavish industry conferences and boondoggles, they host six-figure corporate offsites, they sponsor sports teams, all to the expense of investors who are told they can beat the returns of the best legitimate hedge funds in the world.”

Sam Bankman-Fried, aka “SBF”

What happened at FTX? It is pretty simple to understand for those who understand the regulated market structure.

The best analogy is that of commodity trading advisor MF Global, which was torched in 2011 by its CEO and former Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine. The one-time US Senator and one-time New Jersey Governor stepped in to run one of the commodity trading industry’s oldest and largest brokerage firms (previously known as Man Financial), and soon thereafter, he was accused of using customers’ money to backstop highly-leveraged proprietary trades the firm made in emerging market debt and exotic fixed income products. When the leveraged trades went sour, the firm dipped into customer account balances (to the tune of $1bil) to meet margin calls from an assortment of counter-parties, and when rumors heightened as to the precarious nature of the firm’s proprietary trading activities, customers flocked en masse to get their funds out of the firm. But the funds were not in their accounts, as they had been pledged as collateral by the financial alchemists at MF Global.

Jon Corzine, MF Global Alchemist

To a great extent, the same thing happened to FTX and SBF. His proprietary trading firm, Alameda Research, was making outsized bets in crapto currencies, including buying his own firm’s private label crapto, “FTT”, which he used as ‘currency’ to purchase control of an assortment of competing firms, including a list of failing firms in the industry that went belly-up in the midst of this year’s ‘crypto winter’.

The best part? NO internal risk management, no internal compliance, no industry regulators to wander in and interrogate any risk management systems, no adults in the room, and no industry clearing organizations that have any rules or procedures to govern the extent of leverage trading firms can use.

This is exactly what the industry, including the biggest player and notorious money-laundering platform Binance has been working towards since Day `1. “We don’t believe in following the regulations of other people, we are independent, we know better!”

Worth mentioning, despite MF Global operating in a completely regulated industry (regulated by CFTC), Corzine, started as a bond trader before becoming CEO at Goldman Sachs. Per above, before MF Global, he was Governor of New Jersey and also U.S. Senator for New Jersey; despite the shenanigans that took place at MF Global, he was never criminally prosecuted. He did pay a $5mil fine and was banned from serving in a leadership role for any CFTC-regulated firm.

One interesting factoid, current SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler was the CFTC Commissioner who approved the final outcome for Corzine.

ftx-exchange-sam bankman-fried

So, what are the key takeaways?

  • A bunch of smart-ass institutional managers who were so enamored with the media reports about wunderkind day trader and trading exchange innovator, SBF, failed in just about every way to perform their fiduciary duties of the FTX exchange, or to question what the relationship was between FTX and SBF’s proprietary trading firm, Alameda Research. Thanks to this gross oversight, these genius investors managed to collectively lose $2bil of their investors’ money. Again, it’s not coming out of those managers’ personal pockets, as they continue to earn 2% fees for ‘managing’ their client’s assets. As a representative for Sequoia stated this past week when informing that firm’s investors they would be writing down $214mil, “We are in the business of taking risk; some investments will surprise to the upside, and some will surprise to the downside.”   Mea Culpa?
  • The Crapto Industry is as completely unregulated as it is completely ‘decentralized’. There is no regulation, and few in the industry want there to be any regulatory oversight, other than perhaps US-domiciled Coinbase and US-domiciled Kraken, another exchange operator.

Case in point, Binance, the world’s largest ‘crypto exchange’ which is operated by freshly-minted billionaire Changpeng Zhao, (another guy who likes to be called by his acronym,“CZ”…What is with these guys? They all emulate Saudi Princes?!) has no credible corporate domicile unless you want to believe that companies registered in the Cayman Islands offer safeguards for investors. The only place on the planet where it is registered with a regulatory agency is France. That’s right, there is no regulatory agency anywhere other than in France that can credibly pursue Binance in the event they are subjected to accusations of bad behavior. Beaucoup de chance!

  • Crapto Currencies are just like farts. The only intrinsic ‘value’ is the hope that some idiot will pay more than you just did. That’s only presuming that someone else likes the smell of your fart and would like to buy it from you and bottle it for safekeeping. Your digital wallets might as well be in the Metaverse, and we know how that’s working out for Zuck.   
  • JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been right all along about the nefarious nature of crypto and bitcoin. Yes, he has since allowed JP Morgan to let customers buy and sell this stuff despite his trepidations. He simply gave in to the underlings who said “the customer is always right and if they want a financial product, it’s our obligation to offer it to them!” Fidelity did the same, they opened the gates to their brokerage firm customers to trade crypto this year.
Has Jamie Hit the Bullseye?
  • Mike Novogratz, another Goldman Sachs aka Squid University alumni, and also a former bond trader, almost blew up Fortress Investment Group all by himself, yet the firm was sold and he turned a $10mil payout into becoming a crapto pioneer and he accumulated a nearly $2b nest egg (down from $8.5b) inside of four years. That aside, most within the industry view him as a renegade, if not a complete knucklehead. His financial services firm, Galaxy Digital, is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (GLXY.CN) and “Novo” is a poster boy for the bitcoin and crapto currency industry. He also managed to get clipped for $80mil in the FTX meltdown. According to those who know him well, he is said to be “certifiable”.
Mike Novogratz, Genius
The Mooch, “I guess I was duped..”
  • Anthony Scaramucci, another graduate of Squid University, and a former Trump Whitehouse spokesperson (for all of 9 days), is yet another celebrity poster child for the crapto industry. He runs a “fund of funds” called “Skybridge”, which is dedicated to taking investor money and buying crapto currrency. During the 2022 crapto meltdown, he managed to squander away hundreds of millions of dollars given to him by investors. Our favorite quote from him (so far) is, “In the future, DOGE may become a competitive store of value. If Bitcoin is digital gold, then DOGE has a chance to become digital silver,” 

When acknowledging that his investment fund, Skybridge, was one of the many who invested in FTX, he said, “Gee, I guess I was duped.” Mea Culpa?

  • Instead of “Crypto Industry”, the active phrase is now Crapto Industry, until such time as investors demand regulations that match those inherent to the US financial market system. We admit that will be a stretch; too many legislators are influenced by big-buck lobbyists who will always be able to buy votes on behalf of their billionaire constituents and industry trade groups that make big bucks at the expense of unwitting, uninformed, or ‘easily-duped’ investors of all shapes and sizes.

Frmr CFTC & Current SEC CommishGary Gensler
  • Gary Gensler is so far over his skis when it comes to advancing important and timely initiatives that will protect investors, its almost indescribable. Let’s not forget that Gensler was the CFTC Commissioner who oversaw the MF Global investigation and the final outcome was a get-out-of-jail-free card for Jon Corzine.
  • Aside from the simple fact that it will take a squadron of lawyers to figure out whether or not the SEC even has jurisdiction over the FTX scandal and SBF, the SEC has long proven itself to be toothless, without qualified resources, and overwhelmed by a tsunami of issues, crimes, and broken policies. Fraudsters and bad actors have little to fear from the SEC, if only because when they do assert laws have been broken, they are obliged to turn over their conclusions to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is equally devoid of prosecutorial talent, and their prosecutors are notorious for limiting their pursuit of criminals to only the biggest headline-grabbing cases.

Case in Point:

seaquake.io crypto scam-andrew katz-matthew krueger-dylan-knight
Seaquake.io Scammers Andrew Katz (l), “CFO” Matthew Krueger (c) and CIO Dylan Knighthttps://www.marketsmuse.com/andrew-katz-seaquake-crypto-firm-still-scamming/

See Seaquake.io Scam website www.seaquake.io

When or if former Disney star Brock Pierce, yet another crapto currency billionaire, re-visits running for President, that’s when we all put our heads between our knees, grab our ankles, and contemplate moving to Kyiv.  

Finally, the explanation we offer regarding the FTX debacle is not intended to decry or debunk the blockchain industry, which is a completely different segment.

As best framed in a series of 2018 articles published at Prospectus.com, Its About Blockchain, blockheads, NOT Bitcoin” , blockchain and distributed ledger applications can offer meaningful utility to a range of enterprise solutions. The only ‘token’ component to these applications is the token (NOT COIN) is used to access applications. Those building enterprise applications rarely incorporate a component that places a value on the token, other than for its purpose of accessing software. Just like a subway token. That’s pretty simple.

Have a tip or a question? Contact Us

andrew-ross-katz-arrested-apr 1 2021 miami florida

Andrew Katz CEO of Fake Crypto Firm Seaquake Latest Felony Charges

Andrew Katz, the self-described CEO of “crypto trading firm” Seaquake.io, an individual whose escapades for defrauding investors and threatening those who have filed complaints against him have been profiled via this platform and other platforms for several years.

In addition to his ongoing efforts to dupe investors (with the latest attempt revealed below), Katz, who also uses the names Ross Katz and Stark Katz, and whose criminal arrest record extends nearly 10 years in four different states, is once again facing felony assault charges, this time in Miami, Florida. Miami-Dade County court records reveal that Katz faces multiple felony charges (Case # 13-2021-CF-005707-0001 ), including assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, false imprisonment, and witness tampering.

CLICK LINK FOR THE POLICE INCIDENT REPORT.

Or, the edited crib notes version is below.

ON ABOVE DATE AND TIME THE FOLLOWING VICTIM OFFICERS RESPONDED TO A DOMESTIC DISPUTE INVOLVING THE DEFENDANT AND HIS PREGNANT GIRLFRIEND AT THEIR APARTMENT AT ABOVE LOCATION, MIAMI POLICE CASE NUMBER 2104010020299.

UPON ARRIVAL THE OFFICERS WERE ADVISED THAT THE FEMALE VICTIM WAS PREGNANT AND WAS BLEEDING. THE DEFENDANT REFUSED TO OPEN THE DOOR AFTER SEVERAL REQUESTS AND WAS WARNED THAT FORCED ENTRY WAS JUSTIFIED FEARING FOR THE SAFETY OF THE VICTIM. THE VICTIM OPENED THE DOOR AND THE DEFENDANT ATTEMPTED TO CLOSE THE DOOR ON THE OFFICERS. SGT. CARLOS MENDEZ# 04714 CAUGHT HIS LEFT ARM IN THE DOOR JAM, THE DEFENDANT GRABBED HIS ARM AND HYPEREXTENDED HIS ARM AND ELBOW BETWEEN THE DOOR AND DOOR JAM. FORCE ENTRY WAS MADE INTO THE APARTMENT TO TAKE THE DEFENDANT INTO CUSTODY.

THE DEFENDANT CONTINUED TO RESIST ARREST NOW USING VIOLENCE TOWARD ALL THREE OFFICERS AND WAS FIGHTING OFFICERS BACK INTO THE HALLWAY. DURING THE STRUGGLE TO TAKE THE DEFENDANT INTO CUSTODY, THE DEFENDANT GRABBED OFFICER MARCOS MARRERO #42514 TAZER AND ATTEMPTED TAKE IT SEVERAL TIMES. THE DEFENDANT THEN TOOK LT. RODOLFO BERTRAND #00377 RADIO DEPRIVING HIM OF RADIO COMMUNICATION. AFTER BEING TAZERED THE DEFENDANT WAS TAKEN INTO CUSTODY WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. SGT. MENDEZ #4714 RECEIVED INJURIES TO HIS LEFT ARM AND ELBOW. OFC. MARRERO #42514 HAD MINOR SCRATCHES TO HIS ARMS RECEIVED DURING THE STRUGGLE FOR HIS TAZER. LT. R. BERTRAND HAD MINOR BUMPS AND BRUISES FROM THE STRUGGLE WHILE HANDCUFFING THE DEFENDANT. DEFENDANT WAS TRANSPORTED TO JMH ER-C FOR PRECAUTIONARY TREATMENT. DEFENDANT ARRESTED.

OFFICERS USING BODY-WORN CAMERA: GUERRIER, C: Court ID: 001-44257 MARRERO, M: Court ID: 001-42514 KENNEDY, J: Court ID: 001-03593

Despite a February 2022 conviction for assault in New York City (for which he purportedly failed to appear for sentencing), Miami-Dade County authorities released Katz, pending an upcoming court appearance, after he posted $75,000 bail.

seaquake-andrew-katz-crypto
Miami-Date Court Records
Case 13-2021-CR-006707-0001-XX

Since the April 2021 arrest in Miami, Katz has undertaken a social media campaign to publish multiple ‘interviews’ on blogs that enable people to promote themselves in exchange for a fee. To deflect negative stories, he has featured himself as a “successful crypto industry entrepreneur”. Per the lower left image, one individual who was recently solicited by Katz has cried “Bullshit!”

Below is the warning alert submitted by that individual in August 2022 via “Dirty Scam.com” a blog that ‘outs’ scamsters.

Editor Note: Katz has systematically rebutted similar accusations by impersonating victims and those associated with the victims by posting “comments” that include an array of defamatory and false allegations in an effort to discredit the accusers. At the same time, and despite Orders of Protection issued by courts in three jurisdictions, Katz has advanced retribution campaigns using burner phones and anonymous email accounts to harass, physically threaten and intimidate those who have brought charges against him. What a brave guy!

Andrew Katz of Seaquake recently contacted me for investment and loan purposes. We met at a party and talked about our businesses. He was interested in what I do.

After a few drinks, he suggested that he could help me in many ways in my business. Talking about his outstanding achievements, he said his company has a huge turnover and is a great player within the crypto industry.

He did tell me about his partner. If I correctly remember the name, it was Matthew Krueger. Although I did not meet this man, Andrew had painted his picture for me. We exchanged numbers and parted to our ways.

seaquake.io crypto scam-andrew katz-matthew krueger-dylan-knight
Seaquake.io principals Andrew Katz (l), “CFO” Matthew Krueger (c), and “CIO” Dylan Knight

After a month, maybe, Andrew called. I recognized his voice right away. He said he was seeking some money for a considerable investment and would offer me a great deal in the profit earned. I was already excited about what he was offering.

But the amount was too huge. So, I asked him to arrange that kind of money for a couple of weeks. He was in a hurry and said that he could not wait. Then I asked him for two days. He sounded calm but still insisted on making it faster.

That was the red flag for me. In those few minutes, I did not ask about any paper works or any roadmap about the investment plan he had. But then it struck me mainly because he sounded too aggressive with the deal.

I started to Google him on the internet and his company. I was shocked that he was a fraud and a big liar. He has many felony charges to his name, and he is a wanted criminal. I called my lawyer right away and asked him to research this guy. To my surprise, he already knew Andrew.

I was saved. He told me everything about Andrew. This guy had felony charges for duping a family in Florida, assault charges, and whatnot. I blocked his number. However, I got a call from an unknown number after two days.

When I answered, it was Andrew. He started abusing me for leaving him in between a great deal after making promises. Without letting me speak, he went on talking rubbish. In the end, I shouted and asked him to calm down. I told him everything about what I knew.

He disconnected the call and never called back. This proves how great of a con artist this man is. He is a great liar and can easily make fake promises and boast about his non-existent company for hours. He can ruin your life without thinking about the consequences.

I give that to him. It is not easy to fool me, but he got me for some time. I am sure I had my lesson learned. And I am not going to believe anything he says anytime later. Stay away from this filth. He can burn your life instantly.

The individual who posted this experience did not provide his/her name and presumably posted anonymously in order to protect himself/herself from a barrage of retaliatory attacks from Katz.

All of this begs the question as to what other investors, including Crypto Industry Pioneer Brock Pierce and Blockchain Founders Fund, portrayed on the Seaquake.io website, have to say about all of this.

andrew-katz-seaquake-investors-fraud
*Individual names and images of Seaquake investors were recently removed Seaquake website

Editors Note: Efforts to secure comments from Miami-Dade County State’s Attorney Office, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Investor(s) Brock Pierce, and Blockchain Founders Fund principal Aly Madhavji were not responded to.

stock_forcaster-stock-market-pundits-2022-SPY-marketsmuse-warren-buffet

September Cycles & Stock Market Pundits

September (and October) are typically the most negative time periods for stock market investors, and to illustrate this seasonal pattern, this year is no different. And, stock market pundits are once again in the limelight.

First, if you are a CNBC enthusiast, stop reading here. Our MarketsMuse team has voted unanimously for you to cut the chord if your investment horizon is longer than 1-4 days. The stock market pundits on that program are, for the most part, day traders whose holding period on a particular trade is shorter than the days you would keep milk in your ice box.

(Editor Note: THEIR DEFINITION OF “INVESTMENT” IS BASED ON ANNUALIZED RETURNS; if they can make 1% -2% inside of two or three days, the odds are you won’t get the memo that they took their profits and ran! The odds are greater still that any of those folks who appear daily will admit that they took a loss two days after their ‘pick’ plummeted by more than 5%.)

Second, if you do follow financial news headlines, you might already appreciate that every major investment bank, whether it be JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley or Bank of America, has its own pundits whose internal views are diametrically opposed to each other. Why would you be a “High Networth Client” of any of these firms, when they can’t even agree internally on how to advise you?! Good question.

In June of this year, and then again in July, JP Morgan’s 66- year old Chairman & CEO Jamie Dimon, who is no novice when it comes to financial market assessments, was vociferous in his view that equities markets were facing a pending hurricane. Yet the same day in June that Dimon became a front page ‘bomb thrower’, his very highly-paid Chief Market Strategist Marco Kolanovick advised JP Morgan clients to “buy the dip”, as the 46-year-old ‘genius’ predicted US stocks (as measured by S&P 500) “will likely rally and close the year unchanged”.

At Bank of America, Chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan (62 years old) has remained an ardent bull throughout the ups and bigger downs of 2022, while his Chief Market Strategist has been as grizzly as an angry bear since the beginning of the year. Goldman Sachs’s top guns have leaned toward the less-than-optimistic view for most of the year, following the lead of its Chairman David Solomon. Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman has been been a bull for much of the year, and his Chief Market Strategist, Mike Wilson has been pounding the bear table, as he had been since early 2021.

All of this proves that broken clocks can be right at some point.

So, what is an investor (and or a CNBC ‘short-term trader’) to do, knowing that September-October time sell-offs are the best advertised “upcoming crisis events” since long before Millenials were even born?

MarketsMuse has been following an assortment of stock market pundits, ‘technicians’, and global macro experts for months. The stock market pundits have reliably proven to be wrong, simply because most of them are employed by asset managers and investment banks whose primary purpose of existence is to sell investment products to confused investors. The notion of advising clients to “stay in cash until there is more clarity” is the last thing they would advise, until after the stock market has rebounded 25% from its lowest point. And in bear markets, that is precisely the time to lighten up, not to enter.

The chartists have proven prescient (with bearish medium-to-long term views, and while various global macro gurus have been somewhat blind-sided thanks to “not anticipating extent of Russia-Ukraine fiasco to “discounting what the Fed meant and what they heard the Fed say”. The global macro pundits who take into technical analysis along with the assortment of pillars within the global macro playbook have, for the most part, been telling you to be wary of buying stocks since the Fed went into QT (Quantitative Tightening) mode.

Lesson to be learned: NEVER FIGHT THE FED; regardless of what Jim Cramer spews.

We can tell you that two of the more objective market experts that we’ve followed include Michael Kramer of Mott Capital and Neil Azous of Rareview Capital. Both of these 40-something students of financial markets have proven prescient throughout the year.

Kramer operates a relatively small hedge fund, yet is not beholden to bomb throwing and his humility factor is rare. While his equity-focused fund strategy is benchmarked to the S&P500 and that fund’s performance is still slightly negative on the year to date, his short-term trading calls have proven to be rock solid. Kramer is clearly a fan of all things technical, and his daily tweets and article posts on Seeking Alpha have made for great short and medium-term forecasts. Below are excerpts from charts that he has posted in recent weeks.

Rareview Capital’s Neil Azous layers his fundamental research (which incorporates rates, FX, energy, and geopolitical risk metrics) on top of technical charts. For example, in late April, after the S&P 500 had fallen from 4600 would to 4200, Azous sent a letter to a close-knit group of the world’s most sophisticated investors and warned of a fall down to 3600. Two weeks later, many (but not all) Wall Street analysts pivoted from bullish to bearish and bid on to Azous’s forecast. Azous then re-iterated his less than sanguine view in mid-May, suggesting S&P 500 (would likely go below 3400 before the worst was over).

Throughout the year, Bridgewater Capital’s Ray Dalio, viewed as one of a unique breed of global macro thought-leaders) has been an outspoken bear, even if it took him until recently to ballast his firm’s exposure to Chinese equities. While Wall Street stock market pundits have been pushing the buy the dip strategy, Dalio’s Bridgewater has reported 30% gains on investments. He’s still a bear; Dalio suspects the next 10 years will fall into the category of “another lost decade”.

From a historical perspective (yes, Matilda, history does it repeat itself!), and taking into account 2022 stock investors have suffered their worst start to a year since 1970, consider the following factoids that we sourced from across the ethernet:

  • According to APNews, bear markets since World War II have taken an average of 13 months to go from peak to trough, whereas the average time for the stock market to recover stands at 27 month
  • Forbes 08-24-22*  “In fact, the average length of a bear market for the S&P 500 is just 289 days. That’s not a typo. Just over 9 months and the average bear market is done. Finished. Not only that, but once the market turns around, the average bull market runs for 991 days or 2.7 years. Not a bad deal for investors. The bear market in the S&P 500 was confirmed on June 13th, 2022, but the market began its slide on January 3rd 2022. With this date as the start of the current official bear market, the average bear market of 289 days means that it would finish on the 19th of October 2022.
  • So there you go, the bear market will end, based on the historical average, in the Fall and the good times will be back by Christmas. * https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2022/08/24/the-average-bear-market-lasts-289-days-how-long-do-we-have-left/?sh=66f6e5245d5d
  • Raymond James’ historical performance of the S&P 500 Index throughout from `1926 through March 2017. The average Bear Market period lasted 1.4 years with an average cumulative loss of -41%.
  • Felix Richter / Statista.com June 2022  https://www.statista.com/chart/27616/length-and-depth-of-the-latest-s-p-500-bear-markets/bear Bear markets are not an everyday occurrence, thankfully, with the latest one being just the fourth in the 21st century. Looking at past bear markets all the way back to the 1970s indicates that things could very well get worse before they get better. In the previous seven bear markets, the S&P 500 dropped by an average of 38 percent before turning around and it often took years before the index had recovered all of its losses and returned to its previous peak.
  • Across the 10 bear markets since 1950, the longest was 929 days and the shortest was 33 days. Since 2000, there have been only three bear markets not including this one. One of those was history’s shortest; Bear markets, even the long ones, have always given way to bull markets
  • 1973-1974  48% decline, 69 months to break even..
  • 1980- 20 months; then 3 months to break even
  • 2008- 50% decline and two years to break even
  • S&P 500 bear markets since 1946 have taken an average of 389 calendar days to bottom, and then another two years to return to their prior high.
  • We are currently experiencing the 22nd bear market since 1929
  • The average loss of bear markets to reach the bottom before turning back up since 1929;  37%, Median 33.5%
  • The average length of a bear market is 344 days, median of 240 days (best case 2 years, outside 3 years)
  • 1990 bear market lasted 31 months
  • Nine of the 12 bear markets since 1948 have been accompanied by recessions, according to investment research firm CFRA
  • From peak Dec 1972, it took 8 years and 8 months  (to July 1980) for SP500 to achieve break even. Then it rallied 25% over the next 2 years, then fell 30% over the following two years into Aug 1983; not returning to a high point until January 1985
  • 2000-2007 was the lost decade.  Let’s not forget 2008-2013; prices peaked in late 2007, and did not achieve ‘break even’ until April 2013… Slightly higher (before adjusting for inflation) vs SP high of 2000.  So that’s actually a lost decade and ½.
  • According to investment analysis firm Seeking Alpha, the average duration of an S&P 500 bear market since the 1920s has been 289 days or about nine and half months. (The shortest, in March 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, lasted just one month.) On average, the S&P 500 declined about 36% during those bear periods. 
  • But more recently, the 14 bear markets since World War II have averaged 359 days, or close to a year, according to Bespoke Investment Group.
  • Analyzing all the bear markets since World War II, Ben Carlson of Ritholtz Wealth Management found it took 12 months to go from “peak to trough,” or from the end of a period of growth to hitting rock bottom. That means the current bear market would bottom out at the beginning of 2023, a year after January’s peak.
  • Jan 2022, famed chartist Larry Williams predicted a series of declines and rallies, yet argued S&P500 would close the year higher. Yikes.
  • One of the shortest bear markets: Feb 2020 to Aug 2020, it took only 9 months to break even (more precisely, the shortest bear market in recent history Jan 2020 to Oct 2020 (pandemic era, the QE era with near-zero interest rates)
  • 2016 A recent study from Oxford University found that “returns on stocks with the most optimistic analyst long-term earnings growth forecasts are substantially lower than those for stocks with the most pessimistic forecasts.” In other words, your investment portfolio would be better off if you did the exact opposite of what most Wall Street analysts advise.

If you have a comment, a contribution or a tip, please reach out to us

mike novogratz crypto industry

The Tale of Crypto Talking Head Mike Novogratz

mike novogratz galaxy digital

For those not aware, Michael Novogratz, the famed crypto industry ‘pioneer’ and crypto evangelist is a former Goldman Sachs ‘global macro wunderkind’ who then did a stint at asset management firm Fortress Investments, which cratered during his watch, turned into a bitcoin evangelist and became the “bitcoin billionaire” brains behind “crypto investment firm” Galaxy Digital. He has a long history of making big bets with other people’s money. Unfortunately, his gambles have often turned into snake-eyes when the dice stopped rolling.

But that’s OK, his personal investment accounts weren’t exposed to the slaughter that was wreaked on Fortess’s institutional investors when his misguided bets on Brazil currency back in 2014 turned into sour coffee grinds. The losses on bets he made or oversaw devastated Fortess, yet the firm managed to extricate its stakeholders through an IPO, enabling Fortress executives to cash out with tens of millions of dollars each.  

“At Fortress troubles first surfaced in the macro funds run by Novogratz, a man known for his glitzy lifestyle, complete with a Tribeca duplex once owned by Robert De Niro and a flamboyant wardrobe featuring diamond-studded belts and cowboy boots.”

He quit Fortress to start a firm to invest his own wealth. He kept investigating bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, becoming more serious about the investments.

Over time, Mr. Novogratz came to see them as a “really cool new technology” that was likely better capable of storing value amid rising inflation than alternatives, he said at a recent conference. Soon, he was a true convert, buying $10 million of bitcoin and another cryptocurrency called ether partly because he sensed a lack of trust in global currencies, he said.  See https://www.wsj.com/articles/mike-novogratzs-crypto-comeback-faces-a-trial-by-fire-11654315211

mike novogratz luna

During the past five years, Novogratz has become the poster child for crypto and bitcoin, “talking his book” at every opportunity, and helping to lead thousands of blind mice investors to pump up the price of bitcoin and to plow hundreds of millions of dollars into his firm Galaxy Digital (OTCMKTS: BRPHF) so that he could “invest for them”—while reaping fees that would make most people’s eyes pop out.

Throughout the unprecedented bubble building in crypto “currencies”, Novogratz and many other evangelists/promoters including Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, Michael Saylor, Disney film star Brock Pierce, the Winklevoss twins, investing genius and former Donald Trump PR trumpeter Anthony Scaramucci, Internet Billionaire and Game Show Host Mark Cuban among so many others, have proclaimed that Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, and many others represent “a store of value”, “a hedge against inflation”, “a safe haven when traditional financial assets (stocks, bonds, sovereign currencies) suffer from global economic and geopolitical turmoil.” All the crypto evangelists, and in particular, famed hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, proclaim that Bitcoin and other so-called currencies represent the “digital version of gold“; which many global investors believe to be a useful hedging tool that should be part of every portfolio.

So let’s take a measure. Since January of 2022, the US equities markets (as measured by S&P 500 index, DJIA, as well as markets in many other advanced countries have suffered generational losses in share prices. The declines of 25% in value in equity prices are thanks to an inflationary spiral caused by supply-chain challenges brought on by Covid 19, monetary policies that created historic government hand-outs in an effort to stem the impact of Covid-19, along with a global geopolitical crisis thanks to Russia invading Ukraine, and a sober reaction to over-inflated enterprise valuations and hysterical stock market speculation. The combination of these events has almost no comparison when looking back five decades.

Yes, stock markets are cyclical and suffer bear markets and crashes; some short-lived, others longer-lasting. The global benchmark S&P 500 is off 24% from its Dec 2021 all-time high; the German Stock Market Index has shaved 20% from its high, and the Shanghai Stock Index is off 10%. Gold, the universal hedge against both geopolitical crisis and inflation, is up a scant 1% YTD. Bitcoin, the proclaimed “hedge against all of the above-noted crisis events” has plunged 69% from its stratospheric all-time high.

As of June 18 2022, Bitcoin has lost more than 60% of its “value” on a YTD basis.

Among other investments, Mike Novogratz, via Galaxy, was a big backer of Terra Luna–a platform based on Tether, the digital asset platform that was co-founded by another crypto genius, former child-actor Brock Pierce. He’s a self-proclaimed billionaire too–and many refer to him as the “Prince of Puerto Rico” in view of the real estate he has acquired and the influence he has over the swarm of crypto ‘entrepreneurs’ who have taken over much of that island.

Like Novogratz, Pierce is an active investor in a broad swath of crypto initiatives and start-ups, one of which is a phony funny, yet apparently, a fraudulent firm calling itself Seaquake.io, for which Pierce is identified as an advisor. It is also a criminal enterprise that MarketsMuse has profiled for the past two years, and its founder Andrew Katz, is now purportedly a fugitive from justice.

SEE THE JUNE 2022 UPDATE https://www.marketsmuse.com/andrew-katz-seaquake-crypto-firm-still-at-it/

brock pierce investments
https://www.marketsmuse.com/founder-ceo-of-crypto-trading-firm-seaquake-io-andrew-katz-convicted-in-new-york-now-a-fugitive/

Let’s not forget that investments made by Galaxy included Novogratz and his partners receiving ‘tokens’ issued by the companies they invested in that were priced at pennies. Those tokens were no different than penny-priced ‘warrants’ given to underwriters of traditional IPO offerings.

After pumping the news of those investments, those tokens turned into ‘real money’ for the promoters—who cashed out into the frenzy and bought mansions and boats; reminiscent of the antics made famous by the infamous  Jordan Belfort’s firm Stratton Oakmont—the underwriter for the 1993 IPO of shoe company started by Steve Madden.

[Belfort and Madden were then convicted of securities fraud and both went to jail. Flash forward to 2021, Jordan Belfort repurposed himself into a crypto evangelist and is minting millions by ‘advising’ people on how and what crypto deals to invest in.]

February 2021– Novogratz Sees Bitcoin at $100k 

Bloomberg Technology- Michael Novogratz, a long time proponent of cryptocurrencies through his firm Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., said Bitcoin and other digital coins have become “an institutional asset class” and banks are “frantically” trying to get in on the action.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-03-04/mike-novogratz-says-bitcoin-will-hit-100k-by-end-of-year-video

https://coinfomania.com/novogratz-says-crypto-is-closer-to-bottom/

Mar 31 2022 In Midst of Crypto Sell-Off, Novogratz Says “I’m More Constructive about the market than I was previously..” Michael Novogratz, the billionaire cryptocurrency investor who leads Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., said that while he still expects a volatile year, he has become more “constructive” about digital-asset markets than he was earlier. 

“It wouldn’t surprise me to see crypto significantly higher by the end of the year,” Novogratz said during Galaxy’s earnings conference call on Thursday. “Given the adoption cycle I’m seeing, given the way markets trade, and how I see new people wanting to get in, the innovation we’re seeing in web3 and the metaverse space, I’ve gotten more constructive than I was at the beginning of the year.” 

No surprise then that soon thereafter, while talking up bitcoin investing and predicting meteoric price rises, he was selling stakes that his firm Galaxy Digital held in various “cryptocurrencies”.  Nice.  

May 9 2022 CEO Michael Novogratz highlighted weakness across crypto and equity markets during Galaxy’s earnings call Monday, though said he isn’t “panicked by any stretch.” He added that his recent investor meetings point to growing adoption, and noted that “crypto as a tech play” is gaining momentum.

“Volatility will continue,” according to Mike Novogratz, although he said he expects bitcoin to hold around the $30,000 level and ether to stick around the $2,000 level.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/05/09/galaxy-digital-records-q1-loss-of-1117m-amid-crypto-losses/

June 5 2022 Novogratz Says “Bitcoin Won’t Break $20k” speaking at the Morgan Stanley Financials Conference, the billionaire investor, known for always sharing his opinions on events surrounding the asset class, showcased his bullish stance on cryptocurrencies. 

Novogratz said he is confident that bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) would not crash below $20,000 and $1,000, respectively.

The crypto proponent stated that the two leading cryptocurrencies would hold strongly at those levels while noting that the benchmark of S&P 500 (.SPX) has dropped more than 20% from its record high earlier in January, and the stock market might plummet further to 15% to 20%.

June 15 2022 “Crypto Crisis Evokes 1998 Hedge Fund Crash that Crippled Market”

That’s what Mike Novogratz, CEO of top crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital, told CNBC Wednesday (June 15), referring to the 1998 collapse of a large and highly leveraged hedge fund that sent shockwaves so large through the economy that the U.S. government was forced to intervene and broker a $3.6 billion bailout.

June 18 2022  BTC sold down to $18,500.00

Our Editorial Team begs to ask the question, “Aside from making mediocre investment managers become multi-millionaires and billionaires, along with similar exponential gains in net worth for tens of hundreds (and upwards of many thousands of “innovators” and “disruptors”), what product or service, or what actual efficiency has been created for any industry that would justify the outsized gains in net worth afforded to a relatively few?” Contact Us to provide a rebuttal.

andrew katz seaquake

Andrew Katz Seaquake Crypto Firm CEO Still Scamming

Andrew Ross Katz (aka Ross Katz), founder and CEO of Seaquake.io, a self-labeled “crypto trading firm” and “B2B service for cryptocurrency exchanges”, along with his partner, the firm’s Chief Financial Officer, Matthew Krueger of San Francisco, were first profiled by this outlet in September 2019 for their roles in defrauding a Family Office out of several hundred thousand dollars.  And, while Katz remains at large–he continues to target a growing list of other unsuspecting victims.

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Seaquake.io CEO Andrew Katz, A “Self-styled-Entrepreneur”
Photo from “Pay-to-Promote-Yourself” Blog Techbullion
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Andrew Ross Katz-“Crypto Entrepreneur” Mug Shot Photo April 2021 Arrest Florida
Case # 13-2021-CF-005707-0001-XX

The gory details of that incident and the series of blatant misrepresentations made by those individuals became a matter of federal court record when a federal lawsuit was filed in Florida’s Middle District Court, merely several weeks after the ink was dry on the investment agreement with Katz, Krueger and the assortment of Seaquake connected shell companies under their control. 

The supporting evidence to allegations of investor fraud made by the plaintiffs included investor documents executed by Andrew Katz, a smorgasbord of other evidence underscoring blatant misrepresentations and phony assertions made by Katz and Krueger as to their personal and professional backgrounds, the investment itself, along with an extensive file of email and other digital communications sent by Andrew Katz, and with copy to Krueger.

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Seaquake.io principals Andrew Katz (l), “CFO” Matthew Krueger (c), and CIO Dylan Knight

According to the court documents, within days after the investors wired funds to a Seaquake entity, they learned of a series of misrepresentations made by Katz and Krueger, and demanded the return of their funds. In response, Katz and Krueger stated “they had no obligation to provide any information to the investors or the attorney for the investors, and would not respond further.” Days later, Katz and Krueger transferred the investor funds to other Seaquake bank accounts and to personal accounts in their names, and to a corporate account in which Katz’s father, Ken Katz of Arvada, Colorado is the registered agent. After transferring the funds, Katz and Krueger proceeded to dissolve the corporate registration of the entity to which the investors had sent their funds.

The preponderance of the incriminating evidence led the federal court judge to conclude the defendants had ‘touched the third rail’ of federal civil statutes pertaining to investor fraud and securities fraud. To mitigate further harm to investors, the judge issued an emergency temporary restraining order (TRO) that put a freeze on the variety of corporate bank accounts held by the web of Seaquake corporate entities controlled by Andrew Katz and Matthew Krueger, as well as the known personal bank and brokerage accounts held by Andrew Katz and Matthew Krueger. Days later, Katz and Krueger moved the funds again, first to cryptocurrency platform Coinbase, and then to cryptocurrency custody and trading platform, Binance.*

In view of the brazen nature of the fraud perpetrated by Mssrs. Katz and Krueger, this financial industry- published a series of follow-on articles profiling the activities of this ‘enterprise’, as well as Katz’s sordid prior criminal history, including recent Orders of Protection issued against Katz, a litany of criminal arrests across four different states over multiple years on charges of harassment, aggravated assault, weapons charges, breaking and entering, and stalking. The most recent known arrest occurred in April 2021 and took place in Miami, Florida, when Katz was charged with 11 Counts, including multiple charges for assaulting a police officer:

Andrew Katz Arrested Again-In Florida 04-01-2022
MIAMI POLICE ARREST REPORT
State of Florida Miami-Dade County
Case 13-2021-CF-005707-0001-XX*
*Above Link to Criminal Court Data Base; Enter Defendant Name and DOB (12-17-1985)
  • FALSE IMPRISONMENT ( Bond: 5000 )
  • TAMPER/ WIT/ VIC/ 3D DEGREE FELONY ( Bond: 7500 )
  • RESISTING OFFICER WITHOUT VIOLENCE TO HIS PERSON ( Bond: 1000 )
  • RESISTING OFFICER W/ VIOLENCE TO HIS PERSON/ FIREA 3 CNTS ( Bond: 7500 )
  • ASSAULT/ AGGRAVATED/ POL OFFICER/ FIREFIGHTER/ INT 3 CNTS ( Bond: 7500 )
  • DEPRIVE OFFICER OF MEANS OF PROTECTION/ COMMUNICTN 2 CNTS ( Bond: 5000 )

The Florida court records are available at https://www2.miami-dadeclerk.com/cjis/casesearch.aspx Case Number: F-21-005706, F-21-005706 and Case Number 13-2021-CF-005707-0001-XX

A February 2022 conviction for assault charges in New York stemmed from his March 2020 arrest in which Katz assaulted his now estranged wife. Law enforcement sources have indicated there is now a subsequent warrant for violating the second Order of Protection, and a fugitive warrant issued in New York for his arrest. Katz failed to appear for sentencing on the assault conviction, then fled the jurisdiction, and supposedly abandoned a $100,000 cash bond. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office would not comment or explain why those criminal records are sealed.  The New York Criminal Court records are also sealed.

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Great Track Record-For Arrests-Andrew Katz, Seaquake.io CEO

This platform also pointed to a conclusion by another expert that Seaquake principals committed SBA Loan Fraud relating to a forgivable PPP loan granted to the company in the midst of the pandemic crisis. Public records show that an application was processed and a loan received by Wyoming-registered Seaquake entity “Seaquake OPS LLC” that listed employees of the company which included Katz’s then-estranged wife, who was listed as “Creative Director”. According to informed sources, “she was never an employee, and never performed any work for the company”. When asked why that individual’s profile appeared on LinkedIn as “Creative Director” for Seaquake shortly before the loan application was submitted, the source stated “She had never created a LinkedIn profile for herself, any less one that would include a fictitious employment history.”  The corporate registration for the Wyoming-domiciled Seaquake entity that received the SBA PPP loan was dissolved four months after Katz and Krueger received the funds from the SBA. 

Cryptocurrency Meltdown Calls for a Re-Visit

As fortunes implode and the crypto industry becomes un-hinged, the cause and effect of scammers, charlatans, and Ponzi-style schemes

The intent of our editorial team has been to protect other investors from being duped by Katz and Krueger, and from any others advancing similar frauds against unsuspecting investors. In our expose, we also spotlighted several “legitimate” crypto and digital asset investment firms that, according to the Seaquake.io corporate website, have purportedly invested in the Seaquake enterprise without bothering to perform basic due diligence that would typically include interrogation of court databases and criminal background searches. 

andrew-katz-seaquake-investors-fraud

The crypto “investment firms” displayed on the Seaquake website include Percival Capital, operated by former Disney “Mighty Ducks” star turned world-famous crypto enthusiast and investor and aspiring political candidate Brock Pierce, along with industry investment firm Blockchain Founders Fund (“BFF”). 

The Seaquake website had (until recently) displayed Pierce and BFF Managing Partner Aly Madhavji as Advisors to the firm.  Other investors displayed include “SOSV ChinaAccelerator”, a China-based VC and PE firm, Sydney; Australia-based alternative asset investment firm “Artesian Ventures”, a firm called “ScaleX”, and a little-known investment firm “Red Spark”.  The latter is operated by a Stephen Gill, who resides in New York and Puerto Rico. Gill is also displayed as an Advisor to Seaquake. These actors either purposefully chose not to perform a scintalla of due diligence for their own reasons, or simply overlook the red flags before they deployed their respective investors’ capital to the Seaquake enterprise.  

Since April of this year, four different “pay-to-promote yourself” blogs have published “interviews” of Katz, each of which profiled him as a “crypto entrepreneur”. Each of those obscure blog platforms  (“TechBullion.com”, “Laptopsforless.com”, “ScoopIt.com”, and “VentsMagazine.com”) display purported interviews by “journalists” (who each use pseudonyms,) and showcase background information for Andrew Katz that among other “virtues”, includes him (i) “having worked as a securities industry trader and traded “billions of dollars”; (ii) that he “earned a Masters in Finance from Harvard University”, and (iii) that “Seaquake has been generating profits within fifteen months of being created in 2018.” 

andrew-katz-seaquake.io fraud
“Interview with Andrew Katz” in “pay-to-promote your image” blog
Bottom right image: New York Criminal Court Arrest Record Nov 2020

All very entertaining claims; yet all are false.

  1. Financial Industry Background. Securities Industry regulator FINRA has NO record of Katz ever being employed in the industry. He claims to have worked for EFG Bank as a trader, yet a senior HR executive for EFG Bank stated “we have no record of his employment.”

UBS, the other financial industry firm that Katz claims to have worked for stated “we cannot confirm (or deny) having employed him.

2. “Academic Pedigree” “Harvard Masters in Finance”. Harvard University records indicate Katz did attend an online course for 1 year and earned a Master of Arts, (not Finance); comparable to degrees offered by the online University of Phoenix. As to other academic credentials, during his youth, Katz did briefly attend “World Wide Association of Specialty Programs”. This ‘school’ is “in the business of serving desperate parents of troubled youths and specializes in improving the students’ aberrant social behavior..”

3. “Business Success“. The business he claims to be “generating profits since shortly after we were formed..”?  

Katz disputes this himself in documents obtained from the civil lawsuit in Florida. Katz submitted an affidavit stating “investors were told the business is a start-up, does not generate revenue [no fewer profits] and is not expected to until first raising several million dollars in development capital.”

4. “Industry Entrepreneur.” Katz and Co also maintain personal and company Twitter accounts; each of which falls into the realm that Elon Musk has used to walk back his bid to acquire Twitter; the percentage of phony Twitter accounts is exponentially greater than what Twitter has stated in corporate filings.  In this case, Katz’s personal Twitter account, @AndrewKCrypto (https://twitter.com/AndrewKCrypto) indicates his having 5346 followers. A simple interrogation discovered that all but ten of those followers are legitimate Twitter accounts. The rest are “bots” and all of those accounts are less than several months old, none have more than 5-10 followers; a classic ‘tell’ for those familiar with Twitter Inc.s failure to remove phony accounts.  The same seems to be true for the Seaquake company Twitter account (@_Seaquake_); the account boasts nearly 5000 “followers”, yet 98% of which Elon Musk would say are “Phony Followers! All Bots!”

MarketsMuse has made repeated attempts to contact each of the investors displayed on the Seaquake website. Earlier this year, Ali Madhavji of Blockchain Founders Fund indicated that “BFF has no involvement with Seaquake”, yet his firm’s name remains prominent on the front page of the Seaquake.io website. 

A representative of Percival Capital replied to us with a statement that “They [Seaquake] were not authorized to display Mr. Pierce on their website, and we requested them to remove that reference.” The Percival Capital representative did not dispute that Pierce and his firm are in fact investors. “SOSV” Managing Partner William Bao Bean stated that his firm is in fact an investor, but would provide no other information. Stephen Gill, nor any other individuals who seem to be affiliated with Red Spark or individuals associated with “Scalex” replied to a request for comment. 

Law enforcement officials from Arvada, Colorado, New York, Los Angeles, and Miami are all familiar with Katz. They are aware that he uses aliases “Ross Katz” and “Stark Katz”, and of the assortment of harassment charges stemming from abusive messages and death threats delivered via email and burner phone [“purportedly’’] sent by Katz, each in retaliation against a variety of individuals, including those who have filed charges against him. Knowledgeable officials have suggested that ‘the tone and tenor of the messages, the history of arrest charges, the serial nature of his actions, and other corroborating records makes it clear that he [Katz] is a dangerous individual who continues to commit brazen acts.’  Added one expert, “It doesn’t take a trained criminal profiler to conclude that this individual will continue to pose a threat to others until such time as someone from the law enforcement community or a regulatory agency takes proactive measures.”

Begging the question as to how it is possible that Katz and his accomplice Matthew Krueger remain at large.  Three former government prosecutors who are familiar with the matter expressed being “baffled” by the fact that Katz has been repeatedly arrested, but not successfully prosecuted and jailed. As to Katz’s current whereabouts, he was last sighted in April of this year, while mingling with Seaquake “co-founder” Dylan Knight at a Miami crypto industry conference. One individual who is known to be an acquaintance of Katz, and who requested anonymity, suggested that “he might be in a medical clinic and being treated Monkeypox.”  

*The above-referenced Federal Civil Litigation was “dismissed without prejudice” on a technicality after the presiding judge ruled that the Florida Middle District Court had “no personal jurisdiction” over the defendants. Despite plaintiffs submitting evidence that Katz maintained a voter registration in Florida and that one of the Seaquake entities was incorporated in Florida, the judge recommended to plaintiffs that they re-file their action in a different court. One attorney who is only tangentially familiar with the case stated “The statute of limitations is still open for such an action to be advanced in the State of Colorado or the State of California.

andrew-katz-crypto-firm-seaquake-

Founder / CEO of “Crypto Trading Firm Seaquake.io” Andrew Katz Convicted in New York; Now a Fugitive

FEBRUARY 15 2022: ANDREW ROSS KATZ AKA ROSS KATZ WAS CONVICTED OF ASSAULT CHARGE IN NYC on Feb 7; FLEES AND FOREGOES $200K BAIL BOND; FUGITIVE WARRANT FOR ARREST ISSUED IN NEW YORK; KATZ NOW BELIEVED TO BE SENDING DEATH THREATS TO WITNESSES; CONSIDERED TO BE ARMED AND DANGEROUS

In a continuation of a bizarre story that MarketsMuse has been monitoring for more than two years, Andrew Ross Katz, the founder, and CEO of so-called digital asset/crypto trading firm Seaquake.io is now a fugitive after failing to appear for a series of court dates in New York Criminal Court and since being convicted on Feb 7 2022 of assault charges that were first brought in November 2020.

Court: New York Criminal Court
Case # CR-020482-20NY
(PUBLIC RECORDS EXPUNGED)

Arrest Date & Time: November 5 2020 09:30 Arrest #:M20629660 
andrew-katz-seaquake-felony-assault-charge-new-yhork
New York Criminal Court File CR-020482-20NY

According to confidential sources, the ADA prosecuting the case had been warned at the early stages of the criminal proceedings of Katz’s extensive criminal background in multiple states, and that the ADA had been lobbied to request the court to deny bail, as the defendant should have been considered a flight risk. Katz’s criminal arrest record extends over many years in cities that include his hometown of Arvada, CO, Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Katz’s most recent arrest apparently took place in late 2021 in Miami, during the same time a cryptocurrency convention was being held in that town.

SEE THE JUNE 2022 UPDATE-

As to the charge of Aggravated Harassment, according to multiple sources, this particular charge is consistent with a behavior pattern that Katz has perpetrated repeatedly over the past years against various people (unrelated to the current charges). No less than four individuals who have had ‘run-ins’ with Katz, including former landlords, relatives, and aggrieved investors have each independently contacted MarketMuse to share respective incidences in which Katz has tormented them with physical threats via voice message and text messages sent by ‘burner phones’, as well as defamatory messages that Katz has posted on social media platforms, all in effort to intimidate these individuals in retribution for legitimate complaints they had made against him in various jurisdictions.

Editors note: Fugitive Katz’s ‘aberrant behavior’ seems to extend back to his adolescence, according to public court filings. While in his teens, he was dispatched by his parents to a Utah-based ‘educational facility operated by “World Wide Association of Specialty Programs” that, according to public records, “is in the business of serving desperate parents of troubled youths and specializes in improving the students’ aberrant social behavior..” Per link above, fugitive Katz and Alyson Katz (Andrew Katz’s mother) were members of a class-action lawsuit brought against “WWSPS”. (That suit was dismissed in 2011).

andrew-katz-seaquake-felony
Crypo Firm Co-Founder Andrew Ross Katz aka Ross Katz aka Stark Katz

According to informed sources, soon after his disappearance last week, Katz has purportedly commenced a series of death threats against a separate individual (and immediate family members), who is a victim of financial fraud that Katz and partner, Matthew J. Krueger of San Francisco are alleged to have committed back in 2019. It is believed the [purported] death threats that came from Katz (“purportedly, yet with high probability”, according to law enforcement officers familiar with the matter), are part and parcel to a lengthy history of intimidation tactics that Katz has exacted in retribution on those have filed charges against him.

andrew-katz-matthew-krueger-seaquake-investor-fraud
Seaquake’s Matthew Krueger (l), Fugitive Andrew R. Katz (r)

To the amazement of those interviewed and familiar with the apparent criminal activities of Katz, Krueger, and associated entities, the individuals’ profiles, and respective current Seaquake.io executive roles remain displayed and promoted on LinkedIn (e.g. Andrew Katz, Founder & CEOMatthew Krueger, “Partner & CFO” and the company’s website, which continues to publish “updates” that suggest the firm offers a range of “crypto trading and fintech applications and services to the cryptocurrency industry”. That website also displays a number of crypto industry investment firms that have purportedly made investments in Seaquake.

Most recent updates to that website suggest that funds managed by Crypto Industry Pioneer Brock Pierce‘s Percival Ventures, along with those from Blockchain Founders Fund, whose senior principal is Aly Madhavji, are investors in Seaquake. Both Pierce (a 2020 presidential candidate) and Madhavji are displayed as Advisors to the company on the Seaquake website. Sources have told MarketsMuse that Madhavji has denied having any connections to Seaquake, yet neither of these individuals or members of their firms has responded to outreaches by MarketsMuse for them to confirm or deny the information displayed on the Seaquake.io website.

$DWAC-SPAC-Trump

$DWAC, The SPAC on Crack

Digital World Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:DWAC) Blank Check Company aka SPAC Proposes to Merge With Trump Blank-Deck Company. Will SEC Investigate?

When “E.F. Hutton Talks”, Will SEC Chairman Gensler Read the SEC and FINRA Rules Prohibiting SPAC Sponsors from engaging with acquisition targets prior to listing??

Just when we thought that MarketsMuse coverage of Donald Trump’s financial shenanigans had taken a breather, this past week’s announcement by SPAC sponsor Digital World Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:DWAC) rocked the stock market and created a rocket-fueled run-up in its share price after the ‘blank check’ company created in December 2020 by Florida-based Patrick Orlando, a former Deutsche Bank derivatives trader turned SPAC promoter would be merging with Florida-based Trump Media & Technology Group (aka TMTG), a blank slate “social media enterprise” with no operating history and established by the former President two months after the formation of “DWAC” (in February 2021).

The Meme of the Week. When the announcement made by the DWAC sponsors and the Trump entity TMTG hit the tapes after the close of trading Wednesday, Oct 20, the following morning, the share price of the Digital World Acquisition Corp, which became publicly listed on NASDAQ six weeks prior, soared from $10 to $75 within a matter of a few hours, and was the second most actively traded stock in America. On Friday, the shares, which cannot be borrowed for shorting other than by broker-dealers, traded as high as $175 before closing at $90 (with the last sale of $80 in Friday’s after-hour trading session).

scaramucci-dwac-spac-trump

If the DWAC SPAC shareholders approve of the merger, and if the SEC does not raise a red flag, Trump Media & Technology Group will receive $293 million in cash that Digital World Acquisition Corp has in trust. 

So, we now have the next classic example of a “meme stock” (aka “Me-Me”) driven by so-called Reddit Bandits and tens of thousands of retail traders entering buy orders to drive up the price, believing they would force ‘hedge funds’ who might have been shorting the stock to pay even higher prices to cover their positions.  It’s a new take on the old-style “short-squeeze pump and dump.” 

Read about our coverage of Crypto-Kid Con Artists Andrew Katz and Matthew Krueger. The Saga continues. After being charged with felony assault in New York last year, Seaquake CEO Katz is said to be a “no-show” after failing to appear for Jan 20 2022 sentencing hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court. NOW A Fugitive/CLICK HERE/ for the story.

OK, a slug of buyers who swamped Fidelity, Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, and other brokers are also MAGA cap wearers and anti-vaxxers who will give Trump every last penny of their unemployment checks or social security checks to keep Trump’s hate-filled and anarchy-riddled beliefs front of stage, and to the point of breaking down the doors of the nation’s capitol building.

Here’s the joke: 8 out of 9 of the largest holders of DWAC include the industry’s biggest hedge funds, whose plain-vanilla strategy is to buy SPACs at the initial offering as a means to deploy cash that is not being used by the fund, and with the upside chance the investment will make a profit. Alternatively, stakeholders can redeem or ‘put back’ their holdings to the company at their original cost and get their full investment back after a merger announcement is made. Think of it is as a money market fund that has a “knock-in provision”.

The other largest holder is Arc Global Investments and owns the right to acquire approximately 20% of the authorized shares, which is controlled by none other than Patrick Orlando. Albeit, unlike the nearly 80% of shares acquired by the hedge funds, Arc’s shares have a restriction that prohibits selling those shares for an extended period of time. At least 2 of the 8 hedge funds (SABA Capital and Lighthouse Investors) were owners of several million shares each, and they made tens of millions of dollars inside of two days by unloading their shares to the retail investors, many of whom paid between 500%-1700% more for the shares from the prior day’s price. 

The punchline to the joke: The two funds that acknowledged selling to witless retail investors as the stock was skyrocketing did so because they wanted nothing to do owning a company that might eventually enable a Trump-fueled media enterprise initiative.

Fool Me Once, Shame on You. Fool Me Twice Shame on Me. In addition to the Reddit bandits and followers of Wall Street Bets who bought into the shares of the black-check company that proposes to merge with a still non-existent operating business (other than in name only), hordes of die-hard Donald Trump fans and followers with accounts at Fidelity, Robinhood and TD Ameritrade were believed to have purchased “millions of shares” in the past two days and, according to nearly every professional trader and investment manager in the world, “they paid prices that defied any scintilla of logic; proving that the extent of their education must have been a diploma they received from Trump University.”

Click Here for another MarketsMuse most-read feature stories

EF Hutton is the underwriter for Digital World Acquisition Corp? Adding yet another comedic twist to the story, aside from rumors that Hollywood producer and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has purportedly secured the film rights to, so that he can do a remake of the 1949 film classic and Academy Award-winning “All the Kings Men” (which ended with the assassination of corrupt politician Willy Stark by one of his cronies (to put the feature photo of this post into context), the underwriter for Digital World Acquisition Corp, was formerly known as Kingsmark Capital*, and is now going by the name EF Hutton, the once legendary stock brokerage that was best known for its tag line, “When EF Hutton talks, people listen!”

$DWAC-SPAC-Trump

*Kingsmark’s brief history includes underwriting “micro-cap” stocks and SPACs, and acquired the EF Hutton name from the estate of the heirs to the original EF Hutton.

A PIPE Offering is Next? Because Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington stated that “TMGT is worth $1.8 billion” (@realLizUSA­), this would infer that Digital Media Acquisition Corp would need to do a follow-on sale of shares, presumably via a PIPE offering, to raise an additional $1.5 billion in cash that would meet the valuation that Trump believes his non-operating company is worth. Per link above, a PIPE is a private investment in a public equity.

Based on Friday’s closing price, the SPAC company would need, at very least, to nearly double the amount of shares outstanding from 28 million shares to 40 million shares, and to sell those newly-created shares during the “de-SPACing process (which is unlikely to occur for at least another 2-3 months) at Friday’s closing price of $90 via the PIPE offering.

Yes, the total volume on Friday exceeded 130 million shares, and Wall Street syndicate desks managers suggested any secondary sale (2-3 months from now) could be done with no market impact if trade volumes remain the same and the price remains elevated, yet it would also dilute the existing shareholders by nearly 50%.

To the above, one trader suggested “the odds of the DWAC share price remaining at the current exorbitant price level are about equal to the chances the SPAC will be de-listed after an SEC investigation is started; a50-50 probability for either outcome.”

Why should the SEC Investigate? Will Coincidence Kill the Golden Goose and Lead to a De-listing of DWAC?

Some things for Gary Gensler to Consider Before More Retail Investors Get Completely Burned Buying this “SPAC”.

SPACs cannot identify acquisition targets prior to the closing of the IPO. If the SPAC had a specific target under consideration at the time of the IPO, detailed information regarding the target IPO registration statement, potentially including the target’s, would be required to be included in the financial statements

Under the SEC’s rules, a SPAC may not identify a specific target company prior to the closing of its IPO, and the SEC requires the SPAC to disclose in its prospectus that the SPAC does not have any specific target company under consideration, and that neither the SPAC, nor anyone acting on behalf of the SPAC, has engaged in any substantive discussions with a potential target company. In fact, if a non-binding LOI is entered into before the SPAC’s IPO, the SEC may even suggest that it is the target company that should conduct an IPO, not the SPAC, which would defeat the entire purpose of using a SPAC as an investment vehicle and an alternative to a traditional IPO for the target company.

DWAC’s Prospectus states:  “We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target.”

Suspicious Behavior? DWAC listed on NASDAQ on September 3; the merger announcement came less than six weeks later. Typically, it takes many months for a SPAC sponsor to research and perform due diligence on many companies before they bring a proposal to SPAC holders.

SPAC Sponsor and CEO of DWAC Patrick Orlando is a “good friend of Donald Trump”.  Orlando resides within a stone’s throw of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club and has since acknowledged to the New York Times that he is a “long-time friend of Donald Trump and speaks with him often.”

Collusion or Coincidence? So, is it just a coincidence that Orlando started and completed his due diligence inside of five weeks after the SPAC listed? Or, has there been a major violation of securities regulations, and is the offering prospectus nothing more than toilet paper?

Rule #1: Deny. Deny. Deny. To the above, a Trump spokesperson, speaking off the record (of course!) has since told at least two sources that “Mr. Trump never heard of Patrick Orlando and never communicated with him until weeks after the Digital Acquisition was listed on NASDAQ.”

Really?! At very least, Orlando has already publicly stated that he has been friends with Trump for a number of years and communicates with him ‘frequently’.?

Roma Daravi, a former Trump administration communications executive and the ‘media relations’ representative for TMTG was not available for comment, even if Liz Harrington did comment via Twitter.

Let’s play this back again; DWAC listed on NASDAQ on September 3. Five weeks later they announced proposed merger with Trump’s shell company, TMGT. In the history of SPAC offerings, DWAC has broken the land speed record for listing and then announcing a merger. Their ability to canvass opportunities, perform due diligence on various merger candidates, reach a conclusion, and then execute a merger agreement, all within 5 weeks from the date of listing the SPAC would seem implausible at best, and statistically impossible at worst when considering the average time for this process is 4-6 months.

Let’s try a different angle: The CFO for DWAC is 83 year old Brazilian national Luis Orleans-Braganza. Mr. Orleans-Braganza is a businessman and currently a self-acclaimed “right wing” member of Brazil’s National Congress. Sources say that he has been “a guest at Mar-a-Lago on several occasions” during the past two years.

How About this part of the DWAC Offering Prospectus?

Patrick Orlando’s DWAC Prospectus States “We will identify and complete business combinations with “market-leading companies”. This is identical to the boilerplate verbiage in every SPAC offering document, yet counter-intuitive to the merger announcement if Digital World’s strategy is to identify and complete business combinations with technology-focused, market-leading companies.  For more information, please visit www.dwacspac.com

BUT, TMTG has NO operating business, which would be a cause of concern for the institutional and individual investors who put money into this SPAC based on Patrick Orlando’s representations. TMTG has NO employees of record (other than Trump) and their pitch deck, which appeared on the entity’s website at the same time as the merger news hit the tape, reads as if it was written on a blank whiteboard:

Among other things, the Trump pitch deck, which, unlike any other startup pitch deck, fails to identify any management or key employees that will be executing the business strategy, yet it states: “The group plans to offer alternative media to challenge the traditional social networks like FacebookYouTube and Twitter via a social network called “Truth Social.” One of the slides states “…..envisions to eventually compete against Amazon.com’s AWS cloud service and Google Cloud.”

Other slides suggest “a social network (“Truth Social”) is set for a beta launch next month, and full rollout in the first quarter of 2022, is the first of three stages in the company’s plans, followed by a subscription video-on-demand service called TMTG+ that will feature entertainment, news and podcasts.”

So, we have a blank check company merging with a blank-deck company that is parsing jargon from an array of presentation decks that anyone can download on the internet.  

CAVEAT (EMPTOR): Mr. Orlando’s FINRA record is clean (so far) of any misdeeds. The fact that he worked at Deutsche Bank, the only bank that would extend credit to Trump, is likely a mere coincidence.

As of press time, MarketsMuse has not determined whether any DWAC officers, including CEO Patrick Orlando, spoke with or visited with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago or any place else during the two months in which both Trump Media and DWAC were incorporated. We have yet to obtain evidence as to whether members of Orlando’s team communicated with Trump prior to the SPAC listing.

To the above, given Trump’s penchant for “hiding the potato” and withholding evidence, unless the SEC engages the FBI to trace any and all phone, email and/or burner phone txt communications between the interested parties, Gensler’s enforcement agents who are already overwhelmed with tens of dozens of cases, could face a challenge in their attempt to prove that Orlando and Trump discussed and negotiated a business transaction with DWAC prior to the SPAC listing.

Rudy Guiliani to Defend Trump in any securities litigation? Maybe. Then again, if Trump enlists his favorite lawyer to defend him, despite the fact the former prosecutor and former New York mayor was disbarred from practicing law in in New York (and the District of Columbia), he can still appear in a federal court, which is where any SEC prosecution, as well as any securities class action lawsuits brought by investors, would likely be filed. Sounds like a scene from HBO’s “Succession”.

Boondoggle for Class Action Securities Lawyers: This will create a boondoggle for plaintiff lawyers who specialize in class action litigation on behalf of investors that have lost money buying (and or selling) securities of companies that have blatantly run afoul of securities regulations, including disclosure requirements. Investors residing in New York, Florida, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and other states should click here for a listing of class action securities attorneys in your state.

securities litigation attorneys DWAC SPAC

Lighthouse Investment Partners shed its holdings in Digital World Acquisition after learning of the deal with Trump’s venture, the fund told CNBC. Lighthouse had owned 3.2 million shares, or 11.2% of the special purpose acquisition company, which trades on NASDAQ, according to a Sept. 30 regulatory filing. 

Saba had owned a 9.3% stake in the SPAC, or 2.4 million shares, according to a Sept. 3 filing.

Other institutional owners that represent the remaining 80% of shares owned in DWAC include Highbridge Capital Management (2 million shares); D.E. Shaw & Co (2,425,000 shares); K2 Principal Fund (1,175,000 shares); ATW SPAC Management LLC (2,425,000 shares); Boothbay Fund Management (2,425,000 shares); Radcliffe Capital Management LP (2,425,000 shares). As of press time, these funds have not yet published updates as to whether they continue to maintain or have liquidated holdings in Digital World Acquisitions Corp.

If you’ve got a hot insider tip, a bright idea, or if you’d like to get visibility for your brand through MarketsMuse via subliminal content marketing, advertorial, blatant shout-out, spotlight article, news release etc., please reach out to our Senior Editor via cmo@marketsmuse.com

andrew-katz-seaquake-ny-criminal-court-felony-assault

Founder of Crypto Trading Firm “Seaquake” Andrew Katz Returns to NY Criminal Court to face Felony Assault Charge; UPDATE: CONVICTED AND FLEES: NOW WANTED BY NYPD

andrew-katz-seaquake-felony
Crypto Firm Co-Founder Andrew Ross Katz aka Ross Katz aka Stark Katz

Andrew Katz aka Ross Katz aka Stark Katz, the co-founder of so-called digital asset infrastructure and crypto-currency trading firm Seaquake.io, who along with his partner Matthew J. Krueger of San Francisco are facing investor fraud charges, is now slated to return to New York Criminal Court July 14 to answer to one count of felony assault, one count of grand larceny and one count of aggravated harassment.

Court: New York Criminal Court
Case # CR-020482-20NY (PUBLIC RECORDS REMOVED UPON CONVICTION)

Arrest Date & Time: November 5 2020 09:30 Arrest #:M20629660 

Officer Agency:NYPD 

Defendant Katz, Andrew R Katz, whose bail was set at $200,000 had him posting $100,000 in cash, which sources believe to have emanated from funds that Katz and his partner Matthew J. Krueger of San Francisco hoodwinked from a Florida-based family office 18 months ago.

Defendant Katz, who continues to promote himself on LinkedIn and on the firm’s website as co-founder of the so-called digital asset infrastructure company “Seaquake.io” was arrested this past November in New York and has been granted numerous delays to answer to the latest charges. If Katz is found guilty, or if he decides to plead guilty and save the court system the aggravation of having to deal with him, he could be sentenced to a minimum of 2 years in prison.

NEWS ALERT: FEBRUARY 15 2022: ANDREW ROSS KATZ AKA ROSS KATZ CONVICTED OF ASSAULT CHARGE IN NYC; FLEES AND FOREGOES $200K BAIL BOND; FUGITIVE WARRANT FOR ARREST ISSUED IN NEW YORK; KATZ NOW BELIEVED TO BE SENDING DEATH THREATS TO WITNESSES; CONSIDERED TO BE ARMED AND DANGEROUS.

REWARD OFFERED BY NYPD

In a continuation of a bizarre story that MarketsMuse has been monitoring for more than two years, Andrew Ross Katz, the founder, and CEO of so-called digital asset/crypto trading firm Seaquake.io is now a fugitive after failing to appear for a series of court dates in New York Criminal Court and since being convicted of assault charges brought in November 2020. For reasons that would not be explained by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the New York Criminal Court case record was expunged from the public database at the time of the February 7 conviction.

READ THE JUNE 2022 UPDATE

The Manhattan DA would also not comment on allegations the ADA prosecuting the case had been warned at the early stages of the criminal proceedings of Katz’s extensive criminal background in multiple states, and that the ADA had been lobbied to request the court to deny bail, as the defendant should have been considered a flight risk. Katz’s criminal arrest record extends over many years, with arrests on an assortment of charges in cities that include his hometown of Arvada, CO, Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Katz’s most recent arrest apparently took place in late 2021 in Miami, during the same time a cryptocurrency convention was being held in that town.

Editors note: Fugitive Katz’s ‘aberrant behavior’ seems to extend back to his adolescence, according to public court filings. While in his teens, he was dispatched by his parents to a Utah-based ‘educational facility’ operated by “World Wide Association of Specialty Programs” that, according to public records, “is in the business of serving desperate parents of troubled youths and specialized in improving the students’ aberrant social behavior..” Per link above, fugitive Katz and Alyson Katz (Andrew Katz’s mother) were members of a class-action lawsuit brought against “WWSPS”. (That suit was dismissed in 2011).

seaquake.io crypto scam-andrew katz-matthew krueger-dylan-knight
Seaquake.io principals Andrew Katz (l), Matthew Krueger (c) and CIO Dylan Knight

According to informed sources, soon after his disappearance last week, Katz has purportedly commenced a series of death threats against a separate individual (and immediate family members), who is a victim of financial fraud that Katz and partner, Matthew J. Krueger of San Francisco committed back in 2019. That victim has since assisted law enforcement in pursuit of criminal charges against the Seaquake executives, and it is believed the [purported] death threats that came from Katz (“purportedly, yet with high probability”, according to law enforcement officers familiar with the matter), are part and parcel to a lengthy history of intimidation tactics that Katz has exacted on those in retribution for filing charges against him.

To the amazement of those interviewed and familiar with the apparent criminal activities of Katz, Krueger, and associated entities, the individuals’ profiles, and respective current Seaquake.io executive roles remain displayed and promoted on LinkedIn (e.g. Andrew Katz, Founder & CEO; Matthew Krueger, “Partner & CFO” and the company’s website continues to publish “updates” that suggest “the firm offers a range of fintech applications and services to the cryptocurrency industry”.

Most recent updates to that website promote news that funds managed by Crypto Industry Pioneer Brock Pierce‘s Percival Ventures, along with those from Blockchain Founders Fund, whose senior principal is Aly Madhavji, are investors in Seaquake. Both Pierce (now referred to as the Prince of Puerto Rico, as well as being a 2020 presidential candidate) and Madhavji are displayed as Advisors to the company on the Seaquake website. Neither of these individuals or members of their firms has responded to outreaches by MarketsMuse for them to confirm or deny the information displayed on the Seaquake.io website.

NYPD TIPS Program is Offering a Reward for information that leads to the arrest of Andrew Katz. Anyone with knowledge of Katz’s whereabouts should contact the NYPD by phoning 800-577-TIPS, or via the TIPS website

As to the charge of Aggravated Harassment, according to multiple sources, this particular charge is consistent with a behavior pattern that Katz has perpetrated repeatedly over the past several years against various people (unrelated to the current charges). No less than four individuals who have had ‘run-ins’ with Katz, including former landlords, relatives, and aggrieved investors have each independently contacted MarketMuse to share respective incidences in which Katz has tormented them with physical threats via voice message and text messages sent by ‘burner phones’, as well as defamatory messages that Katz has posted on social media platforms, all in effort to intimidate these individuals in retribution for legitimate complaints they had made against him in various jurisdictions.

andrew-katz-matthew-krueger-seaquake-investor-fraudAs reported previously Katz and Krueger (pictured left) who also still promotes himself on LinkedIn and on the company’s website as Chief Financial Officer for Seaquake), have both been labeled “the Crypto Kleptos” and The Seaquake Slime Boys” by several people interviewed. Rumor is they are both facing a pending list of other criminal matters, including SBA PPP bank loan fraud. Public records indicate that Mssrs. Katz and Krueger applied for a PPP loan for Seaquake OPS LLC, a Wyoming entity that Seaquake corporate presentations have identified as one of several Seaquake companies. Seaquake OPS LLC did receive a Paycheck Protection Loan of $22,813 through Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, in May, 2020.

elon musk self immolation nft artwork

Elon Musk Plans Self-Immolation to Create NFT Artwork; Pre-Auction Bids of $5bil

From the Believe It or Nuts Department: Elon Musk, aka Technoking of Tesla and SpaceX boss, has tweeted that he will create an NFT Digital Video Artwork that showcases his self-immolation. Tesla CFO Zack Kirhorn, who just changed his corporate title to Master of Coin, will wrap the video with an NFT (non-fungible token) for Dogecoin (CRYPTO:DOGE).

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban tweeted that he is already weighing an opening bid of $5bil dogecoin to become the proud owner of Musk’s digital art. Not to be outdone, Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya, aka The SPAC King, has already dismissed Cuban’s plan and has filed an S-1 for a $50bil Special Purpose Acquisition Company that will focus on rolling up NFT Art. A source at Palihapitiya’s Social Capital, who is not authorized to comment on securities filings, said “NFTART Acquisition Corp. will be the biggest SPAC biggest ever, and it will be the planet’s most valuable stock when you consider the underlying assets we will acquire, including the Musk self-immolation piece.”

Musk Says “We’re Burning Down The House”

According to sources, cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com has pushed its plan to create an NFT marketplace for top artists and will launch Friday Mar 19 in order to be the primary auction platform for Elon Musk’s “greatest piece of work ever”.

Once an obscure part of blockchain technology, NFTs have boomed in recent months thanks to the embrace of almost all corners of the art, entertainment, and media worlds. 

In case you’ve been asleep for the past weeks, Wikipedia explains that non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital file whose unique identity and ownership are verified on a blockchain (a digital ledger).[1][2] NFTs are not mutually interchangeable (see fungibility). NFTs are commonly created by uploading files, such as digital artwork, to an auction market. This creates an entry on the blockchain’s digital ledger which includes a reference to the cryptographic hash of the digital file which the NFT represents. The tokens can then be bought with cryptocurrency and resold.

Pre-IPO Crypto Futures Options for the April 1 $60bil strike price for Social Capital’s SPAC are already trading at $10mil per contract.

Are you following former hedge fund trader Larry Benedict’s daily $SPX trading ideas? “Go Home Flat 201”

Trade along with the trades Larry is making.

Thomas Petterfy, founder and Chairman of online brokerage Interactive Brokers said, “If people want to trade it, we will list it, although margin requirements will be set at 500x the typical margin needed, just like we do for options in GME.” Interactive Brokers is also increasing its referral fee from $200 to $2,000 for customers who refer new accounts to the Professional’s Gateway to the World’s Markets.

If you are looking for a crazy but very true story from the crypto crime division, this exclusive coverage will really set your hair on fire!

If you’ve got a hot insider tip, a bright idea, or if you’d like to get visibility for your brand through MarketsMuse via subliminal content marketing, advertorial, blatant shout-out, spotlight article, news release etc., please reach out to our Senior Editor via cmo@marketsmuse.com

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Social Capital SPAC Machine Latest: $500m Blank Check Company to Roll-Up Makers of a Stupidity Vaccine!

Social Capital SPAC factory run by SPACmeister, notorious Tweeter and promoter of RedditArmy favorite stocks Chamath Palihapitiya is rumored to have filed a confidential S-1 for his latest Special Purpose Acquisition Company, (aka SPAC). The entity is to be called SIDS Acquisition Corp. According to sources, @chamath aims to focus on “biotech companies that are creating vaccines for those who suffer from acute stupidity”. The acronym is a play on Forrest Gump’s famous line: “Stupid Is as Stupid Does”

From the “believe it or is it nuts?” news department, Palihapitiya, who is also Chairman of Spaceshot SPAC VirginGalactic has assembled a board of biotech innovators, famous billionaires, notorious disruptors, and finance industry geniuses to identify and ferret out SPAC merger candidates. From the biotech world, Theranos co-founder Elizabeth Holmes will be in charge of due diligence, Mark Cuban and Elon Musk will oversee funding strategies, and CNBC host Jim Cramer will serve as the designated head of PR, Communications and “P&D”. Famous financier Max Bialystock is slated to be the CFO for the new blank check company.

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SIDS Acquisition Corp Executive Team

According to unconfirmed sources, SIDS Acquisition has already engaged online trading platform Robinhood to include this listing in a new “private share offering module for the masses” that will offer access to buying the SIDS SPAC on a pre-IPO basis. Elon Musk is said to be overseeing a pact with soon-to-IPO “Coinbase” so that bitcoin and dogecoin can be used by the RedditArmy and others to purchase pre-IPO futures contract in the latest Social Capital SPAC.

Noted Peter Thiel, one of the sharpest early-stage investors of this generation, is said to be getting his checkbook ready for this blank check company and plans on deploying $100 million. Said a spokesperson for Thiel, “If there was ever a moment in history when there should be a vaccine for stupidity, this would be it!”

MarketsMuse Editor Caveat Emptor: Yes, the above news story is fake news and intended only to parody the current cycle of craziness, stupidity, and speculation taking place across the US equities market.

NOT FAKE NEWS: UPDATE TO “SEAQUAKE CRYPTO SCAMMERS” and Andrew R. Katz, “CEO”

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Andrew Ross Katz-“Crypto Entrepreneur” Mug Shot Photo April 2021 Arrest Florida