Plus, airlines cancel thousands of flights as severe winter storms approach.
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FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda Research co-CEO Caroline Ellison pleaded guilty to federal charges in the Southern District of New York. Ellison and Wang are the second and third individuals charged with financial fraud following FTX’s collapse. They signed their plea agreements on Monday. More: - Ellison pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
- Wang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
- FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested last Monday in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
- Bankman-Fried faces eight charges, including wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, money laundering, and violations of campaign finance laws.
- On Wednesday, Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas to the U.S.
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The Senate passed a $1.7T government funding bill on Thursday in a 68 to 29 vote. The legislation is headed to the House, where it is also expected to pass. The 4,155-page bill includes $45B of support for Ukraine, $858B in defense spending, and $772.5B in non-defense discretionary programs. More: - The Senate vote came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Biden and delivered an address to Congress.
- The bill allocates $44.9B in military, humanitarian, and economic assistance for Ukraine.
- The amount also includes funds to restock Pentagon weapons the U.S. sent to Ukraine and additional support for NATO allies.
- The bill also provides $40B in new funding for states and tribal reservations to help communities across the country recover from natural disasters.
- The legislation also scraps the federal Electoral Count Act, an 1887 law that former President Donald Trump and his supporters wanted to use to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost.
- The bill notes that the vice president’s role in certifying states’ electoral counts would be entirely ceremonial.
- The vice president will have no power to reject the results of an election certified by the states.
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TikTok parent ByteDance said its employees improperly accessed the user data of two journalists on the social media platform. The company said its employees abused their authority to access the data of journalists in an effort to identify leaks of confidential company information. More: - ByteDance’s General Counsel Erich Andersen said the employees looked at the IP addresses of the journalists to see if they were in the exact location as the employees suspected of leaking confidential information.
- The journalists were a former BuzzFeed reporter and a Financial Times reporter.
- Andersen said the employees who abused their access were part of the company’s Audit and Risk Control department.
- ByteDance CEO Rubo Liang called the improper data access a serious violation of the company’s code of conduct and condemned the action.
- TikTok is facing growing national security concerns from U.S. lawmakers, regulators, and officials related to the use and storage of data collected on the platform.
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AMC Entertainment announced a new $110M capital raise and proposed a 1-for-10 reverse stock split for its common shares. The company has requested a special shareholder meeting to approve the reverse stock split and convert its preferred equity APE units into AMC common shares. More: - AMC sold its APE units to hedge fund Antara Capital.
- Antara is exchanging $100M of AMC’s debt for 91 million APE units.
- Antara has agreed to hold the shares for 90 days while shareholders vote on converting APEs into AMC common shares.
- AMC CEO Adam Aron said the deal with Antara brings AMC’s total equity capital raise in the last three months to $272M.
- On news of the deal, AMC shares fell more than 10% Thursday morning, while its APE units popped nearly 90%.
- AMC shares closed at $4.91, down ~7.4% for the day.
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Tesla announced double discounts on its Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles delivered in the U.S. before the end of the year. The company is offering a $7,500 credit and 10,000 miles of free Supercharging for vehicles delivered between Dec. 21 and 31, 2022. More: - Tesla is also offering 10,000 miles of free charging on its Model S and Model X vehicles, but not the $7,500 discount.
- In October, Tesla cut the price of its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China.
- Global demand for cars has decreased as consumers react to rising interest rates and uncertainty about the state of the economy.
- Tesla shares fell more than 9% during mid-day trading on Thursday.
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Justin Bieber is in talks with Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital to sell the rights to his music for $200M. According to sources, the deal includes an interest in Bieber’s publishing and recorded music catalog. More: - If completed, the deal would be the largest music-rights acquisition for Hipgnosis.
- Earlier this year, Hipgnosis purchased the rights to Justin Timberlake’s music catalog for around $100M.
- According to sources, Universal Music Group still owns Bieber’s master recordings and administers his songwriting catalog.
- Bieber released six studio albums between 2010 and 2021.
- He had to cancel several concerts earlier this year after being diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which paralyzed part of his face and left him unable to perform. He was eventually able to return to touring after a few months.
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- Airlines have canceled more than 4,000 flights from Wednesday through Friday as severe winter storms sweep across the U.S. Airlines warned that the snow, ice, high winds, and cold temperatures could affect travel from Seattle to Boston to North Carolina.
- YouTube will pay about $2B a year over seven years for NFL's Sunday Ticket package. DirecTV currently pays about $1.5B per season for the Sunday Ticket package's residential and commercial rights.
- Under Armour has named the current president of Marriott International, Stephanie Linnartz, as its next CEO following a seven-month search. Linnartz was one of 60 individuals considered for the role.
- Guggenheim Partners' global chief investment officer, Scott Minerd, passed away after suffering a heart attack during a regular workout. Minerd was 63 years old.
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a writer for Inside.com; she writes the daily Inside Business newsletter. Her interests include finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending concerts and music festivals, traveling, and exploring. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or on LinkedIn. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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