Plus, U.S. Senate votes to ban TikTok on government devices.
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According to court documents, Ryan Salame, co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamas operating entity, informed the Bahamian SEC that FTX was using customer funds to cover losses at Alameda Research. Salame said only three people could authorize those transfers – founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder Gary Wang, and engineering executive Nishad Singh. More: - Salame told Bahamian authorities that such transfers were not allowed and, therefore, the actions would be considered theft, misappropriation, and fraud.
- Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamian authorities on Monday evening and is expected to be extradited to the U.S.
- Bankman-Fried is charged with eight counts, including wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, money laundering, and violations of campaign finance laws.
- No other FTX executive has been arrested or charged; however, U.S. prosecutors signaled that they could pursue other individuals involved in the exchange’s collapse.
- The U.S. SEC also filed civil charges against Bankman-Fried, accusing the former CEO of orchestrating a fraud that began the day FTX was launched and continued at his personal direction until November.
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The Bank of England raised its benchmark interest rate to 3.5%, its highest level in 14 years. The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee approved a 0.5% interest rate hike. The European Central Bank (ECB) also raised its interest rate by 50 basis points to 2%. Both increases come a day after the U.S. Fed raised its rate by the same amount to 4.25% and 4.5%. More: - All three regions have experienced record high inflation this year and aim to bring down prices to their 2% target.
- ECB president Christine Lagarde said the central bank is not pivoting from its plan, and the region should expect at least two more 0.5% rate increases in February and March.
- In the U.K., the pound sterling declined following the rate increase, and government bonds rose.
- Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said future rate increases are likely to bring inflation down to its 2% target.
- Analysts expect U.K. rates to peak above 4.5% by the middle of 2023.
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Twitter permanently suspended several accounts tracking the private planes of public figures. The social media company said it would suspend accounts dedicated to sharing people’s live locations as they violate the company’s doxing policy. More: - The announcement comes a day after Twitter suspended the account @ElonJet, which was tracking the private plane of Twitter owner Elon Musk.
- The account had about 500,000 followers.
- 20-year-old University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney ran the account and several others.
- On Wednesday, Sweeney’s personal Twitter account appeared to have been suspended as well.
- Musk shared on Twitter on Wednesday that his son had been endangered and he would be taking legal action against Sweeney and others.
- Musk’s private plane was no longer visible on online public trackers on Thursday.
- Musk might have registered for the FAA’s Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD) program.
- The LADD prevents the registration number of an aircraft from being shared publicly.
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Saudi Aramco is partnering with French energy firm TotalEnergies to build a new petrochemical facility in Saudi Arabia. The project will cost about $11B, of which $4B will be funded through equity from Aramco and TotalEnergies, 62.5% and 37.5%, respectively. More: - Construction on the facility is expected to begin in Q1 2023, with operations to start in 2027.
- The new facility and the existing Saudi Arabia Total Refining and Petrochemical (SATORP) refinery are expected to create 7,000 jobs in the region.
- The new petrochemicals facility will help SATORP convert its refinery off-gases, naphtha, ethane, and natural gasoline supplied by Aramco into higher-value chemicals.
- The new facility will be in Jubail, on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast, by the SATORP refinery.
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OpenAI, the research company behind the new chatbot ChatGPT, recently told investors the organization expects to generate $200M in revenue in 2023 and $1B by 2024. OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company co-founded by Sam Altman and Elon Musk. The organization aims to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. More: - According to the firm’s website, it charges developers licensing its technology about a penny or a little more to generate 20,000 words of text.
- It charges about 2 cents to create an image from a written prompt.
- The company’s ChatGPT has provided answers to questions from more than 1 million users.
- OpenAI has raised more than $1B in funding; investors include Microsoft, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and Khosla Ventures.
- OpenAI was last valued at $20B in a secondary share sale.
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The EU has agreed to a 15% minimum tax on large companies, paving the way for a global deal. In October 2021, 137 countries agreed to impose a 15% minimum tax in their regions to reduce tax-rate competition. The EU negotiations for the minimum tax also involved aid to Ukraine. More: - Hungary and Poland had raised objections during negotiations but dropped their protests on Wednesday.
- With all 27 countries in the Euro block supporting the plan, the Union can implement the minimum tax.
- EU’s Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni called the agreement a win for diplomacy and multilateralism.
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen helped write and advocate for the 15% minimum tax agreement.
- The Biden administration has not been able to get the plan passed through Congress.
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- Elon Musk sold 22 million shares of Tesla this week worth about $3.6B. According to an SEC filing, the sale occurred between Monday and Wednesday. Musk has sold more than 94 million shares of Tesla so far this year.
- The European Parliament unveiled some new measures following the Qatar corruption scandal. The government will ban all unofficial “friendship groups” with third countries, boost its whistleblower protection systems, and conduct a full review of all recent legislation.
- The U.S. Senate voted to ban TikTok on government-issued smartphones and other devices.
- Ford raised the starting price of its F-150 Lightning electric truck by 9% to $55,974. The company plans to produce about 150,000 pickup trucks annually by fall 2023. The automaker recently added a third work crew at its assembly plant near Detroit to increase the production of its F-150 trucks.
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- January 10 - Inside Startups Coffee Break (Register Here)
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- January 31 - Growth Summit 2023 (Register Here)
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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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