The Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a complaint against crypto exchange Binance claiming the platform violated multiple provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act, including laws aimed at stemming money laundering and financing terrorism. The CFTC also named Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao and Binance former chief compliance officer Samuel Lim in the complaint. More: - The CFTC claims Binance actively solicited U.S. users and subverted the exchange’s own “ineffective compliance program.”
- The complaint was filed in Illinois federal court on Monday.
- The CFTC claims Binance’s compliance efforts were a sham and that the company deliberately took steps to violate U.S. laws, placing profits over following the law.
- Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world.
- In an apparent response to the complaint, Zhao tweeted “4,” referring to an earlier tweet from January with the number 4 stating, “Ignore FUD, fake news, attacks, etc.”
- The price of Bitcoin fell ~3% on Monday following news of the CFTC filing.
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First Citizens BancShares has agreed to buy most of Silicon Valley Bank. On March 10, U.S. financial regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company SVB Financial Group and appointed the FDIC as receiver. The FDIC transferred all SVB deposits and assets to a new bridge bank. More: - First Citizens is buying $56.5B of Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits, about $72B of the bank’s loans at a discount of $16.5B, and all 17 branch locations.
- About $90B of SVB’s securities will remain in receivership for disposition by the FDIC.
- Federal regulators have been looking for a buyer for Silicon Valley Bank, even extending the bidding window for the bank twice.
- The purchase puts First Citizens in the top 25 U.S. banks in terms of assets.
- First Citizens and the FDIC also entered a loss-share agreement for the commercial loans purchased from the SVB bridge bank.
- The FDIC will absorb some of the losses from those assets.
- First Citizens shares rose nearly 54% on Monday following news of the acquisition.
- The bank’s shares closed at $895.61.
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Twitter employees were offered stock grants at a valuation of about $20B, less than half of the $44B price Elon Musk paid for the social media company late last year. In a memo to Twitter employees, Musk said he was optimistic about Twitter’s future, noting he sees a clear but difficult path to getting the company to a $250B+ valuation. More: - Musk referred to Twitter as an inverse startup, given the company’s rate of implementing changes.
- Last week, Twitter said it would wind down its legacy verified program and remove legacy verified checkmarks starting April 1.
- Twitter currently offers a verification service through its Twitter Blue subscription plan.
- Users who sign up through the web pay $8 a month, while those who sign up via iOS or Android pay $11 per month.
In related news: - Part of Twitter’s source code was leaked on GitHub last week.
- The social media company sent a copyright infringement notice to GitHub on Friday, which complied and took down the code.
- In a recent filing, Twitter asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to order GitHub to identify the person who posted the code and any individuals who downloaded it.
- According to sources, there are concerns the leaked information had security vulnerabilities that could give hackers the means to extract user data or take down the site.
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Alibaba founder Jack Ma has returned to mainland China after spending months abroad as China cracked down on the tech sector. Ma was spotted at Yungu school in Hangzhou, the city where Alibaba is headquartered. Ma gave a talk on how teachers could provide an education to students in the age of artificial intelligence. More: - Ma disappeared from public view in late 2020 after making comments that appeared to criticize China’s financial regulator.
- In January 2021, social media was abuzz with speculation on Ma’s whereabouts after not being seen since October 2020.
- Some speculated he was under house arrest, or worse, after what appeared to be a fallout with the Chinese government.
- Ma’s disappearance coincided with China’s widespread crackdown on its tech sector.
- Ma’s fintech firm Ant Group was forced to postpone its highly anticipated public listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
- Alibaba was also hit with a $2.6B antitrust fine in April 2021.
- In the last year, Ma has been spotted traveling in Australia, Japan, Spain, and Thailand.
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Disney plans to begin laying off employees this week as the first of three rounds of layoffs before the summer. The company initially announced the layoffs in February, saying it plans to cut 7,000 jobs and $5.5B in costs, including $3B in content savings. More: - Disney said it plans to reorganize into three segments: Disney Entertainment; ESPN; and Parks, Experiences, and Products.
- The move marks the most significant action CEO Bob Iger has taken since returning to the company in November.
- The job cuts will impact all the company’s divisions, including media and distribution, parks and resorts, and ESPN.
- The layoffs represent about 3% of Disney’s global workforce as of October.
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Activist investor Elliott Management said it no longer plans to nominate directors to Salesforce’s board. The announcement came as both sides prepared for a proxy fight at Saleforce’s upcoming shareholder meeting. More: - Elliott decided to forgo the board nominations following Saleforce’s better-than-expected financial results.
- Elliott’s managing partner Jesse Cohn said he was impressed with Saleforce’s commitment to profitable growth, responsible capital return, and an ambitious shareholder value creation plan.
- Salesforce had announced several changes in recent weeks, including cutting costs, increasing share buybacks, and disbanding a mergers-and-acquisition committee at the company.
- Salesforce shares closed at $191.26 on Monday, up 0.63%.
- The company is up ~42% YTD.
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- Ammar Al Khudairy, the chairman of Saudi National Bank, has resigned. The Saudi National Bank was one of Credit Suisse’s largest shareholders. Al Khudairy’s resignation comes days after his comments about the bank triggered a sharp decline in the bank’s stock, eventually leading to a forced sale to UBS.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suspended a planned judiciary reform until the next parliament session following nationwide protests.
- The World Bank warns that the global economy is in danger of suffering a decade of lost growth if the current financial turbulence causes a global recession.
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie 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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