Law Archive

In July, Carlos Watson was convicted on fraud charges for misleading investors with falsified financial records, inflated audience numbers, and made-up business deals. The New York Times reported in 2021 that his co-founder, Samir Rao, had impersonated a YouTube exec on a call with bankers about a potential $40 million investment.

Less than three months after the BitMEX crypto exchange was hit with a $100 million fine for money laundering – and hours after he pardoned ex-Nikola CEO Trevor Milton for defrauding investors in his EV company – Trump issued pardons to Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Dalo and Samuel Reed, CNBC reported Friday. The three men had previously pled guilty to several felony charges related to money laundering and failure to police the exchange.

Rep. Ritchie Torres and the House Democrats, who are reportedly drafting a bill entitled “The HOUTHI PC SMALL GROUP Act” that would criminalize the use of unsecured messaging apps to send classified information. (Per Axios, it’s an acronym for “Homeland Operations and Unilateral Tactics Halting Incursions: Preventing Coordinated Subversion, Military Aggression and Lawless Levies Granting Rogue Operatives Unchecked Power.”)

Elon Musk has publicly railed against Delaware’s corporate law as its judges ruled against his wishes, moving the incorporation of Tesla and other companies out of state. Now, CNBC says a January WSJ report that Meta was considering moving its incorporation spurred immediate action from the governor on a new bill, SB 21, that might make its laws friendlier to folks like Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

After a heated hearing in a California district court this morning, Judge William Alsup ruled that the Trump administration must offer to reinstate thousands of federal workers who were fired as part of the DOGE cuts. There were a lot of things that irked the judge, though most predictably, he did not like that an Office of Personnel Management official ghosted the court after being ordered to testify. (“I’m getting mad,” the judge said.)