Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

The Stream Deck’s new paid app store is here

Richard LawlerOct 12, 2023

Richard LawlerOct 11, 2023

Things did, indeed, get worse.

That is a theme of Caroline Ellison’s remarks about Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX during his trial on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy.

As Liz Lopatto captured from Tuesday’s testimony:

“[SBF] was very ambitious,” she said. Besides telling her about his presidential chances, he also told her that if there was a coin flip where tails destroyed the world and heads made the world twice as good, he’d flip the coin. He called this being “risk-neutral,” which seems like a fancy way of saying he was a gambling addict.

Ellison is back on the stand today, and I can’t wait for the next big update.

Richard LawlerOct 11, 2023

Sam Bankman-Fried wanted to buy Snapchat.

That’s one of the things mentioned during the ongoing testimony of former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison against her terrible ex-boyfriend, as well as the idea SBF sought to have regulators “crack down on Binance,” the competing crypto exchange that sparked the run that took FTX down.

You can expect more updates from Wednesday’s events in the Sam Bankman-Fried / FTX fraud trial to come later today.

Richard LawlerOct 11, 2023

NASA shows off the first images and data from its new asteroid samples.

During a press conference on October 11th, NASA administrators and scientists showed off the initial results from their analysis of the sample capsule returned from the OSIRIS-REx mission that grabbed bits of the asteroid Bennu and brought them back to Earth last month.

While the larger rocks in the craft’s Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) have yet to be evaluated, here are a few images from the livestream showing what they’ve found in the canister lid and base around the TAGSAM.

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Richard LawlerOct 11, 2023

Ghostwire: Tokyo is free for Amazon Prime subscribers this month.

No, it’s not part of the big Prime Day shenanigans, and yes, it means adding one more title to gaming backlogs that are already busting at the seams.

But if you have Amazon Prime (and an Epic Games Store account), then consider hitting this Prime Gaming promotional page before November 2nd to acquire Ghostwire: Tokyo for free., Andrew Webster called the 2022 title “a mix of action, adventure, and scares in a tight package that can be wrapped up in less than 20 hours.”

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Richard LawlerOct 10, 2023

Maybe it’s the new haircut?

Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly is sporting a jailhouse haircut during his fraud trial over FTX’s failure, and observers, including this NPR reporter and CNBC, note that his ex, Caroline Ellison, needed a little time to find him in the courtroom.

According to CNBC and the New York Times, once her testimony began, she wasted little time:

“Sam directed me to commit these crimes,” she said. He “directed us to take customer money to pay loans.”

Expect a full report from Liz Lopatto later today.

Richard LawlerOct 10, 2023

He’s over there...

Former Alameda Research CEO and ex-girlfriend of Sam Bankman-Fried Caroline Ellison has begun testifying in the fraud trial against SBF.

Richard LawlerOct 10, 2023

True, yet misleading.

On the stand today during Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial, Gary Wang dove into his evolving explanation of the infamous (and now-deleted) SBF tweet saying that “FTX is fine. Assets are fine,” that he posted the day before Binance’s acquisition announcement, which is when things truly came apart.

Richard LawlerOct 10, 2023

The Sam Bankman-Fried fraud trial continues.

The Verge reporter Liz Lopatto is back in a New York City courtroom today, as Sam Bankman-Fried’s friends turned cooperating witnesses continue to take the stand in the case against the fallen FTX boss.

We broke down FTX CTO Gary Wang’s testimony / code review on Friday, and today the case restarted with him still on the stand, and former Alameda CEO and SBF ex Caroline Ellison is expected to make her appearance later today. Stay tuned here for all of the latest updates from the crypto exchange fraud trial.