Alexa Wallace Doesn’t Like to Play by the Standard Red Carpet Rules
H&M’s Fashion Photoshoot Campaign is the Coolest Thing We’ve Seen
The Dawning of the Chinese Era! Mark Zuckerberg and his Meta will have hard times ahead!
In December 2020, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sought to break up Meta and to unwind acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. Unfortunately, Judge James E. Boasberg found that FTC had not plausibly supported its case, and thus could not proceed. Under the new chair Lina Khan FTC re-filed with more evidence and now the case has been approved for trial. But now TikTok is the new champion. In 2021, it was the most visited website in the world.
While the Chinese TikTok is surpassing the Meta platforms, Meta is being sued in the UK for £2.3bn in a class action lawsuit that claims 44 million Facebook users in the UK had their data exploited after signing up to the social network. The lawsuit brought by the legal expert Liza Lovdahl Gormsen argues that the price for getting on Facebook, which does not charge its users, is handing over personal data that generates 98% of Meta’s income from advertisers. They would be able to target specific demographics and consumers because Meta has built up profiles of its users through their online activity.
Mark Zuckerberg and his Meta are in a strategic quandary. On the one hand, the U.S. FTC is trying to break up the Meta and the Class Action in the UK wants billions in damages for unfair business practices. While Meta faces these massive legal threats, China’s TikTok is surpassing Facebook and Instagram to become the new market leader.
The age of meta platforms and U.S. tech giants seems to be coming to an end. The Chinese era is beginning.
The new millionaires! Wall Street Journal lists top-paid TikTok celebrities!
TikTok’s highest-paid celebrities collectively hauled in $55.5 million in 2021, a 200% increase from a year earlier, Forbes reported. TikTok user Charli D’Amelio started posting videos of herself dancing on TikTok in 2019. She made $17.5 million in 2021. With 133 million followers on TikTok, she makes her money from a clothing line and promoting products in TikTok videos and other ads. And many others make also millions on TikTok.
According to the Wall Streen Journal (WSJ), median pay for CEOs of S&P 500 companies was $13.4 million in 2020, including stock and option awards, which typically make up most of executive pay, as well as annual salary and bonus, perks and some kinds of retirement-benefit gains.
Charli D’Amelio’s compensation was higher than several CEOs of big publicly traded companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp. ’s Darren Woods ($15.6 million in 2020), Starbucks Corp. ’s Kevin Johnson ($14.7 million), Delta Air Lines Inc. ’s Ed Bastian ($13.1 million) and McDonald’s Corp. ’s Chris Kempczinski ($10.8 million), according to the Journal’s analysis of their recent compensation figures.
Dixie D’Amelio, Charli’s older sister, was the second-highest TikTok earner last year, according to Forbes, bringing in $10 million. Mae Karwowski of influencer marketing agency Obviously noted that many top TikTok influencers run new companies, launch brands and diversify their income streams.
They’re really building business empires. The numbers we see now are only getting bigger.
Mae Karwowski, CEO and founder of influencer marketing agency Obviously
Evidently, TikTok is a platform for very real money in the dawning cyberfinance environment.
Israeli cybercrime activist Jacki Fitelzon sentenced to an 82-months prison time
FinTelegram reported about the German cybercrime trial regarding broker scams. On January 12, 2022, the verdict against the Israeli citizen Jacki Fitelzon was handed down in the court in Munich. The Israeli was one of the co-conspirators of Gal Barak, the Wolf of Sofia. Fitelzon had pleaded guilty to the charges and has now been sentenced to 82 months in prison for commercial and gang fraud. It was also confiscated €760,000. The sentence is not yet final. Fitelzon asked to be transferred to a rehab facility, which the court ordered!
The Fitelzon Case
The Munich court now imposed placement of the defendant in a rehab facility. Jacki Fitelzon had disclosed a drug and alcohol addiction in court. He told the court of his massive consumption of alcohol and drugs during his work for Gal Barak and E&G Bulgaria. He would have been afraid because the E&G Bulgaria principles threatened him and his family.
Fitelzon had been a leading accomplice in the cybercrime organization of E&G Bulgaria as Vice President Sales. With the 84-months prison time, he received a higher sentence than his boss Gal Barak, who was sentenced to only four years in Austria in September 2020. The court found him guilty of investment fraud and money laundering. He also has to make restitution payments of around €4 million.
More Indictments
In the Fitelzon indictment, the German prosecutors led by Nino Goldbeck had named Marina Barak as a ringleader in addition to Gal Barak and Jacki Fitelzon. The German indictment came after Marina Barak was charged and acquitted in Austria in 2021.
In Austria, the Tradologic founder Ilan Tzorya has been indicted based on Barak’s accusations. Barak took over had a fallout in or around 2017 about the white-label broker platform Tradologic, which they owned jointly with Gery Shalon and Vladislav Smirnov. According to the criminal files, however, Tzorya had never a say in E&G Bulgaria and was not involved in their boiler room operations and denies any involvement in cybercrime activities.
The German prosecutor’s office plans further charges against Gal Barak and Marina Barak. The Barak lawyer appealed against the German charges. Currently, the decision on the German charges lies with the European Court of Justice. Insiders expect the charges to be upheld.
RIP wealth management! UBS Next invests in an online estate planning start-up!
UBS Next, the Swiss bank’s $200 million strategic fintech portfolio, announced that it has invested in Trust & Will, an entirely digitized U.S. estate planning platform (www.trustandwill.com). It helps digitize and personalize estate planning. Trusts, wills, and guardianships can be created online quickly and securely. The platform enables estate planning through technology. At the same time, it ensures compliance with applicable legal requirements. An interesting WealthTech venture.
With the investment in Trust & Will, UBS wants to unlock services beyond traditional wealth management services to its affluent clients.
We are very excited to now be among the companies in UBS’ fintech portfolio.
Cody Barbo, founder and CEO of Trust & Will
UBS launched UBS Next in October 2020 with the mission to identify new opportunities in the startup environment and expand UBS’ technology-driven growth through partnerships and strategic investments. UBS Next enables UBS to collaborate with fintech firms, accelerate innovation and help shape the future of banking. The investment platform focuses primarily on direct minority investments in early-stage (Series A and B) fintech and technology companies strategically and financially relevant for the UBS business.
London-based payment processor Checkout valued at $40 billion!
According to the FinTelegram, the London-based FCA-regulated EMI and payment processor Checkout Ltd d/b/a Checkout.com raised $1 billion in a recent share sale that valued it at $40 billion. New investors including Franklin Templeton and the Qatar Investment Authority participated alongside existing ones, such as Insight Partners and Tiger Global Management. Checkout is one of the big crypto-to-FIAT payment processors. It didn’t raise money from outside investors until 2019 but is one of the most valuable start-ups in the world.
Since its first fundraising round in 2019, the valuation of Checkout has increased 20 times. The company’s payment volume tripled in both 2020 and 2021, said CEO Guillaume Pousaz. The payment processor has big clients such as Netflix Inc.
Checkout said that it will use much of the new capital to finance the expansion into the U.S. https://www.thecybervoice.com/tag/celine-dufetelCéline Dufétel, the company’s CFO said that Crypto and financial-technology transactions account for more than half of Checkout’s payments volume. Exchanges such as Coinbase and wallets like Novi from Meta Platforms use Checkout.com to move customers’ money into and out of digital currencies.
The company plans to pursue an initial public offering sometime in the future.
Bravo! EU wants to suspend visa agreements with cybercrime paradise Vanuatu!
It would be high time for the EU to protect Europe from the money laundering and cybercrime paradise. Many scam broker scams and regulated EU brokers use Vanuatu to target consumers in the EU via offshore entities licensed issued by the local Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC). The island nation’s Golden Passport scheme in the South Pacific Ozan adds to this calamity. To protect security in Europe, the EU Commission is considering requiring certain citizens of the island nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific to obtain visas again to enter the EU.
The EU Commission proposed that EU states partially suspend visa agreements with Vanuatu because of its Golden Passport scheme. In exchange for an investment of at least $130,000, Vanuatu would grant citizenship giving the new passport holders visa-free access to the EU and its member states. The EU Commission found severe security gaps in the passport scheme. Citizenship is also granted to investors who are registered in Interpol databases.
Moreover, the EU Commission found that the average processing time for applications was too short to examine them thoroughly; only one application was rejected by 2020.
Holders of the Golden Passport do not have to go through the procedure for a Schengen visa. THEREFORE, the EU Commission sees increased risks for the security of the EU and its member states. The visa waiver agreement is, therefore, to be suspended for those people whose passports were issued from May 25, 2015. Since then, the EU Commission said Vanuatu has been issuing passports in exchange for investments. The member states will now decide on the proposal.
But what about Cyprus then?
Money-laundering – Malta FIUA fines Southern Cross SICAV with €300,000!
According to the Times of Malta, millions flowed through the MFSA-regulated Maltese investment fund Southern Cross SICAV plc without proper controls to prevent money-laundering and terrorism financing. The Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) found that Southern Cross SIVAC had a “disregard” for its anti-money laundering obligations. The fund is in the process of surrendering its MFSA license. The FIU has imposed a fine on the company in the amount of €303,710 for the “serious” failures during its years in operation.
Founded in 2015, Southern Cross SICAV can also be found in the Offshore Leaks Database. Alter Domus Trustee Services (Malta) Limited acts as a nominee shareholder. Joseph Xuereb, Ian Zammit, and Chris Casapinta are named as directors.
Southern Cross Sicav’s “lack of regard” towards its anti-money laundering obligations could have had an impact not only on its own operations but also had repercussions on Malta, the FIAU noted. Malta was last year greylisted by the FATF, a global anti-money laundering body, over failures to adequately fight financial crime.
Failures were also observed in the Company’s measures to obtain the source of wealth (SoW) and expected source of funds of its customers. On at least three occasions the company invested its own funds in the business of its customers. This happened through payments of approximately €1 million to each of the investors, as well as being issued with units in fund. The FIAU said that the investment rationales provided by the company were “rather difficult to understand” as well.
The FIAU found Southern Cross failed to adequately document its internal procedures to fight money laundering and did not properly screen its customers before accepting their money.
A CATEGORY OF ONE – STARLING BANK PRESENTS IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS!
The UK fintech unicorn Starling Bank had a great 2021. In a blog post, the company’s CEO Anne Boden shared the bank’s milestones. The bank finished last year with more than 2.7 million accounts, including 475,000 business accounts for small and medium-sized enterprises. Starling Bank‘s UK SME market share now tops seven percent, almost half of Barclays’ share.
The fintech’s deposit base now stands at £8.4 billion, up from £4.8 billion in 2020. The lending increased from £1.9 billion to £3.1 billion.
Key milestones in 2021 included the of Fleet Mortgages, a specialist buy-to-let lender that started in 2014 with the aim of running a business its employees could be “proud to work for.” Starling Bank raised a further £322 million from some of the world’s biggest financial heavyweights. Among them is Goldman Sachs. And the fintech launched a host of new features including the Kite app for children aged 6 to 16, the first full generation of digital finance natives.
As a profitable, fast-growing fintech built on proprietary software and with a substantial loan book, a valuation in excess of £1 billion, and a tightly controlled cost-base, Starling Bank now stands in a category of one, Anne Boden rightfully boasts in her blog post.
