Sam Bankman-Friedthe founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform FTX, has pleaded not guilty in New York federal court to five additional charges related to his platform’s crash, including bribery and fraud.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyer Mark Cohen plans to file a motion for his client not to stand trial for the alleged crimes, arguing that the trial cannot cover charges brought after his extradition from the Bahamas.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed its third round of criminal charges against Bankman-Fried, including allegation that she bribed the Chinese government in 2021.
In the indictment, authorities allege that the former executive authorized bribing one or more officials with at least $40 million in cryptocurrency, in exchange for regaining access to accounts that had been frozen by law enforcement in China, as part of an research related to his crypto investment firm Alameda Research.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, a US hotel chain with an international presence, said it is preparing the opening of new hotels in Mexico between 2023 and 2025.
The hotel chain said that the openings will take place in Mexico City, under the Regency brand in Insurgentes, Mexico City during 2023; in Los Cabos, under the Park Hyatt brand; and in Cancun, Quintana Roo, with the Grand Hyatt brand in 2024. Finally, the Park Hyatt Mexico City hotel will open its doors in 2025.
Hyatt said that by the end of 2023 it expects its Inclusive Collection brand to have more than 45 complexes, which will represent more than 16,000 rooms, throughout Mexico.
smartfit, a chain of gyms with operations in Mexico and Latin America, reported a 56% growth in its net income during the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to the same period of 2021.
The company attributed this result to the 22% increase in average memberships per unit, the 16% expansion in the network of its own gyms and the increase in the average ticket per member in various regions where it operates.
In Mexico, net income between October and December of last year reached 198 million pesos or 77% more than in the same period of 2021 and 18% more than the third quarter of 2022.
In addition, in Mexico, EBITDA grew 37 million pesos compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 to reach 71 million, since the results of the last quarter of 2021 were still significantly affected by the closure of clubs during the pandemic.
Meta Platforms would change the legal basis for how Facebook and Instagram use personal data to target advertising in the European Union, after the bloc’s privacy regulator fined it for alleged breaches in January.
The move, according to Meta, will give users in the EU more choice over how their data is handled and is not expected to affect the company’s lucrative targeted advertising business in the region.
Earlier this year, Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner fined the social networking giant €390 million ($425.72 million) and told it it could not use a so-called “contractual” legal basis to send ads users based on their online activity.
Meta, which had then expressed its intention to appeal both the merits of the sentence and the fines imposed, will now use the basis of “legitimate interests” instead of “contractual necessity” to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the EU.
