(NEW YORK) — The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX founder and former crypto billionaire, is set to begin Tuesday with jury selection after federal prosecutors accused him of orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.
Jury selection is expected to take place Tuesday, and the trial could last as long as six weeks.
Bankman-Fried faces seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering centered on his alleged use of customer deposits on the crypto trading platform FTX to cover losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, and to buy lavish real estate, among other personal expenses.
He has pleaded not guilty to all counts. If convicted, he could face a sentence of up to 110 years in prison.
Bankman-Fried stepped down from his role at FTX in November 2022 amid a rapid collapse that ended with the company declaring bankruptcy. Prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried the following month with an array of alleged crimes focused on a scheme to defraud investors.
In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that November, Bankman-Fried denied knowing “there was any improper use of customer funds.”
“I really deeply wish that I had taken like a lot more responsibility for understanding what the details were of what was going on there,” Bankman-Fried told Stephanopoulos at the time. “A lot of people got hurt, and that’s on me.”
Bankman-Fried is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a federal prison, where he will remain throughout the proceedings.
After months spent under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, Bankman-Fried was sent to jail in August after a federal judge revoked his $250 million bail.
A federal judge in New York on Thursday denied Bankman-Fried temporary release from custody during his trial, deciding he is too great a flight risk to let free.
Prosecutors had balked at Bankman-Fried’s sharing with The New York Times excerpts from the personal documents of Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend, who led his Alameda Research hedge fund and who has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate.
The judge ultimately lent credence to concern over Bankman-Fried’s alleged attempt to improperly influence Ellison, who is potentially set to testify at his trial.
Before his sudden downfall, Bankman-Fried had ascended to the top of the cryptocurrency sector, garnering goodwill as a philanthropist and leading proponent of industry regulation. The cover of Fortune Magazine in August 2022 asked readers whether Bankman-Fried, known by some as “SBF,” was “the next Warren Buffett.”
As a pandemic-era crypto boom faded in the fall of last year, concerns of financial instability at FTX — a top platform where users buy and sell crypto — triggered a wave of customer withdrawals totaling billions of dollars.
Within days, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections as it assessed the value of its remaining assets, a company announcement said.
Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO in November 2022 and was replaced with John J. Ray III, who steered disgraced energy company Enron through bankruptcy proceedings in the 2000s.
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried’s net worth plummeted from $16 billion to $0 in less than a week, according to an estimate from Bloomberg.
Days after FTX declared bankruptcy, the company’s collapse became the subject of an investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, sources familiar with the matter had told ABC News.
Roughly a month later, in December 2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas after federal prosecutors in New York filed criminal charges, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, for benefits to supplement their grocery budget to afford nutritious foods. As of Oct. 1, the program received a much-needed boost to help meet the increased cost of living and inflation.
The program, overseen by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service arm in accordance with the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, adjusted the maximum allotments starting this month for the year ahead, based on the Consumer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for June 2022.
Work eligibility requirements for the program, previously known as food stamps, were set to become more strict after President Joe Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act in June.
One group specifically, able-bodied adults without dependents between ages 51-52 — labeled as ABAWDs by the agency — will now need to prove they are actively working, training or in school in order to qualify for SNAP benefits.
Work requirements expanded up to age 52 starting Oct. 1. Requirements will expand to age 54 starting in October 2024.
What’s changed with SNAP benefits and eligibility?
Starting this month, SNAP benefits are increasing by 12.5% compared to last year, as reported by Forbes Advisor.
According to the updates, maximum allotments have increased at various increments for the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia, Alaska, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
A family of four in the continental U.S. and Washington, D.C., will now be allowed a maximum of $973. Maximum allotments for a family of four in Alaska would range from $1,248 to $1,937; in Guam it would be $1,434 and in the U.S. Virgin Islands, $1,251.
The only location with a decreased maximum allotment is in Hawaii, where a family of four would now see a maximum payment of $1,759.
Additionally, the shelter cap value has increased to $672 for the 48 contiguous states and D.C.
People looking to qualify for SNAP benefits must apply in the state in which they currently live and must meet certain requirements, including resource and income limits, outlined by the USDA here.
(NEW YORK) — An estimated $1.04 billion jackpot is up for grabs in the next Powerball drawing on Monday night.
It’s the fourth-largest purse in the American lottery game’s history and the second-largest this year, according to a press release from Powerball.
The grand prize, which has an estimated cash value of $478.2 million, ballooned above the $1 billion mark after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Saturday night.
However, five tickets — purchased in Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, where there were two — matched matched all five white balls to win $1 million prizes. Two other tickets — sold in Indiana and North Carolina — matched all five white balls and won $2 million prizes by including Power Play, a feature that allows a winner to multiply the original amount of non-jackpot prizes for an additional $1 per play, Powerball said.
The jackpot was previously won on July 19, when a ticket purchased in California matched all five white balls and the red Powerball to claim $1.08 billion. Since then, there have been 32 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner.
Jackpot winners can either take the money as an immediate cash lump sum or in 30 annual payments over 29 years. Both advertised prize options do not include federal and jurisdictional taxes.
The jackpot grows based on game sales and interest, but the odds of winning the big prize stays the same — 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.
Powerball tickets cost $2 and are sold in 45 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Powerball drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. The drawings are also livestreamed online at Powerball.com.
(LOS ANGELES) — Gasoline prices in California are skyrocketing.
The average price of a gallon of gas in California on Friday reached $6.08, up some 80 cents or 15% since a month ago, according to data compiled by AAA. At some gas stations in Los Angeles, prices are hovering around $7.00 a gallon.
In California, the average price for a gallon of gas is about 55% higher than the national average, AAA data shows.
The eye-popping prices in the nation’s most populous state owe to a surge in the cost of crude oil combined with output disruptions that have choked refinery capacity, industry analysts told ABC News.
“The fuel delivery system in California is running right up against its limits all the time,” Timothy Fitzgerald, a professor of business economics at Texas Tech University who studies the petroleum industry, told ABC News. “Even fairly small disruptions can lead to price spikes.”
On Thursday, a key measure of crude oil prices reached its highest level in more than a year. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures price peaked at about $95, which marked a roughly 16% increase from a month prior.
The hike traces in part to a decision made in April by the alliance of countries known as OPEC+, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, which opted to cut oil output by 1.2 million barrels per day starting in May. The move amounted to removing roughly 1% of oil from the global market.
Earlier this month, OPEC+ extended the output cuts to the end of this year.
The decline in supply of crude oil has helped send prices upward in recent months just as California has begun to face a series of setbacks at its refineries, analysts said.
Four of the state’s 14 oil refineries are producing at substantially lower levels than normal due to slowdowns caused by weather-related damage or much-needed maintenance, Patrick de Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told ABC News.
“There has been kink after kink at some of these refineries,” de Haan said. “That’s what brought this to a head.”
Fitzgerald said the uptick in maintenance-related interruptions stems in part from an effort on the part of refineries to remain at full capacity during the busy summer driving season. At the end of that blitz, some refineries may address long-delayed repairs, he added.
“Refineries run wide open all summer making as much fuel as possible,” Fitzgerald said. “This is the time of year as we get into fall where the refineries have to say, ‘Gee, we need to fix this.'”
Drivers in California may soon get some relief.
During the summer months in California, oil refineries are required to produce a specific blend of gasoline that limits negative effects on air quality that are more pronounced in the summer heat.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an order on Thursday to state regulators easing rules that forbid oil refineries from producing a cheaper, more plentiful winter-blend of gasoline until Oct. 31.
Under the waiver, refineries are immediately permitted to produce the winter blend, which should increase supply of gasoline and reduce prices, analysts said.
Prices will stop rising over the next few days and begin to fall by the end of next week, said de Haan. He expects prices to drop about 50 cents per gallon by the end of October.
Fitzgerald predicted a modest impact, saying gas prices would fall about 10 cents per gallon as result of the order from Newsom.
“At this point, I’m sure drivers would be happy to have some relief,” Fitzgerald said. “But it’s not going to bring prices in California back down to the national average.”
(SAN FRANCISCO) — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Tesla, alleging the company engaged in racial harassment and discrimination.
The complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, comes following an EEOC investigation into Tesla’s treatment of Black employees.
The lawsuit, which was obtained by ABC News, claims that since at least May 29, 2015, Tesla has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by subjecting Black employees at the company’s Fremont, California, manufacturing facilities to racial abuse, stereotyping, and hostility, including racial slurs.
The lawsuit claims that Tesla violated federal law by “tolerating widespread and ongoing racial harassment of its Black employees and by subjecting some of these workers to retaliation for opposing the harassment,” according to a statement released by the EEOC on Thursday. “The Commission also alleges that Defendant unlawfully retaliated against Black employees who opposed actions they perceived to constitute unlawful employment discrimination.”
The EEOC was established through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and is a federal agency that works to protect civil rights in the workplace.
Tesla did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Tesla said it “strongly opposes” all forms of discrimination in response to a separate discrimination lawsuit filed in 2022 against Tesla by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, according to a New York Times report.
The lawsuit further alleges that various racial slurs were used against Black employees routinely and casually, often in high-traffic areas.
According to the lawsuit, employees who spoke out about the alleged harassment were allegedly retaliated against by Tesla, including instances of changes in job duties and schedules, unjustified write-ups, terminations and transfers, among other actions.
The EEOC is asking, in part, that the court order Tesla to provide victims with back pay and grant an injunction enjoining the electric car maker from its alleged discriminatory practices.
“Every employee deserves to have their civil rights respected, and no worker should endure the kind of shameful racial bigotry our investigation revealed,” said EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows in a statement on Thursday. “Today’s lawsuit makes clear that no company is above the law, and the EEOC will vigorously enforce federal civil rights protections to help ensure American workplaces are free from unlawful harassment and retaliation.”
The EEOC said it investigated Tesla after Burrow submitted a commissioner’s charge alleging that Tesla violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 due to its alleged treatment of Black employees. The EEOC says it tried “to reach a pre-litigation settlement through conciliation” before filing the suit.
“The allegations in this case are disturbing,” EEOC San Francisco District Office Regional Attorney Roberta L. Steele said in a statement. “No worker should have to endure racial harassment and retaliation to earn a living six decades after the enactment of Title VII.”
(DETROIT) — A labor strike against the three largest motor vehicle manufacturers in the United States is expected to be expanded further on Friday amid ongoing contract negotiations.
If no deal is reached overnight, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain will deliver remarks at 10 a.m. ET announcing new targets to strike, which will begin at noon.
A source close to the union spoke to ABC News on Thursday afternoon, describing the negotiations as being very active within the last 24 hours and having in-person, sit-down meetings with representatives from both sides, including Fain.
The UAW, which represents nearly 150,000 American autoworkers, launched a strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — often called the “big three” — on Sept. 15. Almost 13,000 workers walked out of three auto plants in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio that day. The union is utilizing a “stand-up” strike method to target specific plants and add to the list if a deal isn’t reached.
After the unprecedented strike began, Ford laid off 600 workers who assemble cars at a plant in Michigan on Sept. 15. Workers in the paint department at a nearby plant are out on strike, leaving the assembly workers without adequate parts since the parts require paint before they can be put together into cars, a company spokesperson told ABC News.
On Sept. 22, Fain announced 38 new strike locations targeting GM and Stellantis, saying all parts distribution locations for the two companies at cities across 20 U.S. states will now join the walkouts. Ford was excluded at the time due to substantial progress at the bargaining table. Approximately 5,625 additional UAW members joined the picket line that day, bringing the overall total to more than 18,000.
It was unknown how many more targets would be picked for Friday, as the strike nears its fourth week. But it was clear that all three Detroit-based companies would be potential options if there was no progress.
Sticking points in negotiations were wage increases and the length of the workweek. The union is demanding a 46% pay increase combined over the four-year duration of a new contract, as well as a 32-hour workweek at 40-hour pay. So far, GM, Ford and Stellantis have each put forward proposals that offered workers a 20% pay increase over the life of the agreement but preserved a 40-hour workweek.
Economists have warned that while the U.S. has yet to see any massive effects on its economy, a prolonged strike lasting a month or more could damage the country’s GDP and increase the chances of heading into a recession. Economists previously told ABC News that a strike could result in billions of dollars in losses, disruption to the supply chain and other financial consequences.
On Thursday, Fain accused GM and Stellantis of enabling violence against striking workers, pointing to incidents that occurred in Michigan, Massachusetts and California. Both companies denied the allegations and cited an escalation in behavior on the picket line.
President Joe Biden has deployed acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and White House senior adviser Gene Sperling to Detroit to offer their support for the parties in reaching an agreement. Biden himself traveled to Michigan this week to join the picket line “and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create.”
(NEW YORK) — In the first week of October, Kennedy Quintanilla will do something she has not had to do since graduating from college two years ago: make a student loan payment.
“Reality is setting in,” Quintanilla, a 2021 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with over $26,000 in student loan debt, told Good Morning America. “It’s extraordinary stressful.”
As someone who graduated college amid the coronavirus pandemic, Quintanilla, 24, will be one of thousands of borrowers making their first-ever student loan payment in October, when payments resume after a three-year pause.
The first-time payments are particularly impacting members of Gen Z, like Quintanilla, who were born after 1996 and who are on track to be the best-educated generation in American history, according to The Pew Research Center.
They are a generation who entered college at a time when tuition rates were at record-highs, and who graduated at a time of economic uncertainty due, in part, to the coronavirus pandemic.
As of this year, nearly seven million borrowers ages 24 and younger owe more than $97 billion in federal student loans, according to government data.
It’s a staggering number that has left many members of the Gen Z generation “disenfranchised,” according to Vivian Tu, a personal finance expert with over two million followers on TikTok, at @Your.RichBFF.
“They’ve never seen an economic system really work,” Tu, author of the forthcoming book “Rich AF,” told GMA of Gen Zers. “Boomers/Gen X could get degrees for relatively little money, get good jobs where families could live comfortably off of one income, and they got to have the 2.5 kids, golden retriever, white picket fence/house with a tire swing dream. But then Millennials did all the right things but lived through significantly more financial hardship such as stagnating wages, 10 times in the price of education, three times in the price of housing, and the housing crisis.”
She continued, “Gen Z is now seeing these two to three generations before them, and are really starting to feel like higher education may no longer be ‘worth it,’ not to mention, graduating into the pandemic likely having not ever made a student loan payment and demonstrating a really different values system than the ones seen in generations before them.”
In June, Gen Z borrowers were dealt another blow when the Supreme Court overturned President Joe Biden’s loan-forgiveness plan that would have canceled $10,000 in student debt for all borrowers who made less than $125,000, and up to $20,000 for borrowers who also received Pell grants.
Had Biden’s plan gone into effect, Quintanilla, who works full-time, said $20,000 of her student loan debt would have been forgiven.
“Pretty much all of my friends had to take out loans in order to be in school,” she said. “We operated the first two years of adulthood, out of college, free from [payments] … Now that most of us are pretty established in our careers, we’re having to go back and evaluate because it’s not like it used to be.”
Erin Confortini, who provides financial advice to Gen Zers on TikTok, said that for this generation in particular, starting monthly student loan payments after a three-year pause is causing financial fallout.
“I think people have been, for the past couple of years, creating their budget under the expectation that they’re not going to have these student loan payments,” Confortini, who herself graduated from college in 2021 with $38,000 in student loan debt, said. “They have things like rent, a car payment, those big fixed expenses that they’ve already locked themselves into, and now they need to also factor a big fixed expense in a student loan payment that they don’t have budget for.”
In Quintanilla’s case, she said she planned ahead and chose an apartment about 20 minutes outside of Austin, where rent is cheaper, so she could save money to pay off her loan. She said she is also finding other ways to cut back on spending — including possibly forgoing a secondary degree — to account for the monthly payments she will now be making for an estimated 10 to 15 years.
“I know a lot of people, myself included, who thought maybe secondary education was going to be the path we took,” she said. “And we have definitely steered clear from that because of this whole situation.”
Kids, parents paying off student loans at the same time
The burden of student loan debt a person carries can affect not just whether they continue their education, but everything from where they live and what job they can take to how many kids they have and whether they can purchase a home and build generational wealth, experts say.
And for many members of Gen Z, those types of choices are a reality they are now facing after watching their parents face them too.
Alex Espinoza Acosta, a 2022 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, said he is facing $25,000 in student loan debt at the same time as his mom, who graduated college while he was in high school, continues to pay off her remaining $50,000 in student loan debt.
After graduating college, Acosta moved back home to San Antonio to help his family and save money. He said though he knows student loan payments are resuming, he has not yet paid attention to when his first payment is due because he does not have the money.
“With the work I’ve gotten, I can barely make ends meet now,” Acosta, who majored in government and international relations, told GMA. “I got a bartending job to prepare myself for the payments [resuming]. I’ve been trying to find full-time work, but just haven’t been successful.”
He added of his job search, “I’ve had so many interviews and just haven’t landed anything yet.”
Like many others who were college students when the pandemic struck, Acosta said he lived at home his junior year and took classes remotely, while paying the same tuition. Now, as he and his peers try to start their lives post-college, what they are all talking about, he said, is debt.
“My friends, most of them have higher debt and are even more worried,” Acosta said. “A lot of my friends are helping their families because it’s hard for them to make ends meet with rising everything … They’re worried about rent, car payments, car insurance, inflation.”
And with Gen Zers more likely to hold student debt than previous generations, the trajectory is continuing for who is the most impacted, people of color, and particularly, Black women.
Overall, women hold nearly two-thirds of the nearly $2 trillion outstanding student debt in the U.S., and Black women are the most likely of any gender group to have student loans, with around 1 in 4 Black women holding student debt, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the American Association of University Women.
It’s a concern for Megan Kane, a 23-year-old Black woman who said she is also still watching her parents, who are in their 50s, pay off their student loan debts too.
Kane, a 2022 graduate of Georgetown University, said she will begin paying off her $28,000 in student loan debt at the end of October, a monthly payment that she estimates she’ll continue to pay until at least 2038.
“In the immediate future, it’s less eating out, careful budgeting and taking very careful track of where my money is going so my payments don’t go into default,” Kane, who now lives and works full-time in Oakland, California, told GMA. “And then in the long-term future, I just really don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to buy a home or what kind of other financial goals I’m going to have to sacrifice for this.”
Kane, a foreign service major, added that those sacrifices could include her future education, saying, “I’ve been studying for the GRE and really hope to go back and get a graduate degree, but I don’t know if that will be a possibility for me because I really can’t afford to take on any more student debt.”
Experts’ tips for first-time, Gen Z borrowers
Kane, Acosta and Quintanilla all noted that when they signed up to take on what ended up being tens of thousands of dollars of debt, they were 17 and 18-year-olds unsure of what student loans really meant or how they would impact their futures.
As they prepare to make their first student loan payments, all three said it is equally confusing trying to figure out how to pay back what they described as an “overwhelming” amount of money.
“There’s so many things that … I think even peers my age now don’t really understand or have a full grasp on,” Quintanilla said. “Things like public service loan forgiveness, income-based repayment, those are all very inaccessible to understand but make a tremendous difference if you operate the system correctly.”
The overwhelm of the amount of money combined with frustration that the higher education and student loan industries have not evolved to better suit students led to some borrowers, especially on social media, to call for a “student debt strike.”
Financial experts though like Confortini and Tu say that though they understand the frustration, the reality of ignoring student loan payments is not something people would want to face.
“I think that speaks to the lack of financial literacy that a lot of our generation does have,” Confortini said. “If you’re saying something like that and being serious, you probably don’t understand things like how credit scores work. You can’t just not pay your debt.”
Similarly, Tu’s top advice for Gen Z borrowers is to “not bury your head in the sand.”
“I get that student loan debt can feel so overwhelming, but whether you’re making the minimum payment or trying to pay your debt off ASAP, just make a plan,” she said. “You’ll feel so much better once you have a roadmap of how you plan on tackling your debt.”
Jaylon Herbin, student loan lead for the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit financial policy organization, said a first step for borrowers is to locate their loan servicer since many servicers have changed over the past three years. Borrowers can check by logging on to studentaid.gov.
From there, according to Herbin, each borrower has to figure out the best repayment plan for them since it’s not a one-size-fits-all system.
“You don’t have to just do a standard repayment,” Herbin said. “You could possibly qualify for income-driven repayment … or if you work for a nonprofit or as a teacher or first responder or for AmeriCorps, you could qualify for the public service loan forgiveness program.”
For Gen Zers, income-driven repayment plans, such as Pay As You Earn and Revised Pay As You Earn, may help make payments more manageable, according to Tu.
“If you’re a Gen Z borrower, you’re likely at the beginning of your career and not making as much as you will in a few years,” she said. “If you qualify for an IDR plan, this could help you significantly lower your monthly payments, and limit how much interest your debt can accrue.”
The Biden administration has also made the terms of IDRs more generous, including cutting in half the amount that qualified borrowers have to pay each month, from 10% to 5% of their discretionary income.
Borrowers may also opt for an on-ramp repayment program where, for 12 months, interest will still accrue on the loan, but the Department of Education will not refer borrowers who miss monthly payments to credit agencies.
For borrowers who cannot keep up with payments, other options like a deferment or forbearance period also exist.
Tu noted that especially for Gen Z borrowers, whose loans are now also accruing interest, a priority should be placed on paying off debt.
“Depending on the interest rate of your federal student loans, it may compound faster or slower than other debt you may have,” she said. “If you want to pay down all of your debt in the fastest and most efficient way, tackle debt with the highest interest rate first. A solid rule of thumb is to make the minimum payment across all your debt, but you may want to pay down any private student loans you have first before aggressively tackling federal student loan debt.”
ABC News’ Alexis Christoforous contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A New York judge ordered the cancellation of the business certificates for firms in the state owned by former President Donald Trump and others associated with the Trump Organization, casting into doubt the future of the private sector empire on which Trump has built his reputation for business acumen.
The directive came as part of a pretrial ruling in a $250 million civil fraud trial that found Trump had submitted “fraudulent valuations” for assets that were then used by himself, his eldest sons and his business to obtain better loan and insurance terms.
In a scathing order on Tuesday, Judge Arthur Engoron cited “false and misleading square footage” of Trump’s Fifth Avenue apartment, among other faulty valuations, among other tactics.
Eric Trump, who runs the Trump Organization’s day-to-day operations, responded on X, previously known as Twitter, saying, “Today, I lost all faith in the New York legal system. Never before have I seen such hatred toward one person by a judge.”
“We have run an exceptional company — never missing a loan payment, making banks hundreds of millions of dollars, developing some of the most iconic assets in the world. Yet today, the persecution of our family continues…” he said.
Trump attorney Alina Habba said Tuesday that Trump plans to immediately appeal what she called the judge’s “fundamentally flawed” decision. In addition, Trump could seek an emergency stay of the trial.
The trial is set to proceed next week as the court is still required to decide six remaining causes of action alleged by Attorney General Letitia James, as well as the scope of the potential penalty, Engoron said on Wednesday.
The order on Tuesday, however, holds significant potential implications for the Trump Organization and its underlying assets, though the exact scope of the decision remains unclear.
Here’s what to know about what the order means for the Trump family’s business holdings:
Which businesses are affected?
The ruling on Tuesday took business certificates away from New York-based companies under the control of key Trump Organization figures, effectively stopping such firms from doing business in the state.
The order to cancel business certificates applies to any firm controlled or owned by Donald Trump and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as former Trump Organization officials Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney, Engoron said.
That could mean the end of operations for iconic Trump properties such as Trump Tower, located in Midtown Manhattan; Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County; and The Trump Building, a 927-foot tall commercial tower on Wall Street.
Taken together, the businesses employ hundreds of people and make up a significant portion of the Trump Organization’s holdings.
The order, however, does not apply to the Trump Organization as a whole. The company’s entities outside of New York could still operate.
What will happen to the businesses?
Within 10 days of the ruling, the parties to the lawsuit must recommend at least three potential receivers to manage the dissolution of the “canceled LLCs,” Engoron said, referring to the businesses owned or controlled by the key individuals associated with the Trump Organization.
The process could result in the forced closure of the entities and the potential sale of their underlying assets.
What unanswered questions remain?
Significant questions remain about how Engoron’s order will be carried out.
In a court hearing on Wednesday, Trump attorney Chris Kise asked Engoron to confirm which of Trump’s hundreds of business entities would be covered by Tuesday’s ruling.
“With all of these entities and all the employees of these entities, we just want to be sure we have some clear picture,” Kise said.
Engoron did not issue a bench ruling or immediately respond to the question, instead punting the matter to a future private meeting between counsel.
The ultimate outcome of those deliberations will help determine the consequences of the decision for the parent company Trump Organization, a global portfolio of businesses that includes the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C.
The trial to begin on Monday will also determine the potential financial penalty to be incurred in the case, which would count in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The ultimate decision could also bar Trump from making real estate acquisitions and applying for loans in New York.
(NEW YORK) — The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) will be heading back into negotiations on Monday, Oct. 2.
“SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP will meet for bargaining on Monday, Oct. 2. Several executives from AMPTP member companies will be in attendance,” SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP announced in a joint statement Tuesday evening.
The union, which represents roughly 160,000 members, began its strike on July 14.
“We appreciate the incredible displays of solidarity and support from all of you over the last 76 days of this strike,” SAG-AFTRA’s statement said.
The union encouraged its members to continue joining the picket lines “in strength and big numbers” as the negotiations resume.
The actors’ strike was launched after union leaders and the AMPTP couldn’t come to an agreement over a new three-year contract following rounds of bargaining.
In June, 98% of the union’s members agreed to authorize a strike if an agreement wasn’t reached, SAG-AFTRA said.
Major roadblocks in the negotiations include concerns over streaming residuals, the impact of AI technology, and union member earnings.
The actors’ strike coincided with the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) strike, which began months earlier in May. It was the first time both unions had gone on strike at the same time since the 1960s, leaving activity in Hollywood at a standstill.
WGA reached a tentative deal Tuesday, allowing its members to return to work the same day the actors’ union announced new negotiations.
WGA members will begin casting their votes on the union’s deal the same day SAG-AFTRA is set to meet with studios to begin its negotiations.
(NEW YORK) — After 148 days, leaders of the Writers Guild of America have unanimously voted to lift its strike, allowing writers to return to work Wednesday, Sept. 27.
“The WGAW Board and WGAE Council also voted unanimously to lift the restraining order and end the strike as of 12:01 am PT/3:01 am ET on Wednesday, September 27th. This allows writers to return to work during the ratification process, but does not affect the membership’s right to make a final determination on contract approval,” the union announced on Tuesday.
The WGA, which represents nearly 11,500 screenwriters, released the entire seven-page agreement.
Since finalizing the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), WGA was able to share details of the “exceptional deal, with gains and protections for members in every sector of the business.”
The three-year deal stated “minimums will increase by 5% on ratification of the contract, 4% on May 2, 2024, and 3.5% on May 2, 2025.”
The tentative contract established regulations for the use of Artificial Intelligence in Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA)-covered projects. Namely, prohibiting a company from using “writers’ material to train AI.”
The agreement states AI-generated material “will not be considered source material” and AI can’t write or rewrite literary material.
Writers are allowed to use AI if they wish, but cannot be required by the company they’re working for, according to the agreement.
The agreement also laid out a “viewership-based streaming bonus” — when series and films are viewed by 20% of subscribers in the first 90 days of release, writers get a bonus equal to 50% of the fixed domestic and foreign residual.
The contract will only take effect if it gains majority support from the union members. If the members vote to reject the contract, the two sides will have to return to the bargaining table.
Eligible voters will be able to vote beginning Monday through Oct. 9, and will receive ballot and ratification materials when the vote opens.
The strike was less than a week away from surpassing the longest strike in Writers Guild history, which occurred in 1988 and lasted 154 days.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement Monday, following WGA reaching a tentative deal with the studios.
“After a nearly five-month long strike, I am grateful that the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have reached a fair agreement and I’m hopeful that the same can happen soon with the Screen Actors Guild,” Bass said.
In July, a union representing nearly 160,000 actors joined the picket lines as they began seeking a new contract of their own, effectively bringing activity in Hollywood to a halt.
