Law Decoded, Jan. 9-16: Gemini, Bithumb, Nexo are fresh targets for regulation and prosecution

cointelegraph.com:

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged cryptocurrency lending firm Genesis Global Capital and crypto exchange Gemini with selling unregistered securities through Gemini’s “Earn” program.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission started the process of getting a default judgment in its case against Ooki DAO after the decentralized autonomous organization missed the deadline to respond to the lawsuit. It also filed suit against digital artist Avraham Eisenberg and charged him with two counts of market manipulation in connection with an exploit of the decentralized finance platform, Mango Markets.

In South Korea, tax agents raided the Seoul headquarters of cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, looking for evidence of possible tax evasion. This development comes after former Bitchumb chair Lee Jung-Hoon was acquitted of $70 million in fraud charges. In the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, the offices of crypto lending firm Nexo were raided by police. They targeted a large-scale money laundering scheme and violations of Russia’s international sanctions.

While the FTX saga continues to make headlines, last week brought a plethora of new troubles for crypto companies in the United States, Europe and Asia. 

There’s still a place for good news. Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital has finally received initial court approval for its proposal to sell its assets to Binance.US for $1.02 billion. The approval comes amid a national security probe concerning Binance.US that Voyager seeks to speed up. The Voyager Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors — a body representing creditors with no security interests in Voyager — supported the transaction in its current form, noting the deal would result in greater recoveries for