Posted on 11/24/2022 6:21:19 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
* Farmington State Bank had 3 staff and was the 26th-smallest bank in America out of a total 4,800.
* Then FTX bought an $11.5 million stake in the bank, it has emerged during FTX's bankruptcy case.
* That stake was more than twice the bank's previous net worth.
The town of Farmington has just 146 residents, and is so small that Google Street View doesn't cover the whole town.
For a decade, Farmington's bank held around $10 million in deposits. In the third quarter this year, deposits jumped to $84 million – 85% of which came from just four accounts, according to FDIC data cited by the Times.
Online, the bank now appears as "Moonstone Bank," a name which was trademarked a few days before FTX's investment. Moonstone doesn't mention cryptocurrency, but does say it wants to "support the evolution of next generation finance."
Questions are being asked over how FTX got federal approval to buy its stake in Farmington. Banking veterans told the New York Times that it was hard to believe regulators would have knowingly allowed the crypto firm to do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
But it has a nice lobby. /s
It likely would have been used a shell, perhaps to “transfer” certain SEC or Treasury rights and permissions more favorable to regular banks, to crypto-dealing FTX, while regulators looked the other way.
Or it could be used straight-up for money laundering.
So many possibilities.
Money laundering?
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there’s some tie between this bank and one of his parents. The clear implication here is that this obscure bank was being used to funnel corporate funds outside the company. Would a bunch of 20-something kids have this connection? Seems unlikely.
Getting regulator approval to start a bank is hard, but once you are chartered banks are allowed to do many things other corporations cannot.
It makes sense for a firm like FTX to buy a small one and make use of those permissions.
hard to believe regulators would have knowingly allowed the crypto firm to do so.
???
BWA HA HA HA,,, good one.
Curiouser and curiouser…
Wide shot of bank. (Small white building.) The end of the street is Idaho.
Mommy and Daddy career political academicians, up to their liberal butts in PAC funding, bundling, etc. I’m sure hoping this comes to light, because this is some SHADY stuff.
84 million and there are thousands of such banks? We may be talking real money.
Holy cow!
Branches in Davos, Kiev, Beijing and DNC headquarters.
It was in 1916 that J. J. Wagner first planted a small plot of lentils in the young orchard on his farm.
In 2022 Bankman Fried billionaire philanthropist vegetarian and lentil love society founder bought the towns only bank
“It likely would have been used a shell, ... Or it could be used straight-up for money laundering.”
Ya THINK? I’m surprised there isn’t a neon sign on the bank flashing, “laundromat”.
Wow. Not suspicious at ALL.
Bribery works.
It is why people do it.
In the quarter ending September 30, 2020, there was a $3MM equity injection, and what appears to be a $1.4MM additional injection in the fourth quarter of 2020. Hmmm...
Here's where it gets interesting. The bank, which had posted net income routinely with small quarterly losses over the years, started cranking out quarterly losses of $22k, $44k, then losses shot up to $558k, $576k, $1,085k, and finally a whopping $2.6MM loss in the most recent quarter. Meanwhile, there are equity injections commingled with the losses.
Yes, there are thousands of banks in the US. The Fed is worried about Chase and Citigroup, not this rural agriculture bank.
That's said, the regulators HAD to see what was happening, AND allowed it.
This is outrageous, but Democrats won’t hold him accountable. He part of the elitist cabal in the US.
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