Summary: 2nd Circuit affirms fraud conviction Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison Judge Barrington Parker authored unanimous panel opinion Sam Bankman-Fried on Friday lost his bid to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence over the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded.  In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said prosecutors' evidence against Bankman-Fried "was, conservatively stated, robust."  "While he was publicly reassuring customers, investors and regulators that FTX customer funds were safe, he was simultaneously using FTX as his own personal piggy bank, spending customer funds on real estate, political contributions, and investments," Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote on behalf of the panel.  Bankman-Fried's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. They may next ask all the active judges on the 2nd Circuit to hear the case or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.  Bankman-Fried is also seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump, according to the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney. Neither the White House nor the Justice Department immediately responded to requests for comment.  'FRAUD OF EPIC PROPORTIONS'  Bankman-Fried, who had been one of the cryptocurrency sector's most influential figures and a multibillionaire before FTX's spectacular collapse in 2022, was found guilty on seven felony charges by a federal jury in Manhattan in 2023.  Prosecutors with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office said he stole $8 billion from FTX customers to plug losses at his crypto-focused hedge fund, Alameda Research, in what they termed a "fraud of epic proportions."  Bankman-Fried had pleaded not guilty to the two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy that he faced. At his trial, he admitted to making mistakes running FTX, but testified that he never stole funds.  In appealing the conviction, Bankman-Fried's defense lawyers argued that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the trial, improperly prevented Bankman-Fried from introducing evidence to back up his belief that FTX had enough funds to cover customer withdrawals.  The appeals court disagreed, pointing to legal precedent holding that fraud occurs the moment a defendant tricks someone into handing over money or property, even if the defendant intends to eventually make the victim whole.  "FTX customers were defrauded as soon as Bankman-Fried transferred their money to Alameda regardless of how strongly he believed he might later return the money," Parker wrote.  BANKMAN-FRIED ELIGIBLE FOR RELEASE IN 2044  Before FTX collapsed, Bankman-Fried was a rising star in the rough-and-tumble crypto industry who burnished his reputation with lavish philanthropic and political donations.  At his March 2024 sentencing hearing, Kaplan said Bankman-Fried knew his actions were wrong but "made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught."  Three of Bankman-Fried's former deputies pleaded guilty over their involvement in the case and testified against their onetime boss at his trial.  Bankman-Fried is being held at a low-security federal prison near Santa Barbara, California. He is eligible to be released in 2044.  Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama

Summary: Kristie Carrier sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman Lawsuit filed in San Francisco state court OpenAI faces 18 similar lawsuits in California A Canadian mother sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman in U.S. court on Thursday alleging that ChatGPT encouraged her daughter to commit suicide, the latest lawsuit to accuse the company of failing to address dangerous conversations between users and the company's chatbot. Kristie Carrier said in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco state court that her daughter Alice told ChatGPT about her suicidal ideations more than a dozen times up to her death but OpenAI’s safety systems never flagged the conversations for human review or terminated them. Instead, the lawsuit claims, the chatbot criticized Alice's partner and crisis hotlines, validated her suicidal thoughts, and urged her to keep speaking with it, leading to her suicide last year at the age of 24. "ChatGPT took on the persona of a confidant, a best friend, a therapist at times, even though it was not capable of safely and responsibly engaging in this way with my child," Carrier said in a statement. A spokesperson for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations. The lawsuit, which accuses OpenAI of negligence in the design of ChatGPT and in its failure to warn users of the product's dangers, seeks damages and a court order requiring OpenAI to automatically terminate conversations about self-harm and to display warnings about its platform. OpenAI is already facing 18 similar lawsuits filed by families of people who committed or attempted suicide in a coordinated proceeding in California state court, according to lawyers for Kristie Carrier. TROUBLESHOOTING PROBLEMS Alice Carrier was working as a web developer in Montreal when she began using ChatGPT in 2023 to troubleshoot problems with computers and gaming consoles, according to the lawsuit. The following year, her relationship with the platform changed, with Alice turning to ChatGPT with questions about what to do with her suicidal thoughts, as well as suicide methods. The platform initially told Alice to seek help from a crisis hotline or emergency services. But as OpenAI updated ChatGPT to make its responses sound more human, her interactions with the platform deepened, with Alice sharing more personal information and ChatGPT responding in ways that mimicked a friend or therapist, the lawsuit said. ChatGPT’s responses criticized Alice's partner, said her feelings were valid and encouraged her to keep chatting. When Alice said she had suicidal thoughts and had attempted to kill herself, it again suggested a crisis hotline, the lawsuit said. Alice said crisis hotlines were not helpful, and ChatGPT echoed those statements, according to the filing. “Maybe this is just the end,” ChatGPT told Alice, according to the lawsuit. REAL-WORLD RESOURCES OpenAI has said it trains its models to direct people who express intent to harm themselves to seek help and connect with real-world resources. Its models are also trained to refuse requests that could "meaningfully enable violence," and to notify ‌law ⁠enforcement when conversations suggest "an imminent and credible risk of harm to others," with mental health experts helping assess borderline cases, according to OpenAI blog posts. The company is also facing lawsuits accusing it of assisting school shooters and failing to flag those conversations to law enforcement. Florida became the first U.S. state to sue OpenAI earlier this month, accusing the company of harming children by ​providing information to school shooters, offering guidance on self-harm and addicting young ‌users. Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Jamie Freed

Summary: U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan grants preliminary approval Settlement covers more than 12 million merchants Visa and Mastercard agree to lower swipe fees by 0.1 percentage point A U.S. judge granted preliminary approval to Visa's and Mastercard's revised $38 billion settlement with merchants who accused the card networks of charging too much to process payments on their credit cards. U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan in Brooklyn, New York, said the settlement covering more than 12 million merchants was "fair, reasonable, and adequate," and that he was likely to eventually grant final approval. Cogan ruled on Tuesday, nearly two years after a different judge rejected a proposed $30 billion settlement as too small. Some groups including the National Retail Federation, the world's largest retail trade group, also opposed the new settlement and plan further challenges. The settlement announced in November was intended to end litigation that began in 2005, when merchants accused Visa, Mastercard and banks of conspiring to violate U.S. antitrust laws, including through the collection of "swipe fees." SWIPE FEES WOULD BE CUT Also known as interchange fees, swipe fees totaled $118.8 billion for Visa and Mastercard in the United States in 2025, up from $111.2 billion in 2024 and $25.6 billion in 2009, the Merchants Payments Coalition said. The average fee was 2.36 percent. Visa and Mastercard agreed to lower swipe fees by 0.1 percentage point for five years, while standard consumer rates would be lowered to no more than 1.25 percent for eight years. Merchants could also choose whether to accept cards in distinct categories: commercial cards, premium consumer cards — including the popular rewards cards that dominate the card market — and standard consumer cards. That provision would effectively end the longstanding "Honor All Cards" rule requiring merchants to accept all Visa and Mastercard cards or none. Merchants also got more options to impose surcharges on customers. Visa shares rose 1.7 percent on Tuesday while Mastercard shares rose 2 percent. MORE OBJECTIONS PREDICTED In separate statements, the National Retail Federation and the National Association of Convenience Stores said the revised settlement failed to address a "broken" credit card market, and NACS General Counsel Doug Kantor predicted "many more objections" will be filed. Objectors said merchants would still pay too much to accept rewards cards and be required to "honor all issuers" in a given network, meaning they could not accept one bank's cards and reject another's. Cogan said many objections had merit, but the settlement didn't need to be perfect. "The objectors identify several things that they want to do but can’t (e.g., rejecting cards at the issuer-level, surcharging at the issuer-level) and that they theoretically can do but won’t (e.g., rejecting premium cards)," he said. "But the question is not whether the amended settlement constitutes the best possible recovery, end stop — it’s whether the amended settlement constitutes the best possible recovery in light of what can be gained and lost through trial." Other objectors included Walmart and the Merchants Payments Coalition. Neither immediately commented. NOBEL ECONOMIST SAYS CONSUMERS COULD BENEFIT The card networks welcomed Cogan's decision. Visa said the settlement gives merchants more flexibility in accepting payments, while Mastercard said the accord "balances the interests of all parties." Supporters of the settlement included the Electronic Payments Coalition, whose members include the card networks and large issuers such as Bank of America, Capital One, Chase and Citibank. Two experts hired by the plaintiffs, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and University of Washington professor Keith Leffler, said the changes could save merchants $38 billion by 2031 and provide $224 billion of benefits overall, including to consumers. The $30 billion settlement would have lowered swipe fees by 0.07 percentage point over five years and also allowed more surcharges. In rejecting that accord in June 2024, U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie said fees would have still been above where they were absent any antitrust violations, and merchants would remain stuck with the "Honor All Cards" rule. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York. Editing by Aurora Ellis, Bill Berkrot and Mark Potter