Baltimore bridge collapse investigation could take up to 2 years, officials say

Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison for orchestrating FTX fraud

Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for his role in defrauding users of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

In a Lower Manhattan federal courtroom, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan called the defense’s argument misleading, logically flawed, and speculative.

He said Bankman-Fried had committed obstruction of justice and witness tampering while mounting his defense — something Kaplan said he weighed in his sentencing decision.

Bankman-Fried, wearing a beige jailhouse jumpsuit, made a statement striking an apologetic tone, saying he had made a series of “selfish” decisions while leading FTX and “threw it all away.”

“It haunts me every day,” he said.

Prosecutors had sought as much as 50 years, while Bankman-Fried’s legal team argued for no more than 6½ years. He was convicted on seven criminal counts in November and had been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn ever since.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had pleaded for leniency, citing what they described as mental health struggles and his purported generosity in his personal life. They also argued that FTX users had not ultimately suffered substantial losses — something current FTX administrator John Ray said was false in a letter to Kaplan in advance of Thursday’s sentencing.

But prosecutors argued the brazenness of the crime, the extent of the victims’ losses and damages and Bankman-Fried’s evident lack of remorse meant a harsher sentence was warranted.

Late Tuesday, prosecutors filed documents from victims testifying about how Bankman-Fried’s actions had harmed them.

“My whole life has been destroyed,” wrote one, whose name was redacted, in a letter dated March 15. “I have 2 young children, one born right before the collapse. I still remember the weeks following where I would stare blankly into their eyes, completely empty inside knowing their futures have been stolen through no fault of our own. I did not gamble on crypto. I did not make any crypto gains. I had my [bitcoin] which I had collected over years deposited on FTX as a custodian. I did not agree to the risk that SBF took with my funds.”

The man added he was suffering from depression and that his wife had become suicidal.

“I know we can never make that kind of money back ever again,” he wrote.

Another person wrote about how the loss of funds had affected numerous life plans, including a wedding.

“Each passing day is a painful reminder of the opportunities stolen from me, compounding feelings of hopelessness and despair,” the person wrote. “The burden of financial ruin weighs heavily on my shoulders, leading me to grapple with constant thoughts of suicide and significantly impairing my ability to perform at work.”

In the recent annals of white-collar crime, Bankman-Fried’s sentence is many years more than what most others found guilty had received. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes received about 11 years. Former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers received 25 years. Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling received 24 years.

Bernie Madoff received 150 years and died in prison at age 82.

FTX was once valued at more than $30 billion, with Bankman-Fried’s net worth estimated at more than $20 billion. FTX collapsed in November 2022 after it was revealed that it had a major cash shortfall.

At his trial, prosecutors said Bankman-Fried robbed FTX customers of as much as $8 billion to fund a vast array of outside interests, including political initiatives, speculative investments and funding of FTX executives’ lifestyles.

Three other FTX executives testified against him.

Bankman-Fried “didn’t bargain for his three loyal deputies taking that stand and telling you the truth: that he was the one with the plan, the motive and the greed to raid FTX customer deposits — billions and billions of dollars — to give himself money, power, influence. He thought the rules did not apply to him. He thought that he could get away with it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon told the jury.

Bankman-Fried’s defense argued he was merely borrowing the funds to run his Alameda Research investment group, which he believed was allowed, and that he was merely unaware of how much debt he had racked up.

He said he “made a number of small mistakes and a number of larger mistakes.”

Yet many experts agreed Bankman-Fried came across as an unsympathetic figure. Paul Tuchmann, a former federal prosecutor who is now a partner with Wiggin and Dana LLP, told CNBC that Bankman-Fried’s testimony had been “unpersuasive” and noted it took the jury only three hours to convict him on each count.

Trial attorney James Koutoulas said in an CNBC interview, “No one had a shred of support for SBF, nor should they have.”

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons will consider which federal penitentiary to send him to.

Bankman-Fried has signaled he plans to appeal his conviction.

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The Black Crowes soar again with “Happiness Bastards,” the group’s first album in 15 years

With the release of “Happiness Bastards,” The Black Crowes’ first album in over a decade, brothers Chris and Rich Robinson are stirring the souls of rock enthusiasts once more.

The album, featuring the lead single “Waiting & Wanting,” embodies the rock and roll spirit the Robinson brothers have been known for since their early days in Atlanta.

Rich Robinson said the pandemic served as a catalyst for his songwriting.

“I started writing during the pandemic just for my sanity, you know, just to … because that’s what I do,” he said.

As he shared his new melodies with Chris, the foundation for “Happiness Bastards” took shape.

“We knew that we wanted to make like a rock and roll record, a Saturday Night record, up tempo, big riffs. We’re very visceral. It has to feel a certain way for us,” said Chris Robinson.

Growing up in Atlanta, the Robinson brothers found their musical calling one Christmas morning when they unwrapped instruments. There was a guitar for Rich, a bass for Chris, drums for their cousin and a shared amp. The gifts set the stage for their unique blend of rock that would later define the Black Crowes.

“Of course, we could make, get in the basement and just start making a noise,” said Chris Robinson.

In 1990, the music world was introduced to the Black Crowes with their debut album, “Shake Your Money Maker.”

Rich was just 19, while Chris was 22. They were unaware of the success that was to come. That album climbed to number four on the musical charts. Their next project, “The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion,” hit the No. 1 spot.

However, this period of professional triumph was also marked by personal turmoil as both brothers fought bitterly and relentlessly—fighting on stage, during gigs, backstage and during road trips. When they officially broke up in 2015, they hadn’t been speaking for years.

“I think it’s just the typical sort of brother thing,” said Rich Robinson. “(Chris) can be aggressive. And I can be really passive-aggressive. You know what I mean? I mean, we both have our ways of going about this. And so fights were us trying to figure out, or at least me trying to figure out like who I was.”

Chris Robinson said other factors contributed to the group’s split.

“And while Rich is like that, I’m completely out of my mind,”Chris Robinson said. “You know what I mean? I mean I’m out of my mind and then you add drugs and alcohol into the whole thing and I’m really cookin’ with gas at this point,” he said.

During an interview in 2020, Chris Robinson said his ego had gotten in the way of the group.

“My ego, right or wrong or whatever, I was kinda, ‘I don’t need him. I can go sing these songs without him.’ And see if I can, ya know what’ll happen.”

That acknowledgment paved the way for a heartfelt reunion.

In 2020, “CBS Mornings” spoke to the brothers after they had just reunited. The two toured to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut album, and the tour eventually led to the creation of “Happiness Bastards.” Chris’s wife, Camille, was the creative force behind the artwork for the album.

As the Black Crowes embark on this new chapter, they do so with a renewed sense of unity and purpose.

“We made a concerted effort to make it about sort of, this comes first and like the two of us need to talk. And we can’t talk through people,” said Rich Robinson.

Chris Robinson said the two are more harmonious than ever, even off stage.

“And for the first time in both of our lives, I think we’re on the same page, not only about the art but about the experience and how special it’s been,” he said. “Just gives us a better place to deal with each other, to love each other. And I think we can celebrate that, and we couldn’t before.”

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German mail service stops using domestic flights to transport letters after nearly 63 years

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s main national postal carrier on Thursday stopped using domestic flights to transport letters after nearly 63 years, a move that reflects the declining significance of letter mail and allows it to improve its climate footprint.

Deutsche Post said the last planes carrying letters between northern and southern Germany, operated by Lufthansa unit Eurowings and Tui Fly, flew overnight on the Stuttgart-Berlin, Hannover-Munich and Hannover-Stuttgart routes.

The company said letters between those destinations will now be transported by road, allowing the company to reduce transport-related carbon dioxide emissions on the routes by over 80%.

“In times of climate change, airmail for domestic letters within Germany can no longer be justified — also because there is no longer the same urgency associated with letter mail as in decades past,” Marc Hitschfeld, chief operations officer of parent company DHL Group’s German mail and parcel division, said in a statement.

Draft legislation approved by the German Cabinet in December, which still needs parliamentary approval, is set to reduce pressure on Deutsche Post to deliver letters quickly, allowing it to cut costs.

At present, the mail service is supposed to deliver at least 80% of letters on the working day after they are mailed. Under the planned new rules, it will have to deliver 95% by the third working day.

German domestic mail flights started in September 1961. Both the volume of mail carried by air and the number of destinations served have declined drastically since the mid-1990s.

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German mail service stops using domestic flights to transport letters after nearly 63 years

The company said letters between those destinations will now be transported by road, allowing the company to reduce transport-related carbon dioxide emissions on the routes by over 80%.

German domestic mail flights started in September 1961. Both the volume of mail carried by air and the number of destinations served have declined drastically since the mid-1990s.

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Baltimore bridge collapse investigation could take up to 2 years, officials say

Baltimore bridge collapse investigation could take up to 2 years, officials say – CBS News

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The National Transportation Safety Board held a news conference Wednesday night about its investigation into the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. CBS News homeland security and justice reporter Nicole Sganga joins with the key takeaways.

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Birmingham-Southern College to close in May after nearly 170 years

Birmingham-Southern College, a private liberal arts college in Alabama, will close at the end of May after running into financial difficulties and being unable to secure a financial lifeline from the state, officials announced Tuesday.

The College Board of Trustees voted unanimously to close the longtime institution, officials said in a news release. The announcement came after legislation aimed at securing a taxpayer-backed loan for the 168-year-old private college recently stalled in the Alabama Statehouse.

“This is a tragic day for the College, our students, our employees, and our alumni,” the Rev. Keith D. Thompson, chairman of the Board of Trustees, said in a statement from the college. “But it is also a terrible day for Birmingham, for the neighborhoods who have surrounded our campus for more than 100 years, and for Alabama.”

Birmingham-Southern College, a private liberal arts college in Alabama.WVTM

A number of small private colleges nationwide are struggling with a declining number of traditional college-aged students and competition from larger, richer institutions.

The college of about 1,000 students is located on the west side of Birmingham, one of Alabama’s principal cities.

The decision to close follows years of financial difficulties and efforts to keep the institution open. The college said the financial crash of 2009 caused a $25 million loss to the value of its endowment. An audit in 2010 uncovered significant accounting errors in the budgeting of federal student financial aid, which led to budget cuts and layoffs. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the college’s bonds after revenue declines caused the college to drew heavily upon its endowment.

The private college had hoped to secure a financial lifeline from the state. The Alabama Legislature created a loan program last year to provide financial help to distressed colleges, but state Treasurer Young Boozer denied the school’s loan application.

New legislation was introduced this year. The college said in a news release that conversations with House leadership “confirmed that the bill did not have enough support to move forward.”

Supporters of the legislation had hoped to keep the college open not just for the sake of the institution, but because of the impact on the surrounding neighborhoods if the 192-acre campus is shuttered.

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., said “the failure of state leaders to do their part and provide assistance to BSC is particularly disappointing.”

“For years, Birmingham-Southern College has propelled our state forward by producing outstanding graduates, many of whom I have had the privilege of employing,” she added, noting her current legislative aide and chief of staff are alums of the school.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said news of the closure is “disappointing and heartbreaking to all of us who recognize it as a stalwart of our community.”

“I’ve stood alongside members of our City Council to protect this institution and its proud legacy of shaping leaders. It’s frustrating that those values were not shared by lawmakers in Montgomery,” Woodfin said Tuesday.

Birmingham-Southern Provost Laura K. Stultz said the college is working on agreements with other institutions to helps students “maximize the transfer of credits to keep them on track.”

The school dates to 1856, when Southern University was founded in Greensboro, Alabama. That school merged with Birmingham College in 1918 to become Birmingham-Southern, with a campus west of downtown Birmingham.

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U.K. singer Duffy returns to social media 4 years after revealing kidnap and rape

Welsh singer Duffy broke her social media hiatus to share a motivational message to fans four years after revealing the horrific kidnap and rape that caused her to leave the spotlight.

The singer posted an inspirational video on Instagram on Monday.

“One day you’re going to see it, that happiness was always about the discovery, the hope, the listening to your heart and following it wherever it chose to go,” a voiceover said in the video.

“Happiness was always about being kinder to yourself. It was always about embracing the person you are becoming. One day you will understand, that happiness was always about learning how to live with yourself.”

Duffy, whose real name is Aimee Anne Duffy, captioned the video: “A little something to motivate the heart. Hope you are all doing well. Lots of love, Duffy.”

Fans flooded the comment section with love and support for the musician.

“We miss you Duffy and your beautiful voice,” one fan wrote.

“We miss you, Duffy. And we love you. Hope you are doing okay. Remember people love you here,” another commented.

Another told Duffy they think of her “EVERY day.”

“You’re so loved!” the fan wrote.

In 2020, Duffy told fans that she had been raped, drugged and held captive “over some days.”

“Of course, I survived. The recovery took time,” she said in a since-deleted Instagram post explaining her absence from the industry.

In February 2011 she announced that she was taking a break from music, following the release of her sophomore album “Endlessly.”

“But I can tell you in the last decade, the thousands and thousands of days I committed to wanting to feel the sunshine in my heart again, the sun does now shine,” the singer said in the post.

In a written essay in 2020, Duffy wrote that she was drugged at a restaurant on her birthday and taken to a foreign country. She said she did not remember getting on an airplane and “came round in the back of a traveling vehicle.”

“I was put into a hotel room and the perpetrator returned and raped me,” she wrote. “I remember the pain and trying to stay conscious in the room after it happened.”

Duffy described flying back home with her alleged abductor and said he “drugged me in my own home in the four weeks.”

She eventually escaped but said she did not go to the police initially because she did not feel safe.

The 39-year-old singer rose to international fame in 2008 following the release of her song “Mercy,” which was featured in the “Sex and the City” movie and the television show “Grey’s Anatomy.” The following year, she won the Grammy for best pop vocal album.

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Hyundai Motor Group to invest 68 trln won over 3 years

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group said on Wednesday it will invest 68 trillion won ($51 billion) over three years to bolster its growth potential in electric vehicles and new mobility business and separately hire 80,000 new employees.

More than half of the investment, or 35.5 trillion won, will be allocated for new research and development infrastructure and assembly lines for electric vehicles, the group said in a statement.

Another 31.1 trillion won will be slated for research and development in electric vehicles, including software-defined vehicles (SDVs) and battery technology, it said.

A majority of the new jobs created will be to promote future business, with 44,000 new staff in electrification, SDVs and carbon neutrality, it said.

Hyundai Motor Group includes flagship Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia, which together are the world’s number three automaker by sales.

Automotive parts maker Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Engineering & Construction are also under the conglomerate.

($1 = 1,343.5000 won)

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Tom Hogue)

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A solution to the retirement crisis? Americans should work for more years, BlackRock CEO says

Committee proposes raising Social Security retirement age

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With Americans living longer and spending more years in retirement, the nation’s changing demographics are “putting the U.S. retirement system under immense strain,” according to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink in his annual shareholder letter.

One way to fix it, he suggests, is for Americans to work longer before they head into retirement.

“No one should have to work longer than they want to. But I do think it’s a bit crazy that our anchor idea for the right retirement age — 65 years old — originates from the time of the Ottoman Empire,” Fink wrote in his 2024 letter, which largely focuses on the retirement crisis facing the U.S. and other nations as their populations age.

Fink’s suggestions about addressing the nation’s retirement crisis come amid a debate about the future of Social Security, which will face a funding shortfall in less than a decade. Some Republican lawmakers have proposed raising the retirement age for claiming Social Security benefits, arguing, like Fink, that because Americans are living longer, they should work longer, too.

How to maximize retirement savings by minimizing taxes

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But that ignores the reality of aging in the workplace, with the AARP finding in a 2022 survey that the majority of workers over 50 say they face ageism at work. And because of ill health or an unexpected job loss, many older Americans stop working before they planned to. In fact, the median age of retirement in the U.S. is 62 — even lower than the “traditional” retirement age of 65.

Fink is right in saying that the retirement system isn’t working for most households, noted retirement expert and New School of Research professor Teresa Ghilarducci told CBS MoneyWatch. But his assessment that people should work longer misses the mark, she added.

“After a 40-year-old experiment of a voluntary, do-it-yourself-based pension system, half of workers have no easy way to save for retirement,” she said. “And in rich nations, why isn’t age 65 a good target for most workers to stop working for someone else?”

She added, “Working longer won’t get us out of this. Most people don’t retire when they want to, anyway.”

Vested interest?

To be sure, America’s retirement gap, or the gulf between what people need to fund their golden years versus what they’ve actually saved, isn’t new, nor is Social Security’s looming funding emergency. Yet Fink’s comments are noteworthy because of his status as the head of the world’s largest asset manager, with more than $10 trillion in assets, including many retirement accounts.

Of course, Fink has a vested interest in Americans boosting their retirement assets, given that his firm collects fees from those accounts. And in his letter, he also promotes a new target-date fund from BlackRock called LifePath Paycheck, which will roll out in April.

“He’s steering the conversation toward BlackRock — and a lot of people who talk about Social Security reform on Wall Street want to privatize it in some manner and make money,” Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff, an expert on Social Security, told CBS MoneyWatch.

To be sure, Fink also praises public policy success stories for addressing retirement savings, such as Australia’s system, which began in the early 1990s and requires employers to put a portion of a worker’s income into a fund. Today, Australia has the world’s 54th largest population but the 4th largest retirement system, he noted.

“As a nation, we should do everything we can to make retirement investing more automatic for workers,” he noted.

Expert on why more Americans are withdrawing from their 401(k) retirement funds early

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Can boomers fix the problem?

Fink, who was born in 1952, said that his generation has an obligation to help fix the nation’s retirement problems. The financial insecurity facing younger Americans, such as millennials and Gen Z, are creating generations of disillusioned, anxious workers, he noted.

“They believe my generation — the baby boomers — have focused on their own financial well-being to the detriment of who comes next. And in the case of retirement, they’re right,” Fink wrote.

He added, “And before my generation fully disappears from positions of corporate and political leadership, we have an obligation to change that.”

Boomer (and older) lawmakers and politicians often don’t see eye-to-eye on how to fix the retirement crisis. But failing to fix the issue damages not only the retirements of individual Americans, but the country’s collective belief in the future of the U.S., Fink noted.

“We risk becoming a country where people keep their money under the mattress and their dreams bottled up in their bedroom,” he noted.

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85 years after a racist mob drove Opal Lee’s family away, she’s getting a new home on the same spot

When Opal Lee was 12, a racist mob drove her family out of their Texas home. Now, the 97-year-old community activist is getting closer to moving into a brand new home on the very same tree-lined corner lot in Fort Worth.

“I’m not a person who sheds tears often, but I’ve got a few for this project,” said Lee, who was one of the driving forces behind Juneteenth becoming a national holiday.

A wall-raising ceremony was held Thursday at the site, with Lee joining others in lifting the framework for the first wall into place. It’s expected that the house will be move-in ready by June 19 — the day of the holiday marking the end of slavery in the U.S. that means so much to Lee.

Opal Lee during a ceremony for her new home on her family’s former lot in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 21.KXAS

This June 19 will also be the 85th anniversary of the day a mob, angered that a Black family had moved in, began gathering outside the home her parents had just bought. As the crowd grew, her parents sent her and her siblings to a friend’s house several blocks away and then eventually left themselves.

Newspaper articles at the time said the mob that grew to about 500 people broke windows in the house and dragged furniture out into the street and smashed it.

“Those people tore that place asunder,” Lee said.

Her family did not return to the house and her parents never talked about what happened that day, she said.

“My God-fearing, praying parents worked extremely hard and they bought another home,” she said. “It didn’t stop them. They didn’t get angry and get frustrated, they simply knew that we had to have a place to stay and they got busy finding one for us.”

She said it was not something she dwelled on either. “I really just think I just buried it,” she said.

In recent years though, she began thinking of trying to get the lot back. After learning that Trinity Habitat for Humanity had bought the land, Lee called its CEO and her longtime friend, Gage Yager.

Yager said it was not until that call three years ago when Lee asked if she could buy the lot that he learned the story of what happened to her family on June 19, 1939.

“I’d known Opal for an awfully long time but I didn’t know anything about that story,” Yager said.

After he made sure the lot was not already promised to another family, he called Lee and told her it would be hers for $10. He said at the wall-raising ceremony that it was heartening to see a mob of people full of love gathered in the place where a mob full of hatred had once gathered.

The lot for Opal Lee's new home — Construction takes place on Opal Lee’s new home in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 21.KXAS

In recent years, Lee has become known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” after spending years rallying people to join her in what became a successful push to make June 19 a national holiday. The former teacher and a counselor in the school district has been tirelessly involved in her hometown of Fort Worth for decades, work that’s included establishing a large community garden.

At the ceremony Thursday, Nelson Mitchell, the CEO of HistoryMaker Homes, told Lee: “You demonstrate to us what a difference one person can make.”

Mitchell’s company is building the home at no cost to Lee while the philanthropic arm of Texas Capital, a financial services company, is providing funding for the home’s furnishings.

Lee said she’s eager to make the move from the home she’s lived in for over half a century to the new house.

“I know my mom would be smiling down, and my Dad. He’d think: ’Well, we finally got it done,’” she said.

“I just want people to understand that you don’t give up,” Lee said. “If you have something in mind — and it might be buried so far down that you don’t remember it for years — but it was ours and I wanted it to be ours again.”

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