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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Good morning. Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison over his role in the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
A US judge concluded he had done “enormous harm” by stealing billions of dollars in customer funds to make risky bets. The sentence — among the longest ever for a US white-collar defendant — caps the swift and dramatic downfall of a figure who was once one of the most prominent faces in the crypto industry.
The 32-year-old, who was found guilty on seven counts of fraud and money laundering last year, knew his actions were wrong, and “knew it was criminal”, Judge Lewis Kaplan said at yesterday’s hearing in Manhattan federal court, adding that Bankman-Fried showed a “lack of any real remorse”.
Bankman-Fried — dressed in a tan prison uniform, looking downcast and clasping his hands together — gave a speech to the court before the sentence was read out. The FT’s Joe Miller reports on what happened at the hearing.
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Opinion: The scale of the lobbying campaign the crypto industry is unleashing ahead of the US election is striking, writes Gillian Tett.
Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:
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Economic data: The US reports personal-consumption expenditures inflation data, while France publishes March CPI and Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices inflation rate data.
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Boao Forum for Asia: China’s annual conference on the southern island of Hainan concludes today,
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Holiday: Financial markets in Australia, Hong Kong, India, UK, US and elsewhere are closed for Good Friday.
How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.
Five more top stories
1. China’s property turmoil has hit Everbright Bank, which missed profit estimates because of investment losses and an increase in cash set aside for souring loans. Bad loans in the property sector accounted for 18.6 per cent of Everbright’s total non-performing assets as of the end of 2023, up from 15.6 per cent a year earlier. Here’s more on the mounting economic risks for Chinese regional lenders.
2. India’s stock markets are expected to power on if Narendra Modi wins a third electoral victory this year. Many investors have welcomed the prospect of political stability they believe another Modi term brings. But for all the excitement over India’s long-term economic performance, investors are growing nervous about whether the stock market rally is sustainable.
3. Asia should manage its own security and not allow itself to become an “arena for geopolitical contests”, one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s most senior lieutenants has said, in a veiled rebuke to US efforts to strengthen alliances. Communist party Standing Committee member Zhao Leji also called for closer trade ties in the region to build a “common regional market”.
4. Blockbuster deals more than doubled in the first quarter of this year, signalling a nascent recovery in the mergers and acquisitions market following a lengthy drought. The number of takeovers worth at least $10bn jumped in the first three months of 2024 compared with the same period last year, driven by large US deals and a sharp recovery in Europe. However, Asia-Pacific deals fell 28 per cent, to $90bn.
5. The Polish commander of Eurocorps, a multinational Nato-EU battle group based in France, has been dismissed and recalled to Warsaw to face a counter-intelligence investigation. Poland’s defence ministry said the probe was to look at “the personal security clearance” of Lieutenant General Jarosław Gromadziński. Here are more details.
The Big Read
Medicine shortages recently reached record highs across Europe and hit a 10-year peak in the US last year, forcing countries to scramble for alternatives and patients to skip treatments. Off-patent generic medicines make up the backbone of pharmaceutical care, but manufacturing issues, weak supply chains and low pricing have combined to create a “broken market” that makes these treatments unattractive to produce and vulnerable to supply shocks, quality defects or surges in demand, say industry leaders and analysts.
We’re also reading . . .
Chart of the day
$75,000 for a baby? That’s what’s being offered to workers at the South Korean construction group Booyoung for each baby they produce — and it’s one of many eye-catching incentives being put forward as politicians and companies grapple with the country’s demographic crisis.
Take a break from the news
As spring dawns on us, Harriet Baker’s book Rural Hours examines how back-to-basics living in the countryside fuelled creativity for three literary greats.
Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Alexander James
