Banks, Fintech & Crypto Collide | 3rd Charged in Loan Scheme | Ocrolus Interview | Consumer Confidence down

Staff Writer
Apr 29
3 min read

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Banks, fintech, and crypto are colliding

The convergence is picking up momentum as the new administration loosens restrictions on both crypto operations and traditional banking giants.

The latest evidence of this mashup is that crypto upstarts Circle, BitGo, Coinbase Global (COIN), and Paxos are all either considering or planning to seek a US bank license in some form, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

"This is something Coinbase is actively considering but has not made any formal decisions yet," a Coinbase spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.

Other traditional banks and payments providers are also testing or considering a deeper involvement with stablecoins, from Standard Chartered to PayPal (PYPL) to Stripe. Money management giant Fidelity Investments has also begun testing its own stablecoin, according to the Financial Times.

"Some of the traditional banks, they're going to embrace and start offering crypto-related products directly," BitGo CEO Mike Belshe told Yahoo Finance. "We're also going to see crypto moving more towards traditional finance as well, which is crypto companies like BitGo offering more traditional services."

Third Defendant Charged with Orchestrating Nearly $1 Million Loan Fraud Scheme

The United States Secret Service, New York Field Office, announced the unsealing of superseding information from a prior indictment charging SAMUEL SELMAR for his role in running an advance-fee loan fraud scheme through which dozens upon dozens of victims were defrauded of almost $1 million. SELMAR surrendered and was presented before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Jennifer Willis.

The previous arrests were charging YISROEL HEBER, a/k/a “Scott Heber,” and YECHIEL MESHI-ZAHAV with running the advance-fee loan fraud scheme.

From at least in or about March 2021 through at least in or about December 2021, YISROEL HEBER and YECHIEL MESHI-ZAHAV participated in an advance-fee loan fraud scheme that defrauded dozens of victims of at least approximately $2 million. HEBER and MESHI-ZAHAV operated this fraudulent scheme through purported lending companies called Blue Ribbon Funding, Tru Capital Funding, Fund Capital LLC, a/k/a “Fund Cap LLC,” and Ameriquest Capital (collectively, the “Fraudulent Lenders”).

During the course of the scheme, HEBER and MESHI-ZAHAV, through their control of the Fraudulent Lenders, induced victims to provide their bank account information in order to make payments related to loans that the Fraudulent Lenders promised to issue to the victims. Instead, however, HEBER and MESHI-ZAHAV defrauded the victims by withdrawing thousands of dollars from each of the victims’ bank accounts without issuing the promised loans.

Consumer confidence plunges for fifth straight month

Consumer confidence fell for the fifth straight month in April, dropping to its lowest level since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as uncertainty surrounding President Trump’s trade policy pushed inflation expectations higher and weighed on the labor outlook.

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for April came in at a reading of 86, a significant drop from March's revised 92.9 reading and short of the 88 reading expected by economists.

Ocrolus CEO Sam Bobley: His path and what's next for Ocrolus

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Sam Bobley, CEO of Ocrolus, the fintech company he founded at about the same time I entered the alternative business funding space. Watch to the end to see what's next for Ocrolus!