COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new president will appoint senior lawmaker Dinesh Gunawardena as the crisis-hit country’s next prime minister, four political sources said on Thursday.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe is slated to appoint his new cabinet on Friday, a day after he was sworn into Sri Lanka’s highest office following mass protests that forced predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.

Key Takeaways

• Today the Department of Justice charged a former Coinbase employee and two co-conspirators in the “first ever” crypto insider trading scheme.
• The three men’s alleged scheme was brought to light in April by a tweet from crypto personality Cobie, which prompted an investigation by Coinbase and led to the criminals’ eventual arrest.
• The trio allegedly generated $1.5 million from their scheme; each individual faces up to 40 years in prison.

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A former Coinbase employee and two co-conspirators are being charged by the Justice Department and the SEC in the “first ever” crypto insider trading scheme. Law enforcement claims the scheme was discovered thanks to a tweet from a prominent crypto community member.

Alleged Insider Traders Charged

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that it had charged three people in the “first ever” crypto insider trading scheme. Former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi, his brother Nikhil Wahi, and a friend, Sameer Ramani, are being charged with wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud in connection to a scheme to commit insider trading. 

Within hours, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also announced charges against the trio for the same alleged scheme. In that case, the SEC “seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.”

Coinbase is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. Due to its popularity, the market value of cryptocurrency projects tends to increase significantly upon listing on the website. According to the DOJ, Ishan Wahi allegedly used his position at Coinbase to inform his co-conspirators of upcoming new cryptocurrency listings so that they could preemptively buy the coins and sell them after listing. 

The DOJ estimates the trio collectively generated roughly $1.5 million in unrealized gains over 14 different listing announcements from at least August 2021 to May 2022. Each individual faces up to 40 years in prison in addition to civil penalties.

The Wahi brothers have both been apprehended, while Ramani remains at large.

Crypto Influence Influences Law Enforcement

Interestingly, crypto personality Cobie helped the Justice Department make its “first ever” crypto insider trading charges. The DOJ states the scheme may have gone unnoticed until Cobie posted a tweet on April 12 stating that he’d “found an ETH address that bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of tokens exclusively featured in the Coinbase Asset Listing post about 24 hours before it was published.”

Coinbase publicly responded to the discovery; then, on May 11, the company emailed Wahi to schedule an in-person meeting regarding Coinbase’s asset listing process. After that, Wahi attempted to leave the United States for India but was stopped by law enforcement.

Cobie, whose real name is Jordan Fish, co-hosts the popular crypto podcast UpOnly alongside Brian Krogsgard, aka Ledger. 

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies. 

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Marrakesh — I am delighted to be heading the U.S. Delegation to the 14th annual U.S.- Africa Business Summit, where I am joined by senior leaders from across the U.S. Government.

And as the CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), one of the 17 government agencies that contributes to the Prosper Africa Initiative, I am excited to be here in Marrakesh to feature our partnership with the Government of Morocco, and to meet with partners from across the continent.

I would like to extend my thanks to the Corporate Council on Africa and the Government of Morocco for bringing us all together, and all the government and private sector partners who have travelled to Marrakech for this important Summit.

I will have more to say about the work that lies ahead over the next two days, but before I do, I want to introduce a special guest who could not be with us in person, but who wanted to extend her support for and reinforce the importance of this gathering.

Colleagues, it is now my distinct honor to introduce the Vice President of the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris.

[Vice President Kamala Harris Video Remarks]

As Vice President Harris stated, we are all here and invested in creating more pathways to prosperity across the African continent.

Through Prosper Africa – the U.S. Government’s initiative to increase trade and investment, and promote sustainable development across the continent – and our collective efforts, we are strengthening partnerships to ensure people on both sides of the Atlantic have the opportunity to create a better life for their children, their families, and their communities, and to realize their full potential.

Since launching Prosper Africa two years ago, the U.S. Government has supported 800 two-way trade and investment deals in 45 countries in Africa, worth an estimated $50 billion.

Yet, we can, and we must do more.

From the pandemic, to the recovery from its devastating economic impact, to the climate crisis— Africa is essential to our collective progress as we work to tackle the complex challenges of the day.

The Biden-Harris Administration has made deepening our engagement with Africa a priority. The United States is committed to further strengthening our partnerships to foster inclusive and sustainable economic growth and prosperity, expand opportunities for bilateral trade and investment, and promote respect and shared values.

That is why we are continuing to work to build stronger ties with our African partners to catalyze infrastructure investments and public-private partnerships across the African continent.

We will also continue to work to support efforts to accelerate policy and regulatory reforms needed to attract that investment.

The U.S. Government is committed to leveraging the full suite of tools in its toolkit, capitalizing on the unique skills of departments and agencies across our government, many of whom are here today – including MCC, as well as the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, the U.S. Africa Development Foundation, the Departments of State, Commerce, and Agriculture, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative (USTR), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM), as well as Prosper Africa and Power Africa – and harnessing the power of the U.S. private sector toward our shared goals.

At the recent G7 Summit in Germany, leaders formally launched the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars and deliver quality, sustainable infrastructure that makes a difference in people’s lives around the world.

The United States aims to mobilize $200 billion for PGII over the next five years through grants, financing, and leveraging private sector investments.

Through Prosper Africa, and the work of the departments and agencies represented here today, we will work to deliver on PGII’s promise by catalyzing investment across the African continent.

MCC’s distinct role is to reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth. We do this through a partnership based model that pairs large-scale investments in critical infrastructure with policy and institutional reforms that together, will attract private sector investment.

Our commitment is not a new one.

We are building on long-standing partnerships with African partners through which the United States has made significant investments that have helped create 21st century jobs for African youth across the continent, deliver clean water and sanitation to help fight disease, made transportation more efficient through the construction of hundreds of kilometers of roads, improved agricultural yields by bringing irrigation to farmers, and increased access to reliable electricity for households and business.

We have also increased our focus on strengthening resilience to global shocks and working with our African government partners to enhance their capacity to deliver for their people through investments in gender equity as a driver of inclusive growth, climate adaptation and mitigation, infrastructure, and digital technologies that have the potential to transform healthcare, financial services, agribusiness and more.

We all know the impact we can have when governments and the private sector work together to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.

And that is what we are here to do. To build new partnerships and explore new opportunities to work together to address the challenges of the day, and those not yet before us, and to deliver on the promise of creating opportunities for a better life for future generations.

Thank you all again for your continued partnership, and let’s have a wonderful conference.

Thank you.

Marrakech — The president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, said on Wednesday that he was “extremely positive” about investment opportunities in Africa.

“Based on the 2020 survey conducted by the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, about 45% of sponsors expect returns in Africa are to exceed those of emerging and developed markets over the next 10 years,” said Adesina at the opening of the 14th edition of US-Africa Business Summit, noting that “it is time for U.S. investors to move quickly and invest massively in Africa”.

In this regard, he said that Africa offers a “very profitable” destination for investment, noting that investors pay a lot of attention to this Continent and that the number of private equity funds in Africa has increased from 12 in 1997 to 150 in 2020.

In addition, Adesina highlighted the importance of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better World” program in contributing to the shift in U.S. private sector investment to Africa.

“It’s time to refresh, re-engage and re-invest in Africa. As you do, it is important to base your investment decisions in Africa on facts, not fiction or perception. Perception is not reality,” he said.

He also recalled that Moody’s Analytics’ 10-year cumulative assessment of global infrastructure debt default rates by region in 2020 found that infrastructure lending was lowest in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Oceania and that Africa was the region with the second lowest cumulative default rate, after the Middle East, proving once again that infrastructure as an asset class in Africa is “sound, safe, and profitable.”

This is why the AfDB has invested more than $44 billion in infrastructure in Africa over the past six years, in the areas of energy, transport, digital infrastructure, water and sanitation, he stressed.

Referring to the issue of natural gas, Adesina assured that Africa is ready to be the alternative source of supply in this area, to help secure energy supply to Europe, following the Russian-Ukrainian conflict that disrupted energy supply.

“From Nigeria to Ghana, through Tanzania, Senegal, Morocco, Kenya, Algeria, Africa now has some of the largest natural gas reserves in the world,” he underlined.

“Africa has some of the largest deposits of lithium in the world, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mali, enough to make the continent competitive with China and Chile in the race to supply the global value chains for electric cars,” AfDB chief added.

In this context, Mr. Adesina welcomed the enormous opportunities that the African continent has in the field of agriculture, with 65% of the remaining arable land uncultivated to feed the world, noting that “what Africa will do with agriculture will determine, without doubt, the future of food in the world.”

“If this is not enough to convince you to invest in Africa, let me try further, the African Continental Free Trade Area (ZLECAF) will become the largest free trade area in the world, with a market of 3.3 trillion dollars, covering 54 countries and a population of 1.3 billion people,” he said, while highlighting the huge investment opportunities in renewable energy, including 10 TW of solar, 350 GW of hydro, 150 GW of wind and 15 GW of geothermal.

“Africa is ready. The United States is ready. Let’s turn conversations into commitments. Let’s turn commitments into investments. Let’s build together! “Adesina added.

Placed under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, this Summit which will continue until July 22, in partnership with the “Corporate Council on Africa” (CCA), will be attended by a large U.S. government delegation, African ministers and decision-makers from the largest U.S. multinationals and the African business community.

Some Nigerians on Twitter have called out a former presidential aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Adamu Garba, for alleged blasphemy.
Garba had while reacting to the news of fake Bishops attending the unveiling of Kashim Shettima as APC candidate’s running mate tweeted an edited photo of him wearing a bishop’s cap.

“Ladies and gentlemen it appears I have a new title,” he said in a now deleted tweet.
The tweet before being deleted was condemned by both Christians and Muslims who accused him of blasphemy.

Below are some reactions from Nigeria;

Marrakech — US Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted, Wednesday in Marrakech, her country’s commitment to help promote “inclusive and sustainable” economic growth in Africa.

“Since last October, the United States has pledged more than $7 billion in humanitarian and food security assistance across Africa. More broadly, our Administration’s goal is to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth and development across the continent, to expand capital flows, and to promote the vibrant spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that is so prevalent across Africa,” she said in remarks via recorded video at the opening of the 14th edition of the U.S. Africa Business Summit.

Affirming her commitment to strengthening relations with all African countries, Ms. Harris highlighted the many economic opportunities that exist between the two sides.

She also recalled that Africa is the world’s fastest-growing continent. “By 2030, the continent will have 1.7 billion people, home to one-fifth of the world’s population. The continent is also increasingly young, urban and connected. There is a growing demand for food, healthcare, education, technology, and infrastructure,” the US VP said.

“Yet, barriers remain: limited access to capital, the high cost of financing, and legal and regulatory bottlenecks. This is on top of the global challenges that I know are felt acutely in Africa, including recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and food insecurity,” Ms. Harris said.

The US official assured that the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to working with all of you to address these issues, in furtherance of the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

With regard to food insecurity, Ms. Harris said the US Administration is focused on the urgent need to increase food production and exports with and within Africa, a challenge made worse by war in Ukraine.

“I am pleased to see the advances made in implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area and we will work with you to ensure its success,” she added, noting that the United States is committed to “bringing to bear all the tools at our disposal, including, development financing, grants and technical assistance, and support for legal and regulatory reforms–all to help our African partners thrive.”

The Vice President announced a summit between the United States and dozens of African countries in December in Washington, D.C., to discuss challenges ranging from food security to climate change.

The summit, scheduled for December 13-15, will demonstrate the U.S. enduring commitment to Africa and underscore the importance of the U.S.-Africa relationship and increased cooperation on shared global priorities.

Placed under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, this Summit which will run until July 22, at the initiative of the “Corporate Council on Africa” (CCA), brings together a large U.S. government delegation, African ministers and decision-makers of the largest U.S. multinationals and African business community.

TEXT | VIDEO