Retail savings bond in ‘final approval stages’

attorney’s office in electing to charge Mr Lewis with 16 separate counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy.

David Zornow, of the Skadden Arps law firm, said in an e-mailed statement to the media: “The [US] government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment. Mr Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court.”

The case against Mr Lewis is being brought by Damian Williams, the US attorney for the southern New York district, who is also leading the prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the Bahamas-headquartered multi-billion FTX crypto exchange that collapsed last November. Mr Bankman-Fried and his closest associates lived and worked in multiple residences at Albany during their Bahamian stay, including the development’s flagship Orchid penthouse.

There is no link between the two cases. However,

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