Category: Business

• China is pushing yuan use globally to guard against potential Western sanctions.
• Beijing aims to reduce risks from sanctions in geopolitical tensions, like over Taiwan.
• But China's trade partners face challenges in using more yuan.

China is on a drive to expand the use of the yuan internationally. But Beijing's near-term intent is more about sanctions protection than currency dominance, according to a researcher.

"China's strategies to develop an alternative financial system are defensive rather than offensive — at least for now," wrote Zoe Liu, a fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, on Wednesday.

Beijing's goal now is to minimize any impact from potential sweeping sanctions from the West in "extreme geopolitical scenarios," such as a military conflict over Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, wrote Liu. Her post was published on the website of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, a London-based think tank.

"Expanding the use of the renminbi in trade is less challenging than increasing its status as an international reserve currency," Liu wrote.

Countries around the world have been diversifying their assets and chipping away at the dominance of the US dollar over fears that — like Russia — they could be shut out of the greenback-based world financial system should sanctions hit.

However, king dollar is so entrenched in the world's financial system that few really think it can be dethroned.

The yuan faces challenges in its globalization

While the US and China's strategic competition points to a possible race for currency supremacy, the Chinese yuan is far from ready — and even Beijing knows that.

An often-cited hurdle to the yuan's internationalization is China's use of capital controls to maintain financial stability. This means Beijing has control over how much foreign money can move in and out of China's economy, which in turn influences the foreign currency exchange rate.

However, capital controls are not necessarily a dealbreaker for the broader adoption of the yuan in trade, wrote Liu.

This is because China is already a top trading partner for over 120 countries. Furthermore, Chinese authorities are willing to facilitate exports by offering currency swaps and providing trade finance, Liu added.

However, the yuan's path to becoming an international reserve currency is fraught with obstacles because of other factors. They include the lack of risk-free yuan-denominated assets, the relatively closed nature of the Chinese financial market, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping's preference for one-man rule over the rule of law, Liu wrote.

Businesses have reservations about using the yuan

Recent data from China's central bank showed even Chinese businesses aren't that sold on the yuan, as they hold back on converting their foreign-exchange earnings into the Chinese currency.

This appears to be primarily due to the yuan's current weakness. It also shows it's not so easy to displace the mighty US dollar as the world's top reserve and trading currency of choice.

A recent global survey of 1,660 enterprises showed that there is just not enough interest in using the yuan to trade.

Conducted in March by China's Bank of Communications and Renmin University, about three-quarters of the survey's respondents were located in East Asia. Another one-fifth of respondents were from Southeast and Central Asia.

Half of the companies surveyed said the main stumbling block to wider use of the yuan was simply because their trading partners were not willing to use the currency.

About 64% of all respondents cited the "complexity of policies" as the main obstacle, while more than 40% of them cited other difficulties including barriers to capital flow.

• Two senior US officials told the NYT that Washington has sent plans for more than 1,000 weapons to Ukraine.
• The reported transfer comes amid a push from the West to help Ukraine boost its domestic weapons production.
• The officials declined to say which weapons plans were included, but left a clue, per the NYT.

The US has given Ukraine manufacturing plans for more than 1,000 American weapons in hopes of helping Kyiv bolster its own arms production, two officials told The New York Times.

The military officials told NYT's John Ismay of the transfer during a reporting visit to a new factory for Howitzer artillery shells near Dallas.

According to the NYT, these two officials were William A. LaPlante, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, and Douglas R. Bush, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology.

They told the outlet that the US has also translated technical manuals from English to Ukrainian but declined to say which weapons were involved, per NYT.

"What are they using the most?" Bush told Ismay.

Drones and artillery shells have been among the most prominently used weapons in the war, but neither official was reported to have given further information on the plans.

Their remarks came amid the opening of the $500 million Dallas plant, which is run by General Dynamics and aims to boost artillery shell production by another 30,000 155mm rounds a month.

The US has set a goal of producing 100,000 such shells a month by end-2025, after sending more than 3 million rounds together with its allies to Ukraine. Demand there for the ammo is pressing.

The US Army has said it would need about $3.1 billion to buy the rounds and expand production to achieve its ammunition goal. It's unlikely that all of these new rounds will be earmarked solely for Ukraine.

Before the Dallas plant was set up, the US was reported at the end of 2023 to be making about 28,000 Howitzer shells a month. NYT reported that production this month rose to about 36,000 shells without the new factory.

Meanwhile, Russia is estimated to be producing about 250,000 shells a month, according to NATO assessments reported by CNN in March.

Western countries are concerned by the rate at which Moscow has been able to rapidly expand and galvanize its defense manufacturing industry, with some think-tank estimates saying the Kremlin can sustain its high casualties in manpower and equipment for years.

Ukraine already needs more troops, and the US and Europe have been trying to shore up its military supplies.

The European Union promised in March to deliver 1 million more artillery shells to Kyiv over the next year. But with reports that it's only manufacturing about 30% of what's needed, some experts say Ukraine could eat up Europe's current entire annual production within two months.

Press teams for the US Army and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

• Beth Hammack, a former Goldman Sachs executive, was just appointed Cleveland Fed president.
• Hammack succeeds Loretta Mester, known for her hawkish stance on inflation policies.
• She starts on August 21 and will vote in the September Fed meeting.

Longtime Goldman Sachs executive Beth Hammack, who left in February, is heading to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland as its next president.

She will take office on August 21 and vote on monetary policy decisions starting in September, the bank said Wednesday. She'll lead 1,100 employees in her new position.

Hammack replaces Loretta Mester, who is stepping down on June 30 after a decade as the Cleveland Fed's president. Mester is one of the US central bank's most hawkish chiefs, backing policies to combat inflation despite other risks to the economy.

Hammack will be the bank's 12th president and the fourth woman to lead the organization. She will be responsible for all bank activities, including monetary policy, financial institution supervision, and payment services.

Before co-heading global financing at Goldman, Hammack was the firm's global treasurer, global head of short-term macro trading, and global head of repo trading. She joined the company in 1993 as an analyst in capital markets.

The Cleveland Fed announced a nationwide search for a new president in November. Until Hammack's start date, first vice president Mark Meder will serve as interim president.

Hammack joins the Federal Reserve System at a time when it is heavily debating when to begin interest rate cuts. The central bank raised borrowing costs from close to zero to around 5.5% between March 2022 and July 2023 and has kept them at that level since. Earlier this month, Chair Jerome Powell warned that rates will have to stay higher for longer to help ease price pressures.

The Cleveland Fed is part of the Federal Reserve System, which regulates monetary policy and banking institutions. It comprises 12 regional banks, which oversee regional economic interests and coordinate with the New York Fed.

• NATO members have less than 5% of the air defenses needed to protect Central and Eastern Europe, per the FT.
• A NATO official said their air defense "stockpiles have been reduced."
• Putin hinted on Tuesday that he might attack NATO members calling for Ukrainian strikes on Russia.

Central and Eastern European countries may find themselves vulnerable during an invasion because of NATO's weak air defenses, per a new report from the Financial Times.

Members of the military alliance only have less than 5% of the air defense capabilities needed to protect those regions from attacks, the FT reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with NATO's defense plans.

When asked about the report, a NATO official told the FT that its "capability targets and defense plans are classified" but noted that its air defense "stockpiles have been reduced."

"NATO's new defense plans also significantly increase air and missile defense requirements in quantity and readiness," the official told the outlet.

The official added that the organization is confident its deterrence against Russia "remains strong."

Representatives for NATO didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

The FT's report comes amid heightened concerns that NATO could find itself at war with Russia following the latter's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In February, Estonia's foreign intelligence service said it expects a "significant increase in Russian forces near the Estonian border in the coming years."

"The Kremlin is probably anticipating a possible conflict with NATO within the next decade," the intelligence agency said.

On Tuesday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin hinted that Russia could retaliate against European countries that are calling for Ukraine to attack Russia directly.

"So, these officials from NATO countries, especially the ones based in Europe, particularly in small European countries, should be fully aware of what is at stake," Putin told reporters.

"They should keep in mind that theirs are small and densely populated countries, which is a factor to reckon with before they start talking about striking deep into the Russian territory," he said. "This unending escalation can lead to serious consequences."

• A court in Tianjin sentenced a former executive for a state-owned firm to death for bribery on Tuesday.
• Bai Tianhui was found guilty of accepting bribes worth $151 million.
• The authorities said he helped solve several other crimes but wouldn't get a lighter sentence for that.

A former senior banker for a Chinese state-owned asset management firm has been sentenced to death for bribery, a court in Tianjin said on Tuesday.

Bai Tianhui, an ex-general manager of China Huarong International Holdings, was found guilty of taking bribes worth $151 million from 2014 to 2018, the court wrote in an announcement.

Authorities said Bai had abused his position as a holder of various appointments at his firm and accepted bribes involved with project acquisitions and corporate financing.

The court said Bai took "extremely huge" bribes and that the "circumstances of the crime were extremely serious, and the social impact was extremely bad."

It added that the disgraced former manager cooperated with authorities to help expose and solve other "major crimes."

Despite Bai providing what the court said were "great contributions," it said the magnitude of his crimes was so great he would not receive a lighter sentence.

Execution for corruption in China is generally rare, and those who have received such a sentence are usually deemed to have cost the country considerable resources through their crimes. Bai is the second former Huarong executive to be handed the death sentence.

Lai Xiaomin, who was chairman of the firm, was executed in 2021 after being found guilty of graft involving about $277 million. He was also charged with bigamy and fathering two illegitimate children.

A Tianjin court sentenced Lai to death on January 5 of that year, and he was executed by the end of the month after his appeal was rejected.

State media didn't say if Bai intends to appeal, but it's also rare for death sentences in China to be overturned. One former vice-mayor, Zhang Zhongsheng, was given life imprisonment after appealing his death sentence for bribes involving $160 million.

All of Bai's personal property will be confiscated, the Tianjian court said on Tuesday.

Bai and several of his top colleagues, including Lai, were put under investigation by China's graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, in 2018.

Four other Huarong executives are still scheduled for trial.

Bai's execution comes amid a renewed push to stamp out corruption in China's financial system, with Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reporting that over 30 top financial executives and state officials were arrested in 2024 alone.

The anti-graft measures fall under the shadow of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's announced ambition for China to be a "financial superpower" and his decadelong campaign to weed out corruption in the country.

In conjunction with the crackdown, state media regularly produces documentaries highlighting the financial crimes of those caught for corruption.

Lai appears in one film that aired in 2020, which features footage of a secret vault in an apartment filled with cash that his friends called the "supermarket." Bai also appears in the documentary.

• Sam Altman is thinking about restructuring OpenAI, per The Information.
• The OpenAI CEO is considering turning the ChatGPT maker into a regular, for-profit company. 
• OpenAI is now run as a "capped-profit" company, where its for-profit arm is governed by a nonprofit.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is thinking about restructuring the ChatGPT maker.

The 39-year-old Stanford dropout has talked about turning OpenAI into a regular, for-profit company, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing an individual who'd spoken to Altman.

Unlike most companies, OpenAI says it is run as a "capped-profit" company, with its for-profit arm governed by a nonprofit.

The company announced in a March 2019 blog post that it was shedding its status as a typical nonprofit to better realize its mission of building safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the world.

"We want to increase our ability to raise capital while still serving our mission, and no pre-existing legal structure we know of strikes the right balance," OpenAI wrote. "Our solution is to create OpenAI LP as a hybrid of a for-profit and nonprofit—which we are calling a 'capped-profit' company."

Representatives for OpenAI didn't respond to The Information's request for comment.

Altman's leadership of the Microsoft-backed AI upstart has not been without controversy. In November, Altman was briefly ousted after OpenAI's former board alleged that he was "not consistently candid in his communications" with them.

"For years, Sam had made it really difficult for the board to actually do that job by withholding information, misrepresenting things that were happening at the company, in some cases outright lying to the board," former OpenAI board member Helen Toner said in an interview on "The TED AI Show" podcast that aired Tuesday.

Toner said Altman was a deceptive figure who lied and hid information from the board "multiple" times. According to Toner, OpenAI's board was kept in the dark about ChatGPT's release in November 2022.

Instead, the board only learned about the chatbot's existence, like everybody else, when news of its release began spreading on Twitter.

Toner, who left the board shortly after Altman was reinstated as CEO, also accused him of lying about his financial interests in OpenAI.

"Sam didn't inform the board that he owned the OpenAI Startup Fund, even though he constantly was claiming to be an independent board member with no financial interest in the company," Toner said, referencing the company's venture capital fund for AI startups.

On March 29, OpenAI revealed in an SEC filing that Altman no longer owned or controlled the venture capital fund.

The company said in a statement to Axios that the fund's initial ownership structure was a "temporary arrangement, and involved no personal investment or financial interest from Sam."

"We are disappointed that Ms. Toner continues to revisit these issues," OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement to the podcast. "Our focus remains on moving forward and pursuing OpenAI's mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity."

Representatives for OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• Ukraine lobbied hard to get tanks from the US last January.
• But the armored vehicles have not provided major tactical gains for Ukraine.
• In a "war of drones," tanks are the No. 1 target, a Ukrainian soldier told CNN.

Tanks supplied by the US are not proving helpful enough for Ukrainian soldiers amid a war that has been heavily reliant on drones.

In January 2023, after months of hard lobbying from Ukraine, the US agreed to send 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks to equip a tank battalion.

Military experts previously told Business Insider that the use cases for the tanks would be limited due to terrain conditions and the lack of tank-on-tank warfare, which is the Abrams' specialty.

More than a year after the US sent the tanks, at least eight of the armored vehicles have been reported lost or damaged and, according to US officials, Ukraine has had to pull back the tanks from the front line.

Ukrainian state media disputed the US report that the Abrams tanks were fully withdrawn but said soldiers were using them in limited cases.

A member of Ukraine's 47th Mechanized Brigade, who is identified as Joker, told CNN's chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh the tanks alone are not enough to protect soldiers when Russia is bombarding them with drones.

"Its armor is not sufficient for this era. It doesn't protect the crew," Joker told CNN. "For real, today it's a war of drones. So now when the tank rolls out they always try to hit it."

One makeshift solution Ukrainian soldiers have had to rely on is armored plates on the vehicle, according to the CNN report.

Joker added that the tank ammunition Ukraine was given is only conducive for "direct tank to tank battle" and insufficient to take down structures.

"Once we fired 17 rounds into a house and it was still standing," he said.

A Ukrainian official said last year that Russia has a seven-to-one drone edge.

• Trump has debuted a new line of attack in his criminal trial.
• "I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE CHARGES ARE IN THIS RIGGED CASE," he wrote on Truth Social.
• Prosecutors charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree over a year ago.

The jurors in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial are thinking deeply about the charges.

After just a few hours of deliberating Wednesday, they asked the judge to read back four crucial segments of the testimony they heard.

They honed in on sections that indicate they could be seeking to understand granular details of the plot to keep Stormy Daniels silent ahead of the 2016 presidential election about a sexual tryst she says she had with Trump.

Trump, meanwhile, has brought a new line of attack against the proceedings: He says he doesn't know what's going on.

"I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE CHARGES ARE IN THIS RIGGED CASE—I AM ENTITLED TO SPECIFICITY JUST LIKE ANYONE ELSE," he posted on Truth Social after jurors began deliberating. "THERE IS NO CRIME!"

The New York district attorney's office charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree over a year ago.

Over the course of more than a month, Trump sat through testimony from 20 witnesses and a five-hour closing argument from prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, laying out the case.

An entire day of testimony was spent going through those 34 records — invoices, checks, and ledger entries — in detail. Trump signed nine of those checks in his own hand, with his signature mountain-range style signature.

The judge already explained the charges

Reading into Trump's remarks and social media posts Wednesday, his campaign seems to be attempting to create confusion about a straightforward part of the jury's job.

The jury must reach a "guilty" or "not guilty" verdict on each of the 34 counts, one for each record.

On its own, the crime of "falsifying business records" in New York is considered a misdemeanor crime. But each count can be transformed into a felony if a jury finds that it was carried out in an attempt to commit or conceal another crime that would itself be a felony.

According to prosecutors, the felony law Trump attempted to violate or cover up is section 17-152 of the New York Election Law, which refers to Trump conspiring to promote himself in the 2016 presidential election "by unlawful means."

Prosecutors offered three different possible "unlawful means" carried out by Trump in the plot to pay Stormy Daniels hush money 11 days before the 2016 presidential election:

1. Violating federal campaign finance laws.
2. Causing certain invoices, bank records, or tax documents to include false information.
3. Submitting false tax documents.

Jurors need to unanimously agree on each of the 34 document falsification counts to find Trump guilty.

But they do not need to agree on which of the three "unlawful means" Trump took as a path to falsify each document.

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan explained it clearly in his hourlong instructions to the jury on Wednesday morning.

"Although you must conclude unanimously that the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were," Merchan told the jurors.

As Merchan gave the jury instructions, Trump's eyes appeared to be shut.

The 77-year-old Republican presidential candidate leaned back in his chair and sat still, his hands in his lap and mouth rested in a frown.

At one moment, he seemed to stretch his back and arms while remaining in his seat, before settling back in his padded leather chair.

Last week, Merchan batted away an attempt from Trump's lawyer Emil Bove to require the jury to "make very specific findings" for the alleged violations of New York's election law. Trump kept his eyes closed through much of that court session, too.

"What you're asking me to do is change the law, and I'm not going to do that," Merchan told Trump's legal team.

As jurors began deliberating Wednesday, Trump's allies pushed a false narrative about their job.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida — who is widely believed to be under consideration as a running mate to Trump — posted on X, falsely claiming that the "Judge in Trump case in NYC just told jury they don't have to unanimously agree on which crime was committed."

It was reposted by Jason Miller, a senior advisor to Trump's campaign.

On Truth Social, Trump posted quotes from Fox News host Jesse Watters, falsely claiming "the jury can pick whatever crime they want."

The jurors appeared to be seeking clarity on their role. They weren't permitted to take a copy of the judge's instruction into the deliberations room with them. And before the court day wrapped on Wednesday, they asked Merchan to read it aloud to them again.

By the end of the day, Trump appeared confused about what exactly he was supposed to be confused about.

"The other thing, the confusion is, nobody knows what the crime is, because there is no crime," Trump told reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom before he left. "Nobody knows what the crime is. The DA didn't name the crime. They don't know what the crime is."

• Ted Farnsworth is the former CEO of Helios and Matheson Analytics, which previously was the parent company of MoviePass.
• The documentary "MoviePass, MovieCrash" shows how he blew through hundreds of millions of dollars.
• He and former MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe are awaiting trial on charges of securities fraud.

In the new HBO documentary "MoviePass, MovieCrash," Ted Farnsworth is the CEO of the publicly traded Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY) when the company takes a majority stake in the movie-theater-subscription startup MoviePass in 2017.

Under Farnsworth's watch, MoviePass became a sensation after he and then-CEO Mitch Lowe dropped the monthly subscription fee from $30 a month to $10. It led to millions of subscribers and the company being hailed as the Netflix of movie theaters. Farnsworth and Lowe touted themselves in the press as the masterminds behind it all.

The documentary — based on reporting by Business Insider —reveals the more complicated reality of the phenomenon, showing how MoviePass cofounders Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt were pushed out of the company after the arrival of Farnsworth and Lowe.

With Farnsworth and Lowe at the helm, hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to not just keep the unsustainable $10-a-month plan going, but also on lavish parties at Coachella, and starting a movie production arm best known for releasing the 2018 movie "Gotti," a biopic on notorious crime boss John Gotti starring John Travolta that received a 0% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes.

In 2020, both HMNY and MoviePass went bankrupt (Spikes has since relaunched MoviePass), and two years later, Farnsworth and Lowe were charged with securities fraud.

As the documentary shows, the crash of MoviePass is just one of many failed ventures of the 61-year-old Farnsworth. Business Insider reached out to Farnsworth for comment but didn't get a response.

Here's a rundown of many of those companies (some of which went bankrupt), what Farnsworth did after MoviePass, and why he's currently in jail.

Note: "MoviePass, MovieCrash" is based on Business Insider's award-winning reporting on the company.

Mid-1990s: Farnsworth ran the Psychic Discovery Network, promoted by La Toya Jackson, that received more than 50 complaints from the FTC

Farnsworth's first major attention came when he ran the 900-number psychic network, which became famous thanks to its star promoter, La Toya Jackson.

A 1998 bulletin from the Federal Trade Commission noted the Psychic Discovery Network as a company that received more than 50 complaints in 1997. It had a total of 60.

2000: Auction site Farmbid.com lasts less than a year

Farnsworth tried to use the popularity of the Psychic Network and the dot-com boom to capitalize on the multitrillion-dollar agricultural business in the early 2000s with the site Farmbid.com.

A 2000 Wired story touted the company as a site that featured "farm auctions, links to wholesalers, a detailed weather center, and even a 'farm chat' area."

But the farming industry wasn't that into it. According to Sunbiz, the official Florida business registry, the company folded in less than a year.

2001: He gets into the beverage space with XStream

Farnsworth founded the company XStream Beverage Network Inc. in 2001, touting it as "an emerging developer, marketer and distributor of new age beverages."

He tried to buy a European energy drink called Dark Dog, but that deal never closed, according to Bloomberg.

By 2007, he was able to buy Global Beverage, which had in its stable Rudy Beverages, founded by famed 1970s Notre Dame football player Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger.

In November of that year, Farnsworth resigned as chairman of XStream, and its stock dropped 99%, according to Bloomberg.

2007: Farnsworth becomes CEO of Purple Beverage

Farnsworth's failure with XStream didn't stop him from trying another venture in the drink space. He became the CEO of Purple Beverage Co., touting an antioxidant-rich drink.

The stock for Purple Bev went as high as $3.24 in April 2008, according to Bloomberg, thanks partly to Farnsworth landing celebrity spokespeople like Chaka Khan and New York Yankees Hall of Fame pitcher Mariano Rivera. But by the time he resigned a year later, the stock had plummeted by 99%.

2012: He oversees a vitamin company that flatlines within a year and is sued by FedEx

Farnsworth became the chairman of LTS Nutraceuticals Inc., a multilevel-marketing vitamin company. In 2011, it traded as high as $4.85. But by 2012, with Farnsworth running things, the stock fell 99%. It's unclear when he left the company because it didn't make periodic regulatory filings, according to Bloomberg.

In 2013, FedEx sued the vitamin company, saying it was owed $26,000. According to The Miami Herald, the judge ruled in FedEx's favor.

2016: Farnsworth’s Zone Technologies merges with HMNY to become publicly listed on the Nasdaq

Over a decade after Farmbid, Farnsworth went back into the tech space with an app called RedZone Maps (through a company called Zone Technologies). The app flagged where crimes were being reported in a user's area.

A year later, Zone Technologies merged with Helios and Matheson to become publicly listed on the Nasdaq. That same year, Farnsworth was named CEO of HMNY.

2017: HMNY acquires a majority stake in MoviePass

Since its birth in 2011, MoviePass had been trying to figure out a monthly subscription price that attracted moviegoers and would make a profit. By 2017, the company was on the brink of running out of money when Farnsworth got connected with MoviePass' then-CEO, Mitch Lowe. A deal was made for HMNY to take a majority stake in MoviePass. By that summer, Farnsworth and Lowe dropped the price to $10 a month, and the rest is history. With a huge rise in subscribers for MoviePass, the HMNY stock initially soared. But by 2020, MoviePass and HMNY went bankrupt.

At the time of bankruptcy, the company said it was under pending investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, SEC, four California district attorneys, and the New York attorney general.

In 2021, Farnsworth and Lowe settled with the FTC and reached a $400,000 settlement with the California district attorneys.

2021: Less than a year after MoviePass' bankruptcy, Farnsworth founds Zash Global Media and Entertainment

After MoviePass' bankruptcy, Farnsworth quickly landed back on his feet by starting a media company called Zash in less than a year. He later merged it with the publicly traded company Vinco Ventures. He acquired a TikTok rival called Lomotif and even tried (unsuccessfully) to buy the National Enquirer.

By the end of 2022, Vinco stock had cratered and is now worth less than one cent.

In 2024, Business Insider reported on Farnsworth's business tactics while at Zash. They mirror how he operated at MoviePass and some other ventures over the decades: Get involved with a publicly traded company, help raise funding from his finance connections at favorable terms for them, drive up the company's stock with splashy announcements, and leave retail investors with big losses when the stock crashes.

2022: Farnsworth is charged with securities fraud related to his time at MoviePass

In 2022, Farnsworth and Lowe were each charged with one count of securities fraud and three counts of wire fraud by the Department of Justice, which alleged the two "engaged in a scheme to defraud investors through materially false and misleading representations relating to HMNY and MoviePass's business and operations to artificially inflate the price of HMNY's stock and attract new investors."

Both have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. If convicted, each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each count.

2024: Farnsworth is currently in jail

Farnsworth has been in a Florida jail since August 2023.

During Farnsworth's time out on bail, he traveled from his home in upstate New York to Miami on multiple occasions without notifying his probation officer and was involved in a domestic incident that resulted in a restraining order, which he also didn't report, according to Bloomberg.

His bail was revoked in an August 2023 hearing. He's now in jail awaiting his court date.

• Google Images lets you search for pictures and photos, and even perform reverse image searches.
• Google Images was invented after Jennifer Lopez wore a daring green Versace dress to the Grammys.
• You can perform image searches or reverse image searches on iPhone, Android, or desktop.

Google is much more than just a search engine. Since its launch back in 1998, Google has built an impressive array of specialized tools to help people use, search, and navigate the internet and world around them. 

Google Images is one of the many features the search giant offers; it's a great place to search for pictures and photos by using relevant keywords.

You can also search Google Images using an image rather than text — this is known as a reverse image search — to find out more information about a specific photo or graphic.

The invention of Google Images was famously precipitated by the pop star Jennifer Lopez, whose daring green Versace dress at the 2000 Grammy Awards became the most popular search query Google had seen at the time. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt later wrote that Google had no real way of getting users the results they were searching for, which were simply pictures of JLo in the iconic dress.

Schmidt said the invention of Google Images was a classic example of what Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin did best: innovating and iterating in response to user demand. Google performed a similar feat in 2011 when the company added reverse image search functionality.

Here's how and why you might want to use Google Images and its reverse image search tool. 

What is Google Images?

Google Images lets you type in a search term — it can be a person, place, event, item, or anything else you want to visualize — and brings up a gallery of images that match. Those images are all linked to websites, so you can easily go right to the source for more information.

The main factor in determining what images populate your results page is how closely your search terms match the image filenames. 

Here are three simple ways to access Google Images:

1. Visit google.com and select Images in the upper-right corner.
2. Visit images.google.com, which is a more direct way to get to Google Images.
3. Input the search terms for your image search into the default Google search and select Images on the results page. 

Once a search is submitted, Google finds a set of thumbnail images correlating to your keyword description.

Google Images is also far from Google's only photo tool — Google Photos is a photo-sharing and storage service with its own search features that functions similarly to Google Drive for documents.

Google Lens, which launched in 2017, is Google's image recognition technology that functions similarly to a reverse image search: it uses your device's camera to identify real-world objects like products or locations or even people, and gives you information about them.

What is Google's Search by Image? 

Google's Search by Image is a feature that uses reverse image search functionality. 

When you do a Google reverse Image search, you place a photo or a link to a photo in the search bar instead of a text query. Google then finds websites featuring your image as well as related images.

When to do a Google reverse image search

It's most helpful to search with an image on Google in the following cases:

• Find information about a photo. A Google reverse image search could bring up a website that includes a person's name or information about a product. It can also indicate whether a photo is being used for mis- or disinformation, as is often the case with deepfakes or "shallowfakes."

• Uncover plagiarism. A reverse image search will bring up similar images. This can reveal whether an image was copied from someone else's work.

• Find other similar images. If you want to find other photos connected to a specific image, a Google reverse search will populate related pictures.

• Shop for a specific product. If you have an image of an article of clothing, product, or other object, Google will automatically show you images of the same or similar products with links to purchase them.

Google reverse image search on iPhone or Android

You can reverse image search on iPhone or Android using a photo from the internet or your camera roll. Here's how to do it.

Using an image from your files

This option requires that you have Google for Android or Google for iOS app installed on your device.

1. Open the Google app on your iPhone or Android.
2. Tap the camera icon in the search bar. The app might ask for permission to access your camera and image gallery. When it does, grant permission.

Quick tip: If you have the Google Search widget on your Home Screen, you can tap the camera icon to start a reverse image search

3. Either tap the shutter button in the middle section to take a picture or look for the image in your gallery in the bottom left section and then tap on the image to perform the search.

4. After a moment, Google will display the results of the image search.

Using an image from the search results

Before proceeding with this method, you'll need to download the Google Chrome mobile app to perform a reverse image search on your mobile device.

1. Open the Google app on your iPhone or Android, or open google.com in the Chrome app.
2. Describe the image you want to search. For example, you could type "tuxedo cat."
3. Tap the Images tab at the top so you can only see the image search results

4. Select an image from the search results and hit the camera icon in the bottom left-hand corner.

3. Then, select Search from the menu, and Google will show you images and related search terms that match your query.

Google reverse image search on a computer

You can do a more robust Google reverse image search on your computer by uploading a file from your computer or searching for an image on the web. Google Images works with Chrome, Firefox, and Safari browsers.

Using an image from your files

1. Open images.google.com in a web browser.

2. Click the camera icon.

3. Either drag and drop your image where it says "Drag an image here" or click on the "upload a file" link to search for the image on your computer.

4. If you choose to upload the image, find it on your computer, click on it, and select Open.

1. After the image is uploaded, you'll be taken to a page containing similar images or information about the image.

Using an image from the internet

1. Right click on the image you found in Google.
2. Choose Copy image address in the pop-up.

3. Open images.google.com in a web browser.

4. Click the camera icon.

5. Paste the picture's URL in the text box that says Paste image link.

6. Click on the Search button, and you'll be taken to a page of results related to your image.

Quick tip: You can also do a reverse image search from Google image search results. Just right-click on an image and choose Search image with Google Lens.