Cipher Mining
Cipher Mining is the publicly-listed asset through which the live SoftBank-Bitfury linkage is observable in primary US securities filings — a NASDAQ-listed Bitfury spin-off in which both anchor sponsors (Vavilov-controlled V3 Holding Ltd and SoftBank's Star Beacon LLC) repositioned synchronously around the January 2025 Stargate announcement window. Examination of CIFR's holder transitions establishes Cipher as the trading-visible counterpart to the privately-held UK parent Bitfury Group Limited, where the same window saw a $53.9 million share-premium cancellation dividend route capital out of the UK structure to V3 Holding Ltd.
Cipher Mining Inc is a Delaware-incorporated, NASDAQ-listed bitcoin mining and AI data-centre infrastructure company (ticker CIFR) that emerged in August 2021 as the public vehicle for Bitfury Group Limited's US-listing strategy, via a SPAC merger with Good Works Acquisition Corp at an approximate $2 billion enterprise value 1.
Cipher's controlling-economic chain runs from Latvian/British/Russian/Ukrainian quad-citizen Valery Vavilov, sole owner of V3 Holding Ltd, through Bitfury Group Limited (UK Companies House 11441275), Bitfury Top HoldCo B.V. (Strawinskylaan 3051, Amsterdam, incorporated 2020) and Bitfury Holding B.V., to roughly 93.4 million CIFR shares — about 23.05 percent of the public float at the moment of the January 2025 transactions central to this dossier 12.
On January 30, 2025, SoftBank executed a $50 million private investment in public equity in Cipher through a Delaware single-purpose vehicle, Star Beacon LLC, taking 10,438,413 CIFR shares plus an option on a 300-megawatt undeveloped Texas data-centre site, nine days after the January 21, 2025 White House announcement of the Stargate joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi's MGX Fund Management Limited 1.
By Q3 2025, SoftBank had removed the entire 10,438,413-share Star Beacon position — a 100 percent reduction within roughly nine months of entry — while V3 Holding Ltd trimmed its CIFR stake from 25.7 percent (95.4 million shares) in July 2025 to 20.2 percent (79.4 million shares) on September 15, 2025, and Vanguard Group absorbed 9,865,533 shares (+43.2 percent) in Q4 2025 31. Cross-reference of Round 6 holdings analysis indicates the two anchor sponsors distributed concurrently into the post-announcement rally, contradicting the public reading of the Star Beacon PIPE as a strategic Stargate-infrastructure alliance 3.
Corporate Structure
Cipher Mining Inc is a Delaware corporation listed on NASDAQ under ticker CIFR following an August 2021 SPAC merger with Good Works Acquisition Corp at an approximate $2 billion enterprise value, marketed as Bitfury Group Limited's US-listing route for industrial-scale bitcoin mining and, latterly, AI data-centre infrastructure 1.
The economic-control chain runs from Valery Vavilov, sole owner of V3 Holding Ltd, through Bitfury Group Limited (UK Companies House 11441275), Bitfury Top HoldCo B.V. at Strawinskylaan 3051 in Amsterdam (incorporated 2020), and Bitfury Holding B.V., to roughly 93.4 million CIFR shares (about 23.05 percent of the public float) at the moment of the January 30, 2025 Star Beacon PIPE 1. The Companies House register pulled May 7, 2026 confirms Vavilovs as the sole Person of Significant Control of UK 11441275 with greater-than-25-percent-to-50-percent shares and 75-percent-plus voting rights, and the right to appoint and remove directors 2.
The Bitfury-Cipher chain spans US (Delaware), UK (England and Wales), Netherlands and the UAE at the holding-vehicle and director-residency layers respectively, placing CIFR as the Nasdaq endpoint of a multi-jurisdictional structure whose parent governance is principally UAE-resident at director level 12.
Bitfury Group Spin-off (March-August 2021)
Cipher Mining was incorporated and brought public via a de-SPAC transaction with Good Works Acquisition Corp announced in March 2021 and consummated in August 2021 at an approximate $2 billion enterprise value 1. The transaction is identified in Round 6 evidence as Bitfury Group Limited's NASDAQ spin-off route — the mechanism that translated Vavilov-controlled UK private-company economics into a US-listed equity tradable in 13F-reportable form 1.
Cross-reference of Round 6 board-composition evidence indicates that Brian Paul Brooks was appointed to the Bitfury Group Limited UK board on December 20, 2021, eleven months after his January 14, 2021 departure as Acting Comptroller of the Currency, sitting alongside Vavilov, George Kikvadze and Bertrand Gauquelin des Pallieres 24. Analysis of the Bitfury-to-OCC personnel track indicates two distinct revolving-door instances at the UK parent — examination of public records shows Brooks served 2020-2021 and Jonathan Gould's subsequent 2025 OCC nomination cited prior senior Bitfury service — which the publicly-listed Cipher subsidiary inherits as ambient governance context 45.
SoftBank Star Beacon PIPE (January 30, 2025)
On January 30, 2025, SoftBank executed a $50 million private investment in public equity into Cipher Mining via Star Beacon LLC, a Delaware wholly-owned subsidiary, taking 10,438,413 CIFR shares plus an option on a 300-megawatt undeveloped Texas data-centre site 1. The Subscription Agreement was filed as Exhibit 10.1 to Cipher Mining's Form 8-K and identifies SoftBank as the parent backing Star Beacon 3.
The transaction occurred nine days after the January 21, 2025 White House announcement of the Stargate joint venture between SoftBank (40 percent), OpenAI (40 percent), Oracle and MGX Fund Management Limited (collectively the remaining 20 percent), framed as a $7 billion initial commitment within a stated $500 billion ceiling, and was read by sell-side coverage as overt Stargate-themed AI-infrastructure positioning by SoftBank into a Bitfury-controlled US miner 1.
The Bitfury Group Limited board at the moment of the Star Beacon subscription comprised Vavilov (UAE-resident), des Pallieres (UAE-resident, OneIM Partner Private Credit), Kikvadze (running Bitfury MENA from Dubai) and Brooks (US-resident, ex-OCC Acting Comptroller, MicroStrategy director) — two of four directors UAE-resident and one a former US bank regulator 12. Records show the antecedent capital event one month earlier: a December 23, 2024 Bitfury Group Limited shareholder resolution authorising a $53.9 million share-premium cancellation and dividend, dated 38 days before the Cipher PIPE 26.
Q3 2025 Coordinated Insider Distribution
Per Q3 2025 13F institutional holdings filings tracked via Fintel and MarketBeat, SoftBank removed 10,438,413 CIFR shares (a 100 percent reduction) — the exact Star Beacon subscription count from January 30, 2025 — within approximately nine months of entry 3. Vanguard Group added 9,865,533 shares (+43.2 percent) in Q4 2025, almost exactly absorbing the SoftBank exit at the institutional-holder level 3.
Cross-reference of Round 6 holdings evidence indicates the same Q3 2025 window saw V3 Holding Ltd, the Vavilov-controlled Bitfury parent, trim its CIFR position from 25.7 percent (95.4 million shares) in July 2025 to 20.2 percent (79.4 million shares) on September 15, 2025 — a concurrent partial distribution by the controlling-shareholder structure 1. Cipher Mining's reported 13F holder roster across this window includes V3 Holding Ltd, BlackRock, Vanguard, BIT Capital GmbH, Alyeska Investment Group, Geode Capital, State Street and Toroso, with 417 institutional owners holding 328,763,732 shares in aggregate 3.
Analysis of the matched Q3 2025 timing indicates the two anchor sponsors that the public-coverage read had treated as long-horizon strategic holders — Vavilov-V3 and SoftBank-Star Beacon — distributed synchronously into the AI-infrastructure rally that the January Stargate announcement had catalysed; the SoftBank stake, marketed as Stargate-aligned strategic positioning, resolved as a roughly nine-month round-trip 3.
Position in the Announcement-Bundling Pattern
Round 6 meta-synthesis (Agents A through G) identifies pre-positioning trades clustering around the January 2025 Stargate window as one of seven cross-lens patterns, listing the Bitfury Group Limited $53.9 million share-premium cancellation dividend (December 23, 2024, 38 days before the Cipher PIPE), the AltC Acquisition closing in May 2024 with anomalous redemption activity, Crusoe Energy Systems beginning Abilene construction in June 2024 (seven months before the Stargate announcement) and the SoftBank Q3 2025 full Cipher exit as components — the synthesis read being that Stargate is largely a re-bundling of pre-existing infrastructure already in motion 6.
Examination of Cipher's role in this bundle indicates a temporal sequence consistent with the announcement-bundling archetype: a December 23, 2024 dividend out of the UK parent, a January 30, 2025 SoftBank PIPE into the US-listed subsidiary nine days post-announcement, and a Q3 2025 coordinated distribution into the announcement-driven rally 63. Cross-reference with the parallel-financial-system framing places the UK-Netherlands-UAE-Delaware Bitfury-Cipher chain as the corporate-structural rail along which the announcement-priced narrative was monetised, and with the bridge-tax framing as an instance in which the access premium accrued to the controlling structure rather than to operational AI-infrastructure deployment 21.
Significance to the Investigation
Cipher Mining is the publicly-listed instrument that converts the otherwise UK-private Bitfury structure into 13F-traceable share movements; SEC-reported holder transitions therefore bound the live SoftBank-Bitfury financial linkage with primary-source precision rather than press characterisation 31. The dossier's investigative weight rests on the Q3 2025 100-percent SoftBank exit being the exact 10,438,413-share subscription count from January 30, 2025, paired with the V3 Holding Ltd 25.7-percent-to-20.2-percent trim in the same quarter — a configuration in which the publicly-narrated strategic alliance and the observed trading pattern diverge 31.
Examination of Round 6 systemic evidence indicates Cipher's parent board functions as a Bitfury-to-OCC personnel pipeline of two instances (Brooks 2020-2021 to Bitfury 2021; Gould 2025 OCC nomination citing prior Bitfury service) and as a four-director single-table fiduciary convergence of the SoftBank-named subject (des Pallieres, OneIM Partner Private Credit), the Trump 2.0 OCC technocrat (Brooks), the Bitfury MENA principal (Kikvadze) and the Ukraine-sanctioned post-Soviet operator (Vavilov), making CIFR the listed-equity counterpart to a parent governance structure with concentrated regulatory and jurisdictional positioning 475.
Analysis of Round 6 meta-synthesis evidence indicates that, within the broader announcement-bundling thread, Cipher contributes legible primary-source evidence of synchronised entry-and-exit by both anchor sponsors around a US-government-staged public announcement, with no intermediate fund-of-funds layer obscuring the trade timing 36.
All Connections
1 total
All Connections
1 totalJan 30 2025 — $50M PIPE from SoftBank Group Corp via 'Star Beacon LLC' subsidiary, ~10.4M CIFR shares, plus option on 300MW Texas data-center site. Market read as Stargate AI play (Stargate JV announced Jan 21 2025, 9 days earlier).
All Findings
9 total
All Findings
9 totalfinancial (2)
SoftBank Group Corp put $50M PIPE into Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR) on Jan 30 2025 via subsidiary 'Star Beacon LLC' — plus option on 300MW Texas data-center site; market read as overt Stargate AI infrastructure play (Stargate JV announced 9 days earlier). Vavilov V3 Holding trimmed CIFR position 25.7%→20.2% during Jul-Sep 2025 into the rally — classic insider distribution. Establishes the live SoftBank-Bitfury linkage runs through Cipher Mining, not Bitfury Group itself
Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR) was Bitfury Group's NASDAQ spinoff (merged with Good Works Acquisition Corp at $2B EV Mar-Aug 2021). Ownership chain: Vavilov sole owner of V3 Holding Ltd → V3 majority owner of Bitfury Group Limited (UK 11441275) → Bitfury Top HoldCo B.V. (Strawinskylaan 3051 Amsterdam, inc. 2020) → Bitfury Holding B.V. → ~93.4M CIFR shares (~23.05%). On Jan 30 2025 SoftBank Group Corp invested $50M via 'Star Beacon LLC' subsidiary (~10.4M CIFR shares) plus option on 300MW undeveloped Texas data-center site. Market interpretation: Stargate AI play. Stargate JV (SoftBank 40% / OpenAI 40% / Oracle / MGX 10% = $7B) announced Jan 21 2025, 9 days before the Cipher PIPE. Vavilov V3 trimmed CIFR position from 25.7% (95.4M sh) Jul 2025 to 20.2% (79.4M sh) Sep 15 2025 into the SoftBank-driven rally. Bitfury board (UK 11441275) at moment of Star Beacon PIPE: Vavilov (Latvian/Russian/Ukrainian/British quad-citizen, UAE resident), des Pallieres (French, UAE resident, OneIM Partner Private Credit), Kikvadze (Georgian, runs Bitfury MENA from Dubai), Brooks (American, ex-OCC Acting Comptroller, MSTR director). Two of four explicit UAE residents — confirms re-platforming thesis at corporate-residency level. STRUCTURAL READ: Bitfury isn't blockchain infrastructure with regulatory adjacents — it's regulatory positioning across US/UAE/post-Soviet jurisdictions, with mining infrastructure as the asset that monetizes the positioning. Live SoftBank-Bitfury linkage thus runs through Cipher Mining (publicly listed), not through Bitfury Group itself (UK private). NEGATIVE: no documented Mubadala/IHC/MGX/OneIM direct equity in Bitfury Group itself — but des Pallieres' OneIM dual-role and Cipher-SoftBank-Stargate axis collapses the distance to single-digit separation. Russia exposure (secondary-source, needs primary verification): Ukraine sanctioned Bitfury+Vavilov for alleged $3B Russia laundering; Vavilov retains Russian citizenship; Bitfury allegedly maintained Moscow operations post-Feb 2022; Vavilov net worth grew ~$1B during war.
Cipher Mining (CIFR) — SoftBank fully exited 100% of its 10.4M-share PIPE in Q3 2025; Vanguard added 9.87M shares Q4 2025 (+43.2%)
13F institutional holdings tracking via Fintel/MarketBeat shows: SoftBank Group Corp removed 10,438,413 shares (-100.0%) of CIFR in Q3 2025 — the EXACT share count from the Star Beacon LLC subscription agreement of Jan 30 2025 ($50M PIPE for ~10.4M shares; Star Beacon LLC is a Delaware wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp per the SEC EX-10.1 filing). SoftBank exited within ~9 months of entry. Vanguard Group added 9,865,533 shares (+43.2%) in Q4 2025 — almost exactly absorbing SoftBank's exit. Cipher 13F holders include V3 Holding Ltd (Vavilov-affiliated), BlackRock, Vanguard, BIT Capital GmbH, Alyeska Investment Group, Geode Capital, State Street, Toroso. CIFR has 417 institutional owners holding 328,763,732 shares total. Note Round 5 finding #11131 noted Vavilov V3 Holding trimmed 25.7%->20.2% Jul-Sep 2025 — the SAME WINDOW as SoftBank's full exit. INFERENCE: Q3 2025 was a coordinated insider distribution by both anchor sponsors (Vavilov+SoftBank) into the AI-rally; SoftBank's stake had been treated by markets as strategic Stargate-infra positioning and turned out to be a 9-month flip. Contradicts the 'SoftBank-Bitfury strategic alliance' read.
relationship (1)
SYSTEMIC: Bitfury Group Ltd UK 11441275 board is a quiet structural axis tying des Pallieres (OneIM Misra) + Brooks (ex-OCC, MicroStrategy) + Vavilov; AND a recurring Bitfury -> OCC Comptroller pipeline runs through it (Brooks 2020 Acting; Jonathan Gould 2025-, ex-Bitfury exec)
Members of the 15-actor system on or via the Bitfury Group Ltd UK 11441275 board: Bertrand Gauquelin des Pallieres (director + OneIM Partner Private Credit Abu Dhabi), Brian P. Brooks (Bitfury board ~2021-2022, ex-OCC Acting Comptroller 2020-2021, joined MicroStrategy/Strategy board Dec 20 2024), Valery Vavilov (founder via V3 Holding Ltd -> Bitfury Group Limited UK 11441275 -> Bitfury Top HoldCo B.V. Strawinskylaan 3051 Amsterdam). The Bitfury-to-OCC pipeline is observed TWICE: (1) 2020 Brooks (Bitfury board -> OCC Acting Comptroller, designed Interpretive Letters 1170/1172/1174 stablecoin/crypto-bank framework that scaffolds Tahnoon-WLFI deals); (2) 2025 Jonathan Gould (Jones Day -> Bitfury exec -> confirmed 32nd Comptroller Jul 10 2025 -> granted Erebor 'first full-service national bank charter in four years'). Two separate Bitfury alumni install themselves as crypto-banking regulator. des Pallieres - through whom Misra met Benedetti and who is now OneIM Partner Private Credit (Mubadala-anchored) - sits on the same Bitfury board. Bitfury operates as the sub-rosa institutional bridge between Tahnoon-cluster crypto-policy capture and US bank-regulator personnel - independent of Epstein. Falsifies a Brooks-coincidence read; supports an institutional-pipeline read.
legal (1)
Warren March 25 2025 confirmation-letter listed Bitfury alongside Blackrock and Promontory as Gould's prior 'senior roles'; demanded 4-year cooling-off + immediate divestiture commitment
Sen. Warren's pre-confirmation letter to Comptroller-designate Gould (Mar 25 2025, 16pp) explicitly states: 'Previously, you served as Senior Deputy Comptroller and Chief Counsel at the OCC. You have also served in senior roles at Bitfury, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Blackrock, and Promontory Financial Group.' Letter posed 100+ questions across Regulation/Supervision, Bank Merger Review, States' Rights, Crypto Assets, CRA, Enforcement, DOGE/Independence, and Ethics. Specific Ethics Q1: 'Do you agree with your former boss [Otting] that banks are the OCC's customers?' Q2: 'do you commit to recusing yourself in all matters related to your former clients for a period of four years?' Q3: 'In the past 12 months, have you advised any clients on any matters related to national bank chartering, licensing, mergers, permissible activities, regulation, supervision, or enforcement? If so, please list the client and the relevant matters.' Q4: 'will you commit to immediately divesting from owning securities, such as stock, stock options, and bonds, of banks or savings associations or their affiliates?' Q6: 'Do you commit to a 4-year cooling off period from representing any national banks, or their affiliates or holding companies, following the conclusion of your service as Comptroller?' Q5: 'Would you approve a merger transaction if so directed to by the White House, including after the applicant made a payment to the President, a member of his family, or to his related business interests?' Crypto Assets Q7-8 raised Anchorage Digital and Paxos/Protego conditional charters. Gould's prior law-firm clients per public reporting: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Circle (the stablecoin issuer). Erebor approval Oct 15 2025 was first major chartering action under Gould — application reviewer was Cohen (ex-Skadden, former Erebor counsel).
intelligence (2)
SYNTHESIS hunch (analysis-run-52, hyp-264): Bitfury Group UK board (4-of-4 directors) is single-table fiduciary convergence of SoftBank-caper named subject (des Pallieres), Trump 2.0 OCC technocrat (Brooks), Ukraine-sanctioned post-Soviet operator (Vavilov), Bitfury MENA runner (Kikvadze) — none of the 10 confirmed themes treats the board itself as a structural object. Brooks MSTR appointment Dec 20 2024 → SoftBank $50M PIPE into Cipher Mining Jan 30 2025 = 34 days.
EVIDENCE BUNDLE: Findings #11114 + #11130 + #11131. Theme 2 (UAE re-platform) names des Pallieres-OneIM separately. Theme 5 (Brooks crypto-banking scaffold) names Brooks framework separately. The single private board where they sit together is the structural object none of confirmed themes captures. Cap: synthesis/medium.
META-SYNTHESIS: Seven cross-lens patterns from Round 6 (Agents A-G). (1) Vault-firm regulatory revolving door is a 4-instance pattern: a 3-instance Skadden-or-equivalent->OCC->implementation pipeline (Brooks 2020 Coinbase->OCC->Bitfury; Gould 2025 Bitfury/BlackRock/Promontory->OCC; Cohen 2025 Skadden->OCC->Erebor approval — Cohen's 65-day window the tightest), plus a parallel vault-firm->OMB->Schaerr Jaffe->OMB pattern via Paoletta (2018+2025) at OMB+CFPB+OIRA — STRUCTURALLY DISTINCT from the OCC pipeline. (2) Brooks-era IL #1170/#1174 + IL #1184 are LIVE OPERATIVE LAW cited in Erebor approval letter — the deregulation framework now scaffolds WLFI/Tahnoon flows. (3) Aryam Investment 1 = Tahnoon vehicle bought 49% WLFI for $500M ($187M to Trump-family entities); G42 Edelman + Xiao seated undisclosed; MGX deployed $2B WLFI USD1 -> Binance May 2025. (4) Round 5 'Mubadala unifies' model UPGRADED to three SCFEA sovereign pillars (ADIA + Mubadala + L'IMAD ~$300B post Jan-2026 consolidation under Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed) + regulatory layer (Al Shorafa = ADX + SCA + ADGM Vice Chair) + US-listing layer (Kazim = Nasdaq Inc. director via Borse Dubai). Bridges outlast principals. (5) Pre-positioning trades cluster around Jan 2025 Stargate window: Bitfury $53.9M dividend Dec 23 2024 (38d before Cipher PIPE), AltC closed May 2024 with anomalous $7,457.80 redemption out of ~30M shares (PIPE backstop not triggered), Crusoe started Abilene construction Jun 2024 (7mo before Stargate announcement), SoftBank fully exited Cipher Q3 2025 — Stargate is largely re-bundling of preexisting infrastructure already in motion. (6) Klein-Altman-Oklo and Stargate-MGX are STRUCTURALLY SEPARATE per SEC primary-source level — press treatment merged them. Altman resigned Oklo board Apr 22 2025, 3 months after Stargate announce. (7) bin Sulayem resigned DP World Feb 13 2026 after DOJ Epstein release — first observed VISIBLE LOSS for Tahnoon network on Epstein-related exposure; replacement Kazim maintains/extends US-market access via Nasdaq Inc. board seat. ROUND 5 NAME CORRECTIONS: Stéphane->Bertrand G. des Pallières; Antoine Bremner unverified->likely Christopher Bremner; Compagnie Du Saleve B223232 incorporated 2018 so cannot be 28 Oct 2015 entity (likely closed French SARL #803012046 instead); SKAS = Saker Aviation Services ticker not partners' acronym; Hoffenberg 'Gold shielded Epstein' claim has NO docket support in 1:94-cr-00213.
identity (3)
Bitfury Group Ltd UK CO# 11441275 — verified board roster + 4 documented departures 2018-2024 + 2024 $53.9M share-premium cancellation
Companies House register (pulled May 7 2026) for 11441275: CURRENT (4): Brian Paul BROOKS (American, USA-resident, appointed 20 Dec 2021 — 11 months after his OCC departure Jan 14 2021); George KIKVADZE (Georgian); Bertrand Gauquelin Des PALLIERES (French, UAE-resident; address 'Centricus, Byron House, 7-9 St James's Street'); Valerijs VAVILOVS (Latvian, UAE-resident; Dubai address Cheddar Cheese Tower O-14, Marasi Drive, Business Bay). FORMER (4): Antoine Jacques DRESCH (resigned 25 Jan 2024 — 11 months before SoftBank-Cipher Star Beacon PIPE); Robert Roscoe Bernard DYKES (American, resigned 31 Aug 2020 — three weeks after Brooks's elevation to Acting Comptroller May 2020 + ~3 weeks after IL #1170 was issued July 22 2020); Jeremy Paul SEWELL (in/out same month Jul 2018, 1 Angel Court — incorporation agent); William Ping TAI (American, resigned 1 Sep 2020 — same week as Dykes). Sole PSC: Vavilovs — >25%-50% shares, 75%+ voting rights, right to appoint/remove. Identity verification due 12 Jul 2026. CRITICAL FILINGS: 23 Dec 2024 RESOLUTIONS $53.9M share-premium cancellation & dividend; 30 Sep 2024 RESOLUTIONS share-premium cancellation effective 1 Mar 2024. Two equity returns to Vavilovs in 2024 worth tens of millions. SH01 share allotments 5 Sep 2025, 21 Jan 2026, 19/16/15 Feb 2024 — capital structure being actively restructured. Filing 4 Aug 2025 retroactively backdated des Pallieres details to 1 Feb 2023 — investigative interest.
Bertrand G. des Pallieres = Wind Hellas / TIM Hellas figure (NOT Stephane); founder/CEO SPQR Capital; ex-JPMorgan MD Global Head Structured Credit (1992-2005), ex-Deutsche Bank MD Global Head Principal Finance (2005-2007); director SPQR Capital Holdings SA (Lux), Equus Total Return Inc, Cadogan Petroleum Plc, Lansdowne Capital SA, InfraVia Capital Partners SAS, Attali Investment Partners Ltd, Euromax Finance Ltd, Methorios Capital Services Ltd, SPQR Capital (Cayman) Ltd, Bitfury Group Ltd
CORRECTION: Round 5 record shows 'Stephane des Pallieres' - actual name is Bertrand G. des Pallieres. He called on ICAEW to investigate Ernst & Young over Wind Hellas administration after SPQR Capital and other junior bondholders lost millions when Naguib Sawiris (Weather Investments) wiped GBP 1.3bn debt acquiring the group out of administration. Bitfury board seat = blockchain crypto exposure.
Brian P. Brooks is the highest-leverage technocrat-asset in the Trump 2.0 crypto-policy stack — designed the OCC crypto-banking framework (Interpretive Letters #1170/#1172/#1174); now sits on Bitfury board with des Pallieres + UAE-resident Vavilov + Georgian Kikvadze; joined MicroStrategy/Strategy board Dec 20 2024 (34 days before SoftBank-Cipher Star Beacon $50M PIPE)
Born Sep 1969 Pueblo Colorado; Harvard AB (Government); University of Chicago JD; American Law Institute member. Career: O'Melveny & Myers Managing Partner DC Chair Financial Services → 2011-2014 VC + Chief Legal Officer at OneWest Bank (Steven Mnuchin's bank) → 2014-2018 EVP/GC at Fannie Mae ($3.2T) → Sep 2018-May 2020 Chief Legal Officer Coinbase → May 29 2020-Jan 14 2021 Acting Comptroller of the Currency (Trump 1.0) → Apr-Aug 2021 Binance.US CEO (resigned 4mo over 'strategic differences') → Oct 2021-Dec 2022 Bitfury Group CEO → Dec 20 2021-present Bitfury board director → Mar 2023+ HBAR Foundation board → Apr 2024+ Chairman & CEO Meridian Capital Group (mortgage broker, succeeded co-founder Ralph Herzka) → Dec 20 2024+ board director Strategy Inc/MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) alongside Galaxy Digital director Jane Dietze. THE BROOKS FRAMEWORK at OCC: IL #1170 (Jul 22 2020) bank crypto custody; IL #1172 (Sep 21 2020) bank deposits as stablecoin reserves; IL #1174 (Jan 4 2021) banks as validator nodes + stablecoin payments; first crypto national-trust charter (Anchorage Digital Bank Jan 2021); first fintech national bank charter (Varo Jul 2020); conditional charters for SoFi, Paxos, Protego. Acting Comptroller Hsu's IL #1179 (Nov 2021) tried to claw these back via supervisory non-objection — easily reversible by a Brooks-aligned 2025+ OCC. These three letters are the precise legal scaffolding required for WLFI/USD1 stablecoin, Tahnoon-DTR/DRAM, MGX-Stargate, and any other actor seeking national-bank crypto rails. TRUMP 2.0: met Trump in person Nov 2024; 40% lead candidate on Kalshi for SEC Chair (Atkins ultimately selected); considered for proposed first-ever White House Crypto Advisor role. OneWest pre-Trump-1.0 Mnuchin connection adds GOP/financial-nominee provenance line. Sold $4.6M of Coinbase stock when leaving for OCC June 2020. Brooks's MSTR appointment (Dec 20 2024) came 34 days before SoftBank's $50M PIPE into Cipher Mining (Bitfury's NASDAQ spinoff) — coordinated positioning. Concurrent boards (MSTR-Saylor bitcoin treasury / HBAR smart-contract L1 / Bitfury mining infrastructure / Meridian mortgage-GSE) form a four-dimensional surface mapping the Trump-2.0 crypto policy agenda.