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CNN INTERNATIONAL: Allies Meet To Help Ukraine Survive Winter And Rebuild; Disgraced FTX Founder Arrested, Due In Court Later; French Prosecutor Opens Probe Into Missing U.S. Student; Israel: Shooting Of Palestinian Girl Was "Unintentional"; Crypto Crisis: Who Is Sam Bankman-Fried?; "Citgo 6" Member Speaks After Being Freed In Prisoner Swap. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired December 13, 2022 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: She served her country and she did it well. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

ALEXANDRA PELOSI, DIRECTOR, "PELOSI IN THE HOUSE": Thank you for talking to me.

LEMON: Yes. Thank you.

PELOSI: It's an honor to be on CNN this morning.

LEMON: Thank you, Alexandra.

And the documentary debuts on HBO Max and HBO Tonight at 9:00 Eastern.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, as a Paris conference kicks off, Ukraine's leader has a message for the world, help us survive the winter.

Crypto's former king under arrest. And during court this morning, the latest on the charges against him. And a CNN exclusive will hear from a U.S. oil executive who was falsely imprisoned for five years and tortured in Venezuela.

Ukraine's President is appealing for critical winter aid as Russian strikes continue pounding key energy targets throughout the country amid subzero temperatures. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is asking for more than $840 million from dozens of allied nations and institutions gathered at a conference in Paris focusing on the needs of Ukrainian civilians. It comes as fighting rages across the front lines. Heavy shelling was reported overnight in the southern region, and a key transport bridge was targeted in Russian occupied Melitopol.

CNN's Will Ripley joins us live in Kyiv. So it's really tough conditions to be fighting in and tough conditions to be living in.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly tough conditions to be living in if you don't have power, which is the situation for millions of Ukrainians every time there's a Russian airstrike. In fact, the air raid sirens just went off here in Kyiv a short time ago. Although it seems as if for now, things are clear. It might have been the presence of Russian fighters detected in the air in Ukraine. Sometimes they sound these alarms preemptively nationwide.

That's a reality of daily life. You hear the alarms and you go on with your life. But in certain areas that have been the target of constant bombardment and also areas that are being hit hard with shelling on the front lines in the south and in the east, it truly is incredibly difficult for regular people to hold on to any semblance of normality in terms of living for days on end, in some cases without electricity, even as crews raced to restore the energy grid.

So for the vast majority of Ukrainians, it's not necessarily bombs right now, but the lack of power and also in some cases, interruptions to the water service. And people that don't have heat during these outages are particularly vulnerable, especially the elderly and those with young children. But people are trying to do the best they can.

There has been intense fighting and some real counter offensives happening from the Ukrainian side. Certainly on the southern front line from the liberated city of Kherson, Ukrainian forces are continuing their onslaught on Russian held territory across the Dnipro River. And it is a situation where there are reports that are coming in that are obviously difficult to confirm without being on the ground.

But these are officials that are, you know, either sharing on social media. Sources, you know, speaking on various platforms, or speaking directly to CNN that Russian targets are being hit. And there may be a situation where Russian forces, now that Ukrainian intelligence seems to know where they're being held, they're having to scramble and try to find new places to house their soldiers.

That was certainly not only just the situation in the south and Melitopol, one of the cities that has been getting hammered by Ukrainian artillery, but also a situation happening in the east, Russian occupied Luhansk region. The city of Kadiivka was hit with a strike that was reportedly incredibly deadly. Talking about huge losses on the Russian side when Ukrainian missiles launched with U.S.- made equipment hit a hotel.

And the hotel was reportedly headquarters for those private mercenaries of the Wagner group out of Russia. These are the civilian, you know, fighters who essentially are hired to do the dirty work that the Russian Army doesn't want to be officially connected to. They've been linked to alleged human rights atrocities and conflicts around the world. And it is possible that members of the Wagner group who were sleeping in that hotel suffered heavy casualties, Max.

So, the Ukrainian military continues to call for more weapons. They call for patriot missile defense systems as the number one item on their list. As the defense minister told us over the weekend when we spoke to him down in Odesa, of course, that southern city has been hit particularly hard by power outages, even though the war has not come to their city. The impact of the war in terms of the loss of electricity has been a huge factor in the lives of nearly everyone who lives in the Odesa region, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Will Ripley in Kyiv, thank you.

In a couple of hours, the founder of the crypto exchange FTX is due in court. Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested on Monday night in the Bahamas. U.S. prosecutors have fired criminal charges against him after his cryptocurrency exchange collapsed last month. Separately, the SEC is accusing him of building a crypto house of cards and defrauding investors.

[08:05:15]

Kara Scannell joins us now from New York with the details. So this is a big moment. We saw it coming, but it happened pretty quickly in the end.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Max, this happened extremely rapidly for a criminal investigation in New York. I mean, often these investigations can take months or years because of the complexity of them. But this seemed to have come together very fast. And we're expecting Bankman-Fried to appear in the Bahamas court around 10:00 a. m. their local time.

He was arrested last night at the request of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York. And that office will be unsealing charges today. They have not yet put that public, but we have a glimpse into what this investigation has yielded by the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil charges which were announced this morning.

As you say the SEC is alleging that this was a house of cards built on deception. And according to the SEC, that Bankman-Fried and others have defrauded investors. Those are people that invested in FTX as a company and also those who use their platform for trading. Among the many allegations is that Bankman-Fried had taken customer funds that are, you know, supposed to be used for one purpose and then diverted them to a hedge fund that he was also running.

Now, this hedge fund that they say -- the authorities say was then using -- Bankman-Fried used the money that he diverted in the hedge fund to fund other ventures, to also purchase luxury real estate for himself, his family and other executives in the Bahamas, and also to take out personal loans and make political donations. Authorities say that Bankman-Fried had taken out $1.3 billion himself in loans.

Other executives had taken out loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars. What they say was basically using this hedge fund and customer funds as their personal piggy bank. And then we're also expecting charges from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, that's another U.S. regulator. Those will be announced today.

Big question will be, at today's hearing in the Bahamas, what will be the course? How quickly will he get back to the U.S.? And whether he will fight extradition. Max?

FOSTER: OK, Kara, thank you. More on Sam Bankman-Fried's so-called house of cards. Coming up, how much has he personally been damaged by crypto's credibility? Who is he in fact? Stay with us for more on that.

But now to southeast France, where prosecutors have opened an investigation into the disappearance of an American college student. Kenny DeLand Jr.'s parents say they've not heard from their son in more than two weeks. He was in Grenoble on a study abroad program. DeLand's parents say the language barrier is making it difficult for them to get any information at all.

Our Paris Correspondent Melissa Bell joins us now with more on what she's got on the investigation. Melissa?

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Max, it's frustration that the family has expressed so far, not just to do with the language barrier, but to do with the fact that they say that they've not been trouble getting any kind of information from French authorities.

And here in Paris, we've been trying to reach out to prosecutors on the case, but also to the American Embassy here in Paris, who also told us, Max, that because of the European privacy laws, it was difficult for them to go into any details. And I think that is part of the frustration that we've heard express from Kenny DeLand's parents.

Also the fact that for the time being, what we are hearing from prosecutors down in Grenoble, Max, is that they are looking into the possibility of whether he left voluntarily because he'd been telling friends, people in the south of France where he was, that he'd come under prepared. They were hearing that he'd been having trouble making friends, that he was planning to go to Marseille before heading back to the United States.

And then there is, of course, CCTV footage that has now been found of him in a sports shop on the 3 December, several days after he cut off contact with his parents or certainly gave them no more news. Looking well and certainly under no duress, that is, for the time being, what we're hearing from the French prosecutors.

From the part of Kenny DeLand's family, though, a great deal of frustration and just disbelief that this might be possible. They say it's completely out of character. Their son never went more than a couple of days without speaking to them. And there is also what he left behind with his host family, Max. Things like his computer, his train passes, his phone charger, exactly the kind of things that you would take with you even if you were planning a short trip.

And of course, all of this is playing out, Max, as the clock continues to tick down towards the holiday season. Kenny DeLand was due to fly back to the United States on Thursday, Max.

FOSTER: OK. Melissa Bell, thank you.

For the first time in nearly two years, Indian and Chinese troops have clashed along their disputed Himalayan border. The contested area has long been a source of friction between the two nuclear armed powers. India says soldiers from both sides were injured in last Friday's incident. China, meanwhile, is blaming Indian soldiers for what it's calling an illegal crossing.

Israel's Prime Minister Yair Lapid has expressed sorrow over the death of a 16-year-old Palestinian girl. Jana Zakarneh was killed during an Israeli operation in the West Bank on Sunday night.

[08:10:10]

After an initial investigation, the Israeli military released a statement Monday admitting its troops shot Zakarneh, but saying it was unintentional and they were aiming at armed gunmen on a roof in the area. Her family says she was shot four times, though.

Let's go straight to Hadas Gold, who's live in Jerusalem with the very latest developments. And the family really are very cynical about the official response here.

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are pushing back against the IDF explanation for what happened. What we understand is that this took place on Sunday evening as the Israeli military was carrying out an arrest raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. These types of arrest raids, Israel calls them counterterrorism operations have become a regular occurrence, especially this past year. Israel says they're going after militants.

But as we've seen, there has been a rising death toll, especially for Palestinians in the West Bank, as a result of these military raids. Now, the IDF says most of the people who are killed in these raids or in these operations were militants who were clashing violently with their soldiers. But as we're seeing, especially with this case now, as the IDF themselves say, innocent bystanders are being also killed as a result.

So what we know is that this raid took place on Sunday night. Jana's family said that as they heard this sort of heavy gunfire, she decided to go up to the roof of their building to get a better look to see what was happening. And then after the raid was over, about 20 minutes later, her family went looking for her, and that's when they found her on the roof and said that she had been shot four times.

Now, the Israeli military says that during the raid, they came under a heavy gunfire. There's exchange of fire. And they say that their soldiers were aiming towards gunmen that they say were on roofs near Jana. They say that under the initial inquiry, it was determined that the girl who was killed was hit, they say, by unintentional fire aimed at armed gunmen on a roof in the era from which the force was fired upon.

Now, the IDF, the Defense Minister, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, as you noted, have expressed sorrow and condolences to the family, but they say they still stand by the Israeli military and how they carry out their operations. But the family, Jana's family, her uncle, in particular, is pushing back, telling CNN that they say there were no militants on the roofs around them. And they say -- and this is a quote -- "There is no way this is a mistake. You can be mistaken with one bullet, but not with four."

We are also hearing from the Palestinian Authority Prime minister, who is urging the United Nations to investigate this incident. And they say to put the Israel on the blacklist. And we're also hearing from the U.S. State Department, the spokesperson for the State Department, Ned Price, saying yesterday that they send condolences and they hope to see accountability in this case.

Now, this has been a very violent year for both Israelis and Palestinians. We're seeing record levels of deaths that this region has not seen in years. And there's a lot of concern, especially from the international community, about what will happen in the next few months, as a new government, which is being seen as one of the most right-wing governments in Israeli history, is expected to take over any day now. Max?

FOSTER: OK, Hadas Gold, thank you for reporting on that for us.

Turning now, though, to Qatar, where in a few hours, Argentina will take on Croatia in the World Cup semifinals. This will be Lionel Messi's chance to finally lift that trophy, but he and his team will have to get past Croatia, who are the 2018 finalists. 24 hours later, defending champions France will take on history, making Morocco the first African nation to get this far in the tournament.

We'll have much more on the World Cup coming up, of course, in CNN World Sport.

But still to come on this program, the founder of collapse crypto exchange, FTX, is set to appear in court today. But what more do we know about Sam Bankman-Fried? A closer look, coming up.

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[08:16:07]

FOSTER: Welcome back. Who is cryptocurrency's fallen star Sam Bankman- Fried? That's a question many were asking after he was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday. He's set to appear in court in just a couple of hours, and he's already facing charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

This is the man himself. He's going to become very recognizable if there is an upcoming trial. This is what we know about him. He's only 30 years old, the former CEO of crypto exchange FTX. He says his bank balance now is $100,000. He denies knowing or knowingly committing fraud. Crucially there knowingly, he's not denying fraud as it was.

Now this is a sense of how much money he's actually lost. Between November the 7th and November the 14th, he lost $16 billion in his net worth. Let's bring in CNN's Anna Stewart. I mean, it's an incredible amount of money to lose, but did he single handedly do it?

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Well, I think this is going to be a big question in the multiple investigations ongoing, but I think it's worth taking a step back and just looking at who SBF, Sam Bankman- Fried, is, what he was known for and how this has really rocked the whole crypto community.

Forbes wrote a profile of him just last year as the richest person under 30 in the world. He's been very much the poster boy for cryptocurrency for many years now. The legitimate face, he was a regular on financial and crypto summit stages, irregular immediate interviews, a regular actually, on congressional panels. He was a man that could explain crypto.

Now, of course, in recent weeks, he's become a complete pariah. There have been, Max, as you sure we know, many dodgy crypto exchanges. We have had scams, we have had scandals. The list is pretty long, but I don't think anyone expected it to come from FTX. This was the biggest exchange in the world.

At one stage, it was valued at $32 billion. Investors included BlackRock, Sequoia Capital, and this has rocked the entire community. It means that trust is very thin. And for those that do think crypto and Bitcoin specifically are the future in terms of currency, decentralized currency, digital currency, this is really, really damaging.

FOSTER: What, in layman's terms, did FTX and Bankman-Fried actually do?

STEWART: Well, it's interesting. We're going to have a sort of testimony from John Ray, who's the new CEO of FTX. He's overseeing the restructure. And already we've had the written comments from him, and the list is pretty long. I'd say central to this issue is the fact that FTX, which was an exchange, looks like it used customer funds to support Alameda Research. That is, a hedge fund, a misuse of customer funds, a commingling of funds, essentially exposing customers to huge losses.

But there are also other elements I'm seeing in written comments. For instance, allegations of loans and other payments to FTX insiders in excess of $1 billion. And I think the comment I'm most looking forward to sort of hearing in person, is this comment. John Ray is saying, "Never in my career have I seen such an utter failure of corporate controls at every level of an organization, from the lack of financial statements to a complete failure of any internal controls or governance whatsoever."

SBF himself has not stayed quiet. I can't imagine this is the lawyer's dream. He has given countless interviews. He has tweeted, DMd. He even appeared recently, virtually on a stage, talking about what he's done. As you said earlier, he is convinced that while he's made mistakes, he did so unwittingly.

He says essentially, that he's not as competent as he thought he was. And he'd better make sure people believe that because otherwise this is criminal. Max?

FOSTER: A famously unregulated industry could have potentially come out stronger from this, though, because all the other operators in the industry are going to have to do things much -- more effectively now, aren't they, and much more safely? STEWART: Those that survive. I mean, there is now huge scrutiny on all sorts of areas of crypto, even more than it already was. There's a lot of focus right now on Binance, another major exchange as well.

[08:20:06]

Regulation. Can they be regulated, particularly if it's multijurisdictional? These are some of the big questions. I think Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will survive this, but I think it could look very different. And whether or not it can remain decentralized if, of course, lots of these exchanges fail, will be very interesting and if it's regulated. But we're seeing a huge shift, I think, in this space.

FOSTER: OK, Anna Stewart in London, we'll be watching. The appearance will be in just a couple of hours, as I say.

Now, what must freedom feel like after nearly five years of detention in a foreign country?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORGE TOLEDO, FORMER CITGO EXECUTIVE, MEMBER OF THE "CITGO 6": The air had a different smell. I perceived, you know, a wonderful, fantastic sweetness in that smell of the air.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: There you are, ahead. All right, exclusive one on one with an American who the U.S. says was wrongly detained in Venezuela.

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FOSTER: Many people no longer want to hear from WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was just freed from Russian's tension in a prisoner swap. But one man who spoke with CNN exclusively can describe the experience because he lived through something very similar.

Jorge Toledo and five others known as the Citgo 6 are back home after their release from Venezuela in October. Isa Soares has to lay their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOLEDO: While being in the jet is like --

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jorge Toledo understands what it means to be held captive by a hostile foreign power.

TOLEDO: It's very close to a movie, but it seems that this is for real.

SOARES (voice-over): A member of the so-called Citgo 6, Toledo and five other Citgo executives were imprisoned in Venezuela in 2017 on baseless allegations, including money laundering, U.S. officials say.

(on-camera): You were finally we're going back home, how did that feel?

TOLEDO: There was like going from total darkness to a total illumination.

SOARES (voice-over): They were leaving behind an eerie and dark place. Five years of isolation, deprivation and torture, Toledo tells me.

TOLEDO: I spent 18 months with a very strong and intense light on top of me, 24 hours, seven days. So that means that, you know, you're not able to sleep.

SOARES (voice-over): CNN has been in touch with his family for the last few years. They tell us to Toledo's health suffered, an athlete, a marathon runner, he tells me he lost more than 50 pounds in his first year of incarceration. Eventually, after months of back and forth between the U.S. government and the embattled regime of President Nicolas Maduro, Toledo and four of his Citgo colleagues were released in October as part of the prisoner swap.

TOLEDO: And we crossed with the two individuals that I didn't know who they were, but I assumed that they were the other human commodity that was being exchanged.

SOARES (voice-over): President Joe Biden signed off on the deal. In exchange, the U.S. agreed to release two of Maduro nephews, themselves convicted in 2016, for conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S., nicknamed the narco nephews.

[08:25:12]

(on-camera): How did you feel, Jorge, about that exchange? Do you think it ought to have happened?

TOLEDO: We need to prioritize life. And then we fix the long-term issue, which is how are we going to deal with hostage diplomacy as a society.

SOARES (voice-over): Under Maduro, Venezuela has been pushed to the brink. More than 7 million people have fled the country in recent years, with the U.N. accusing the president of crimes against humanity. But with the world's largest proven oil reserves, and as the West attempts to move away from its dependence on Russian oil, Maduro's oil supply is yielding some political power.

Last month, the U.S. granted Chevron limited authorization to resume pumping oil from Venezuela, despite U.S. trade sanctions in place since 2019.

(on-camera): Should the United States ease sanctions on Venezuela?

TOLEDO: What I would say is this has to be revisited just to make sure that the sanctions are oriented toward the right direction, and not, you know, the direction of damaging the common people causing shortages in the population, et cetera. So I think that we need to rethink the entire system.

SOARES (voice-over): In the footsteps of fellow Americans released from overseas captivity --

(on-camera): What does freedom feel like?

(voice-over): -- Toledo found a new appreciation for the meaning of freedom.

TOLEDO: The air had a different smell. I perceive, you know, a wonderful, fantastic sweetness in that smell of the air.

SOARES (voice-over): As sent only those held captive can truly savor.

Isa Soares, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. "WORLD SPORT" with Alex is up next.

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