# Jeff Yass — News Log Rolling chronological record of news developments. Major items that change the structural analysis get promoted to [[Jeff Yass]]. This log preserves the full context and source links. --- ## 2026-09-17 — The Hong Kong Expansion Gets an Address: Three Floors and 52,000 Square Feet in Cheung Kong Center II **Source:** The Standard (Hong Kong), September 17, 2026. ⚠️ Single-source. ### 🟡 Notable **[[Susquehanna International Group]] has signed a lease for three floors totaling nearly 52,000 square feet in Cheung Kong Center II, a Central-district tower owned by CK Asset Holdings overlooking Victoria Harbour. The building is described as nearly fully leased, with tenants including international financial institutions and family offices from the mainland and overseas. No lease value was disclosed.** This is the concrete version of the September 2 item on this page — the reported move to triple Susquehanna's Hong Kong footprint to support hiring into China's expanding ETF market. A signed lease in a named building is a different order of commitment than a stated intention, and it lands two days after a federal judge dissolved the injunction in the Susquehanna trading case. **The juxtaposition remains the point.** [[Jeff Yass]]'s political money in the United States funds a movement organized around decoupling from China, and his firm is simultaneously tripling its physical presence in Hong Kong and staffing up for mainland fund flows. Neither fact is secret and neither is illegal. What they establish jointly is that the China hawkishness this ecosystem funds is a policy preference, not a business constraint — the firm underwriting the argument is on the other side of it, at scale, with a lease. **Sources:** - [The Standard: "Hong Kong's CK Asset says Susquehanna leases floors in its office tower"](https://www.thestandard.com.hk/property/article/343059/Hong-Kongs-CK-Asset-says-Susquehanna-leases-floors-in-its-office-tower) --- ## 2026-09-15 — The Case Collapses at the Injunction Stage: Judge Dissolves the Freeze, Faults Susquehanna for Naming No Tipper — and Notes It Hedged **Source:** *Susquehanna Securities, LLC v. John Does 1 Through 100*, No. 1:26-cv-05474 (S.D.N.Y.), Opinion & Order, Dkt. 190 (signed September 14, 2026; entered September 15, 2026), Judge Arun Subramanian; docket via CourtListener/RECAP; Bloomberg (carried by *The Business Times*), September 15, 2026. ### 🔴 Structurally Significant **Judge Arun Subramanian denied [[Susquehanna International Group]]'s motion for a preliminary injunction or, alternatively, an order of attachment, and ordered the freeze on roughly $100 million in trading accounts dissolved as of 5:00 p.m. ET on September 16 — holding that the firm never identified the supposed tipper, the duty that tipper owed, or the benefit the tipper received.** The dispositive failure was irreparable harm, which the court called "the single most important prerequisite." Defendants argued that Susquehanna is a sophisticated market maker that would have hedged its exposure; the court noted the firm "does not dispute that it 'engaged in hedging,'" and that "without knowing what plaintiffs' losses are (if there are any), it is difficult to determine the balance of hardships." On the merits the court found that one defendant's trade data — half the positions expiring *before* the relevant date, a roughly 49:1 put/call ratio on a single day — plausibly showed speculation on public signals rather than inside knowledge. It cited *In re Archegos 20A Litigation*, 156 F.4th 108 (2d Cir. 2025), for the tipper-identification requirement, and declined to reach the *Grupo Mexicano* question of whether it had authority to freeze assets at all. **The attrition is its own finding.** The court held against Susquehanna the fact that the firm had already dropped more than half of the original 100 defendants: "that fact, by itself, makes it hard to credit the charts as making the required 'clear showing.'" Three days of dismissals preceded the ruling — John Doe 1 terminated September 9 (Dkt. 186), Xueqin Shen dismissed with prejudice the same day (Dkt. 184), John Does 16 and 27 dismissed with prejudice September 10 (Dkt. 187) — and a further wave of voluntary-dismissal stipulations landed September 17–18 (Dkt. 193–197), whose parties were not yet public in RECAP at time of writing. Citadel Securities remains an intervenor plaintiff (intervention granted Dkt. 40, July 10), and the case itself is not over; what is over is the freeze. **Why this changes the shape of the story on this log.** Every prior entry here tracked the dragnet expanding — 100 Does, then 45 named, then $155M. The structural read was that a market maker with [[Jeff Yass]]'s resources could use civil discovery and an *ex parte* freeze to map and immobilize a group of foreign traders faster than any regulator could. That instrument has now been taken away, and the reasoning is generalizable: a plaintiff who trades for a living and hedges for a living has a harder time claiming that money damages are inadequate. Subramanian's framing of the market — "modern trading" as a contest among "algorithms, AI agents, and career traders" — concedes that the pattern Susquehanna charted is consistent with ordinary speculation. Note also that the DOJ Criminal Division interest reported in July has produced no charges and no announced subpoenas as of this writing. **Sourcing caution:** at least one AI-assisted outlet (Crypto Briefing) dated this ruling to August 26. That is wrong — the opinion is signed September 14 and entered September 15. Law360's headline references 40 traders against the 45-named figure carried on this log; the discrepancy is unresolved and both are behind paywalls. **Sources:** - [CourtListener: Opinion & Order, Dkt. 190 (PDF)](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.667213/gov.uscourts.nysd.667213.190.0.pdf) - [CourtListener: docket, Susquehanna Securities LLC v. John Does 1 Through 100](https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73544869/susquehanna-securities-llc-v-john-does-1-through-100/) - [The Business Times / Bloomberg: "Susquehanna insider trading case called into doubt by US judge"](https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/susquehanna-insider-trading-case-called-doubt-us-judge) --- ## 2026-09-07 — Five Billionaires Supply 88% of the Ramaswamy Super PAC, and Yass Alone Has Now Put In More Than the Democrat Raised All Year **Source:** Signal Ohio, August 27, 2026; TiffinOhio.net, September 7, 2026 (FEC filings through June 30, 2026); Medium Buying ad-reservation data. ### 🔴 Major **FEC filings through June 30 show V-PAC: Victors Not Victims — the super PAC supporting [[Vivek Ramaswamy]]'s Ohio governor campaign — raised $41,774,674.63, of which roughly $37 million came from five individuals. [[Jeff Yass]] is the largest at $20 million of record, and Politico reported in late August that he has since added at least $10 million more, putting him above $30 million on his own.** The other four: Ross Stevens $6 million, [[Elon Musk]] $5 million (May 8), Ratmir Timashev $5 million, [[Bill Ackman]] $1 million. None lists an Ohio residence. Yass's contribution alone exceeds the $21.8 million Democrat Amy Acton raised for her entire campaign. On the air, Ramaswamy and allied groups have reserved $82.3 million in television and digital for the year against $11.1 million on the pro-Acton side. **Why this is the cleanest available specimen of the pattern.** A governor's race is a state office with a state electorate, and 88% of the money behind one candidate's outside support comes from five people who do not live there. This is the same structure documented on [[Marc Andreessen News Log]] for AI policy and on [[Crypto-Political Machine News Log]] for crypto — a small number of donors buying a decisive share of a race's total information environment — but with no industry-specific policy ask attached. The ask in Ohio is the candidate. Yass's own priorities in the state are legible from his other spending: school choice, and, per local reporting, data centers. **Sources:** - [Signal Ohio: "How one Pennsylvania billionaire is tipping the scales in Ohio's governor race"](https://signalohio.org/billionaire-jeff-yass-ohio-governor-race-november-election-2026/) - [TiffinOhio.net: "Why are out-of-state billionaires spending tens of millions to make Vivek Ramaswamy governor?"](https://tiffinohio.net/posts/billionaires-spend-millions-ramaswamy-governor-school-choice-data-centers/) --- ## 2026-09-02 — Susquehanna Moves to Triple Its Hong Kong Footprint While Suing Over a Chinese Trading Crackdown **Source:** Reuters (exclusive, four sources), September 2, 2026; South China Morning Post, September 10, 2026; CK Asset confirmation, September 17, 2026. ### 🟡 Notable **[[Susquehanna International Group]] plans to triple its Hong Kong office space and has posted more than twenty local roles in a single week, targeting mainland [[China]]'s exchange-traded-fund market — assets above 6 trillion yuan (~$892.5 billion) across 1,381 onshore ETFs, up 36% from 2024.** The firm currently occupies under 20,000 square feet at AIA Central with roughly 70 Hong Kong staff and runs its Asia headquarters from Sydney. The new lease is floors 19 through 21 of Cheung Kong Center II in Central — 4,808 square metres, about 51,762 square feet. Reuters notes in the same piece that Susquehanna is "one of the earliest and top investors in China's biggest unicorn [[ByteDance]]." **Why it is worth a line.** The timing sits against the litigation above: Susquehanna spent the summer in federal court in Manhattan trying to freeze the accounts of traders it characterized as operating out of Hong Kong and the mainland, and lost. It is simultaneously tripling down on exactly that market. The [[ByteDance]] stake — still the firm's most valuable holding, and the asset behind [[Jeff Yass]]'s [[TikTok]] politics — remains the anchor of a China exposure the firm shows no sign of reducing. **Sources:** - [Reuters: "Susquehanna targets Hong Kong expansion to tap China ETF boom, sources say"](https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/susquehanna-targets-hong-kong-expansion-tap-china-etf-boom-sources-say-2026-09-02/) - [Mingtiandi: real estate finance](https://www.mingtiandi.com/real-estate/finance/) --- ## 2026-08-20 — $8.7 Million Through Two Front Groups Beats an Attorney General Who Killed a Religious Charter School — and the Receipts Are Not Due Until October 31 **Source:** OK Politics Today, August 20, 2026 (Oklahoma Ethics Commission filings); runoff result August 25, 2026. ### 🔴 Major **School Freedom Fund Oklahoma reported $8,700,819.89 in independent expenditures through August 19 — twice the $4.3 million campaign announced in May — spent against Attorney General Gentner Drummond in the August 25 Republican gubernatorial runoff. Drummond lost to Mike Mazzei.** Drummond's offense was legal, not political: he successfully challenged St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would have been the first publicly funded religious charter school in the United States. The money trail runs through two entities with the same Washington address. [[Jeff Yass]] gave the national [[School Freedom Fund]] $5 million on February 3. The national fund sent $10,000 to the Oklahoma affiliate on March 31 — and then between May 11 and June 8 the Oklahoma committee received five transfers totaling $3.55 million from [[Club for Growth]] Action. David McIntosh runs Club for Growth and chairs the state committee. In May he said the group would "spend whatever it takes." **The disclosure gap is the mechanism, not a side effect.** The Oklahoma committee reported only $413,738 on hand as of June 30 and then spent millions. Its receipts are not due until October 31 — more than two months after the election it decided. Oklahoma voters went to the polls on August 25 able to see what was spent against Drummond but not where it came from, and the reporting is explicit that the filings "do not show that every dollar spent here came directly from him." **Why this belongs on this log rather than a school-choice page.** It is the Yass funding architecture operating at full extension: a single February check to a national 501(c)(4)-adjacent vehicle, laundered through a same-address affiliate and a second national PAC, arriving in a state runoff five months later as $8.7 million against a Republican attorney general whose sin was enforcing the Establishment Clause. The [[Club for Growth]] relationship is the load-bearing element — it converts one donor's school-choice money into general-purpose primary enforcement. **Sources:** - [OK Politics Today: "D.C. group backed by billionaire spends $8.7 million to defeat Drummond"](https://okpoliticstoday.com/2026/08/d-c-group-backed-by-billionaire-spends-8-7-million-to-defeat-drummond/) --- ## 2026-08-13 — The Dragnet Becomes a Defendant List: 45 Named Individuals, and the Alleged Haul Is Revised Up to $155M **Source:** Caixin Global, August 13, 2026. ### 🟡 Notable **The revised account list promised in the July 31 retreat landed: [[Susquehanna International Group]] and Citadel Securities have narrowed the Manhattan insider-trading suit from a freeze covering up to 100 anonymous accounts down to 45 named individuals — and, after an account-by-account analysis, raised their estimate of the alleged illicit profits to $155 million, up from the $137 million Citadel cited in July.** The number moving *up* while the defendant count moves *down* is the notable part. The June 30 freeze was deliberately indiscriminate because the plaintiffs could not name anyone; the working theory was that a $100,000 bond requirement would force the guilty to self-identify. What actually produced names was the subpoena track — Caixin previously reported more than 310 accounts unmasked through broker subpoenas at Futu, TradeUp, and Interactive Brokers — and the narrowed list is the product of that unmasking rather than of anyone stepping forward. Most of the 45 are based in mainland China and Hong Kong, which is the jurisdictional problem the case has always had: naming them is not the same as reaching them. Several have already moved to unfreeze assets. The put options at issue were bought between May 7 and 4:33 a.m. Eastern on May 22, the morning Chinese regulators announced roughly $338 million in penalties against Futu and UP Fintech for unauthorized cross-border operations. For the [[Jeff Yass]] file: Yass's firm is now the plaintiff running the most detailed public forensic reconstruction of who trades ahead of Chinese state action — an odd posture for the American investor most exposed to Chinese regulatory risk through [[ByteDance]]. The August 14 preliminary hearing was the next waypoint; watch for the ruling on the unfreeze motions, whether the DOJ criminal probe surfaces in the civil record, and whether any of the 45 are reachable by a U.S. court at all. Sources: - [Caixin Global: "U.S. Market Makers Narrow Futu, Tiger Insider-Trading Suit to 45 Individuals"](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2026-08-13/us-market-makers-narrow-futu-tiger-insider-trading-suit-to-45-individuals-102473568.html) - [Caixin Global: "Exclusive: Over 310 Accounts Unmasked in U.S. Insider Trading Suit Linked to Chinese Brokerages"](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2026-07-27/exclusive-over-310-accounts-unmasked-in-us-insider-trading-suit-linked-to-chinese-brokerages-102468479.html) --- ## 2026-07-31 — Retail Bycatch Forces a Retreat: Susquehanna and Citadel Scale Back the Asset Freeze; Revised List Due August 6, Preliminary Hearing August 14 **Source:** Web search sweep, August 6, 2026. ### 🟡 Notable **Caixin reported July 31 that [[Susquehanna International Group]] and Citadel Securities are narrowing the sweeping freeze that covered up to 100 trading accounts, after pushback from retail investors who say they were caught in the dragnet with no connection to the alleged $137M insider scheme — with a revised list of accounts to stay frozen due by August 6 and a preliminary hearing now set for August 14.** The retreat is the first structural crack in the freeze-and-subpoena strategy: the June 30 order was deliberately broad because the plaintiffs couldn't name a single defendant, and the $100,000-bond catch-22 was supposed to force the guilty to self-identify. Instead, apparently uninvolved retail traders objected loudly enough that the market-makers are conceding the dragnet swept in bystanders — while presumably keeping the core Futu/UP Fintech options accounts locked. For the [[Jeff Yass]] file: the case's discovery engine (who trades on advance knowledge of Chinese state action) is intact, but the August 14 hearing is now the waypoint to watch — both for which accounts survive the narrowed freeze and for whether the DOJ criminal probe surfaces in the civil record. Sources: - [Caixin Global: "U.S. Firms to Shrink Asset Freeze in Insider Trading Suit Over China Regulatory Leak"](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2026-07-31/us-firms-to-shrink-asset-freeze-in-insider-trading-suit-over-china-regulatory-leak-102470130.html) --- ## 2026-07-07 — Citadel Securities Asks to Join the Susquehanna Suit, Claiming $28M in Losses and Sizing the Scheme at ~$137M; DOJ Criminal Division Now Probing **Source:** Web search sweep, July 8, 2026. ### 🟡 Notable **Ken Griffin's Citadel Securities filed July 2 to join [[Susquehanna International Group]]'s Manhattan insider-trading suit, saying it lost about $28 million as "the victim of a brazen insider trader scheme" — and pegging the traders' total haul at roughly $137 million, well above Susquehanna's $100M+ estimate.** Citadel's stated reason for intervening is defensive: any recovery Susquehanna wins from the frozen funds could shrink the pool available to compensate Citadel's own losses. The move confirms the May 22 Futu/UP Fintech options trades hit multiple market-makers at once, strengthening Susquehanna's argument that only inside knowledge of China's brokerage crackdown explains the bets — Susquehanna's own filing compares the scheme's scale to Raj Rajaratnam's ~$53M Galleon operation. Meanwhile the judge's freeze-and-subpoena order now reaches accounts at Futu, UP subsidiary TradeUp Securities, and Interactive Brokers, and Bloomberg reports the Justice Department's criminal division in Washington has opened an early-stage probe alongside the [[SEC]]'s examination. The July 10 hearing — where anonymous traders can contest the freeze only by posting $100,000 and outing themselves — is now a two-victim, two-regulator event. For the [[Jeff Yass]] file: the case keeps growing into the largest forced-discovery exercise yet into who trades on advance knowledge of Chinese state action, with Yass's firm leading it. Sources: - [Claims Journal/Bloomberg: "Citadel Securities Asks to Join Susquehanna Insider-Trading Suit"](https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2026/07/07/338622.htm) - [Bloomberg: "DOJ Probes Alleged Insider Trading Scheme That Stung Susquehanna"](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-02/doj-probes-alleged-insider-trading-scheme-that-stung-susquehanna) --- ## 2026-07-02 — Inquirer Details the Insider-Trading Case: Futu/UP Fintech Options Ahead of China's Brokerage Crackdown, $70M+ Skimmed From Susquehanna's Books, July 10 Hearing Set **Source:** Web search sweep, July 5, 2026. ### 🟡 Notable **The Philadelphia Inquirer's July 2 deep-dive fleshes out the June 30 court freeze: the unknown traders bought roughly $12 million in low-cost options on Chinese brokerages Futu Holdings and UP Fintech in the days before Beijing announced penalties on brokers accused of illegally moving cash to foreign markets — trades [[Susquehanna International Group]] says "suggest inside knowledge" of the coming crackdown.** More than $70 million of the alleged $100M+ profit came from options Susquehanna itself sold as market-maker, which is why the firm is suing as the primary victim. The federal judge in New York froze up to 100 accounts even though Susquehanna concedes it cannot name a single defendant; the anonymous traders can contest the freeze at a July 10 hearing — but only by posting $100,000 and effectively identifying themselves, a structural catch-22 the case turns on. Bloomberg reports the [[SEC]] is now investigating. For the [[Jeff Yass]] file, the notable inversion stands: the firm that built its fortune on informational edge is in court arguing someone else's informational edge was illegal — while its TikTok US board seat keeps its China entanglements live. Sources: - [Philadelphia Inquirer: "How unknown Chinese 'insider traders' cost Jeff Yass' firm more than $70 million"](https://www.inquirer.com/business/jeff-yass-susquehanna-insider-trading-20260702.html) --- ## 2026-06-30 — Susquehanna Wins Court Freeze and Subpoenas Against Unknown Traders in Alleged $100M Insider Scheme; SEC Reportedly Probing **Source:** Web search sweep, July 3, 2026. ### 🔴 Major **[[Susquehanna International Group]] filed suit June 29 in Manhattan federal court alleging up to 100 unidentified traders — believed to have been tipped ahead of China's May 22 crackdown on cross-border brokerages — made roughly $100M buying put options on Futu (FUTU) and UP Fintech (TIGR), with more than $70M of that profit coming out of Susquehanna's pocket as the options seller.** Judge Arun Subramanian froze the trading profits and on June 30 authorized subpoenas to Interactive Brokers, Futu, and UP Fintech to unmask the account holders; defendants can contest at a July 10 hearing after posting $100,000. The [[SEC]] is reportedly examining the trades. The alleged tip source — advance knowledge of a Chinese regulatory action — puts the case at the junction of Yass's two defining exposures: SIG's market-making book and his deep China-linked financial entanglements (ByteDance/TikTok). **Why it matters:** Yass's firm is the *victim* here, but the case will force discovery into who inside or adjacent to Chinese regulatory circles trades on advance state knowledge — and it lands while Yass simultaneously sits as a top-three midterm mega-donor and a beneficiary of the [[TikTok]] resolution. Watch the July 10 hearing and whether the SEC probe formalizes. Sources: - [Bloomberg: "Susquehanna Can Subpoena Brokers of Alleged Insider Traders"](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-30/susquehanna-can-subpoena-brokers-of-alleged-insider-traders) - [Philadelphia Inquirer: Susquehanna insider trading suit (July 2, 2026)](https://www.inquirer.com/business/jeff-yass-susquehanna-insider-trading-20260702.html) - [Yahoo Finance: "SEC probes alleged insider trades"](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/options/articles/sec-probes-alleged-insider-trades-001150049.html) --- ## 2026-06-17 — TikTok US Board Seat Confirmed; $81.8M Midterm Donor (Third Nationally); $16M to MAGA Inc; $2.5M White House Renovation **Source:** Web search sweep across January – June 2026. ### 🔴 Structurally Significant (promoted to main entry) **Susquehanna secures TikTok US board seat in spinoff deal; Yass profits from both sides (early 2026)** The TikTok US spinoff — a joint venture led by Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX, with [[ByteDance]] retaining a 19.9% stake — is now complete. An affiliate of [[Susquehanna International Group]] gained a spot on TikTok's US board of directors, represented by SIG managing director Mark Dooley. Yass profits from both sides of the deal: SIG's subsidiary holds equity in the US spinoff consortium, and Yass/SIG retain a ~15% stake in ByteDance (with Yass personally holding ~7%, estimated at $21B), which itself holds 19.9% of the US entity. **Why structural:** The TikTok resolution removes the single largest political risk to Yass's most concentrated position. He lobbied intensively for the deal structure through his political network — donating $16M to MAGA Inc in 2025, cozying up to Trump — and the result is a structure where a major Trump-aligned billionaire holds board influence over the US entity of the world's most-used short-video platform while retaining upside through ByteDance. Yass is the hidden fulcrum of the TikTok story: his financial interests tied him to China (via ByteDance), his political donations tied him to Trump (who could have forced a harder ban), and the resolution maximized both. Sources: - [Technical.ly: "Susquehanna gets TikTok US board seat in spinoff deal"](https://technical.ly/entrepreneurship/susquehanna-international-group-jeff-yass-tiktok-board/) - [Keystone Newsroom: "Billionaire Jeffrey Yass retains ownership stake in TikTok after cozying up to Trump"](https://keystonenewsroom.com/2026/01/27/yass-tiktok-deal-revealed/) - [Montco Today: "Susquehanna International Group, Led by Bala Cynwyd's Jeff Yass, Now Central to U.S. Leadership of TikTok"](https://montco.today/2026/02/susquehanna-international-group-us-tiktok/) - [Truthout: "New US TikTok Spinoff Will Be Controlled by Trump-Aligned Billionaires"](https://truthout.org/articles/new-us-tiktok-spinoff-will-be-controlled-by-trump-aligned-billionaires/) ### 🟡 Notable **$81.8M in 2026 midterm donations — third nationally behind Soros and Musk** Federal filings confirm Yass has donated $81.8M in the 2026 midterm cycle, making him the third-largest individual donor nationally, behind George Soros ($102.6M) and [[Elon Musk]] ($84.8M). Notable individual contributions include $10M to V-PAC backing Vivek Ramaswamy for Ohio's 2026 Senate race and $740,100 to the NRSC Victory Fund for Republican senatorial campaigns. **Why notable:** Yass previously operated almost entirely in the shadows — his influence ran through Club for Growth, school choice PACs, and Commonwealth Partners rather than his own name. His emergence as a top-three named donor signals either growing comfort with visibility or a post-TikTok calculation that his political power is now well-enough understood that opacity is no longer worth maintaining. Source: [PANews: "The billionaires behind the most expensive midterm election in history"](https://www.panewslab.com/en/articles/019e164a-c0f9-719f-b821-806c92a1bab7) **$16M to MAGA Inc (2025) + $2.5M to White House ballroom renovations** In 2025, Yass donated $16M to Trump super PAC MAGA Inc and at least $2.5M toward White House ballroom renovations — the kind of proximity-purchasing that preceded the TikTok deal resolution. The donations track the same period in which the Trump administration moved from threatening a hard TikTok ban to negotiating the spinoff structure that preserved Yass's upside. Source: [Revolving Door Project: "Oligarchs and the Trump Admin: Jeff Yass"](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/jeff-yass-trump-admin-billionaires/)