The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Economics => Topic started by: Ptarmigan on November 10, 2022, 06:46:49 PM
-
FTX Assets Frozen By Bahamas Regulator, Liquidator Appointed, Arrest Rumored
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ftx-assets-frozen-bahamas-regulator-liquidator-appointed
The Bahamas Securities Commission has frozen the assets of FTX Digital Markets “and related parties" and has appointed a provisional liquidator as the Bahamas securities regulator seeks to place the beleaguered crypto exchange into receivership, i.e. bankruptcy, the agency said in a statement issued late on Thursday.
The lockdown comes just hours after Sam Bankman-Fried said that he is closing his affiliated trading house at the center of the FTX scandal, Alameda Research, and after FTX said it may halt trading in FTX US, the remote US-based platform which has so far avoided scrutiny.
An asset freeze was “the prudent course of action” to preserve assets and stabilize the company, the agency said.
“The commission is aware of public statements suggesting that clients’ assets were mishandled, mismanaged and/or transferred to Alameda Research. Based on the commission’s information, any such actions would have been contrary to normal governance, without client consent and potentially unlawful" it warned
FTX Digital Markets has collapsed. It could cause cryptocurrency to collapse.
FTX Digital Markets is where cryptocurrency is traded. More at the link.
https://www.investopedia.com/ftx-exchange-5200842
-
Hero to Zero: Dems’ ‘Newest Megadonor’ Faceplants on Election Day
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/hero-to-zero-dems-newest-megadonor-faceplants-on-election-day/
The man who has cast himself as one of the Democratic Party’s emergent power players found his company in shambles—forced to sell to its biggest rival—on Election Day.
Suffering from a liquidity crunch after a run in which users pulled nearly $6 billion from the company, according to Reuters, Sam Bankman-Fried was forced into an emergency sale to a rival company, Binance. The announcement of FTX’s acquisition prompted Bitcoin to plummet to two-year lows.
It's a stunning reversal for the 30-year-old who donated over $5 million to Joe Biden's campaign in 2020 and who just three months ago was vaunted as a potential savior for Democrats in the midterm elections. "Some Democrats see Bankman-Fried’s investments and engagement as the thing that could help them hold back a red midterm wave," Politico reported in August.
Sam Bankman-Fried is a Democrat megadonor. His company, FTX, has collapsed.
-
Presenting the Laundromat Elite...
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/breaking-exclusive-tens-billions-transferred-ukraine-using-ftx-crypto-currency-laundered-back-democrats-us/
-
Presenting the Laundromat Elite...
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/breaking-exclusive-tens-billions-transferred-ukraine-using-ftx-crypto-currency-laundered-back-democrats-us/
Sam Bankman-Fried is Biden’s second biggest donor.
In addition to this, Daily Caller lists many of the lawmakers who Sam Bankman Fried was bankrolling who oversaw the institution that was supposed to keep on eye on companies like FTX:
Sam Bankman-Fried, prolific Democratic donor and ex-CEO of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, funded the campaigns of members of Congress overseeing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), one of the key bodies tasked with regulating the crypto industry and the subject of Bankman-Fried’s aggressive lobbying.
Bankman-Fried’s FTX is currently under investigation by the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after Bankman-Fried allegedly moved $10 billion in client assets from his crypto exchange to his trading firm Alameda Research, and a liquidity crisis at his exchange which prompted the company to file for bankruptcy. However, prior to the agency’s probe, Bankman-Fried aggressively courted the CFTC – and funded several key lawmakers charged with overseeing the agency, pouring cash into their campaign coffers.
FTX also happens to be related to Ukraine.
-
FTX Facing Criminal Probe By Bahamas Authorities, But Musk Counters There Will Be "No Investigation" Of "Major Democrat Donor" SBF
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/sbf-questioned-bahamas-police-elon-counters-there-will-be-no-investigation-major-democrat
Amid growing speculation of his whereabouts, Bloomberg reports that Sam Bankman-Fried was interviewed by Bahamian police and regulators on Saturday, although Bloomberg was quick to add that in the Bahamas, law-enforcement inquiries don’t necessarily mean someone will be arrested or charged with a crime.
In a separate report, Bloomberg also notes that the Bahamian police said they’re working with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate whether there was any criminal misconduct in the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX (narrator: there was).
“In light of the collapse of FTX globally and the provisional liquidation of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., a team of financial investigators from the Financial Crimes Investigation Branch are working closely with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate if any criminal misconduct occurred,” a police spokesperson said in a statement Sunday.
Separately, CoinTelegraph adds that in addition to SBF, the low profile FTX co-founder Gary Wang and director of engineering Nishad Singh are also said to be in the Bahamas and are “under supervision” by the local authorities. A source familiar with the matter told Cointelegraph that the three former FTX executives, as well as Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, are looking for ways to flee to Dubai. While the plan was made assuming that the United States “doesn't have any extradition treaties” with the UAE, the nations signed a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) back on Feb. 24, 2022, to work against criminals.
The FTX executives could flee to either UAE or Argentina.
-
Bankman-Fried’s Cabal of Roommates in the Bahamas Ran His Crypto Empire – and Dated. Other Employees Have Lots of Questions
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/10/bankman-frieds-cabal-of-roommates-in-the-bahamas-ran-his-crypto-empire-and-dated-other-employees-have-lots-of-questions/
"Shocking" is a word that aptly describes the rapid fall of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire. To a surprising degree, it’s a sentiment that pours out from people who worked for him, people who you’d think would’ve had a clue.
How can that be? It may have something to do with a luxury penthouse in the Bahamas. That’s where 30-year-old Bankman-Fried is roommates with the inner circle who ran his now-struggling crypto exchange FTX and trading giant Alameda Research.
Many are former co-workers from quantitative trading firm Jane Street, others he met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his alma mater. All 10 are, or used to be, paired up in romantic relationships with each other. That includes Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, whose firm played a central role in the company's collapse – and who, at times, has dated Bankman-Fried, according to people familiar with the matter.
CoinDesk spoke to several current and former FTX and Alameda employees who agreed to talk on the condition of anonymity, citing ongoing harassment and death threats due to the exchange’s solvency issues. And they said essentially this: It’s a place full of conflicts of interest, nepotism and lack of oversight.
FTX was run by 10 people who lived in the same penthouse in The Bahamas. Lots of red flags right there.
-
How Sam Bankman-Fried’s ‘Effective’ Altruism Blew Up FTX
https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/11/11/how-sam-bankman-frieds-effective-altruism-blew-up-ftx/
The ongoing collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire will have innumerable victims. One of the most important may be “effective altruism,” Bankman-Fried’s beloved philanthropic philosophy.
In very broad strokes, effective altruists believe that making a lot of money to influence the world is a noble goal as long as you’re very, very smart – and there is evidence that this mindset contributed to the decisions that have cost Bankman-Fried’s victims billions of dollars.
Late Thursday, the team behind FTX’s philanthropic “Future Fund” resigned. The Future Fund was set up to help implement Bankman-Fried’s effective altruism playbook, but departing staff say it won’t have funds to deliver grants it had already approved.
The resigners wrote in an open letter that "To the extent that the leadership of FTX may have engaged in deception or dishonesty, we condemn that behavior in the strongest possible terms. We believe that being a good actor in the world means striving to act with honesty and integrity."
Sam Bankman-Fried pursued effective altruists. Turned out, effective altruism was the downfall of FTX.
-
Divisions in Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Blur on His Trading Titan Alameda’s Balance Sheet
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/02/divisions-in-sam-bankman-frieds-crypto-empire-blur-on-his-trading-titan-alamedas-balance-sheet/
Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire is officially broken into two main parts: FTX (his exchange) and Alameda Research (his trading firm), both giants in their respective industries.
But even though they are two separate businesses, the division breaks down in a key place: on Alameda’s balance sheet, according to a private financial document reviewed by CoinDesk. (It is conceivable the document represents just part of Alameda.)
That balance sheet is full of FTX – specifically, the FTT token issued by the exchange that grants holders a discount on trading fees on its marketplace. While there is nothing per se untoward or wrong about that, it shows Bankman-Fried’s trading giant Alameda rests on a foundation largely made up of a coin that a sister company invented, not an independent asset like a fiat currency or another crypto. The situation adds to evidence that the ties between FTX and Alameda are unusually close.
FTX has a trading firm, Alameda. A lot of money went to that firm from FTX.
-
Report: At Least $1 Billion in Investor Assets Are ‘Missing’ After FTX Collapse
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/11/13/report-at-least-1-billion-in-investor-assets-are-missing-after-ftx-collapse/
Following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, at least $1 billion in investor assets seems to be missing according to multiple reports.
Reuters reports that according to two anonymous sources who formerly worked at FTX and claim to have been privy to the company’s finances, FTX is missing at least $1 billion in client funds. The sources claimed that the funds were part of $10 billion in client funds that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried purportedly siphoned off to Alameda Research, the hedge fund he owns.
The Wall Street Journal later reported that it appeared as if hackers had actually stolen $370 million. Bankman-Fried told Reuters that he “disagreed with the characterization” of the transfer, adding: “We had confusing internal labeling and misread it.” Reuters questioned Bankman-Fried about the missing customer funds via text message, to which he replied “???”
FTX U.S. General Counsel Ryne Miller tweeted on Saturday that the company had detected “unauthorized transactions” and moved all digital assets to cold storage, or offline. According to the cryptocurrency analytics and compliance firm Elliptic, $473 million in crypto assets were stolen from FTX last Friday night, although the exact amount has yet to be confirmed.
The missing $1 billion is the tip of the iceberg.
-
Cryptocurrency Exchanges Scramble to Contain FTX Fallout
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/11/14/cryptocurrency-exchanges-scramble-to-contain-ftx-fallout/
Following the spectacular collapse of FTX and its Democrat super-donor founder Sam Bankman-Fried, other centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are scrambling to shore up their reputation and contain the fallout.
During a Q&A on Reddit, the CEO of Crypto.com, Kris Marszalek, reassured users that funds the top-ten exchange had sent to FTX had (mostly) been recovered.
“Over a year, $1 billion was moved to FTX, and we recovered all of this,” said Marszalek. “We only had exposure of under $10 million when FTX shut down. And FTX was a trading venue where — this is one of the few trading venues with decent liquidity for some of the coins, like the ones I mentioned earlier.”
Marszalek also had to answer questions about $400 million in Ether that was mistakenly sent to another centralized crypto exchange, Gate.io. Both Crypto.com and Gate.io said the funds were sent in error and were returned.
Could the fall of FTX spread to other cryptocurrency exchanges?
-
Cryptocurrency Exchanges Scramble to Contain FTX Fallout
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/11/14/cryptocurrency-exchanges-scramble-to-contain-ftx-fallout/
Could the fall of FTX spread to other cryptocurrency exchanges?
Don't know crypto well enough to say yes or no, but I have seen some rumblings online saying this is very possible. Would be very interesting if accurate.
-
Some of the stuff I'm reading, if true, could be one of the biggest scandals of our time. It could potentially ensnare some top politicians from both parties.
It'll be interesting to follow.
KC
-
Don't know crypto well enough to say yes or no, but I have seen some rumblings online saying this is very possible. Would be very interesting if accurate.
Crypto is hard to understand. All I know it involves blockchains and computer processing them endlessly.
Some of the stuff I'm reading, if true, could be one of the biggest scandals of our time. It could potentially ensnare some top politicians from both parties.
It'll be interesting to follow.
KC
FTX is the tip of the iceberg. It will be interesting to follow.
-
I'm going to go out on a limb now, and say that if it's true that this con artist really is the #2 donor to #JoeThePedophile's 2020 campaign, they could find a basement full of Dominican child sex slaves when they search his place Looking at you, Chucky Schumer and the only way he's going down is if some federal DA says either HE goes before a jury, or Hunter Biden does.
-
FTX Contagion Spreads: Crypto Lender BlockFi Faces Potential Bankruptcy
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/11/15/ftx-contagion-spreads-crypto-lender-blockfi-faces-potential-bankruptcy/
BlockFi, a platform for crypto-backed loans and trading, may also face bankruptcy due to its exposure to FTX, the beleaguered cryptocurrency exchange that was led by Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried.
Sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that BlockFi is preparing for a potential bankruptcy filing, after pausing withdrawals and limiting activity on user accounts last weeks.
BlockFi could fall next due to exposure to FTX. More cryptocurrency falls to come?
-
Crypto’s Lost Vision: Breaking Down the FTX Scandal
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/11/cryptos-lost-vision-breaking-down-the-ftx-scandal/
A scandal in the cryptocurrency universe erupted last week, causing a once-vaunted and widely admired cryptocurrency exchange and trading firm to go belly-up in a matter of days. Judging by the media reaction, one might think this is the first time the industry has experienced a high-profile bankruptcy.
But crypto-land has seen this before. In 2014, a highly popular but poorly run Bitcoin exchange called Mt. GOX—an acronym for Magic the Gathering Online Exchange—similarly failed in spectacular fashion. Many early bitcoin adopters were effectively robbed of their funds, and Bitcoin slumped into a protracted bear market for several years. Just this year, in fact, the crypto market has seen collapse after collapse. The Terra Luna crash and Celsius implosion, for example, saw major sell-offs and a rapid (largely unsuccessful) scramble by users to secure the cryptocurrency they held with these organizations.
The FTX scandal sweeps more broadly than any prior industry collapse because its investors comprised many elite players from the traditional finance and political classes. FTX was seen as a safe way to gain exposure to cryptocurrency without having to invest in the volatile market directly. And these beliefs were uncritically confirmed by a fawning media that spent much of the last year knighting FTX’s now-disgraced founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.
As someone who has been in the Bitcoin space for quite a while now, the mainstream obsession with SBF, as Bankman-Fried is commonly known, never made much sense. In July, responding to Anthony Scaramucci’s praise of a New York Times puff piece on SBF, I noted the probable demise of such a seemingly astroturfed campaign to elevate this unproven kid to godlike status (forgive the salty language, it’s Twitter).
Bitcoin exchange have collapsed before, but not to the level of FTX.
-
Let’s Talk About the New York Times' ‘Puff Piece’ on Sam Bankman-Fried
https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/11/15/lets-talk-about-the-new-york-times-puff-piece-on-sam-bankman-fried/
Sam Bankman-Fried has been typing out a cryptic message in the days since his crypto empire, composed primarily of the FTX exchange and Alameda Research hedge fund, bottomed out. “What,” the thread began, followed by single tweets containing single letters spelling out “H A P P E N E D.”
Indeed, what happened? A lot of information has come to light in the days since crypto poster boy Bankman-Fried has become a subject of criminal investigations the world over, including on-chain evidence suggesting FTX customer funds were used to backstop losses at the market making trading shop Alameda.
There are conspiracies regarding Bankman-Fried’s donations and familial ties to political leaders, suggesting he was prepaying for amnesty or favorable regulatory treatment, and screenshots of Bankman-Fried’s open-office desk, with what appear to be prescription stimulants and off-brand nootropics on view.
The New York Times wrote a puff piece on Sam Bankman-Fried.
And so, on Monday, after the New York Times published the first interview with Bankman-Fried since his public fall from grace, it wasn’t surprising there would be angry readers and commenters. The article, written by Times crypto beat reporter David Yaffe-Bellany (with contributions by industry legends including Erin Griffith and Ephrat Livni), has been widely slammed as a “puff piece.”
“At the same time they were pumping the FTX scam, they were writing defamatory gossip pieces about industry stalwarts, driving their audiences away from safe, reliable and proven venues,” Kraken ex-CEO Jesse Powell said, presumably referring to his exchange and Coinbase, which have been center to a few media storms.
“Disgusting complicity on the part of the New York Times. He has ruined countless people's lives by theft and fraud, and NYT is now helping him to delay or evade justice by whitewashing him in their prestigious, influential newspaper. I doubt this is just a mistake on their part,” Zcash co-creator Zooko Wilcox said.
Here is what Sam Bankman-Fried's desk looks like.
https://mobile.twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1592237980458323969
Autism Capital 🧩
@AutismCapital
EXTRA CONFIRMED: The stimulant patch that Sam preferred was EMSAM, a drug normally used to treat depression or Parkinson's, but used off-label for its alertness and focus benefits.
1:28 PM · Nov 14, 2022
·Twitter Web App
-
Bankman-Fried Trying To Raise Fresh Capital As Bankruptcy Lawyers Reveal More Than One Million Creditors
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bankman-fried-trying-raise-fresh-capital-bankruptcy-lawyers-reveal-more-one-million
We have been waiting for the FTX bankruptcy docket to add anything more than merely procedural filings (or any filings for that matter), and certainly the so-called First Day filings which should lay out what really happened at the now bankrupt exchange-cum-hedge fund, but the only thing we have gotten so far is this: just two entries in the docket for a case which the entire world is closely following.
And while the criminal mastermind behind FTX, Bankman-Fried, should at least be doing everything he can to explain where the billion in client funds vaporized to, as he promised...
11) I'll get to what happened. But for now, let's talk about where we are today.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 15, 2022
... at least until such time as he is finally arrested (which Elon Musk said will never happen because he is such a prominent Democratic donor), he appears to have little desire to do the right thing, and instead has been trying to salvage an unfixable situation and according to the WSJ, the 2nd largest democrat donor still thinks that he can raise enough money to make users whole.
There are 1 million creditors for FTX. Billions of dollars just disappear into thin air.
-
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried triggered downfall by badmouthing crypto rival: sources
https://nypost.com/2022/11/15/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-triggered-downfall-by-badmouthing-crypto-rival-sources/
Three weeks before the implosion of FTX, its disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried bad-mouthed a rival crypto mogul at an investor conference in Saudi Arabia — an indiscretion that sources say may have triggered his downfall, The Post has learned.
The 30-year-old Bankman-Fried — whose FTX fund filed for bankruptcy on Friday, obliterating his $16 billion personal fortune — had traveled to Riyadh for the annual “Davos in the Desert” financial summit on Oct. 25 – Oct.27, where he was angling to raise money from some of the world’s deep-pocketed investors.
But in private meetings at the event, Bankman-Fried, known as “SBF” in crypto circles, raised eyebrows as he “trashed” ChangPeng Zhao — the China-born CEO of Binance who, in addition to being one of Bankman-Fried’s early backers, is a highly respected tech founder in the region.
That’s despite the fact that Zhao — known as “CZ” among crypto enthusiasts with a net worth of $17.4 billion, according to Forbes — was at the conference, too. When Middle East investors tipped off Zhao that Bankman-Fried had slammed him behind his back, Zhao was furious, according to a crypto observer.
Sam Bankman-Fried's numerous reason for downfall could of been because he insulted ChangpPeng Zhao, who runs Binance.
-
The FTX Collapse Looks an Awful Lot Like Enron
https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/11/16/the-ftx-collapse-looks-an-awful-lot-like-enron/
The corpses of FTX and Alameda Research are barely cold, but financial coroners are already deploying scalpels and bone saws to try and figure out what went wrong. These autopsies are far from complete, but the findings so far suggest deep parallels between the Alameda and FTX blowup and the most infamous business fraud in American history – the Texas-based energy trading con Enron (ENE).
Those parallels are extensive and nuanced, even apart from the strange twist that Enron's former lawyer is the new CEO of FTX. But one core similarity is the role of publicly-traded, equity-like assets ultimately linked to the performance of the firms themselves. In both cases, these internal assets flowed between entities that were nominally or even legally separate, but that in fact served the same masters. This enabled egregious financial self-dealing in the form of balance sheets pumped up by fictional valuations, a very fragile form of bootstrap leverage that unwound rapidly as soon as the falsely-inflated assets began to waver.
FTX’s FTT token appears to have been the largest linchpin of Sam Bankman-Fried’s house of cards. The token was nominally intended to give FTX users a discount on trading fees. But in practice its market price reflected sentiment about the performance of FTX itself, much as a stock tracks the performance of a public company. CoinDesk’s Ian Allison reported on Nov. 2 that a huge portion of Alameda Research’s balance sheet consisted of the FTT token, including some valued at its public price, and locked positions valued at half of that.
This raised alarms for a number of reasons, including by undermining the (already tenuous) idea that FTX and Alameda Research were truly separate operations. It remains unclear how exactly Alameda wound up with the FTT in the first place, but one theory is that the fund participated in the initial sale of FTT. If FTX and Alameda operated in tandem, which seems increasingly clear, this could be considered fraudulent price manipulation.
Shades of Enron.
-
Crypto Exchange Gemini Suffers $485M Rush of Outflows Amid Contagion Fears
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/11/16/crypto-exchange-gemini-suffers-485m-rush-of-outflows-amid-contagion-fears/
Gemini, a crypto exchange and custodian founded by the Winklevoss brothers, has suffered a rush of withdrawals as crypto firms wrestle with the reverberations of the FTX-Alameda bankruptcy and subsequent contagion within the digital asset industry.
Data by blockchain intelligence platform Nansen shows that Gemini saw $485 million in net outflows in the past 24 hours, the largest among crypto exchanges. Outflows totaled $563 million, and were offset by only $78 million in inflows. In the past seven days, Gemini experienced a total of $682 million net outflows – the difference of $866 billion of inflows and $1.55 billion of inflows provided by Nansen – suggesting that most of the withdrawals have occurred on Wednesday.
Digital asset balances on crypto wallets identified as Gemini dropped to $1.7 billion from about $2.2 billion a day ago, according to blockchain data platform Arkham Intelligence. Arkham and Nansen do not cover data from the Bitcoin blockchain and may not include all Gemini’s wallets.
The rush of withdrawals came as Gemini paused withdrawals earlier Wednesday from its yield-generating Earn program. The lending unit of crypto investment bank Genesis Global Trading, which powered the program for Gemini, announced that it was suspending customer redemptions citing “extreme market dislocation” and “loss of industry confidence caused by the FTX implosion."
There is a rush to withdraw from Gemini. A bank run of cryptocurrency.
-
Bankman-Fried Praises Regulators Hours After Saying 'F*** Regulators'
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/16/bankman-fried-praises-regulators-hours-after-saying-f-regulators/
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried threw his meandering “What H-A-P-P-E-N-E-D” Twitter thread into damage control Wednesday after a Vox reporter published Twitter direct messages of him cursing about regulators – a group he famously and publicly courted for their influence.
“It’s *really hard to be a regulator,” he said Wednesday of three- and four-letter agencies with the “impossible” job of overseeing fast-moving industries such as crypto. “And so often they end up mostly unable to police as well as they ideally would.”
Sam Bankman-Fried hates and loves regulators.
-
Bankman-Fried: I Made An $8 Billion Mistake
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bankman-fried-i-made-8-billion-dollar-mistake
When facing lengthy jail time, one usually crawls up in a ball, cries quietly and whatever happens, one does not tweet. At least that's what lawyers would advise any rational, sane client. Apparently that designation does not apply to cryptofraud and Democratic donor par excellence, Sam Bankman-Fried, who either knows Democrats and their pet FBI will never allow him to go to prison, or is otherwise a complete idiot, and instead of keeping the lowest public profile he can, he keeps reminding the public of his record-breaking crypto fraud that has wiped out millions and led to hundreds of billions worth of value lost.
Case in point, his latest tweetstorm - we are now up to tweets 18 through 26 - in which the former CEO of now-bankrupt FTX who may or may not be facing extradition to the US to face criminal charges, said in a series of tweet - in which among other things he said that he "was on the cover of every magazine, and FTX was the darling of Silicon Valley. We got overconfident and careless" - he said that he made an $8 billion mistake on the cryptocurrency exchange’s leverage levels. It was $13 billion, not about $5 billion.
20) I was on the cover of every magazine, and FTX was the darling of Silicon Valley.
We got overconfident and careless.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 16, 2022
22) And that risk was correlated--with the other collateral, and with the platform.
And then the crash came.
In a few day period, there was a historic crash--over 50% in most correlated assets, with no bid side liquidity.
And at the same time there was a run on the bank.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 16, 2022
24) Shrapnel
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 16, 2022
Sam Bankman-Fried is on tweetstorm after billions of dollars just vanish.
-
Report: Disgraced FTX CEO and Democrat Super Donor Sam Bankman-Fried Attempted to Raise Even More Cash Amidst Bankruptcy, Liquidity Crisis
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/11/16/report-disgraced-ftx-ceo-and-democrat-super-donor-sam-bankman-fried-attempted-to-raise-even-more-cash-amidst-bankruptcy-liquidity-crisis/
According to people familiar with the matter, FTX founder and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried still believes that he can raise enough money to make users whole, even though the cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy last week.
The Wall Street Journal reports that FTX founder and chairman Sam Bankman-Fried has been making phone calls over the last few days seeking to raise up to $8 billion in fresh capital to repay FTX’s investors.
It appears that so far Bankman-Fried has been unable to raise the cash to cover the shortfall. The WSJ was unable to determine if Bankman-Fried is offering anything in return for a cash infusion or whether other investors have committed.
FTX filed for bankruptcy Friday shortly after Bankman-Fried reassured customers that the firm was “fine.” The move came as a shock to those who had hoped they would be able to recover some of their lost assets in order from the exchange.
Sam Bankman-Fried is trying to raise money. However, it has not worked out.
-
FTX Employees Were Encouraged to Keep Life Savings in the Now-Bankrupt Exchange, Sources Say
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/16/ftx-employees-were-encouraged-to-keep-life-savings-in-the-now-bankrupt-exchange-sources-say/
Retail and institutional investors weren’t the only ones to get rug pulled by FTX’s swift and stunning collapse last week.
In addition to losing their jobs at the now-bankrupt exchange, many of FTX’s employees also appear to have significant amounts of personal wealth locked in the platform – wealth that is likely gone after being sucked into the black hole of the FTX disaster.
FTX’s deficit was allegedly created, according to a Wall Street Journal report last week, by former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s penchant for playing fast and loose with customer funds, using them to cover the debts of his quant trading firm, Alameda Research, violating the exchange’s own terms and conditions.
Former FTX Head of Marketing Nathaniel Whittemore, who is also a CoinDesk podcaster, said this week that he and the majority of the exchange’s other employees had no idea about the allegedly fraudulent treatment of customer funds. His account rhymes with claims other former employees have made on social media, as well as a CoinDesk report last week that showed Bankman-Fried’s inner circle may have had an unusual level of control over the company.
FTX employees were encouraged to keep life savings in FTX. All their life savings are now gone.
-
Maxine Waters dodges question on FTX, Democrat ties and claims 'both sides' got money
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/maxine-waters-dodges-question-ftx-democrat-ties-claims-both-sides-got-money
With some Democrats deciding to re-commit funds from FTX donations towards charity or other party campaigns after the crypto exchange’s bankruptcy, Rep. Maxine Water, D-Calif., told FOX Business she doesn’t "want to get into that" topic.
Waters avoided reporter Hillary Vaughn’s question when asked if Democrats who received campaign cash from FTX should give it back, saying, "Well, I don't want to get into that. As a matter of fact, both sides, Democrats and Republicans, have received donations. So thank you."
The Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, however, did claim that lawmakers will be putting together a hearing to "explore exactly what has taken place" with FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, was a major contributor to Democratic candidates during the midterm election cycle, funneling most of his donations through a little-known political action committee (PAC).
Overall, in 2021 and 2022, Bankman-Fried donated nearly $38 million to various candidates and PACs, mainly giving his cash to Democratic candidates and left-wing groups, according to Federal Election Commission filings (FEC). The majority of his political givings, though, went to the Protect Our Future PAC, a group founded in January that is dedicated to boosting candidates committed to preventing future pandemics.
Makes you go hmmmmmmmmm.
-
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao a ‘walking time bomb’ after FTX collapse, ‘Dr. Doom’ warns
https://nypost.com/2022/11/16/binance-ceo-changpeng-zhao-walking-time-bomb-after-ftx-collapse/
The economist known as “Dr. Doom” slammed cryptocurrency platform Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao as a “walking time bomb” on Wednesday following the implosion of its rival FTX.
Nouriel Roubini, a New York University professor, blasted top figures in the cryptocurrency sector as “con men” just days after leading platform FTX collapsed into bankruptcy.
Roubini, who was participating in a panel for Abu Dhabi Finance Week in the United Arab Emirates, was particularly critical of Zhao — arguing regulators should think twice before allowing him to operate.
“What are the 7 C’s of crypto? Concealed, corrupt, crooks, criminals, con men, carnival barkers and, finally, CZ,” Roubini said — the latter being a reference to Zhao.
if FTX collapses, Binance could be next. Dr Nouriel Roubini thinks Binance is going to fold.
Roubini noted that the United Kingdom banned Binance last year. Separately, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service are reportedly investigating Binance as part of a probe into potential money-laundering and tax-related violations.
“I can’t believe CZ and Binance has a license to operate in the UAE. He’s banned in the UK, he’s under investigation by the US Justice Department for money laundering, $8 billion in money from Iran. He’s here on this stage and he has residence in this country.”
“This is an ecosystem that’s totally corrupt. Unfortunately, it is, and I think the lesson of the last few weeks is, these people should be out of here.
-
Crypto Fraud Exposes Woke Capitalism As A Scam
https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/crypto-fraud-exposes-woke-capitalism
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, which was, until last week, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, is today facing prison time for allegedly defrauding his customers of billions of dollars. Bankman-Fried, 30, donated to many progressive causes allied with the “effective altruism movement,” including pandemic prevention and response. He spoke at, and presumably donated to, the World Economic Forum’s Davos conference last May and the Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative in September. Bankman-Fried is similar to Bernie Madoff in that both men used philanthropic giving, and the veneer of humility, to create a positive reputation while running pyramid schemes that should have set off red flags among investors, regulators, and journalists.
In truth, the Bankman-Fried scandal shows that all do-gooder capitalism should set off red flags. Bankman-Fried claimed he was only trying to get rich in order to raise money for charity, and investors and journalists overwhelmingly took him at his word, even while visiting him at his $40 million home in the Bahamas. “You were really good at talking about ethics for someone who kind of saw it all as a game with winners and losers,” a Vox reporter said to Bankman-Fried last night, to which he responded, “ya, hehe… I feel bad for those who get ****ed by it. By this dumb game we woke westerners play where we say all the right shiboleths [sic] so everyone likes us.”
Defenders of do-gooder capitalism say that socially-responsible investing, which was rebranded as ESG to refer to investing that takes environmental, social, and governance issues into account, has done a lot of good. They point to ESG investments in things like renewable energy, electric vehicles, and carbon offsets as proof that capitalism and philanthropy can co-exist.
But ESG has been rocked by scandal after scandal for greenwashing things that are bad for the environment, people, and democracy. Few carbon offsets actually reduce carbon emissions. Many are scams. Some pay landowners to not cut down trees they were never going to log. Others pay renewable energy developers who were already going to build wind and solar projects. Most solar panels and electric car batteries are made in Xinjiang, China by incarcerated Uyghur Muslims. Solar projects require 300-600 times more land than nuclear or natural gas plants and are devastating fragile desert environments. And there is no waste disposal solution for used solar panels, a hazardous waste, which means they will be sent to landfills or dumped on poor nations. Even Bankman-Fried acknowledges that “ESG has been perverted beyond recognition.”
ESG is a scam.
-
Toxic Monetary Policy Created The FTX Monster
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/toxic-monetary-policy-created-the
I had a conversation with my good friend Tom Bodrovics from Palisades Gold Radio earlier this week. Tom is a private investor from western Canada with a background in oil and gas. In 2014 he identified the top of the housing cycle and sold his home to invest in the junior resource sector. He gained a libertarian and contrarian perspective in 2013 when he attended an entrepreneurship course in Europe and has been studying markets of all types ever since. He operates a successful business servicing the oil and gas sector in Alberta and is the host of one of my favorite podcasts, Palisades Gold Radio.
We took an hour this week to discuss all things FTX, crypto, the Fed, the economy, monetary policy, some of my recent blog posts and, of course, gold. Our entire conversation was recorded as a podcast and is available to listen to, for free, at the end of this post.
The first topic Tom broached with me was the ongoing FTX saga. He asked about what I thought about Sam Bankman-Fried blowing up his firm and I told Tom that I couldn’t believe how quickly it happened and how swift the fall was.
“A week ago this guy was the savior. He was just generally being praised,” I told Tom.
“Then, what we found out is that it was just another straight up ponzi scheme fraud, which is just incredible,” I said, stunned by how quickly it came crumbling down.
FTX is a product of feds, monetary policy, and low interest rates.
From there, we moved on to the topic of the Fed, monetary policy and interest rates. Tom asked about my contention that I still think equities will move lower, as I wrote about just days ago.
I told Tom: “I think that if the Fed even came out tomorrow and cut 100 bps…I think even in a case where the Fed came out and cut rates tomorrow that there would still be a looming blowup. The speed with which we’ve raised rates so far is breakneck and stunning. The reason the market hasn’t reacted yet is there’s a lag."
“That’s all playing out now and will continue to play out regardless of what the Fed does in December,” I added.
Tom asked about the idea of a soft landing, to which I replied: “Everyone is acting as though Powell has already achieved a soft landing. CPI came in at 7.7% - not exactly where we want to be. If I had told you 2 years ago that’s what CPI would be at you would have had a f*cking heart attack. And now we’re going to celebrate it as a win?”
-
FTX Founder and Democrat Super Donor Sam Bankman-Fried Admits Woke ‘Effective Altruism’ Is an Act
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/11/17/ftx-founder-and-democrat-super-donor-sam-bankman-fried-admits-woke-effective-altruism-is-an-act/
Disgraced FTX founder and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried has finally begun detailing his version of the events surrounding the downfall of the cryptocurrency exchange, at one point telling a journalist via Twitter DM’s that his “effective altruism” ethos was largely an act.
In a recent report from Vox, journalist Kelsey Piper outlines her recent interactions with FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Breitbart News has previously reported on the downfall of the cryptocurrency exchange and panic from investors. Now Bankman-Fried is facing investigations from both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.
Despite all this, Bankman-Fried was quick to respond to Piper’s Twitter DM’s about the current situation and what led to the downfall of FTX. Piper writes:
Bankman-Fried, though, apparently wanted to talk. About how FTX and his hedge fund Alameda Research had gambled with customer money without, he claims, realizing that’s what they were doing. About who gets lauded as a hero and who’s the fall guy. About regulators. (“**** regulators.”) About what he regrets (“Chapter 11,” the decision to declare bankruptcy) and about what he would have done differently with FTX and Alameda (“more careful accounting + offboard Alameda from FTX once FTX could live on its own”).
Piper says she spoke to Bankman-Fried via Twitter DM’s for over an hour and posted screenshots of some of the conversation to Twitter. Piper says that she was attempting to make sense of the Bankman-Fried actually believes and his personal ethics when it comes to business and finance.
During the conversation, Bankman-Fried dismissed previous comments he made that some regulation of the crypto market could be good, saying that it was just “PR.”
Sam Bankman-Fried is just out here confessing to Vox.
This guy is just a total garbage human.#SBF_FTX https://t.co/SMbRAwFIf4 pic.twitter.com/ObiJgHhd1U
— Nate Anderson (@ClarityToast) November 16, 2022
Sam Bankman-Fried acknowledges effective altruism is an act.
-
New FTX Boss Condemns Management of the Crypto Exchange During Sam Bankman-Fried's Tenure
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/17/new-ftx-boss-condemns-management-of-the-crypto-exchange-during-sam-bankman-frieds-tenure/
New FTX CEO II iJohn J. Ray Issued a scathing assessment of "unprecedented" poor management practices by his predecessor, Sam Bankman-Fried, in a series of filings in a Delaware court.
Ray, who has previously supervised financial scandals such as Enron, criticized poor record-keeping and a lack of experience among senior managers, as well as the use of company funds to purchase real estate in the Bahamas.
"Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here," Ray said in a court document filed on Thursday. "From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented."
Ray is attempting to unravel a complex mess of dozens of companies which seem to have had scant regard for corporate norms.
FTX has a haphazard management. Records are not kept. Money is spent on their own use.
-
Disgraced Former FTX CEO, Democrat Super Donor Sam Bankman-Fried and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky Scheduled to Appear at NY Times Event
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/11/17/disgraced-former-ftx-ceo-democrat-super-donor-sam-bankman-fried-ukraine-president-volodymyr-zelenskyy-scheduled-appear-ny-times-event/
Democrat super donor and disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is set to appear as a speaker for a conference held by the New York Times with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Besides having to apply to the Times’ conference and pay a $2,499 fee to hear what the publication believes are “today’s most vital minds,” some speakers, including these two, have an apparent intertwined history.
As Breitbart News noted last week, Bankman-Fried recently had a softball interview with the publication and was also accused of mishandling FTX customer investments on a massive scale. Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange reportedly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. after a week of scandals.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Bankman-Fried was the sixth-largest donor in this midterm election cycle after he invested about $40 million, mainly on Democrat candidates and causes, with the bulk of the money on primary elections instead of the general elections.
However, this all comes as Fox News and other media outlets have reported that Bankman-Fried’s company reportedly set up a website to help raise funds for Ukrainians during the ongoing attack from Russia, and some have claimed that the funds were subsequently sent to fund the Democrat campaigns Bankman-Fried donated to.
Sam Bankman-Fried is set to appear along with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky at a New York Times event.
-
This is just bizarre!
KC
-
This is just bizarre!
KC
Actually looks like business as usual for "Friends of Dim'Rats" businesses we've all come to know. Only difference between this and the Solendra debacle are the specific number bilked, and the fact that (so far, at least) the US Treasury isn't among the list of "investers" stolen from.
-
New FTX CEO highlights 'pervasive failures' in court filing
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/new-ftx-ceo-highlights-pervasive-failures-court-filing
Troubled cryptocurrency firm FTX updated its bankruptcy filing in Delaware on Thursday, and the document is chock-full of new insights into the chaotic and questionable business practices that occurred under the leadership of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
John Ray III, who was appointed as FTX's new CEO a week ago and previously oversaw the bankruptcy of scandal-plagued energy firm Enron following its collapse in 2001, blasted Bankman-Fried's management of the company in the court document.
"Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here," Ray wrote.
Talk about a huge mess! :mental:
The lax oversight of FTX's finances and bank accounts resulted in the use of corporate funds for the purchase of homes and other personal property for employees and advisers.
"In the Bahamas, I understand that corporate funds of the FTX Group were used to purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors," wrote Ray. "I understand that there does not appear to be documentation for certain of these transactions as loans, and that certain real estate was recorded in the personal name of these employees and advisors on the records of the Bahamas."
-
FTX Founder and Democrat Super Donor Sam Bankman-Fried Lent *$1 Billion* to Himself Through His Hedge Fund
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/11/18/ftx-founder-and-democrat-super-donor-sam-bankman-fried-lent-1-billion-to-himself-through-his-hedge-fund/
Disgraced cryptocurrency exchange FTX founder and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried lent $1 billion to himself through his hedge fund Alameda Research, which likely sourced the money from FTX customer funds.
On Thursday, it was revealed by FTX’s new CEO John Ray, III that the collapsed company’s bankruptcy filing shows it had lent billions of dollars in customer funds to Alameda Research. Among those loans, a staggering $1 billion was made to Bankman-Fried himself.
According to Ray, Alameda had made $4.1 billion of related-party loans, which were still outstanding at the end of September.
Sam Bankman-Fried lent money to himself through Alameda Research. The money is from customers.
-
Disgraced FTX Founder Donated To Six RINOs Who Voted To Impeach Trump
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/disgraced-ftx-founder-donated-six-rinos-voted-impeach-trump/
As most are well aware by now, the disgraced founder of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried was the Democrat party’s second-largest donor just behind George Soros.
As reported by The Gateway Pundit, in the 2020 presidential election, Bankman-Fried dished millions to the Biden campaign and followed it up by handing out over $40 million dollars to democrats in the 2022 primaries and midterms.
Forbes reported last year that Bankman-Fried also donated to six RINOs who voted to impeach President Trump.
Sam Bankman-Fried donated to 6 RINOs.
Bill Cassidy
Susan Collins
Lisa Murkowski
Ben Sasse
Mitt Romney
Richard Burr
-
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX owes more than $3 billion to creditors
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/cryptocurrency-exchange-ftx-owes-more-than-3-billion-creditors
FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed earlier this month and filed for bankruptcy protection, said in a court filing on Saturday that it owes its 50 largest creditors more than $3 billion.
The collapsed exchange's top ten creditors are owed about $1.45 billion. The identities of the creditors are redacted.
John Ray III, who was appointed CEO of FTX after founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned, also said Saturday that the company has launched a strategic review of the exchange's assets.
Investors are not likely to see a penny back from FTX.
-
Say it correctly, Ptarmy my friend...
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX owes more than $3 billion to creditors
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/cryptocurrency-exchange-ftx-owes-more-than-3-billion-creditors
Investors FRAUD VICTIMS are not likely to see a penny back from FTX.
Do not mince words when honest people are bilked by leftist scum.
-
US Prosecutors Opened Probe Of FTX Months Before Collapse
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/us-prosecutors-opened-probe-ftx-months-collapse
For all those wondering how it is possible that nobody, not a single regulator acted out on the countless red warning signs (with even CME CEO Terry Duffy issuing an explicit warning to Congress that SBF was a fraud months ago) amid the fawning and fellating media and the countless bribed politicians, we may have an answer: according to Bloomberg, long before Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency empire imploded, "it already was on the radar of federal prosecutors in Manhattan."
According to Bloomberg sources "familiar with the investigation", the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, led by Damian Williams, spent several months working on a sweeping examination of crypto currency platforms with US and offshore arms and had started poking into FTX’s massive exchange operations.
The focus of the probe was on compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act which requires financial institutions take steps to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing, and which has been used by authorities to go after crypto platforms that allegedly falsely claimed that they don’t serve US customers. The Bahamas-based FTX, which operated one of the world’s largest international crypto exchanges as well as a separate and much more limited venue called FTX US that said it complies with the act.
Now just because the NYSD AG was probing FTX doesn't mean they actually found anything - after all, as we all know, the "effective altruist" and generous Democratic donor that is SBF was protected by powerful political interests - and as BBG adds, it’s unclear whether prosecutors in Manhattan reached any conclusion in their probe before FTX collapsed. That put the federal investigation into a new trajectory, the people said.
They knew what FTX was up to.
-
How Easy Money Fueled the FTX Crypto Collapse
https://mises.org/wire/how-easy-money-fueled-ftx-crypto-collapse
The collapse of the crypto exchange FTX may prove to be a canary in the coal mine of the easy-money-fueled crypto bubbles. FTX’s collapse has exposed just how little due diligence is actually taking place among investors, who are apparently willing to put large amounts of cash in whatever looks like the hottest new thing and promises—without convincing evidence—big-time returns.
Indeed, FTX seems to be a textbook example of how many investors are easily hoodwinked by media narratives about the latest investment genius who has magically discovered some new way of delivering unprecedented returns.
The “genius” in this case is Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), a thirty-year old MIT grad who ran FTX into the ground and had placed control of his clients’ money in the hands of a small number of friends with virtually no real experience, knowledge, or scruples about how to responsibly manage funds. Financial record keeping and reporting at the company were haphazard at best.
The calculations will be murky for a while, but it now looks like FTX has “lost” at least $1 billion to $2 billion of client funds, not to mention billions of dollars in investments in the company that evaporated. Much of it was probably just stolen. But it’s difficult to guess at this point because FTX didn’t bother to put together an accounting department. FTX’s new CEO reports that the state of the company’s financial management is worse than Enron’s.
Easy money allowed FTX to take in money. When interest rates went up, FTX came crashing down.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried and the Pandemic Industrial Complex
https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/sam-bankman-fried-and-the-pandemic
The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried and his fraudulent cryptocurrency empire at FTX is news at its most entertaining. Who doesn’t love the story of a bigshot billionaire revealed to be an outright fraud? It’s black-and-white. FTX owes billions in debt and doesn’t actually own a dime of the assets it claimed. Game over.
At first blush, the story seems simple. A con man cynically convinced a bunch of gullible financiers that he was a an eccentric young visionary and a really great guy, and he ran off with the dough.
But take a closer look at the mainstream coverage, and you’ll realize there’s far more to this story than a classic financial fraud. In fact, the puff pieces from mainstream outlets about SBF and the causes he was funding—most notably, the pandemic planning industry—even after his empire was revealed to be an outright fraud, are the clearest instance we’ve seen of the modern political machine in all its cynicism.
Both the New York Times and the Washington Post ran articles portraying SBF as a more-or-less honest businessman with a big heart who got tangled up in a bad situation. This is, of course, wildly inaccurate. From the very beginning, SBF had no intention of engaging in honest business. He never owned a dime of the assets he said he did. And in an incredible interview with Vox, he essentially admitted that there were never any good intentions behind his “philanthropic” contributions.
Sam Bankman-Fried donated a lot to pandemic industrial complex.
But it’s the Washington Post article titled “Before FTX collapse, founder poured millions into pandemic prevention” that’s most astonishing. As Jeffrey Tucker has documented, the Washington Post gushes over the tens of millions of dollars that SBF had donated to the pet left-wing cause of “pandemic prevention”:
FTX-backed projects ranged from $12 million to champion a California ballot initiative to strengthen public health programs and detect emerging virus threats (amid lackluster support, the measure was punted to 2024), to investing more than $11 million on the unsuccessful congressional primary campaign of an Oregon biosecurity expert, and even a $150,000 grant to help Moncef Slaoui, scientific adviser for the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” vaccine accelerator, write his memoir.
…Ok. But all that money was stolen.
Leaders of the FTX Future Fund, a spinoff foundation that committed more than $25 million to preventing bio-risks, resigned in an open letter last Thursday, acknowledging that some donations from the organization are on hold.
-
'FTX May Just Be the Tip of the Iceberg,' Posobiec and Darren Beattie on the 'Collapse of Crypto'
https://humanevents.com/2022/11/21/jack-posobiec-and-darren-beattie-talk-collapsing-crypto-company-ftx
On the Sunday Special episode of Human Events Daily, host Jack Posobiec spoke with Darren Beattie of Revolver News to discuss collapsing company FTX and how President Trump was early in warning about the dubious nature of the cryptocurrency market.
"Trump was very explicitly opposed to cryptocurrencies and called it a scam and he may end up very well being vindicated by this," Beattie said. "Actually yes, I remember I remember specifically when he tweeted that out, Posobiec agreed. "I guess it was a couple of years ago now."
Trump, who has reinstated to Twitter on Saturday by CEO Elon Musk, tweeted a warning about crypto early in its inception and said, "I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior."
Posobiec noted how the crypto market boomed in 2020.
FTX is just the start of the domino effect.
Posobiec noted that FTX looked like an "intelligence operation" and a "money laundering operation" that left its customers out to dry.
"FTX may just be the tip of the iceberg," Beattie said.
"And you know, we can look at it and say this is a big scam, which it obviously is," Beattie added.
"It can be a scam and a money laundering operation at the same time and you really have to look at some of these things and why they're allowed to continue for as long as they are," Beattie said. "And you kind of get to the root of the scam."
-
Seen in a news article this morning (sorry, no link):
Maxine Waters blowing Bankman-Fried a kiss in what looks to be the House chambers.
And all of a sudden, Maxine doesn't want to talk about it. :lmao:
-
Seen in a news article this morning (sorry, no link):
Maxine Waters blowing Bankman-Fried a kiss in what looks to be the House chambers.
And all of a sudden, Maxine doesn't want to talk about it. :lmao:
The democrats and the media (I repeat myself) don't seem to want to talk about it. If hey do, they downplay the corruption aspect, and try to spin it as the dangers of crypto instead.
-
"You're An Absolute Fraud": CME CEO Terry Duffy Recalls First Meeting Sam Bankman-Fried In March 2022
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/youre-absolute-fraud-cme-ceo-terry-duffy-recalls-first-meeting-sam-bankman-fried-march-2022
CME Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy has been the talk of social media today, after a podcast appearance with CNBC's Guy Adami and Dan Nathan began making its rounds on Monday morning.
Among other topics discussed on the podcast was Duffy recalling his first meeting with Sam Bankman-Fried, which took place in March 2022.
Ole' Terry's senses from days of being in the pit are still sharp as can be. He pegged FTX for a fraud before the company blew up - and told Bankman-Fried as much to his face, as he called on the podcast.
Duffy says he was approached by SBF at a conference who told him he wanted to compete with CME in crypto. Instead, Duffy says he offered to give SBF his crypto franchises in exchange for working together. "Let me be your risk manager. I'll clear it so that I know it's done properly," Duffy says he told SBF.
CME Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy knew Sam Bankman-Fried was a fraud.
-
How Money From Gates And FTX Bought Scientific Silence
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/how-money-gates-and-ftx-bought-scientific-silence
Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,
Looking back, it’s utterly bizarre how the world of science could have gone so silent even as the world locked down and lives were shattered by the billions by governments the world over. The silence was deafening. We went from a March 2, 2020, letter signed by 800 public health experts associated with Yale University—which warned against quarantines and closures—to a strange disappearance of nearly all clear voices a few weeks later. And so things stood for the better part of two years.
Governments were allowed to create vast carnage based on a novel experiment with absolutely no precedent in history and no scientific literature that backed it. Even the World Health Organization’s pandemic plan included nothing like lockdowns as a solution to a widespread pathogen. At the time, it was obvious to me and others that the silence was due not to broad agreement with the policies but to something else.
That something, sad to say, was money.
We are more and more discovering the heightened role that the crypto exchange FTX played in funneling money to major public health outposts and academics at Johns Hopkins and Stanford University, as well as its family connections to the Columbia University department of public health. And before that funding spigot opened up, there was the Gates Foundation which had clearly pivoted from seemingly nonpartisan research to full support for the lockdowns.
How FTX controlled science.
-
REVEALED: FTX crypto bro SHOWERED media orgs Vox, ProPublica, Intercept, Semafor and more with investment money
https://thepostmillennial.com/revealed-ftx-crypto-bro-showered-media-orgs-vox-propublica-intercept-semafor-and-more-with-investment-money
In addition to being a major donor to the Democrat Party during the 2021-22 election season, disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was a major donor to several liberal media outlets, including ProPublica, Vox, The Intercept, The Law and Justice Journalism Project, and the recently launched Semafor, leading to speculation about their ability to objectively report on FTX.
"They all took it," Human Events Daily's Jack Posobiec noted on Twitter, "and none of them broke the story."
As Semafor launched in October, Reuters reported that "The platform said it has so far raised $25 million from investors including David Bradley, owner of The Atlantic magazine; Jessica Lessin, founder of technology website Information; and cryptocurrency exchange FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried."
That was only a few short weeks before FTX collapsed. Customers made a run on the exchange to withdraw their deposits, only to find that the company did not actually have it. FTX is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the state of Delaware, and Semafor is out a whole bunch of money.
After Semafor published an article about disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's relationship with Elon Musk, indicating that despite Musk's claim that his "bullshit meter was redlining," Musk pointed out that their reporting was perhaps not entirely on the up-and-up where FTX was concerned.
Sam Bankman-Fried donated to leftist groups. Among them are ProPublica and The Intercept.
-
REVEALED: FTX crypto bro SHOWERED media orgs Vox, ProPublica, Intercept, Semafor and more with investment money
https://thepostmillennial.com/revealed-ftx-crypto-bro-showered-media-orgs-vox-propublica-intercept-semafor-and-more-with-investment-money
Sam Bankman-Fried donated to leftist groups. Among them are ProPublica and The Intercept.
This is REALLY starting to reek of another "Clinton Foundation"-type slush fund/shakedown masquerading as a legitimate operation solely in front of the rubes it was bilking.
-
At least $300 million was looted by Bankman-Fried family from FTX — and it’s not clear what will get paid back
https://nypost.com/2022/11/23/300-million-was-looted-from-ftx-unclear-if-it-will-get-paid-back/
Sam Bankman-Fried’s family extracted at least $300 million from his failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and questions are raging whether there’s still more looting to be uncovered — and whether the ill-gotten gains will ever get paid back.
While the 30-year-old Bankman-Fried has cultivated a scruffy, do-gooder image, bankruptcy documents show that FTX raised some $421 million from investors — only to have $300 million siphoned off by him and his family, some of which was used to fund purchases of premier residences.
At the time, Bankman-Fried told investors the cashout was a partial reimbursement of money he’d spent to buy out rival Binance’s stake in FTX a few months earlier, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Last week, FTX’s new CEO John J. Ray said in a court filing that “only a fraction” of FTX’s digital assets have been located and secured. Ray also has accused Bankman-Fried of working with Bahamian regulators to “undermine” the US bankruptcy case and shift assets overseas.
$300 million is the tip of the iceberg. Sam Bankman-Fried used the money buy expensive houses.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried ran FTX like ‘personal fiefdom’ as firm spent $300M on luxury real estate
https://nypost.com/2022/11/22/sam-bankman-fried-ran-ftx-like-personal-fiefdom-as-firm-spent-300m-on-luxury-real-estate/
Sam Bankman-Fried treated FTX like a “personal fiefdom,” as he and a handful of associates looted the now-defunct crypto exchange’s coffers to fund an epic spending spree that included a $300 million splurge on Bahamas real estate, lawyers for the company claimed.
FTX’s bankruptcy team detailed the wild spending under 30-year-old Bankman-Fried in a closely watched court hearing on Tuesday — revealing rampant mismanagement by top executives until the platform collapsed with more than $1 billion in client funds missing.
Attorneys said the $300 million spent on real estate was mostly used to buy mansions and beachfront vacation properties for Bankman-Fried and other senior FTX executives.
The purchases went undisclosed during a months-long media blitz in which the scruffy-looking Bankman-Fried, typically dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, portrayed himself as a socially conscious benefactor for Democrats and progressive causes.
Sam Bankman-Fried used FTX as his personal piggy bank. He was donating to leftist causes. He is a robber baron.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Called to FTX Hearing by Texas Securities Regulator
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/11/29/sam-bankman-fried-called-to-ftx-hearing-by-texas-securities-regulator/
Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been called to a Feb. 2 hearing to answer to claims from a Texas regulator that FTX US offered unregistered securities products through its yield-bearing service.
The Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) scheduled the administrative hearing, accusing Bankman-Fried’s company of securities violations in Texas, although the disgraced CEO is no longer running the company he founded, which is now mired in bankruptcy proceedings. The board, which sent a registered letter to Bankman-Fried’s address in the Bahamas informing him of the hearing, suggested the proceedings could be conducted over Zoom.
FTX Capital Markets LLC is registered as a dealer with the board, and “Texans were able to buy and sell publicly traded stock through the firm,” according to the hearing notice that was dated Nov. 22. The state regulator is seeking a cease-and-desist order for FTX to halt securities fraud in the state, to return money to affected investors and to target Bankman-Fried with fines.
Sam Bankman-Fried has to answer to Texas regulators.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Addresses Withdrawals, FTX Collapse in Newly Released Audio Interview
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/29/sam-bankman-fried-addresses-withdrawals-ftx-collapse-in-newly-released-audio-interview/
Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire blew up in spectacular fashion at the beginning of this month, and questions continue to swirl around the motives and mechanics that caused crypto exchange FTX and its sister company, Alameda Research, to collapse.
Among the more unprecedented elements of the FTX saga has been the fact that Bankman-Fried, who was raised by two lawyers, can’t seem to keep his mouth shut despite mounting legal threats.
After cryptic tweet threads and a viral DM exchange with a Vox reporter in which he said “f**k regulators” and admitted that his philanthropic identity was largely manufactured for PR reasons, Bankman-Fried’s actual voice is being heard for the first time post-FTX collapse with newly released audio from Tiffany Fong – a crypto investor-turned-whistleblower who initially gained attention for leaking audio that showed Celsius Network, the now-bankrupt crypto lending platform, planned to use a cynical “crypto-based solution” to repay users of its Earn Lending platform.
In a phone call with Fong on Nov. 16 – several days after FTX filed for bankruptcy protection – Bankman-Fried rehashed many of the same defenses and rationalizations for his behavior that he had shared previously in other places to explain what went wrong. In general, Bankman-Fried’s defense was (and continues to be) that he greatly mistook how leveraged he was.
Sam Bankman-Fried is a conman.
-
Beto O’Rourke Returned $1 Million Donation From Former Crypto Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried
https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/29/beto-orourke-returned-1-million-donation-from-former-crypto-billionaire-sam-bankman-fried/
Beto O’Rourke’s Texas gubernatorial campaign returned a $1 million donation from former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried four days before election day, according to the Texas Tribune.
The O’Rourke campaign decided to return Bankman-Fried’s donation on Nov. 4 and the decision was reportedly unrelated to the former crypto billionaire’s business scandals, a spokesman told the Texas Tribune. The spokesman said the campaign chose to return the funds because O’Rourke had not talked to Bankman-Fried before the large donation, which was unsolicited and took them by surprise.
Beto out here with more integrity than media outlets that took FTX grant money pic.twitter.com/CnbKJzyD0J
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 29, 2022
During the fundraising cycle spanning July 1 to Sept. 29, Bankman-Fried was the campaign’s top donor with the $1 million contribution, Texas Tribune reported at the time. O’Rourke’s campaign raised $77 million overall and received seven figure sums from three other donors, including Democratic megadonor George Soros, the Tribune noted. At one point, he broke a four month Texas fundraising record, hauling in $27.6 million over four months, his campaign announced in July.
Sam Bankman-Fried donated money to Beto O'Rourke.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried says he’s not to blame for FTX collapse: ‘Didn’t ever try to commit fraud’
https://nypost.com/2022/11/30/ftxs-sam-bankman-fried-didnt-ever-try-to-commit-fraud/
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, attempted to distance himself from suggestion of fraud in his first public appearance since his company’s collapse stunned investors and left creditors facing losses totaling billions of dollars.
Speaking at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorkin at what he said was against the advice of his lawyers, Bankman-Fried said that he did not knowingly commingle customer funds on FTX with funds at his proprietary trading firm, Alameda Research.
The liquidity crunch at FTX came after Bankman-Fried secretly moved $10 billion of FTX customer funds to Alameda Research, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. At least $1 billion in customer funds had vanished, the people said.
Bankman-Fried told Reuters the company did not “secretly transfer” but rather misread its “confusing internal labeling.
My BS meter shot up. :bs:
-
Inside FTX’s wild spending: All-expense trips, packages by private jets and free massages
https://nypost.com/2022/11/30/wild-ftx-spending-included-all-expense-trips-and-free-massages/
FTX executives spent wildly and showered workers with lavish perks such as free food and massages, and Amazon deliveries by private jet in the months before the cryptocurrency site’s catastrophic collapse, according to former employees.
FTX’s headquarters in the Bahamas featured daily catering “in addition to the free groceries, barbershop pop-up and bi-weekly massages,” a former worker told the Financial Times.
Workers also enjoyed a “full suite of cars and gas covered for all employees [and] unlimited, full expense covered trips to any office globally,” the ex-employee added.
Since Amazon does not deliver to the Bahamas, FTX reportedly chartered private planes to fly their orders from Miami to the company headquarters. FTX’s US branch was given $200 per day toward DoorDash food delivery.
Former employees expressed shock over the extent of the spending under FTX’s disgraced founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, who has drawn sharp criticism in bankruptcy court for using the company as his “personal fiefdom.”
Where did all that money go?
-
FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried claims he only has $100K left in bank account
https://nypost.com/2022/11/30/sam-bankman-fried-claims-he-only-has-100000-left-in-his-bank-account/
The crypto bro has gone crypto broke.
Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried claims he has just $100,000 left in his bank account after the implosion of his cryptocurrency empire.
The remarks Monday marked Bankman-Fried’s first attempt to explain his current personal wealth during intense scrutiny over his handling of FTX’s finances. The firm’s new leaders have condemned Bankman-Fried’s management of the company as they navigate a disastrous bankruptcy.
“Am I allowed to say a negative number?” Bankman-Fried told Axios regarding his personal finances. “I mean, I have no idea. I don’t know. I had $100,000 in my bank account last I checked.”
“It’s complicated. Basically everything I had was just tied up in the company,” Bankman-Fried added.
More money is socked away somewhere.............
-
Bankman-Fried’s Money Tied to Major Media Outlets, Bringing ‘Journalistic Integrity’ Into Question
https://www.theepochtimes.com/bankman-frieds-money-tied-to-major-media-outlets-bringing-journalistic-integrity-into-question_4893131.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried gave millions to various media outlets throughout 2022 via his family-run nonprofit, “Building a Stronger Future.” The major companies that received funding include Vox, ProPublica, Semafor, and The Intercept.
In some cases, donations appear to be crucial to the viability of the recipients.
In a leaked letter to staff members, Roger Hodge, editor-in-chief of The Intercept, acknowledged that there was now a “significant hole” in the company’s budget. According to Hodge, the company received $500,000 a few months ago.
“Another $250,000 was due in December, with $3.25 million to follow over the next two years.”
Downplaying the potential conflict of interest, Hodge heaped praise on his reporters in the letter: “I also knew our reporters would never pull their punches because of a donation—and they didn’t.” He adds that The Intercept disclosed Bankman-Fried’s donation in its reporting on the FTX story.
Sam Bankman-Fried donated money to news media. So much for integrity.
-
Has Miami-Dade renamed FTX-Arena yet?
I'd go with the Goosh-Arena. You know... the sound that a toilet makes when it's flushing.
-
Bankman-Fried Discusses Democrat Donations, Relationship With Ukraine, and More
https://www.theepochtimes.com/bankman-fried-discusses-democrat-donations-relationship-with-ukraine-and-more_4895240.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport
Political Donations
“I donated about the same amount to both parties,” Bankman-Fried told Fong when asked about his political donations.
The crypto exchange founder’s political donations have been widely publicized in recent weeks, with numerous outlets reporting that Bankman-Fried personally donated almost $40 million to Democratic candidates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, outdone only by Democrat mega-donor George Soros.
“All my Republican donations were dark,” he said, meaning that they weren’t disclosed publicly. “And the reason was not for regulatory reasons; it’s because reporters freak the [expletive] out if you donate to a Republican because they are all super liberal.
Relationship to Ukraine
“I wish I could’ve pulled that off,” Bankman-Fried joked, referencing a popular internet theory that FTX and Ukraine were colluding to launder humanitarian donations.
In March, FTX and Ukraine partnered to set up a donation platform to facilitate crypto payments to the National Bank of Ukraine.
This partnership catalyzed speculations, which obtained substantial reach, being covered by Fox News anchor Jesse Waters.
:bs:
Commingling FTX Client Funds
Toward the end of the interview, Fong pressed Bankman-Fried on the misuse of user funds. Various news organizations, including The Wall Street Journal, reported that Bankman-Fried’s crypto investment company Alameda Research had tapped into FTX customer funds to finance reckless trading ventures.
When asked how FTX funds ended up on Alameda’s balance sheet, he stuttered through a lengthy response and eventually answered that it ultimately came down to a “large margin position,” meaning that Alameda was making investments with loaned capital. Pressed to explain further, the former billionaire suggested that appropriating customer funds to margin accounts is “sort of the norm” for derivatives exchanges, implying that Alameda Research was simply fulfilling the role of a very large customer.
Then, referring to the general decline in crypto assets this year, Bankman-Fried noted that a “hyper-correlated crash” diminished the value of Alameda’s collateral and made it impossible to come up with sufficient funds to pay back the loans.
Conman.
Here are the interviews by Tiffany Fong.
Full First Interview With Sam Bankman-Fried
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DezodR9hNI
Second Interview with SBF: FTX User Funds on Alameda, $8 billion hole, CZ, Run on the Bank, Remorse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP54LZB3WRw
-
Earth to Reporters: Why Is No One Asking SFB What Happened to the $3.3 Billion He Borrowed?
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/12/earth-to-reporters-why-is-no-one-asking-sfb-what-happened-to-the-3-3-billion-he-borrowed.html
Disgraced crypto chief Sam Bankman-Fried has been talking to reporters, including at the New York Times (the famed Andrew Ross Sorkin Dealbook interview), the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Despite the fact that it’s generally seen as a very bad idea to say anything about your past conduct when you are a litigation target, and likely for a criminal case, and SBF has said his lawyers are opposed to talking to the press, SBF is nevertheless swanning about on his media tour.
Even though SBF got a bit of pushback from Sorkin on the question of co-mingling of funds when SBF tried playing, “Oh it was sort of allowed and anyway things were a mess,” he and other reporters didn’t probe very hard once they got his next layer of excuses: “Oh I didn’t mean to do anything bad, I don’t have access to records any more and my memory is fuzzy, and I really didn’t have anything to do with Alameda.”
Here is the Financial Times’s recap from over the weekend:
Core to Bankman-Fried’s account of how FTX ended up with a roughly $8bn shortfall of client assets was excessive lending by the exchange to Alameda, which ploughed the money into venture capital investments and doomed bets on digital tokens.
Bankman-Fried deflected the FT’s questions about the excessive borrowing and soured investments that ultimately sank Alameda, blowing a hole in FTX’s finances, and would not be drawn on the legal consequences he may face. He said he deliberately avoided getting involved in Alameda’s trading and risk management to avoid conflicts with his position as chief executive of FTX, and neglected to monitor the risk they posed to the exchange.
Got that? $8 billion hole at the hedge fund Alamada. We are supposed to believe that the was the result of FTX lending to Alamada and then Alameda doing stoopid things that burned up a lot of dough. Oh, and even though SBF is responsible for (at best) crappy controls at FTX that allowed Alameda, we are also supposed to believe SBF’s claims that he was not involved in what was happening at Alameda.
Where does all the billions go? :???: Sam Bankman-Fried keeps talking.
-
Alameda's Caroline Ellison Spotted In NY Amid Speculation She Is About To Roll On SBF After Hiring Iconic Clinton Lawyer
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/alamedas-caroline-ellison-spotted-ny-amid-speculation-she-about-roll-sbf-after-hiring
As Sam Bankman-Fried enters day six of his whirlwind media tour in which he makes one or more daily appearances - against the advice of his lawyers - in hopes of convincing someone that he was too dumb to be a criminal mastermind with billions in crypto in cold storage and in bank accounts in Dubai and Singapore (luckily all his wire transfers can be traced), also known as the Simple Jack defense...
So today was day one of @SBF_FTX "i am too dumb to be a criminal mastermind" world tour.
Join us tomorrow for day two when he channels Simple Jack next to Janet Yellen and Zelenskyy at the NYT summit of totally non-criminal folks.
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 30, 2022
... the weakest link in SBF's defense was just spotted in a New York coffee shop, amid speculation she is preparing to blow up SBF's entire defense strategy.
According to Autism Capital, the former CEO of Alameda Capital (which as a reminder was ground zero of the FTX implosion after it blew up $8 billion in FTX client funds on trades gone horribly wrong), Caroline Ellison, was spotted at 8:15am this morning at the Ground Support Coffee on West Broad in SoHo Manhattan. This, as AC notes, "would mean she is not in Hong Kong and is in NY not in custody."
Caroline Ellison has hired lawyer from WilmerHale.
-
Stranger and stranger it seems. I wish some of the investors could get at least some of their money back, but I'm not seeing it.
I did hear that some of the dems who benefitted from FTX funds are willing to give 'some' of it to charity ... charity. Why not give it back to an escrow account that could be divided among vicitims?
KC
-
...Why not give it back to an escrow account that could be divided among vicitims?
KC
Because that would defeat the purpose of the scam in the first place.
-
FTX's Bankman-Fried Hires Ghislaine Maxwell's Defense Attorney
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ftxs-bankman-fried-hires-ghislaine-maxwells-defense-attorney
While FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been doing the 'simple jack' routine in recent interviews, saying at last week's DealBook conference "I don’t personally think that I have [criminal liability]," his recent legal move suggests otherwise.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that SBF has hired white collar defense attorney Mark S. Cohen to represent him, as US authorities probe the implosion of SBF's crypto exchange. Cohen, a former assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, recently defended Ghislaine Maxwell in her sex trafficking trial.
Regulators around the world, including in the Bahamas where FTX is domiciled, as well as in the United States, are looking into FTX's top executives at the time of its collapse. FTX filed for bankruptcy last month following a liquidity crisis that caused roughly $1 billion of customer funds to evaporate, after secretly transferring customer funds to its affiliate, Alameda Research, to try and plug the hole before its collapse.
Sam Bankman-Fried keeps talking and has hired Mark S. Cohen.
-
New FTX CEO Testimony ‘False,’ Bankman-Fried Says
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/12/05/new-ftx-ceo-testimony-false-bankman-fried-says/
Testimony from the new FTX chief executive John J Ray III is “false,” founder of the now-defunct crypto exchange Sam Bankman-Fried said in an interview with The Block.
In a bankruptcy deposition made Nov. 17, restructuring specialist Ray berated poor record-keeping and untrustworthy financial information at FTX, which had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on Nov. 11.
In an interview released Monday, Bankman-Fried referred to “statements that have been made, that have been put on legal record that I knew to be false.”
“There have been cases where it's been said XYZ did not exist, and I am staring at a copy of XYZ, ” Bankman-Fried added. Bankman-Fried has also previously said that he has had only “limited access to data” since stepping down as CEO.
:bs:
-
2-hour sit-down with Sam Bankman-Fried on the FTX scandal
https://www.theblock.co/post/192005/2-hour-sit-down-with-sam-bankman-fried-on-the-ftx-scandal
The 2 hour interview with Sam Bankman-Fried.
-
‘Call him Sam Bankman Fraud’: FTX investors who lost up to $2M lash out
https://nypost.com/2022/12/06/ftx-investors-who-lost-up-to-2m-lash-out-at-sam-bankman-fried/
Evan Luthra says he lost more than $2 million when the FTX cryptocurrency exchange imploded last month. And he feels doubly injured seeing disgraced founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried making the media rounds, stating that he had no idea about the “huge management failures” and “accounting f–k-ups” that led to the collapse.
That Bankman-Fried has been holding court from what appears to be a stately home in the Bahamas, where he resides untouched by American law enforcement, is like salt on the wound.
“SBF is rubbing it in on us,” Luthra, a 27-year-old investor/entrepreneur who lives in Mexico and India, told The Post. “[Bankman-Fried] knows what he did is a crime. He is rubbing it in and, through the media narrative he’s spinning, trying to pin it as a mistake. I have no doubt that he knew what was going on. He should be in jail.”
At the Nov. 30 DealBook Summit, Bankman-Fried said: “I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone.”
FTX is smoke and mirrors.
-
FTX Crypto Fraudsters Targeted Poor Black Neighborhoods In PR-Lobbying Effort
https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/ftx-crypto-fraudsters-targeted-poor
In the spring of 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, made Chicago its U.S. headquarters, drawing the applause of the city’s mayor.
“This is a mechanism and a tool to bring traditionally underrepresented and ignored populations into the world of crypto so they can take ownership and control of their own financial destiny,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the opulent, 9,000 square foot FTX headquarters in May. “I think the sky is the limit.”
The reason FTX.US chose Chicago was, in part, to use the city to pilot a cash giveaway program aimed at poor African American residents. FTX was essentially contributing to two ”guaranteed basic income” programs, one run by a nonprofit called Equity And Transformation (EAT), and the other by the city.
Ostensibly a charitable exercise, the program, which FTX also ran in Florida, expanded the market for FTX’s app, and appears to have been a crucial part of a public relations and lobbying effort aimed at winning the support of Democrats for FTX’s agenda to effectively regulate itself.
FTX opened its US headquarters in Chicago.
The episode is a cautionary tale about how powerful financial interests use progressive social justice ideology to advance their business interests at the expense of the communities they claim to be helping.
“We, like most nonprofits, are shocked by this because they presented this ‘effective altruism’ model to everyone and seemed to push for racial equity,” said Richard Wallace, the co-founder and executive director of EAT, one of the cash-giveaway initiatives.
-
Sam Bankman-Freed: Maxine Waters Won't Subpoena Prominent Democrat Donor To Testify At Tuesday Hearing On FTX Implosion
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/sam-bankman-freed-maxine-waters-reportedly-will-not-subpoena-former-ceo-testify-tuesdays
Just when you thought House Democrat, and easily one of the smartest people in Congress, Maxine Waters couldn't humiliate herself and outrage the peasantry any further with her white-glove treatment of Sam Bankman-Fried, whose fraud was behind the largest ponzi scheme since Bernie Madoff, she has bested herself once more.
Waters, the House Financial Services Committee Chair, is not planning on subpoenaing Sam Bankman-Fried, or is that Sam Bankman-Freed - to testify at the upcoming December 13th Congressional hearing about the collapse of FTX.
"Waters informed committee members of her decision at a private meeting Tuesday with Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler on Capitol Hill," CNBC reported late in the day on Wednesday.
Waters apparently said "she wants committee staff try to convince Bankman-Fried to voluntarily testify".
Makes you hmmmmmmmmm.
-
Sam Bankman-Freed: Maxine Waters Won't Subpoena Prominent Democrat Donor To Testify At Tuesday Hearing On FTX Implosion
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/sam-bankman-freed-maxine-waters-reportedly-will-not-subpoena-former-ceo-testify-tuesdays
Makes you hmmmmmmmmm.
Not really. Business as usual, actually...
:popcorn:
-
Did Sam Bankman-Fried Finally Admit the Obvious?
https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2022/12/08/did-sam-bankman-fried-finally-admit-the-obvious/
Despite the focus on FTX following its catastrophic collapse, it’s remarkable how little we know about how the crypto exchange and its in-house trading firm Alameda Research actually operated. New CEO John Jay Ray III has called Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto trading empire the “greatest failure of corporate controls” he’s seen.
Wednesday, Coffeezilla, a YouTuber with a rising star who has made a career of shining a light on sketchy projects in and out of crypto, pressed Bankman-Fried for information related to how different customer accounts were treated at the exchange. It turns out, there wasn’t much differentiation – at the very least during the final days the exchange was in business, Bankman-Fried admitted.
This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk's daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here.
"At the time, we wanted to treat customers equally,” SBF said during a Twitter Spaces event. “That effectively meant that there was, you know, if you want to put it this way, like fungibility created” between the exchange’s spot and derivatives business lines. For Coffeezilla, this looks like a smoking gun that fraud was committed.
Sam Bankman-Fried keeps talking. :mental:
-
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in Bahamas, US expected to request extradition, authorities say
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-arrested-bahamas-us-expected-request-extradition-authorities-say
Sam Bankman-Fried, disgraced founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX was arrested in the Bahamas Monday, authorities said.
Bahamian authorities said Bankman-Fried’s arrest came after the United States filed charges against him and was likely to request extradition.
"The Bahamas and the United States in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law," Prime Minister Philip Davis said in a statement.
"While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere."
Sam Bankman-Fried is under arrest in The Bahamas.
-
FTX's Bankman-Fried appears to fall asleep during court hearing where he does not agree to extradition: report
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/ftx-bankman-fried-appears-fall-asleep-court-hearing-where-he-does-not-agree-extradition-report
Disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried appeared to doze off during a hearing in the Bahamas in which he did not agree to being extradited to the U.S.
Bankman-Fried had previously been expected to accept an extradition agreement on Monday. The former billionaire is on trial for multiple charges of fraud related to his handling of the FTX cryptocurrency trading market.
Bankman-Fried spoke to the judge, Magistrate Shaka Serville, only twice during the hearing, first to greet him and again to confirm he wanted to speak with his U.S. counsel, Reuters reported Monday.
Reports say that at one point in the hearing, Bankman-Fried leaned back in his chair and had his eyes closed for an extended period. One of the court officials appeared to jostle him awake.
Sam Bankman-Fried requested to be extradited back to America. He now has walked back his extradition to America.
-
Ex-girlfriend of FTX founder 'has a choice to make' as she reportedly cooperates with officials: Marc Litt
https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/ex-girlfriend-ftx-founder-choice-make-she-reportedly-cooperates-officials-marc-litt
The girlfriend of disgraced FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried reportedly cooperated with federal officials, it was revealed, shortly after he was arrested in the Bahamas in connection with the collapse of his crypto empire.
Former U.S. attorney Marc Litt, who was involved in prosecuting Bernie Madoff, joined "Fox & Friends Weekend" Sunday to discuss the report alleging Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison worked with officials in relation to the charges.
"It wouldn't surprise me at all," Litt told Will Cain regarding the report. "She was the CEO of a company that seems to be intimately involved in the alleged fraud, and she's… in the cross-hairs of the government… and she's got a choice to make."
"There's a little bit of a race to the prosecution at this point because the government needs cooperators," he continued. "It's in her interest to spin her narrative and tell her story before everybody else that the government talks to, points the finger at her, so she has every incentive to cooperate and get the benefits of cooperation."
Caroline Ellison was CEO of Alameda Research. She could get more people arrested.
-
FTX’s Bankman-Fried Gave Ex-Jane Street Traders Who Formed Modulo Capital $400M
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/12/19/ftxs-bankman-fried-gave-ex-jane-street-traders-who-formed-modulo-capital-400m/
When a spreadsheet listing Sam Bankman-Fried’s venture investments was published by the Financial Times earlier this month, a couple of lines stood out. They showed the former cryptocurrency kingmaker’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, had invested a total of $400 million into a company called Modulo Capital.
Though this amounted to one of Bankman-Fried’s largest venture capital bets, Modulo’s identity was a mystery, giving rise to plenty of speculation. Was it a Brazilian fund manager with a nearly identical name (besides an accent mark over the first letter O)?
No. It’s a multi-strategy hedge fund founded early this year by two former Jane Street traders and one developer, a person familiar with the matter told CoinDesk.
Modulo Capital did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Bankman-Fried or former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison.
Sam Bankman-Fried gave money to Modulo Capital. Modulo Capital is also based in The Bahamas. The headquarter is in the same condo where Sam Bankman-Fried and company lived.
-
With Binance, Everything Is Not Fine
https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2022/12/19/cz-binance-crypto-exchange-red-flags-cnbc-ftx/
The current state of Binance can be summed up nicely in meme form:
(https://cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/2JIVAKG42NEDDHRVDY6IN2LDSM.jpeg)
CoinDesk - Unknown(Twitter)
In reality, everything is most definitely Not Fine.
Back in 2019 – when Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was still golden and FTX was on the up-and-up – Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, invested in the now-defunct crypto exchange’s series A. Last year, it exited that transaction after SBF bought out its stake for $2.1 billion.
That $2.1 billion payment, according to Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, was received through a combination of BUSD, BNB, FTT and IOUs (presumably – only half-kidding).
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao runs Binance, which is the largest crypto exchange. Trouble is brewing at Binance and could go the way as FTX.
-
With Binance, Everything Is Not Fine
https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2022/12/19/cz-binance-crypto-exchange-red-flags-cnbc-ftx/
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao runs Binance, which is the largest crypto exchange. Trouble is brewing at Binance and could go the way as FTX.
I can't say I'm especially sorry - or surprised, really - to read this...
I must be just too racist or something... :shucks:
-
I'm really glad I never invested in crypto. I never could wrap my head around it and because of that I refused to buy any.
I feel bad for those who did buy into it. I hate to see people lose money.
KC
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Reportedly Set for Extradition to the U.S.
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/12/20/sam-bankman-fried-reportedly-set-for-extradition-to-the-us/
Former CEO of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried has signed the necessary paperwork to begin the extradition process, reports the New York Post, citing Doan Cleare, the acting commissioner of corrections at Fox Hill Prison in The Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried is set to appear in court on Wednesday morning to continue the extradition process.
CNBC reported that Bankman-Fried will fly to the U.S. the same day, also citing Doan Cleare.
Now, Sam Bankman-Fried wants to be extradited to America.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX wined and dined top regulator official at ritzy DC restaurant, emails show
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-washington-dc-emails-crypto
EXCLUSIVE — Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former FTX CEO facing prison time, wined and dined a top government regulator official at a swanky Washington, D.C., restaurant with his FTX colleagues while lobbying for friendly industry regulations, emails show.
On Oct. 5, 2021, Bankman-Fried, FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller, and then-FTX President Brett Harrison went to dinner at the luxury Indian restaurant Rasika West End with Dan Berkovitz, who at the time was a commissioner for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, one of several agencies that regulate cryptocurrency, according to emails obtained by the watchdog Protect the Public's Trust and shared with the Washington Examiner.
It remains unclear what was discussed at the dinner, which occurred while Bankman-Fried was lobbying the CFTC to amend trading rules that would have given FTX more freedom and power over the cryptocurrency world. The former CEO courted the CFTC to back a proposal that would let FTX customers borrow trading money — which some officials reportedly supported secretly even though some regulators lamented it would destabilize markets.
Sam Bankman-Fried dined with government regulators at a swanky restaurant. It was with U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
What did they know about FTX? How much did they know about FTX?
-
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried handed over to US authorities, en route to New York
https://nypost.com/2022/12/21/sam-bankman-fried-handed-over-to-us-authorities-heading-to-ny/
Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried left the Bahamas Wednesday night after he was transferred to US custody, prosecutors said.
Bankman-Fried boarded a flight to New York, where he will face fraud and other criminal charges related to the rapid implosion of his cryptocurrency exchange company FTX, Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams announced.
The alleged fraudster, who is being prosecuted by the Southern District of New York, will likely appear in front of federal judge Thursday.
Bankman-Fried took off from Nassau’s Odyssey Airport and video from Bahamian media shows he was escorted to a private runway by a long police motorcade shortly before 7 p.m.
Sam Bankman-Fried is heading to New York to face charges.
-
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried handed over to US authorities, en route to New York
https://nypost.com/2022/12/21/sam-bankman-fried-handed-over-to-us-authorities-heading-to-ny/
Sam Bankman-Fried is heading to New York to face charges.
He agreed to be extradited because he was in a rat-infested, filthy Bahaman jail, with lotsa attention by Bubba. He'll be in a regular condo, much like that in which Martha Stewart had her vacation. :whatever:
-
Alameda's Caroline Ellison, FTX's Gary Wang Plead Guilty to DOJ 'Fraud' Charges, Also Settle With SEC, CFTC
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/12/22/alameda-chief-caroline-ellison-ftxs-gary-wang-plead-guilty-to-fraud-charges/
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty to charges tied to FTX's collapse, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams announced Wednesday night.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also announced charges against the two, saying Ellison manipulated the price of FTT, an exchange token issued by FTX, at exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s direction.
The two are cooperating with investigators, Williams announced. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) did not specify what the two were being charged with. Court records were not immediately available.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with eight crimes by the SDNY earlier this month after he was arrested in Nassau. The charges include money laundering, wire fraud, securities fraud, and campaign finance violations. He is being extradited to the U.S., Williams confirmed in his statement, saying that the FTX founder was in FBI custody and would appear in court "as soon as possible."
Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang have pleaded guilty.
-
Binance Faces Heavy Scrutiny as $22 Trillion Worth in Hidden Trades Are Found
https://www.theepochtimes.com/binance-faces-heavy-scrutiny-as-22-trillion-worth-in-hidden-trades-are-found_4933332.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport
Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, is under heavy scrutiny as $22 trillion worth in hidden trades were found, according to a recent report.
The exchange is currently attempting to drum up confidence after a surge in customer withdrawals and a massive drop in the value of its digital token, BNB, has it facing a reliability crisis
An assessment of Binance’s corporate filings conducted by Reuters in a special report shows that the primary component behind the growth of its massive Binance.com exchange, which has facilitated trades worth over a total value of $22 trillion this year, has been mostly concealed from public view.
Binance said that due to its strong financial position they have been able to manage net outflows of $6 billion over 72 hours last week without “breaking stride” and that they take their “responsibility as a custodian seriously,” reported Reuters.
Binance have some unexplained $22 trillion worth of trades. Trouble is brewing at Binance.
-
This hole just keeps getting deeper. Sounds like they're going to need more shovels.
KC
-
Bankman Freed: "Broke" SBF Released On $250 Million Bond, Agrees To House Arrest In Parents' House
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/caroline-ellison-throws-sbf-under-bus-pleads-guilty-fraud-agrees-cooperate-doj
Update (1330ET): After spending nine days in Bahamian jail, Sam Bankman-Fried arrived in a Manhattan federal courtroom to face fraud charges over the collapse of FTX. Handcuffed and dressed in a blue suit, he appeared at a bail hearing after entering a plea ahead of the hearing.
JUST IN: SBF escorted out of courthouse after posting $250 million bail. pic.twitter.com/rUDyaMWnjD
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) December 22, 2022
And then the shocker came: SBF - who is arguably the biggest flight risk in US criminal history - will be released on $250 million bond after consenting to a bail package that include a $250 Million bond, house arrest at his parent's house in Palo Alto, location-monitoring, and the surrender of his passport.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos, Bankman-Fried was responsible for perpetrating a “fraud of epic proportions.” However, he chose to allow for bail given that Bankman-Fried opted to waive extradition; furthermore, according to prosecutors the $250MM is the "largest-ever pre-trial bond" although in SBF's case it is just more stolen client funds. That means it won't be a problem to procure it even though just two weeks ago Sam claimed he only has $100,000 left to his name.
*BANKMAN-FRIED'S $250 MILLION BAIL BOND APPROVED BY JUDGE IN NY
Remember: always steal enough customer money to have a quarter billion in a secret bank account to post bail
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 22, 2022
When agreeing on the bail, US Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein said that "the risk that Bankman-Fried would flee was small" and said he presented no danger to the public in terms of future financial crimes.
As part of his bail agreement, besides his monetary penalty, Bankman-Fried will have to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, and be disallowed from leaving the Northern District of California. Judge Gabriel Gorenstein added that Bankman-Fried would require “strict” supervision during his stay.
Sam Bankman-Fried had $250 million bail imposed. It was paid. He is to live with his parents, who paid his bail.
-
Caroline Ellison Plea Agreement: $250,000 Bail, Surrender of Travel Documents, Forfeiture of Assets
https://www.minclaw.com/get-removed-shesahomewrecker-com/
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison will not be allowed to leave the continental United States, and must forfeit any proceeds derived from the commission of the offenses she has been charged with, according to a recently unsealed plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York.
She will also need to pay restitution of an amount determined by the court.
The plea agreement was first obtained by New York's Inner City Press, a publication that covers court proceedings in the city's federal court.
The agreement states that if Ellison fully cooperates with the SDNY's investigation, as well as any other law enforcement agency designated by the office, she won't be further prosecuted criminally except for possible criminal tax violations with regard to the wire and commodity fraud charges that resulted from commingling funds between FTX and Alameda accounts. The deal does not guarantee that other agencies will not pursue prosecution at a later date.
A court would need to agree to the plea deal for it to be in effect.
Caroline Ellison has pleaded guilty. She cannot leave America and must surrender any travel documents and assets derived from the commission of the offenses.
-
Secret Backchannel Between White House and FTX Operative Revealed, Raises Serious Questions About Biden Involvement
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/12/24/secret-backchannel-between-white-house-and-ftx-operative-revealed-raises-serious-questions-about-biden-involvement-n678403
Sam Bankman-Fried, the man at the center of the FTX scandal, is back on US soil after having been extradited from the Bahamas to face federal charges. Naturally, because our justice system is about as coherent as a two-year-old quoting Shakespeare, the notorious fraudster was immediately granted bail and is now spending the holidays with his family. The American oligarchy is alive and well.
But I digress, there’s a lot more to the FTX scandal than just Bankman-Fried’s fate, and one of the more interesting aspects of the entire ordeal is just how close many Democrats were to him. In fact, according to Politico, a Democrat operative and close advisor to Bankman-Fried named Sean McElwee had a direct backchannel setup with the White House.
Sean McElwee had a Slack channel at DataForProgress “that became a rolling convo between McElwee, Biden Admin officials, & some well-known reporters” & “the day after FTX filed for bankruptcy & SBF resigned as CEO, McElwee abruptly shuttered the channel.”https://t.co/dufXMNGCty pic.twitter.com/O2ZXi5iZrx
— Jerry Christmas 🎅🏼🎄 (@JerryDunleavy) December 22, 2022
That slack channel, which reportedly contained ongoing conversations between McElwee and administration officials (as well as “well-known reporters”) was promptly shut down when Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO. Moreover, McElwee is also a co-founder of Data for Progress and only began negotiating his exit from the organization after FTX collapsed in on itself. If everything was above board, then why would Data for Progress feel the need to cut ties so quickly?
The White House had a back channel with FTX.
-
Secret Backchannel Between White House and FTX Operative Revealed, Raises Serious Questions About Biden Involvement
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/12/24/secret-backchannel-between-white-house-and-ftx-operative-revealed-raises-serious-questions-about-biden-involvement-n678403
The White House had a back channel with FTX.
The "Big Guy"? Never.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried’s family pays $10K a week for armed security, sources say
https://nypost.com/2022/12/27/ftxs-sam-bankman-fried-pays-10k-a-week-for-armed-security/
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Amid death threats and sudden global infamy, accused FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried and his parents have turned their posh Stanford home into a heavily guarded fortress.
The family is shelling out roughly $10,000 a week to have a private Bay Area security firm patrol the leafy, 3,000-square-foot residence with several armed guards working around the clock, sources told The Post.
“They’re nervous,” one source said. “There have been death threats. They’re not taking any chances.”
Sam Bankman-Fried has made a lot of enemies.
-
FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried Borrowed From Alameda to Buy Robinhood Shares
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/12/27/ftxs-sam-bankman-fried-borrowed-from-alameda-to-buy-robinhood-shares/
Former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from Alameda Research to purchase his stake in trading app Robinhood Markets (HOOD), according to court documents.
In an affidavit provided to a Caribbean court before his arrest, Bankman-Fried said he and FTX co-founder Gary Wang together borrowed over $546 million from Alameda via promissory notes in April and May. They used that money to capitalize Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd., the shell corporation that in May bought a 7.6% stake of Robinhood.
The affidavit provides a new curveball in the three-way race to lay claim to the 56 million Robinhood shares. Crypto lender BlockFi, FTX Group and Bankman-Fried himself have all attempted to lay claim to the shares, which could be worth over $440 million.
Sam Bankman-Fried wanted to buy stake in Robinhood.
-
FTX Users Sue for Priority Repayment and Damages in Bankruptcy Proceedings
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/12/28/ftx-users-sue-for-priority-repayment-and-damages-in-bankruptcy-proceedings/
A group of FTX users are asking a U.S. court to make sure they are the first to get repaid in the crypto exchange's bankruptcy proceedings, court filings from Tuesday show.
A class-action lawsuit filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the same court where the cryptocurrency exchange filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November) accuses former FTX executives of intentionally misappropriating customers' funds to fund risky strategies and a lavish lifestyle in the Bahamas "in direct violation of FTX’s own customer agreements and terms of service."
"FTX executive defendants failed to institute any corporate controls and were therefore able to cause, direct or allow the misappropriation of billions of dollars in customer funds and digital assets deposited or held worldwide at FTX," the filing says.
A class action lawsuit has been filed against FTX in hopes of getting their money back.
-
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried expected to enter plea next week
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-expected-enter-plea-next-week
Former cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried is slated for an arraignment on Jan. 3, 2023, wherein he is expected to enter a plea in connection with criminal fraud charges he faces over the collapse of FTX.
The digital currency witnessed a near-complete collapse in late November, with investors simultaneously attempting to withdraw their stakes in the firm, leaving it unable to fully remunerate them. Reports quickly emerged of missing assets and suspicious transfers to FTX's sister firm, hedge fund Alameda Research.
The Department of Justice announced in December that it was investigating a multi-million dollar hack of the company that occurred shortly after FTX filed for bankruptcy.
Sam Bankman-Fried is to be arraigned on January 3, 2023 and enter a plea.
-
SBF Was Meeting With Senior White House Officials Shortly Before FTX Collapse
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/sbf-met-senior-white-house-officials-ftx-collapse
FTX founder and accused crypto-crook Sam Bankman-Fried met with senior White House officials on at least four occasions in the months leading up to his firm's massive implosion, Bloomberg reports.
On Sept. 8, SBF met with senior Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti in a previously unreported encounter, White House officials familiar with the matter said. The meeting was "the latest in a handful of sessions," according to the report.
Bankman-Fried had at least three others previously disclosed in White House visitor logs. They include one April 22 and another May 12, each with Ricchetti, and one a day later, on May 13, with Bruce Reed, another senior Biden aide, officials confirmed. The final meeting is recorded in logs as two meetings held back-to-back, but was one meeting, officials said. Some of the prior White House meetings included others from FTX. -Bloomberg
What's more, Bankman-Fried's brother, Gabriel, held a March meeting of his own and was also at the May 13 meeting - bringing the total number up to five meetings that involved one or bother brothers.
What did they know about Sam Bankman-Fried?
-
SBF Was Meeting With Senior White House Officials Shortly Before FTX Collapse
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/sbf-met-senior-white-house-officials-ftx-collapse
What did they know about Sam Bankman-Fried?
I'm pretty sure they wangled 10% out of SBF for the "Big Guy."
-
I'm pretty sure they wangled 10% out of SBF for the "Big Guy."
Probably gave s/h/it the same advise that Solendra got when they made off with THAT "investment" capital...
-
Regulators in the Bahamas Are Holding $3.5 Billion in FTX Customer Assets
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/12/30/regulators-in-the-bahamas-are-holding-35-billion-in-ftx-customer-assets/
The Securities Commission of the Bahamas has taken custody of FTX deposits valued at more than $3.5 billion as of Nov. 12, according to a media release published late Thursday by the SCB.
Shortly after FTX filed for bankruptcy, about $372 million worth of tokens were stolen from the exchange by an unknown actor thought to be an external hacker. Given media reports of a cyberattack on FTX, and possible looting of FTX-controlled wallets by former employees, the Commission said in its statement it "determined that there was a significant risk of imminent dissipation as to the digital assets under the custody or control of [FTX] to the prejudice of its customers and creditors."
Assets will be held until the Bahamas Supreme Court directs the Commission to deliver them to the customers and creditors who own them, the statement says.
Bahamas regulators are holding over $3.5 billion. Lots of money just gone.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads ‘Not Guilty’ to Fraud, Conspiracy Charges
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/03/sam-bankman-fried-pleads-not-guilty-to-fraud-conspiracy-charges/
NEW YORK – Sam Bankman-Fried will go to trial in October.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York ruled on a tentative date for the anticipated weeks-long trial during the former FTX executive’s arraignment in the Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday afternoon. Bankman-Fried, who stands accused on eight different counts including wire fraud and campaign finance violations, pleaded not guilty to all charges via his lawyer at the opening of the hearing.
The former CEO of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange made his second appearance in a New York courthouse on Tuesday. Bankman-Fried's first appearance last week resulted in him being released on a personal recognizance bond and, shortly after, flying back to his parents' home in California. His not guilty plea today was expected, according to an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal.
Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads ‘Not Guilty’ to Fraud, Conspiracy Charges
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/03/sam-bankman-fried-pleads-not-guilty-to-fraud-conspiracy-charges/
Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty.
After all the time he spent telling everyone he messed up on a national scale ... I don't think this will fly very well.
KC
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads ‘Not Guilty’ to Fraud, Conspiracy Charges
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/03/sam-bankman-fried-pleads-not-guilty-to-fraud-conspiracy-charges/
Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty.
Does anyone ever plead guilty anymore? Especially in financial crimes, it seems hope for lesser charges/mistrial/plea deal/whatever springs eternal.
-
Does anyone ever plead guilty anymore? Especially in financial crimes, it seems hope for lesser charges/mistrial/plea deal/whatever springs eternal.
I think most of the time the lawyers on both sides want to cut a deal. They want the perp to plead guilty or no contest or whatever flavor of the month they have in exchange for reduced charges. Depending on the situation, charging the perp one or more felonies unless he pleads guilty to a couple of lesser charges.
Those lawyers don't want to go to trial unless they have to. It's too much work. :whatever:
-
I think most of the time the lawyers on both sides want to cut a deal. They want the perp to plead guilty or no contest or whatever flavor of the month they have in exchange for reduced charges. Depending on the situation, charging the perp one or more felonies unless he pleads guilty to a couple of lesser charges.
Those lawyers don't want to go to trial unless they have to. It's too much work. :whatever:
Not to mention both sides get to claim a 'victory' for their resumes.
KC
-
Does anyone ever plead guilty anymore? Especially in financial crimes, it seems hope for lesser charges/mistrial/plea deal/whatever springs eternal.
On that topic.
Bernie Madoff went to jail to avoid mob hit: new Netflix docuseries
https://nypost.com/2023/01/03/netflix-docuseries-madoff-the-monster-of-wall-street-out-wednesday/
The day in December 2008 when FBI agents put Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff in cuffs will be remembered for generations — and not just by the people who lost everything.
The numbers were staggering. A whopping $19 billion, all gone, stolen from more than 40,000 investors — the New York Mets, Larry King, Kevin Bacon, hospitals, colleges, pension funds — over more than two decades.
Now, a new Netflix docuseries tells the rest of the story. According to Joe Berlinger, director of the four-part “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street,” out Wednesday, Madoff had also been managing “a significant chunk” of money for international organized crime,
That’s why the New York native, who died in jail in 2021 at the age of 82, was so willing to take the rap, as well as the 150-year prison sentence that followed, Berlinger said. Madoff felt no remorse — his guilty plea was just one last selfish act. He was trying to stay alive.
-
FTX lawyer tied to poker scandal reportedly flipped on Sam Bankman-Fried
https://nypost.com/2023/01/05/daniel-friedberg-flips-on-ftxs-sam-bankman-fried/
Daniel Friedberg — the former FTX “chief regulatory officer” who was tied to a notorious online poker cheating scandal — has reportedly flipped on Sam Bankman-Fried and has been cooperating with the feds in the epic crypto fraud case.
Friedberg, a member of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle and key legal adviser at FTX, met with investigators on Nov. 22 and detailed how the disgraced founder used customer funds “to finance his business empire,” Reuters reported on Thursday, citing a source with knowledge of the matter.
The former FTX lawyer reportedly has also dished to the feds about his conversations with other top executives about the user of customer funds, as well as the inner workings of Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Friedberg’s involvement at FTX triggered alarm bells after The Post and others reported the details of his behind-the-scenes work for UltimateBet – a defunct poker site that collapsed after executives were discovered to have used a software exploit dubbed “God mode” to bilk players out of tens of millions of dollars from 2005 through 2008.
Daniel Friedberg has turned on Sam Bankman-Fried.
-
On that topic.
Bernie Madoff went to jail to avoid mob hit: new Netflix docuseries
https://nypost.com/2023/01/03/netflix-docuseries-madoff-the-monster-of-wall-street-out-wednesday/
I call bullcrap, Netflix.
If any organization has consistently demonstrated time and again that the prison systems of the United States are their own, private hunting preserves, it would be the mafia. Either Netflix is pulling that little tidbit out of the place all DUmmies go to for their "facts", or Madoff is an honest to Dog legend in his own mind.
-
FTX says it has recovered over $5B, but customer losses still unknown
https://nypost.com/2023/01/11/ftx-says-over-5b-recovered-but-customer-losses-unknown/
Crypto exchange FTX has recovered more than $5 billion, but the extent of customer losses in its collapse is still unknown, an attorney for the bankrupt company founded by Sam Bankman-Fried said Wednesday.
The company, which was valued a year ago at $32 billion, filed for bankruptcy in November and US prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of orchestrating an “epic” fraud that may have cost investors, customers and lenders billions of dollars.
“We have located over $5 billion of cash, liquid cryptocurrency and liquid investment securities,” Andy Dietderich, an attorney for FTX, told a US bankruptcy judge John Dorsey in Delaware at the start of Wednesday’s hearing.
Dietderich also said that the company plans to sell non-strategic investments that had a book value of $4.6 billion.
The tip of the iceberg.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Blogs Like a Crypto Robin Hood, but in Court He's Not So Charitable
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/12/sam-bankman-fried-blogs-like-a-robin-hood-but-in-court-hes-not-so-charitable/
Sam Bankman-Fried’s surprise Substack post Thursday included these charitable lines: “Nearly all of my assets were and still are utilizable to backstop FTX customers,” he wrote. “I have, for instance, offered to contribute nearly all of my personal shares in Robinhood to customers.”
It sounds like the British folk hero and outlaw of the same name, Robin Hood, who stole from the rich to give to the poor. As Bankman-Fried tells it on Substack, FTX users can have the stake in trading app Robinhood – worth about $450 million, though now seized by the U.S. Department of Justice – that he bought. A nice gesture, surely, as their money remains locked up.
But the swashbuckling hero’s tale is darker in court. In a Jan. 5 document filed with the Delaware bankruptcy court, Bankman-Fried resisted an attempt to transfer the 56 million Robinhood Markets (HOOD) shares to the estate of FTX – arguing both that he needed the funds to pay for his criminal defense and that FTX couldn’t prove he'd acquired the stock fraudulently.
Built on lies.
-
FTX reports $415 mln in hacked crypto, Bankman-Fried says FTX US is solvent
https://www.reuters.com/technology/ftx-says-415-million-crypto-was-hacked-2023-01-17/
Jan 17 (Reuters) - Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX said in a report to creditors on Tuesday that about $415 million in cryptocurrency had been stolen in hacks.
FTX has said it had recovered over $5 billion in crypto, cash and liquid securities, but that significant shortfalls remained at both its international and U.S. crypto exchanges. FTX attributed some of the shortfall to hacks, saying that $323 million in crypto had been hacked from FTX's international exchange and $90 million had been hacked from its U.S. exchange since it filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.
Indicted founder Sam Bankman-Fried later challenged aspects of the company's report in a blog post.
There is likely billions hidden.
-
How Social Media Influencers Fed Bankman-Fried's Cult of Personality
https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/01/18/how-social-media-influencers-fed-bankman-frieds-cult-of-personality/
Did you know many of the biggest financial and money YouTubers who promoted FTX worked with the same talent agency?
As we witness the collateral damage caused by FTX unfold and the federal criminal charges against the crypto exchange’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried stack up, many are asking how so many
people fell for this Ponzi-like scam. As with any "successful" financial scheme, FTX was a confidence game – and the game only works if the "players" are duped into thinking things are safe.
Enter FTX’s promoters and pumpers.
Celebrities including centi-millionaire financier Kevin O'Leary, football star Tom Brady and basketball stars Steph Curry and Shaquille O'Neal all attached their images to FTX. Larry David played a crypto-skeptical curmudgeon in a much applauded FTX Super Bowl ad last year. Many of these well-known names are now facing a class-action lawsuit.
As actor Ben McKenzie has repeatedly said about his peers who used their fame to advertise for crypto projects, if you convince someone to buy into a Ponzi scheme, you’ve participated in a Ponzi scheme. Selling a cryptocurrency called “ethereumMAX” is not the same as posing for Pepsi Max photoshoots.
However, there is another group of people who need pointing out: social media influencers. In an age of bifurcated attention, where people are more likely to be watching YouTube than network television, micro-celebrities can have an outsized influence on their audience. That’s part of the reason FTX sponsored so many so-called creators, especially on YouTube.
Many of the most famous finance and money social media influencers were collaborating to push FTX, working under the same umbrella of the little-known social influencer company called Creators Agency. And yes, I do mean collaborating.
Creators Agency was founded by Apple Crider, Erika Kullberg and Eric Kullberg. Apple and Erika met at FinCon – a place where financial YouTubers congregate and learn how to recruit people to the products they hawk. Or as the event's tagline states, FinCon is "where money and media meet." According to Apple, Creators Agency are creators' "partners in crime," helping them with whatever they need, Erika said. It offers talent management services and claims to help creators go viral.
Celebrities and social media influences were at it pushing FTX. They worked for the same talent agency, Creators Agency. They got paid by Sam Bankman-Fried.
-
FTX scandal rocks Florida school district; victims may include high school teens
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/ftx-scandal-rocks-florida-school-district-victims-may-include-high-school-teens
As prosecutors and FTX's bankruptcy trustee comb through the wreckage of Sam Bankman-Fried’s ill-fated crypto empire, many questions remain unanswered.
Among the biggest: How did the man known and respected in the crypto industry as "SBF" commit what government officials believe was a multiyear fraud? Who else aided and abetted in the alleged scheme, where billions of dollars in customer money from his FTX exchange were looted to cover losses from an affiliated hedge fund?
Finally, and maybe most confounding to those who know Bankman-Fried: How could someone so seemingly virtuous, making heaps of money and giving lots of it away to dozens of charitable organizations, pull off what appears to be one of the most egregious financial crimes of the century?
The mystery of how Bankman-Fried went from saint to sinner may never be fully answered, of course. But it continues to stun people in places where you might expect it to, including his colleagues in the crypto industry who tell FOX Business they had no idea that FTX was built on a house of cards and run by an alleged crook.
FTX even affected high schools in Florida.
Some unlikely people and places are also grappling with what seems to be the dual realities of Bankman-Fried. It's hard to imagine that the school district of Broward County, Florida, would be mired in the controversy surrounding the FTX implosion. Yet the district and students who were on the receiving end of SBF's charitable efforts find themselves in the middle of the mess — and possibly in the crosshairs of FTX's bankruptcy trustee John Ray III, FOX Business has learned.
Broward County and its involvement with the SBF ecosystem at first seems insignificant to the magnitude of the alleged fraud and shock waves it has sent throughout the $1 trillion crypto industry. As much as $8 billion of customer money missing from supposedly safe accounts, used to finance unrelated activities, makes the fraud one of the biggest since Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme more than 20 years ago. The notion that a key figure in crypto looted billions of dollars in purportedly safe client money added more uncertainty to a market that has lost half of its value since 2021.
The FTX collapse will certainly drive more regulation that could crush digital asset values further. SBF, for his part, has been arrested and charged with eight counts of fraud and faces up to 115 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.
Some knew something was not right.
The hackathon has also become an increasingly ugly political issue in Broward County. Red Broward, a local conservative-leaning blog, has detailed the SBF connections to the hackathon as part of the continued dysfunction in the leadership of the Broward County school district, which has seen its share of state-mandated turnover for alleged ethical lapses.
Last week at a public board meeting, Chris Nelson, a local conservative political activist who refers to himself as an independent journalist, directly confronted Hixon.
"Students were awarded scholarships through this and now because of the bankruptcy they may not get these scholarships," he said. "What do you have to say about this? Do you feel that there is any responsibility on you for having promoted this thing? You and your friend Barbara Miller were promoting this thing."
Long read. Worth reading. What did they know about Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX?
-
Lawyers Seek To Question Bankman-Fried's Parents About Their Wealth; Goldman, JPM Revealed As FTX Creditors
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/lawyers-seek-question-bankman-frieds-parents-about-their-wealth-goldman-jpm-revealed-ftx
With the public court of opinion having long ago convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried - even as several notable holdouts such as Bill Ackman and Andrew Ross-Sorkin remain - attention is now turning to his just as "effectively altruistic" parents. According to a court filing by bankrupt FTX, SBF's parent should be forced to answer questions and provide financial documents about their personal wealth and any money they may have gotten from the 30-year-old scammer.
As Bloomberg notes, FTX asked a judge for permission to question under oath Bankman-Fried’s family and a handful of the company’s former top executives as part of a hunt for hidden assets that could be used to repay creditors owed billions of dollars. Or not so hidden: as a reminder in November it was revealed that SBF's disgraced "progressive" parents - Stanford University law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried (who on her bio says she has "written extensively on questions of distributive justice, in the areas of tax policy, property theory and political theory" which apparently means using her son's stolen money to buy herself beachfront mansions) - purchased at least one $16.4 million beachfront "vacation home" in the gated Bahamas community of Old Fort Bay.
The court filing shows "the aggressive approach that FTX advisers are taking to recover any money that Bankman-Fried may have inappropriately handed out." The company was heavily involved in lobbying politicians and regulators and making campaign donations to Democrats and the White House. Federal prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried with fraud for his role in the collapse of FTX, which filed for bankruptcy in November.
Incidentally, when asked by Reuters in November why the couple decided to buy a vacation home in the Bahamas and how it was paid for, a spokesperson for the professors said only that Bankman and Fried had been trying to return the property to FTX. "Since before the bankruptcy proceedings, Mr. Bankman and Ms. Fried have been seeking to return the deed to the company and are awaiting further instructions," the spokesperson said.
Some of the money went to buying property.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried's other bail-backers revealed
https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/sam-bankman-frieds-bail-backers-revealed
The identities of two individuals who helped the parents of Sam Bankman-Fried secure the disgraced FTX founder's release on a $250 million bond are now public, and both have ties to Stanford University.
Unredacted court documents released Wednesday on the orders of U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan revealed former Stanford Law School Dean Larry Kramer was the co-signer of a $500,000 bond for Bankman-Fried, and Stanford research scientist Andreas Paepcke was the guarantor of a $200,000 bond for the former crypto king.
Bankman-Fried's parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, are both professors at Stanford Law School and were revealed as their son's bail-backers upon his release from custody in late December. He is staying in their Palo Alto, California, home on house arrest as he awaits trial on several charges related to the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange.
Sam Bankman-Fried's bail was paid by Larry Kramer and Andreas Paepcke. They work at Stanford.
-
Feds Drop Campaign Finance Charge Against SBF
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/feds-drop-campaign-finance-charge-against-sbf
Federal prosecutors have dropped the campaign finance violation charge against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, after The Bahamas told the United States that it never planned to extradite SBF on campaign finance violations - which the DOJ now says would violate 'its treaty obligations to The Bahamas.'
“The Government has been informed that The Bahamas notified the United States earlier today that The Bahamas did not intend to extradite the defendant on the campaign contributions count,” US Attorney Damian Williams wrote in a Wednesday night letter filing to drop the charge. “Accordingly, in keeping with its treaty obligations to The Bahamas, the Government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count.”
The filing was made hours after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan placed a gag order on SBF after prosecutors accused him of leaking the personal writings of former girlfriend and business partner, Caroline Ellison.
Recall that SBF was charged with fraud and campaign finance violations following the collapse of his crypto exchange. He was extradited from the Bahamas to face trial in a US federal court, and has been out on a $250 million bond while awaiting trial. SBF was notably accused of making over 300 political contributions to the tune of tens of millions of dollars through straw donors and using corporate funds.
"Bankman-Fried's use of straw donors allowed him to evade contribution limits on individual donations to candidates to whom he had already donated," reads a superseding indictment.
Sam Bankman-Fried has some very compromising information.
-
Feds Drop Campaign Finance Charge Against SBF
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/feds-drop-campaign-finance-charge-against-sbf
Sam Bankman-Fried has some very compromising information.
Yep, it looks like SBF went to the Jeffrey Epstein School of Economics and Extortion. From the DOJ's POV, there are simply too many politicians and elite class Americans with too many numbered accounts in the Bahamas to play much of a game with SBF.
Let's just drop this case and move on, eh? :whatever:
-
U.S. judge sends FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried to jail over witness tampering
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/11/us-judge-sends-sam-bankman-fried-to-jail-over-witness-tampering.html
Sam Bankman-Fried will head to jail on Friday after a judge sided with a request by federal prosecutors to revoke the FTX founder’s bail over alleged witness tampering. Bankman-Fried was remanded to custody directly from a court hearing in New York.
Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Bankman-Fried’s request for delayed detention pending an appeal. Unless the appeal is successful, he is expected to remain in custody until his criminal trial, which is due to begin on Oct. 2.
“My conclusion is there is probable cause to believe the defendant tried to tamper with witnesses at least twice,” said Judge Kaplan during his ruling.
As the court marshals took Bankman-Fried into custody at the end of the hearing, the defendant took off his blazer, tie, emptied his pockets, and appeared to remove his shoes. Bankman-Fried’s parents were both in the gallery. His mother had her face buried in her hands for much of Judge Kaplan’s lengthy ruling.
Sam Bankman-Fried thought he can get away. Wrong! He must go to jail before trial.
-
It’s good to see him get put away I thought it all was going to be swept under the rug
-
It’s good to see him get put away I thought it all was going to be swept under the rug
Once in a while, the system hoses up. SBJ is an avowed leftist with big money that he throws threw at other leftists.
Maybe he won't throw so much any more.
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Complains Jail Is Refusing to Accommodate His Vegan Diet
https://www.dailyfetched.com/sam-bankman-fried-complains-jail-is-refusing-to-accommodate-his-vegan-diet/
Disgraced FTX founder and crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried has been denied vegan-friendly food while he waits for trial in prison after he pleaded not guilty to multiple charges relating to the collapse of his cryptocurrency company.
During a Manhattan federal court hearing on Tuesday, Sam Bankman-Fried attorneys said the Metropolitan Detention Center hadn’t given their client his medication for his ADHD, and he is surviving on water and bread alone due to not having access to vegan food.
“Your Honor, that’s outrageous and needs to be remedied,” Attorney Mark Cohen told a Manhattan federal judge, AP reported.
Cohen said his client was “being denied medication to focus” for his upcoming trial.
Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn said she would consider accommodating Bankman-Fried’s dietary restrictions and medical needs.
:sosad: :yawn:
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Complains Jail Is Refusing to Accommodate His Vegan Diet
https://www.dailyfetched.com/sam-bankman-fried-complains-jail-is-refusing-to-accommodate-his-vegan-diet/
:sosad: :yawn:
Worked in a couple of prisons, he don't gotta worry, there ain't no meat in that chow. :rotf:
-
He can get used to eating dick with cream sauce :-) :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Complains Jail Is Refusing to Accommodate His Vegan Diet
https://www.dailyfetched.com/sam-bankman-fried-complains-jail-is-refusing-to-accommodate-his-vegan-diet/
:sosad: :yawn:
I recall some similar complaints from Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer around the time of her trial.
Prison is already not a nice place to be, but I imagine it’s doubly bad if you’re used to living like royalty.
-
He can get used to eating dick with cream sauce :-) :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:
Oh, I'm pretty sure the bulk of his diet will consist of Poly-fill...
(https://media.tenor.com/BRvSGyNC2VYAAAAM/bite-the.gif)
-
Sam Bankman-Fried Loses Appeal To Be Released From Brooklyn Jail
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/sbfs-appeal-be-released-brooklyn-jail-denied
Less than a month after disgraced former crypto billionaire, Sam Bankman-Fried's bail was revoked and he was thrown in prison - where his vegan diet and supplies of Adderall were replaced with water, bread and peanut butter - on Wednesday afternoon the crypto fraudster who desperately tried to bribe every Democrat he could find (and almost succeeded), lost an appeal asking to released from a Brooklyn jail after complaining he cannot properly prepare for his trial over the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
In rejecting Bankman-Fried's request, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan nonetheless said it would ask the next available three-judge panel to consider it.
As we reported on Aug 11, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked Bankman-Fried's $250 million bail after finding that the former billionaire likely tampered with witnesses at least twice. Bankman-Fried quickly appealed, arguing he would be unable to "properly prepare" for his scheduled Oct. 3 trial from behind bars.
Prosecutors, who accused the 31-year-old of stealing billions from FTX customers to plug holes at his Alameda Research hedge fund - pushed for Bankman-Fried to be jailed after he shared the personal writings of Caroline Ellison, Alameda's former chief executive and his onetime romantic partner, with a New York Times reporter.
Oh well.
-
To Absolutely No One's Surprise, Sam Bankman-Fried Was Just Found Guilty On All 7 Counts In The FTX Case And Faces Over 100 Years In Prison
https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3491974/to-absolutely-no-ones-surprise-sam-bankman-fried-was-just-found-guilty-on-all-7-counts-in-the-ftx-case-and-faces-over-100-years-in-prison
SAM BANKMAN FRIED IS GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS!!!https://t.co/0CkDs6WzHgpic.twitter.com/c7XdrDV7co
— Coffeezilla (@coffeebreak_YT)November 2, 2023
BREAKING: A jury has found Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of all 7 criminal counts against him.@Kr00neyreports.https://t.co/NML57SVCdLpic.twitter.com/PccrhR0Eac
— CNBC (@CNBC)November 2, 2023
Late verdict just dropped here in New York City! Good riddance to SBF who never really had a chance this trial. It took the jury less than 5 hours to find him guilty on all seven charges, which he now faces over 100 years in prison for. I guess I don't know what is normal, but that seems outrageously quick for a case of this magnitude. This feels a little bit like justice to the tons of people that were defrauded while this guy had sex orgies in the Bahamas with his equally freak of a girlfriend who surely didn't help him at trial:
Thank god this story comes to an end and we likely never have to hear about her or Bankman-Fried ever again. I've never been more uncomfortable than reading the stories about their orgy cult that they were operating while rich beyond generations and generations of belief. And I'm no legal expert here, but it turns out his strategy of answering the prosecutor's questions in a way that he thought it should have been asked instead didn't work:
So this didn't workhttps://t.co/BbjNubvctXpic.twitter.com/cAxc7evKZv
— I'm on bluesky now (@InternetHippo)November 2, 2023
It also turns out pumping zillions of dollars into the Dems doesn't always work out in your favor in the court room either. SafeMoon is seemingly next in what is a clear notice from the government that crypto bad eggs will be dealt with to the harshest extent of the law. It's a little interesting we couldn't get footage in the courtroom, especially in the Year of Our Lord 2023 when virtually everything seems to be broadcasted, a la Depp/Heard. So the only remaining footage we'll probably have to laugh at is SBF's attempt at being a TikTokker, bragging about his grandiose wealth and status that came to as crashing of an end as is possible in this life. I say again good riddance.
Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty on all charges. He could spend the rest of his life in prison.
-
This is just a modern-day version of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years and other financial penalties. SBF probably won't get nearly 115 years, but he'll go away for a long time and be an old man when he gets out. He's only 31 now.
-
And he should go away for a very long time. And any who have the capability should be forced to pay back to those who lost.
KC