Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) ran FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that was worth $32 billion a few weeks ago. SBF has a talent for public relations.
The former CEO of FTX, portrayed himself as a young crypto genius turned prince of an industry. It seemed he was successful when other competitors were left behind. Many people from Silicon Valley to top VC’s and public figures were on board the SBF train.
It is apparent at least $8 billion in customer funds are lost. Poof. Out of thin air. These funds were used to backstop billions in losses at Alameda Research, which is the hedge fund SBF also created.
CNBC reports:
The CEO tapped to take over, John Ray III, said that “in his 40 years of legal and restructuring experience,” he had never seen “such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.” This is the same Ray who presided over Enron’s liquidation in the 2000s.
The determination of SBF going to jail or not will be if he purposefully did malicious intent. If he was truly as careless and unintelligent at handling the money as he claims, then this could be a different story. Reports have located him in either the Bahamas or Argentina.
The Bahamas Police Force Tweeted:
“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.”
For now SBf’s future in up in the air…along with the billions he burned.
Pat goes into detail on SBF and this FTX Scandal on a new episode of the PBD podcast here:
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