![]() I've listened to a bunch of his interviews and he always comes back to the same answer. Since the charges were unsealed, I've been trying to understand who Bankman-Fried really is and I decided to start at the most obvious place, the beginning of Bankman-Fried's career and his stated reason for why he wanted to make so much money. And they say he lied to customers, making false promises to users that their money was safe. Prosecutors alleged that he lied about how successful the companies he founded were, overstating their profits and covering up enormous debts. Coming up, Episode One: The Limit Does Not Exist.Īt the heart of the charges against Sam Bankman-Fried is the allegation that he sold billions of dollars from the customers who used FTX. Welcome to The Trial of Crypto's Golden Boy, a new series from The Journal. But before the trial starts, there's a lot you should know. It's set to begin in just over a week, and I'll be in the courtroom every day following the developments. The judge decided to put him behind bars before his trial. Bankman-Fried was accused of witness tampering while on bail. Did Bankman-Fried set out to commit fraud? The best chance anyone has of finding out is through his trial, which is why I was in that courtroom in August. I've spoken to his former colleagues and people who invested their life savings in FTX, and I keep coming back to the same question. Since that moment, I've been trying to figure out how Bankman-Fried got here. Before he was charged, Bankman-Fried said that he "screwed up." His spokesman declined to comment for this podcast. ![]() He was speaking at a press conference when prosecutors announced Bankman-Fried's indictment. ![]() If you mislead and deceive to take what does not belong to you, we will hold you accountable.Ĭaitlin Ostroff: That's Michael Driscoll from the FBI. It does not matter the amount of money involved. It does not matter the complexity of the investment scheme. Michael Driscoll: This case is about fraud. Last December, Bankman-Fried was arrested and charged with masterminding a multi-billion dollar fraud scheme. They seem like the type of mistakes I could see myself having ridiculed someone else for having make, like the kind of mistakes that I would've considered myself to have been above.Ĭaitlin Ostroff: But the US government alleges that the missing money is more than just a mistake. I ask myself a lot how I made a series of mistakes that seem. Sam Bankman-Fried: Yeah, I ask myself that a lot. Speaker 3: How is it possible that you overlooked this more than $5 billion problem? The crypto exchange he founded, FTX, collapsed and it was missing billions of dollars of customer money. And then last November, a series of events led to Bankman-Fried's downfall. Morgan, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg. People compared him to titans of business, J.P. He forged huge partnerships with sports stars and he won support from lawmakers, usually skeptical of crypto. Sam Bankman-Fried: More is always better, doing better is always better, and whenever there's something that you can be doing that can increase the amount that you can give, that's sort of always good.Ĭaitlin Ostroff: Bankman-Fried convinced investors to back him with billions. He said he planned to use his fortune to make the world better. He ran a huge crypto exchange called FTX and was instantly recognizable for his curly hair and uniform of shorts and a T-shirt. I report on crypto for the Wall Street Journal and Sam Bankman-Fried was the face of the industry. He had been a billionaire, a philanthropist, and a golden boy. ![]() This kind of thing happens all the time in courtrooms across America, but I never imagined it would happen to this man. Behind them, his mother tried to rush toward him, but a marshal stopped her. Two court marshals wearing black latex gloves handcuffed him. He took off his tie, his shoelaces and handed them to his lawyers. Everyone in the courtroom stood, the man began taking off his jacket. It happened seconds after the judge gave his order. I've reported on lots of court cases, but this moment was dramatic. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.Ĭaitlin Ostroff: On an August day in a New York courtroom, I saw a man handcuffed and taken to jail. This transcript was prepared by a transcription service.
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