‘Dark’ donations, free love and the fall: the Sam Bankman-Fried trial is here

For several years, Sam Bankman-Fried was crypto’s rising star, a seemingly razor-sharp and legitimate figure in the largely opaque world.

As founder of the crypto exchange FTX and its associated hedge fund, Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried wooed private investors and lawmakers alike with his pitch of a crypto trading platform that was safer and more risk-averse than those that had preceded it.

As FTX boomed, Bankman-Fried’s profile rose. FTX and its leading competitor, Binance, would come to process most crypto trades around the world. By the age of 30, Bankman-Fried had amassed billions.

I see a pardon in his future regardless of sentence length.

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Sam Bankman-Fried warned by judge he may face ‘very long sentence’ if convicted

Sam Bankman-Fried, the indicted founder of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, may face a “very long sentence” if convicted at his fraud trial starting next week, the judge overseeing the case said Thursday.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s comments came just before he denied the 31-year-old former billionaire’s request to be released from jail temporarily during the trial to better help his lawyers mount his defense case. Kaplan said Bankman-Fried was a flight risk.

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How the fall of the ‘King of Crypto’ cost one British man millions

With the so-called “King of Crypto” about to go on trial for multiple fraud charges, one British man tells how the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s company lost him a fortune.

Until the final collapse, Sunil Kavuri hoped that Sam Bankman-Fried could turn things around.

The King of Crypto’s empire was faltering but while others panicked, Kavuri remained calm.

Experience in trading for banks and investing his money in crypto made him hardened to market dramas.


Going to be an interesting trial.

I thought Elizabeth Holmes got off with a fairly light sentence (11 years) despite defrauding members of the ruling class. 

Sammy may be facing worse despite greasing Democrat Party palms and his parents connections.

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Central Bank Digital Currency: Unneeded, Unwanted, and Quite Possibly Disastrous

Amidst cryptocurrency booms and innovations in blockchain technology, governments have been showing great interest in creating their own digital monetary imprint through what is called a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

According to the Atlantic Council, a NATO-aligned think tank, the number of countries investigating a CBDC has exploded from 35 pre-COVID-19 to 130 today. China, for example, has a pilot program covering over 260 million people which allows transactions for public transit, stimulus payments, and e-commerce. Russia’s “digital ruble” went into action last month as an optional currency.

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‘One of the Most Hated People in the World’: Sam Bankman-Fried’s 250 Pages of Justifications

The FTX founder wrote hundreds of pages of reflections and self-justifications while under house arrest, shedding light on how he may defend himself at his criminal trial next month.

At the end of a 15,000-word Twitter thread he never posted, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, offered a blunt assessment of his predicament.

“I’m broke and wearing an ankle monitor and one of the most hated people in the world,” he wrote. “There will probably never be anything I can do to make my lifetime impact net positive.”

He added: “And the truth is that I did what I thought was right.”


Goin away for a long time…

Or will he be pardoned after a short stint?

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Another FTX executive Ryan Salame pleads guilty

Another former FTX executive has pleaded guilty in the US in a case stemming from the dramatic collapse and bankruptcy of the once popular cryptocurrency exchange.

Ryan Salame, one of the firm’s top executives, admitted he had violated campaign finance laws and operated an illegal money-transmitting business.

He agreed to surrender more than $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to authorities.

The pleading comes ahead of the October trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

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Sam Bankman-Fried loses bid to get out of jail, appeals court will hear case

Sam Bankman-Fried on Wednesday lost his bid to be freed immediately from a Brooklyn jail so he could prepare better for his criminal trial, less than a month away, over the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

In rejecting Bankman-Fried’s request, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan nonetheless said it would ask the next available three-judge panel to consider it.

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Why Sam Bankman-Fried likely won’t get Adderall while locked up in Brooklyn jail

Jailed FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will likely have to survive without access to Adderall while behind bars at the infamous Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to federal prison guidelines.

As The Post reported earlier this week, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers whined at a hearing that he hasn’t been given his prescribed Adderall to treat his ADHD in the 11 days since he was tossed in jail to await trial in October.

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Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried complains to court that vegan prison diet of ‘bread, water and peanut butter’ is ‘outrageous’

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried cannot prepare for his trial in jail without access to computers, medications and a ‘better diet’, his lawyers told the court Tuesday.

The disgraced vegan billionaire, 31, is being fed a ‘flesh diet’ and forced to subsist on bread, water and peanut butter – which his lawyers slammed as ‘outrageous’.

His legal team also complained that the crypto whizz kid, who appeared in Manhattan Federal court on Tuesday with his legs shackled, was unable to prepare without his correct medication.

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Caroline Ellison caught on secret recording blaming Sam Bankman-Fried for FTX collapse: prosecutors

Caroline Ellison, the former girlfriend of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, was secretly recorded as she blamed her ex for a fateful decision to use customer funds to plug financial holes in the crypto giant’s failed hedge fund, according to court documents.

The recording of Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, the hedge fund through which Bankman-Fried allegedly used FTX customer funds to make risky bets, was made by an Alameda employee during an all-hands meeting on Nov. 9.

Sammy is in trouble.

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Sam Bankman-Fried is charged with using stolen customer funds to donate $100M to mostly Democratic causes during 2022 midterms

Sam Bankman-Fried used stolen customer funds to make over $100million in campaign contributions ahead of the 2022 midterms, prosecutors have claimed.

The new indictment, filed Monday, charges the 31-year-old with seven counts of conspiracy and fraud over the collapse of the exchange.

He has previously pleaded not guilty. Mark Botnick, a spokesman for Bankman-Fried, declined to comment.

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Inside the HORRIFIC conditions at MDC Brooklyn where disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be held during his trial

Inmates inside the prison where disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is to be held during his trial have previously been stuck in freezing cells with limited power for a week.

The Metropolitan Detention Center houses more than 1,600 inmates and is situated near the waterfront in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

As well as new inmate Bankman-Fried, the prison had previously held high profile individuals including R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Martin Shkreli.

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried jailed in New York; judge says crypto mogul tampered with witnesses

NEW YORK (AP) — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sent to jail Friday to await trial after a bail hearing for the fallen cryptocurrency wiz left a judge convinced that he had repeatedly tried to influence witnesses against him.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered Bankman-Fried’s bail revoked after prosecutors said he’d tried to harass a key witness in his fraud case last month when he showed a journalist her private writings and in January when he reached out to the general counsel for FTX with an encrypted communication.


The NYTimes article on the Bail Revocation fleshes out the situation a bit more as it should given their involvement.

Evidently Judges look upon witness tampering as a “Bad Thing.” In another pleasant surprise it appears the Illegal Campaign Contribution charges recently dropped due to an extradition technicality are able to be resurrected. Looks like Sammy was expendable after all.


This is the NYTimes article that got SBF’s bail revokedInside the Private Writings of Caroline Ellison, Star Witness in the FTX Case

Three months before the cryptocurrency market imploded last year, Caroline Ellison, the 27-year-old chief executive of the crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, was racked with self-doubt.

“I have been feeling pretty unhappy and overwhelmed with my job,” Ms. Ellison wrote in a Google document in February 2022. She added: “At the end of the day I can’t wait to go home and turn off my phone and have a drink and get away from it all.”

Ms. Ellison had a lot on her mind. She did not think that she was well suited to running Alameda or particularly decisive as a leader, she wrote in another Google document. She was also going through a breakup with Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire entrepreneur who had founded Alameda and then FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. They had dated on and off, and Ms. Ellison worried about “making things weird” and “causing drama.”

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Report Finds ‘Significant’ Barriers to Adoption of Central Bank Digital Currency in Canada

A government-issued central bank digital currency (CBDC) would face barriers to adoption and require “significant and sustained” investment by the Bank of Canada (BOC), according to a new report.

“As a practical matter achieving wide adoption, acceptance and use of a central bank digital currency could be challenging because most Canadians have access to several methods of payment,” said the Aug.10 report from the BOC, which was first obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

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Sotheby’s, Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber sued over Bored Ape NFTs

Sotheby’s is being sued by investors over an auction of more than 100 images of cartoon monkeys.

The 279-year-old auction house has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit alongside celebrities including Paris Hilton, Justin Bieber and Madonna who promoted Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a series of 10,000 collectible, digital monkeys.

This scam was so blatant it’s hard to believe it could be pulled off.

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