Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried[2] (born March 5, 1992), or SBF,[3] is an American entrepreneur who was convicted of fraud and related crimes in November 2023. Bankman-Fried founded the FTXcryptocurrency exchange and was celebrated as a "poster boy" for crypto.[4] At one point, he was ranked the 41st-richest American in the Forbes 400.[5]
On November 2, 2023, in the case of United States v. Bankman-Fried, he was convicted of all seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering.[9] He was sentenced to 25 years in prison on March 28, 2024.[10][11] In addition, he was penalized 11 billion dollars.[12]
Early life and education
Bankman-Fried was born on March 5, 1992, in Stanford, California.[1][13] He is the son of Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, both professors at Stanford Law School.[1] His aunt Linda P. Fried is the dean of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.[14] His younger brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried (b. c. 1995), previously worked as a legislative assistant, Wall Street trader, and director of the non-profit Guarding Against Pandemics and its associated political action committee, which came under scrutiny by federal investigators after it was discovered that much of the US$35 million on its books had been stolen by his older brother, Sam, from Alameda Research accounts.[15][16][17] Both of his parents are also being sued by the new owners of FTX, to return assets Sam had given them, in the form of cash and a home, valued at over $32 million. His parents admit Sam gave them the assets, as gifts, but deny wrongdoing, and are in court to make their case.[18]
In September 2017, Bankman-Fried left Jane Street and moved to Berkeley, California, where he worked briefly at the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) as director of development from October to November 2017.[19][24] In November 2017, following fund injections from billionaire computer programmer Jaan Tallinn and investor Luke Ding,[25] Bankman-Fried and CEA's Tara Hedley (née Mac Aulay[26]) co-founded the quantitative trading firm Alameda Research.[19][27] As of 2021, Bankman-Fried owned approximately 90 percent of Alameda Research.[19] In January 2018, Bankman-Fried organized an arbitrage trade, moving up to $25million per day to take advantage of the higher price of bitcoin in Japan compared to the United States.[19][24] After attending a cryptocurrency conference in Macau in late 2018, he moved to Hong Kong.[19][28]
Bankman-Fried founded the FTX cryptocurrency derivatives exchange in April 2019; it opened for business the following month.[19] In September 2021, Bankman-Fried and the entire senior staff of FTX moved from Hong Kong to the Bahamas.[29][30]
Bankman-Fried was included on the 2021 list Forbes 30 Under 30,[31] but was also included on Forbes 2023 Hall of Shame list, featuring ten picks the publication wishes it could take back.[32][33]
On December 8, 2021, Bankman-Fried, along with other industry executives, testified before the Committee on Financial Services about regulating the cryptocurrency industry.[34][35] On May 12, 2022, it was disclosed that Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd., which was majority owned by Bankman-Fried, had bought 7.6 percent of Robinhood Markets stock.[36][37] In a November 2022 affidavit before the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court,[38] and prior to his arrest, Bankman-Fried said he and FTX co-founder Gary Wang together borrowed over $546million from Alameda Research in order to finance Emergent Fidelity Technologies' purchase of Robinhood Markets stock.[39]
In September 2022, it was reported that Bankman-Fried's advisors had offered on his behalf to help fund Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter.[40] According to messages released as part of the lawsuit between Twitter and Musk during the latter's acquisition of Twitter, on April 25, 2022, investment banker Michael Grimes wrote that Bankman-Fried would be willing to commit up to $5billion.[41] No investment actually took place when Musk finalized the acquisition.[42] Bankman-Fried invested $500million in Anthropic[43] and more than $500million in venture capital firms, including $200million in Sequoia Capital, itself an investor in FTX.[44] Sequoia published a "glowing" profile of Bankman-Fried, which it subsequently removed after the solvency crisis at FTX.[45][46]
In July 2023, allegations emerged that Bankman-Fried had considered "purchasing" the island country of Nauru to use as a bunker in the event of an apocalyptic event, in what has been described as a "misguided and sometimes dystopian" project.[47][48]
He was a member of Giving What We Can and donated around half of his Jane Street salary to charity.[53] In June 2022, he signed the Giving Pledge;[54] his name was removed from the list in December 2022 following his arrest.[55]
Bankman-Fried is the founder of Future Fund, whose team included Scottish philosopher and author William MacAskill, one of the founders of the effective altruism movement. After the collapse of FTX, all members of Future Fund simultaneously resigned.[56] As of September 1, 2022, Future Fund stated it had committed around $160million to 110 non-profits.[57][a]
The stated reason for FTX's relocation to the Bahamas was the friendly regulatory environment,[59] and Bankman-Fried openly discussed paying off the country's $9billion national debt.[60] In November 2022, Bankman-Fried participated in an interview with Vox writer Kelsey Piper over Twitter private messages. He said that his and his company's advocacy for crypto regulation was not sincere and was "just PR", adding that regulators "make everything worse" and "don't protect customers at all".[61] On his "ethics stuff", he agreed it was "mostly a front" and described ethics as a "dumb game we woke Westerners play where we say all the right shibboleths and so everyone likes us".[61] He later claimed to have been referring to ESG, CSR, and greenwashing, as opposed to effective altruism, bed nets, and pandemic prevention.[62][63]
In November 2022, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao revealed on Twitter that his firm intended to sell its holdings of FTT, FTX's token,[64] which triggered a spike in customer withdrawals from FTX that FTX was unable to fulfill.[65][66] Binance received $529million worth of FTT as part of a sale of its equity in FTX in 2021.[67] Zhao published his tweet soon after a report from CoinDesk stating that the bulk of the holdings of Alameda, Bankman-Fried's trading firm, were in FTT.[67] Bloomberg and TechCrunch reported that any sale by Binance would likely have an outsized impact on FTT's price because of the token's low trading volume.[68][69] The announcement by Zhao of the pending sale and disputes between Zhao and Bankman-Fried on Twitter led to a decline in the price of FTT and other cryptocurrencies.[70] Shortly before, Zhao had criticized Bankman-Fried's lobbying efforts.[71]
On November 8, Zhao announced that Binance had entered into a non-binding agreement to purchase FTX due to a liquidity crisis at FTX.[72][73] Zhao stated that Binance would complete due diligence soon and that all crypto exchanges should avoid using tokens as collateral.[74][75] He also wrote that he expected FTT to be "highly volatile in the coming days as things develop". On the day of the announcement, FTT lost 80 percent of its value.[76] On November 9, The Wall Street Journal reported that Binance had decided not to acquire FTX.[77] Binance cited reports of FTX's mishandling of customer funds and pending investigations of FTX as the reasons the firm would not pursue the deal.[78] Amid the crisis, Bankman-Fried was no longer a billionaire, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[79] The very next day, Bloomberg reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission were investigating FTX and the nature of its connections to Bankman-Fried's other holdings.[80]
On November 11, 2022, FTX, Alameda Research, and more than 130 associated legal entities declared bankruptcy.[81]
Anonymous sources cited by Reuters stated that, earlier in 2022, Bankman-Fried had transferred at least $4billion from FTX to Alameda Research without any disclosure to the companies' insiders or the public. The sources said that the money transferred included customer funds and that it was ostensibly backed by FTT and shares in Robinhood.[82][83] An anonymous source cited by The Wall Street Journal stated that Bankman-Fried had disclosed[where?] that Alameda owed FTX about $10billion, which was secured through customer funds held by FTX when FTX had, at the time, $16billion in customer assets.[84] According to anonymous sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, the Chief Executive of Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, told employees that Bankman-Fried was aware that FTX had lent its customers' money to Alameda to help it meet its liabilities.[85]
Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO of FTX on November 11, 2022, and was immediately replaced by John J. Ray III, who from 2004 to 2009 had chaired the effort to recover Enron assets for creditors through litigation against numerous banks in the Enron Bankruptcy case.[86] FTX and related entities filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on the same day.[81]
One day after FTX declared bankruptcy, on November 12, Bankman-Fried was interviewed by the Royal Bahamas Police Force.[87] On November 17, Ray stated in a sworn declaration submitted in bankruptcy court that according to the firm's records, Alameda Research had lent $1billion to Bankman-Fried, adding, "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information."[88][89]
In the testimony Bankman-Fried had prepared to present in December 2022 to the House Financial Services Committee, he maintained that "[FTX] is solvent" but he was "pressured" by FTX general counsel and former partner at the Sullivan & Cromwelllaw firm, Ryne Miller, to declare bankruptcy. He also implied that the managing team and the law firms managing the bankruptcy were using the Enron precedent in an effort to reap inordinately large amounts of fees from the process.[90] After his arrest and imprisonment, he did not testify in Congress; John J. Ray III testified instead.[91]
Earlier that day, the Southern District of New York had charged Bankman-Fried with "wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering." Philip Davis, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, commented on the arrest that "the Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law ... [W]hile 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".[8][92][93] Braden Perry, a former senior trial lawyer at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, opined that a conviction on any of the charges might result in a prison sentence of years or even decades.[94][95]
After being held at Fox Hill Prison in Nassau for ten days, Bankman-Fried consented to his extradition from the Bahamas to the United States to face charges.[96][97] He was allowed to remain free on a $250million bond, the largest such bond ever set in an American criminal proceeding. Among the conditions was that he would stay at his parents' home in California.[98]
On January 3, 2023, Bankman-Fried pled "not guilty" to fraud and the other charges.[99][100]
On February 1, 2023, the judge presiding over his case, Judge Lewis Kaplan, tightened the bail conditions and forbade Bankman-Fried from contacting current or former employees of FTX without attorneys present. The restriction was imposed as Judge Kaplan considered his contact with a potential witness as a "material threat of inappropriate contact with prospective witnesses",[101] and hinted Bankman-Fried might deserve to be jailed pending trial.[102]
Four additional criminal charges levied against Bankman-Fried were announced on February 23, 2023, primarily focused on his making "more than 300 illegal political donations."[103] A March 2023 indictment accused Bankman-Fried and others that they had "directed and caused the transfer" of at least $40million in cryptocurrency to Chinese government officials, in order to unfreeze accounts of Alameda Research.[104] In July, prosecutors dropped a campaign finance charge filed against him due to treaty obligations to the Bahamas created by his extradition.[105]
In a separate illegal campaign finance indictment in August, Bankman-Fried was accused of using $100 million in stolen funds of FTX customers towards 2022 U.S. elections campaign contributions.[106][107]
Pre-trial incarceration
Prior to August 11, 2023, Bankman-Fried was out on bail and living with his parents under court ordered restrictions. On July 26, 2023, prosecutors alleged witness tampering after Bankman-Fried gave a reporter personal writings of former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison.[108] Three weeks later, on August 11, after Judge Kaplan concluded that witness tampering had likely occurred, he revoked Bankman-Fried's bail; Bankman-Fried was led from the courtroom in handcuffs and remanded into custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn.[109][110]
On August 22, 2023, Bankman-Fried's counsel averred that his client was not being provided a vegan diet and that his medications for ADHD and depression were running low.[111] He added that Bankman-Fried could not prepare for the trial subsisting on bread, water, and peanut butter.[112] By November it was reported he had access to a vegetarian diet, had access to prescription drugs, and that he was participating in the "mack" economy by buying packets of mackerel from the prison commissary and exchanging them for services from other prisoners, such as a hair-cut.[113]
The trial began on October 3, 2023, at the Manhattan federal court, presided over by Judge Lewis Kaplan. Bankman-Fried faced seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.[114]
The Guardian summarized the trial as a question of "whether Bankman-Fried is a crypto criminal mastermind or just an unlucky 'math nerd'". Bankman-Fried was accused of having "stole[n] billions from thousands of people" by funnelling customers' money from FTX into Alameda to fund investments, loan repayments, real estate, and political donations. The defense, on the other hand, told the story of a young but earnest entrepreneur critically out of his depth. Bankman-Fried, they said, worked 12 to 22 hours a day, "didn't drink or party", and wanted to fund more work on pandemic prevention. A series of mistakes from him and his inexperienced executive team, a devastating market crash, and adversarial action from external parties caused his companies to spiral into bankruptcy. But at no point, they insisted, was there any intention to commit fraud.[115][116][117][118]
Over a dozen witnesses testified for the prosecution, including three FTX executives - Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh as part of plea deals. Nearly all the testimony for the defense was provided by the defendant, with small contributions from a risk management expert and a Bahamian lawyer.[119]
The case revolved largely around two ways that Alameda was able to access the funds of other FTX customers. The first was the line of credit Alameda had on the exchange. A credit line is a relatively common facility that enables an entity to function more efficiently as a liquidity provider, and margin traders on FTX were generally allowed to borrow from one another and do as they pleased with the borrowed funds. However, Alameda's credit line was "essentially unlimited", and it was exempt from posting collateral on the exchange to formally secure the borrows. Senior engineers testified that they had added these features at the direction of their CEO. Bankman-Fried contended that he had merely requested something that would prevent erroneous liquidation. He was not aware of the specific solution implemented, he said, although he was aware that Alameda ultimately borrowed "around $2billion" this way.[120][121]
Bankman-Fried also denied knowledge of a crucial part of the second way that Alameda accessed customer funds. Before FTX had a bank account, it had used Alameda and other payment processors to receive fiat deposits from customers. "What I believed is that either the funds were just being held in a bank account and not used or moved, or that they were being sent to FTX in one way or another," Bankman-Fried testified. He assumed that if Alameda had been spending the funds, that would have been reflected as a borrow on Alameda's main account on FTX. It wasn't until October or November 2022, he claimed, that he finally confirmed otherwise. The main Alameda account was not tracking those borrows. And Alameda had taken $8billion. Other FTX executives conceded that "it seemed like he might not know" exactly how these funds were being processed and that while FTX's systems were tracking this liability, it was not displayed on the admin user's dashboard. But they also emphasized that ultimately at both businesses, Bankman-Fried called the shots.[121][122]
Much attention was given to the contrast between Bankman-Fried's public statements about his companies and the private realities. For example, on November 8, 2022, he had tweeted, "FTX is fine. Assets are fine." One FTX executive said these statements were false after first describing them to prosecutors as true but "misleading" because Bankman-Fried had been careful to talk solvency rather than liquidity. Misleading but technically true statements were a common theme. Bankman-Fried maintained, for instance, that he had never said Alameda was treated the same as other customers in all respects, only that Alameda was not front-running other customers. He also claimed to have only skimmed the "dishonest" balance sheets that Alameda's CEO sent to lenders and the defense made a great effort to demonstrate her autonomy in the role, the prime example being her refusal to follow Bankman-Fried's advice to hedge against a market downturn.[123][124][125]
End of first trial
The trial ended on November 2, 2023, with the jury pronouncing Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven counts. The sentencing hearing was scheduled for March 28, 2024.[126] Federal criminal court sentencing experts speculated on the potential amount of prison time likely to be meted out.[127][128][129]
Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison.[130] Under provisions of the First Step Act he may serve as little as 12.5 years.[131] The sentencing judge also ordered a forfeiture of $11.02 billion.[132]
Second trial
A second trial, on five charges including bank fraud and bribery, was originally scheduled for early March 2024. These charges were brought by federal prosecutors after Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas in December 2022. Bankman-Fried had asked for these charges to be dismissed because they were not part of the extradition agreement with Bahamian authorities, or alternatively he requested that they be resolved under a separate trial.[133][134]
Prosecutors announced on December 30, 2023 that they would not proceed to a second trial, stating that its benefits would be outweighed by the “strong public interest” to promptly resolve the case. Furthermore, a second trial would not affect how much time Bankman-Fried could face in prison under recommended federal guidelines.[135]
Contributions were made to members of both U.S. political parties. In 2022, Bankman-Fried provided initial financial support for Protect Our Future PAC. Protect Our Future was launched as a political action committee of the Democratic Party with $10million in initial funding aiming to support "lawmakers who play the long game on policymaking in areas like pandemic preparedness and planning", according to Politico.[139] Bankman-Fried donated $27million in total to this PAC.[140]
Donations to Republican Party campaigns in the 2021–22 cycle have been estimated at $262,200,[141] including donations to senators Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.[136] Journalist Matthew Kassel says that Bankman-Fried had often donated to politicians who cultivate good Israel–United States relations but concluded "it is unclear if his backing of pro-Israel candidates was coincidental or motivated by any personal interest in Middle East policy."[142]
Bankman-Fried has claimed that he also donated large amounts of money to Republicans through dark money channels.[143]
2022 U.S. midterm elections
Bankman-Fried was the second-largest individual donor to Democratic causes for the 2022 U.S. elections, with total donations of $39.8million, only behind George Soros,[144][145][146] of which $27million was given to the Protect Our Future PAC.[140][147][148] Additional recipients included The Next 50 PAC, Guarding Against Pandemics PAC, and the leadership PAC for Brendan Boyle.[17][149][150] Bankman-Fried said in February 2022 that his political contributions were not aimed at influencing his policy goals for the cryptocurrency ecosystem; however, FTX was circulating a list of suggestions to policymakers at the time.[136] He said in an interview that he would prefer the Commodity Futures Trading Commission take a larger role in regulating and guiding the crypto industry.[136] According to The New York Times, the CFTC has a reputation for favoring relatively relaxed regulations for the industry when contrasted with other regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission.[151]
Bankman-Fried pushed for regulations via the proposed Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA) by extensively lobbying Congress, which was perceived as being favorable to FTX but harmful to the broader industry, especially its decentralized finance competitors.[152][153][154] In May 2022, Bankman-Fried stated that he planned to spend "north of $100million" in the 2024 presidential election with a "soft ceiling" of $1billion.[155] In October 2022, he walked back his pledged spending, calling it a "dumb quote on my part".[156] However, in Going Infinite, Michael Lewis revealed that Bankman-Fried had begun to investigate the legality of directly paying Donald Trump not to run for president in 2024, with Trump's team allegedly giving a potential figure of $5billion.[60]
In the aftermath of the FTX scandal, recipients of Bankman-Fried's and other FTX executives' political campaign contributions have been donating equal amounts to charitable organizations. Elected officials doing so include Senator Kirsten Gillibrand,[157] as well as Representatives Chuy García and Kevin Hern.[158] A spokesperson for former Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke said that his campaign had received a $1million donation from Bankman-Fried in October 2022, but returned the funds in early November, prior to the election.[159]
Pandemic prevention contributions and related controversy
Bankman-Fried and his younger brother, Gabriel, contributed toward pandemic prevention initiatives, according to an investigative report by The Washington Post.[160] One funding recipient was the Guarding Against Pandemics PAC, founded by Gabriel.[17]
On May 15, 2022, FTX announced it had donated $18million to support "TOGETHER Trial," a private, international, research consortium conducting clinical trials to test existing drugs as treatments for various conditions, including COVID-19.[161][162]
On July 20, 2023, an Insiders Avoidance Complaint was filed against Bankman-Fried and three former FTX/Alameda senior executives seeking to recover "hundreds of millions of dollars that Defendants misappropriated." The plaintiffs were FTX Trading Ltd., Alameda Research LLC, Alameda Research Ltd., North Dimension Inc., Cottonwood Grove Ltd., and Realm Shires, Inc. Their complaint stated that Guarding Against Pandemics—which received $35million from Bankman-Fried between October 2021 and May 2022—and its associated political action committee "needless to say, did nothing to prevent pandemics."[163]
Attempts to recoup donations
In December 2022, FTX's new management commenced efforts to "claw back" donations that had been made to politicians, celebrities, and charities as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. The company announced that it "intends to...require the return of such payments, with interest accruing from the date any action is commenced." Reports on this development included the assessment that "clawing back payments made to politicians and charities is likely to be one of the easier parts of the bankruptcy process," on the basis of U.S. legislation that presumes "payments or transfers made within 90 days of bankruptcy to be preferential if they result in a creditor getting more than it would have been entitled to at the end of the bankruptcy process," with the caveat that a "clawback can attempt to recover the difference in the payments."[164]
As of April 2023, $7.3billion[165] of the original $8billion[166] in missing funds had been recuperated in liquid assets. While an anonymous bidder reportedly valued the remaining portfolio at "at least $2billion",[52]Bloomberg'sMatt Levine noted that "'We lucked into enough money to pay everyone back' is not a legal defense to fraud".[167]
In October 2023, FTX and its affiliated debtors revealed a proposed settlement of customer-property disputes, set to be presented for approval to the competent bankruptcy court. Accounting for both priority and non-priority claims against FTX, the settlement's parties offered their estimate that customers of FTX.com and FTX US would receive, collectively, over 90% of distributable value worldwide.[168][169]
Personal life
Bankman-Fried is vegan.[28] He was raised in a Jewish family.[170][142] As of mid-2021, it was reported that he lived with approximately ten roommates in a five-bedroom Bahamian penthouse bought by co-CEO of FTX Ryan Salame.[22][52][171] After FTX's collapse, the penthouse was put up for sale for close to $40million.[172]
Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison was romantically involved with Bankman-Fried until their final split on April 15, 2022.[52] While testifying against him in court in October 2023, she claimed that his hairstyle and clothes were part of a "well calculated" image that he tried to project. She stated that Bankman-Fried believed he had received higher bonuses while working at Jane Street because of his hair and used his appearance as "an important part" of FTX's "narrative and image."[173] In court, Bankman-Fried appeared wearing a gray suit with hair trimmed down.[174]
Bankman-Fried once played the video game League of Legends while on a call attempting to secure an investment from Sequoia Capital.[175] An article in the Financial Times characterized Bankman-Fried's "win ratios" in League of Legends as "average-to-bad".[176]
Τhroughout the recent developments, Bankman-Fried's parents have stood by him, writing in a December 2022 letter, around the time of the arrest, "You are innocent." In an e-mail to The New Yorker, his mother, Barbara Fried, denounced the actions of the prosecution and the bankruptcy team as "McCarthyite" and a "relentless pursuit of total destruction," which is enabled by "a credulous public." After Bankman-Fried was incarcerated, his parents have taken turns traveling every Tuesday from California to be with him at the Brooklyn jail.[177] She wrote a letter to the judge in February 2024 arguing for lenient sentencing and that Bankman-Fried faces extreme danger in prison.[178]
Notes
^In the meantime, Bankman-Fried reportedly had spent approximately $135million on naming rights for Miami Heat's basketball arena and an estimated $30million on a single Super Bowl ad.[58]
^Murphy, Heather Tal (November 7, 2023). "The Other Bankman-Fried". Slate. Retrieved November 16, 2023. The fact that most of this funding was coming from Gabe's brother was never a secret. At least $10 million of the $17.5 million to $35 million Sam donated to GAP—and maybe much more—came from a mixture of customer and non-customer accounts at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, according to estimates from federal prosecutors and bankruptcy filings.
^Bultman, Matthew (November 2, 2023). "Bankman-Fried's Pre-Trial Antics Haunt Him Before Sentencing (1)". Bloomberg Law. Archived from the original on November 5, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2024. Former federal prosecutors predict the fallen FTX co-founder will receive at least 20 years in prison. At the high end, federal sentencing guidelines could recommend what equates to a life sentence for Bankman-Fried, who turned 31 in March. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has been critical of the guidelines and often imposed more lenient sentences in previous cases before his court.
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