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Sam Bankman-Fried

When It Rains, It pours: SBF To Face Separate Charges from SEC

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Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the disgraced founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is still in for more bad times.

Sam Bankman-Fried will face charges from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which will be distinct from the ones that led to his most recent detention in The Bahamas, on December 12.

The SEC tweeted a remark from Gurbir Grewal, the director of its division of enforcement, indicating that the organization has “authorized separate charges relating to his violations of securities laws.”

Grewal stated that the Southern District of New York would get the charges “tomorrow,” on December 14. (SDNY).

Only a few hours have passed since Sam Bankman-Fried was detained in The Bahamas on December 12 before the SEC made its announcement.

Attorney General of the Bahamas, Senator Ryan Pinder said in a statement that the arrest came as a result of receiving official notice from the US that it has charged SBF with crimes and will likely ask for his extradition.

Although specifics about the allegations have not been confirmed, it is believed that they relate to money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and wire and securities fraud.

Grewal praised the “law enforcement partners” of the SEC in his most recent statement for securing Bankman-arrest Fried’s on federal criminal charges.

News of SBF’s Arrest Floods Crypto Twitter

Crypto Many people were shocked that Sam Bankman-Fried had been arrested in the Bahamas so swiftly, and Twitter has gone crazy over the surprising news.

The disgraced FTX founder was detained by the Royal Bahamas Police on December 12 after they learned that the US government had charged him with a crime.

Within a few hours, influencers, lawmakers, and crypto executives were all logged into their Twitter accounts to post reactions to the former CEO’s arrest.

The arrest of Bankman-Fried was a step toward “justice being served,” New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told her 13.4 million Twitter followers. However, she added that the arrest would delay Bankman-testimony Fried’s before the House Financial Services Committee, which was scheduled for December 13.

In a tweet, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis expressed her satisfaction with the prosecution’s choice to charge Bankman-Fried with the “good, old-fashioned fraud” that she believed he had committed.

Elizabeth Warren, a fellow senator from the United States and a crypto skeptic, concurred, saying in a tweet to her 7 million followers on December 13 that the U.S. Department of Justice needs to hold more criminal business CEOs accountable.

Others seized the chance to make fun of everything. Using ChatGPT, Benjamin Cowen, the CEO and founder of the crypto-analysis channel Into The Cryptoverse, wrote poetry about Bankman-Fried’s most recent situation.

Memes are currently trending on Twitter in the meantime.

Since FTX’s shocking collapse in November, a lot has been said about Bankman-Fried’s Twitter messages and media appearances.

Trung Phan, the co-host of Not Investment Advice, stated to his 538,000 Twitter followers on December 13 that SBF’s erratic public behavior will make it more difficult for his defense lawyer to represent him. Others think that after being arrested, SBF will likely point the finger at coworkers and people connected to the FTX scandal, including those who received his sizable political donations.

When asked about the potential during what is probably his final Twitter Spaces interview, with Unusual Whales on December 12, SBF responded, “I don’t think I’ll be arrested.”

According to a Dec. 12 press release by the Bahamas’ Office of the Attorney General, the Royal Bahamas Police Force made the arrest after receiving official information from the US that it has charged Bankman-Fried.

SBF Hopes to Begin a New Venture, Would Like to Pay Investors Back

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The 30-year-old SBF is the subject of numerous federal inquiries into the financial management of his former company. The former billionaire says he was “not nearly as competent as I thought I was” but denies fraud while speaking in a luxury complex in the Bahamas.

However, it was discovered last month that FTX and SBF’s separate businesses, Alameda Research, were both in financial trouble. Everything fell apart in just eight days, and bankruptcy papers were filed.

A million and more FTX users are reportedly unable to access their funds stored on the crypto exchange.

SBF hopes to pay back FTX users

Mr. Bankman-Fried extended an invitation to the BBC to his current residence in the Bahamas and said he hoped to find a way to make FTX users whole.

“I’m going to be thinking about how we can help the world and if users haven’t gotten much back, I’m going to be thinking about what I can do for them. And I think at the very least I have a duty to FTX users to do right by them as best as I can.”

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When asked if he intended to launch a new business to generate the funds needed to repay investors, he replied: “To be able to do that, I would do anything. And I’ll make an effort if I can.”

The FTX scandal has been referred to as “one of the most abrupt and difficult collapses in the history of corporate America” by bankruptcy attorneys. They claim that Mr. Bankman-Fried has treated the business like “his own personal fiefdom.”

The former CEO agreed on Friday to appear at the hearings into the collapsed exchange that the US Senate Banking Committee has requested he testify at next week.

His team claims that due to “security concerns,” they were forced to move to an undisclosed location within the opulent resort where he resides.

Telephoto reporters have captured images of him in his apartment from the water, and at least two YouTubers have gained entry to the building to record videos.

With no exposure to his bank accounts and “less than $100K left,” Mr. Bankman-Fried, who emerges from a wealthy family, asserts to be worried about his own personal finances.

FTX Appoints Forensic Team to Trace Lost Customer Funds

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FTX, a defunct cryptocurrency exchange, has reportedly hired a team of financial forensic investigators to locate missing customer cryptocurrency estimated to be worth billions of dollars, according to reports.

According to a Wall Street Journal article from December 7, Matt Jacques, a former chief accountant for the Securities and Exchange Commission, led the selection process for the financial advisory firm AlixPartners, which was chosen for the position (SEC).

The forensics company will apparently be tasked with carrying out “asset tracing” to locate and recover the missing digital assets as part of the streamlining work being done by FTX.

Hackers looted over $450 million worth of assets from FTX

On November 11, hackers stole assets worth over $450 million from wallets owned by FTX and FTX.US.

Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried stated that he had “narrowed it down to eight people” and was close to identifying the hacker, who was “either an ex-employee or somewhere someone embedded malware on an ex-computer,” in an interview with cryptocurrency blogger Tiffany Fong on Nov. 16. employee’s

On November 22, a lawyer for FTX’s creditors alleged that “a huge portion of assets have either been stolen or are missing” from FTX. It was revealed at the time that Chainalysis and other blockchain analytics firms had been retained to help with the case.

Since then, the FTX funds have been stolen and are currently being laundered through a number of cryptocurrency exchanges and mixers.

The hacker transferred their Ether (ETH) holdings to a new wallet address on November 20, converted some of the ETH into an ERC-20 variant of Bitcoin, and then linked the funds to the BTC Network. On Nov. 29, they sent the Bitcoin through the OKX exchange and a crypto mixer using a technique called peel chaining to launder the funds. This method divides the holdings into progressively smaller amounts across various wallets.

The hacker attempted peel chaining once more on November 21 by dividing 180,000 ETH among 12 newly created wallets.

An additional claim made in the past by Sam Bankman-Fried, a former CEO, claimed that customer deposits at Sam’s exchange and its sister trading company Alameda Research were “unknowingly commingled” with customer funds at FTX that were loaned to Alameda.

In his initial bankruptcy filing, the new CEO and chief restructuring officer, John Ray III, was harsh, claiming that in his 40-year career, he had “never” seen “such a complete failure of corporate controls.”

FTX Saga: SBF To Attend Hearing On 13th?

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Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of FTX, was recently prompted to appear before the US House Committee on Financial Services by US Representative Maxine Waters. FTX was required to appear before the Committee on December 13, according to Waters. To talk about “what transpired” at the problematic exchange, SBF was invited.

The former CEO of FTX stated that it was his obligation to go before the committee and address the matter a day earlier. But he also made it clear that he wouldn’t do that until he had finished “learning and reviewing what happened.” He added that he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to show up on the 13th.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters Compels SBF To Testify

Maxine Waters reportedly used Twitter once more to persuade SBF to show up to the House Committee hearing on the collapse of FTX. She said it was “obvious” the data SBF had up until this point was “adequate” for testifying.

She tweeted to emphasize the significance of the testimony and said, 

“As you know, the collapse of FTX has harmed over one million people. Your testimony would not only be meaningful to Members of Congress, but is also critical to the American people.“

Waters went on to say that SBF’s attendance at the upcoming hearing was “imperative.” The committee would schedule additional hearings if and when new information became available, she further stated. She tweeted about the same, explaining,

“It is imperative that you attend our hearing on the 13th, and we are willing to schedule continued hearings if there is more information to be shared later.“

Billy Markus, the creator of Dogecoin, commented on the same post and questioned whether the committee could summon the former FTX CEO. Ryan Wyatt, CEO of Polygon Studios, however, stated,

“Maxine, glad you are starting to listen to the people and community and not your donor.“

Sam Bankman-Fried Shared Details Of Almeda Research With Forbes

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The FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, recently made a series of public appearances, and the media is now getting his perspective on the situation. That story underlined his diminished involvement in particular transactions outside of FTX. But according to reports, Sam Bankman-Fried submitted Forbes a detailed report on the financials of Alameda Research.

According to a Forbes exclusive, the former FTX CEO divulged a wealth of information about both his own interests and those of the platforms he built. Additionally, that insight contained a wealth of information on Alameda Research’s business dealings.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Arguments Questioned By Forbes

The most tragic event to affect the cryptocurrency community to date is the demise of FTX. Not only has the market as a whole been affected by its failure, but one of its most promising young minds has had his or her reputation permanently damaged.

Former billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried established FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research. He is now coming out in response to accusations, debate, and platform bankruptcy. insisting that the amount of time he spent working on Alameda Research each day was insufficient to plan the alleged crime.

In his remarks last week at the DealBook Summit, Bankman-Fried added,

“Alameda is not, like, a company that I monitor day-to-day. It’s not a company I run. It’s not a company I have run for the last couple of years. And Alameda’s finances I was not deeply aware of.”

But so far, his defence hasn’t seemed very convincing. In a new exclusive, Forbes questions their credibility even further. Sam Bankman-Fried is reported to have given financial information about Alameda Research to the magazine.

“Most of the world’s billionaires rather not discuss their wealth. Not Sam Bankman-Fried,” Forbes responded to his appearance at the DealBook Summit. The article went on to say that Bankman-Fried frequently sent spreadsheets, documents, and screenshots. Information relaying everything about his ownership interests, possessions, and wallets holding different cryptocurrencies.

“Updates like this arrived periodically- practically whenever Forbes asked for them,” the report stated. The study further claims that these data would be delivered between January 2021 and March 2022.

According to Forbes, Bankman-claims Fried’s that he has no connection to Alameda Research is, at the very least, not entirely accurate. According to Forbes, “He had detailed knowledge of some of Alameda’s holdings and at least some knowledge of transactions it was making, especially 2021.”

SBF Opens up About the Collapse of FTX

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Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of FTX, appeared before the public for the first time in person since FTX’s demise at the DealBook Summit in New York.

Journalist Andrew Sorkin from the New York Times spoke to Bankman-Fried via video call during the hour-long interview, which took place on stage.

The two talked about a variety of topics, including whether or not FTX and Alameda Research were commingling customer funds, what Bankman-Fried would say to clients who had lost everything in FTX, and whether he was worried about being held criminally responsible for FTX’s demise.

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SBF Opens up About the Collapse of FTX 2

SBF speaks about the commingling of funds

SBF asserts that he “unknowingly commingled funds” between Alameda and customer funds at FTX in one of the earlier segments of the interview.

The customers’ funds that were deposited with FTX and loaned to its sister company Alameda were referred to in this case as “commingling.”

Sorkin cited a comment made earlier by a viewer who noted that this incident occurred despite FTX’s terms of service stating that they would act as if the customers’ digital assets were their own even though they are not.

There appears to be a genuine commingling of funds belonging to FTX customers that aren’t supposed to be commingled with your separate firm, according to Sorkin.

However, Bankman-Fried denied being aware of the combined funds and attributed it to inefficient oversight.

“I unknowingly commingled funds […] I was frankly surprised by how big Alameda’s position was which points to another failure of oversight on my part and failure to appoint someone to be chiefly in charge of that.” “But I wasn’t trying to comingle funds.”

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By claiming he wasn’t aware of all the company’s activities, Bankman-Fried further appeared to deflect responsibility for Alameda’s actions.

When Sorkin questioned Bankman-Fried about whether he was worried about his potential criminal liability at this point, the former CEO replied that it wasn’t his main concern.

Even though he’s had a “bad month,” Bankman-Fried insisted that he isn’t worrying about his own future and that what matters is doing everything in his power to support FTX’s stakeholders and customers.

BlockFi and SBF Lock Horns Over Robinhood Shares

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According to the Financial Times, which cited loan documents it had seen, cryptocurrency lender BlockFi, which on Monday filed for bankruptcy protection, sued Emergent Fidelity Technologies, the company owned by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, on the same day for Robinhood (HOOD) shares that had been pledged to BlockFi as collateral.

According to the complaint, on November 9 an agreement was made between BlockFi and Emergent Fidelity Technologies to guarantee repayment by an unknown borrower in exchange for the collateral of an undisclosed common stock. According to the Financial Times (FT), which cited court correspondence, the borrower was Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research.

According to two people with knowledge of the situation, Bankman-Fried continued to try to sell his Robinhood shares after entering into the collateral agreement with the asset trading firm while trying to raise money before to FTX’s bankruptcy.

BlockFi Files For Bankruptcy: Domino Effect Continues

Days after halting withdrawals due to the lingering effects of exchange FTX’s bankruptcy filing, crypto lender BlockFi filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday.

The business announced that it was seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, indicating that it wanted to restructure while carrying on with the business in the interim. The firm has around $257 million in cash in hand, claims a press statement. A Bermuda-based affiliate is likewise submitting a similar form for liquidation.

BlockFi’s executives estimated the company has more than 100,000 creditors, and they marked off the ranges in the petition for the company. According to executives, the company’s assets and liabilities ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion.

As the overall bitcoin market shrank in June, the company reduced its personnel by around a fifth. One indicator of the market’s entire value, the market capitalization, dropped from almost $3 trillion in January to $1 trillion by June.

BlockFi CEO Zac Prince stated that the company had to liquidate a significant client following the failure of Three Arrows Capital, albeit he did not specify whether or not this client was Three Arrows. Soon after, the lender received a $250 million credit facility from the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. This credit facility ultimately became a $400 million credit facility that allowed FTX US to purchase the lender.

SBF Claims FTX’s Collateral Plunges to $9B

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Every day that goes by, fresh information about FTX’s present and historical circumstances is revealed. The corporation owes more than $3 billion to its top 50 debtors, it was recently revealed. In addition, a court document stated that as of this week’s start, FTX and its affiliates had a combined cash balance of $1.24 billion. Funders like Ripple are trying to help the struggling exchange amidst all of this.

Sam Bankman-Fried, called SBF, the exchange’s founder, apologised to the staff in a recent letter. He stated,

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I would give anything to be able to go back and do things over again.”

Can FTX Still Be Saved?

The $51 billion crash in collateral was further reduced in the letter by SBF from $60 billion to $9 billion. Notably, liabilities were $2 billion and collateral had essentially decreased by half to $30 billion due to the spring market meltdown. After that, a “run on the bank,” a further sell-off in virtual currency, and a credit crunch left collateral at $9 billion when FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11. By that point, the estimated value of the liabilities was $8 billion.

SBF stated,

“I did not realize the full extent of the margin position, nor did I realize the magnitude of the risk posed by a hyper-correlated crash.”

The exchange’s creator also disclosed that, around eight minutes after he signed the Chapter 11 paperwork, “possible interest in billions of dollars of capital” arrived. He also asserted skeptically that there was yet a possibility to preserve the business. SBF elaborated on this, saying,

“Maybe there still is a chance to save the company. I believe that there are billions dollars of genuine interest from new investors that could go to customers making whole. But I can’t promise you anything will happen, because it’s not my choice.”

In order to address its liquidity crisis, FTX is on the lookout for suitable funders. On the other hand, regulatory oversight of the exchange is present. But a few days ago, a person “close to the FTX problem” purportedly stated that only Samuel Bankman-inner Fried’s circle was aware of the entire scenario and that none of the company’s employees were informed about it.

FTX: Sam Bankman-Fried’s Parents Purchased $121 Million Worth Properties in the Bahamas

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In the past two years, at least 19 properties worth close to $121 million have been purchased in the Bahamas by FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried’s parents, and senior executives of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange, according to official property records.

The majority of FTX’s purchases were high-end beachfront properties, which include seven condominiums in the pricey resort neighborhood of Albany that cost nearly $72 million. According to the deeds, a unit of FTX purchased these properties to serve as “residences for key personnel” within the organization.

Bankman-parents, Fried’s Stanford University law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, are listed as signatories on the papers for another beachfront home in Old Fort Bay, It is a gated neighborhood that once housed a British colonial fort constructed in the 1700s to ward off pirates. One of the documents dated June 15 stated that the property is intended to be used as a “vacation home.”

Mode of payment for the purchase by FTX founder’s parents is unknown

A spokesman for the professors only mentioned that Bankman and Fried had been attempting to return the property to FTX when Reuters asked why the couple made the decision to purchase a vacation home in the Bahamas and how it was paid for—whether in cash, through a mortgage, or by a third party such as FTX.

Although it is well known that Fried’s exchange and its employees purchased properties in the Bahamas, where it formed its headquarters in September of last year, the property records reveal for the first time the scope of their real estate buying binge and the envisioned use of some of the properties.

One of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, FTX, went under, leaving an estimated 1 million creditors with losses running into the billions of dollars. It was claimed that Bankman-Fried used $10 billion in customer deposits—at least $1 billion of which had vanished—in secret to support his trading business.

The fall of FTX has also alerted global regulators and diminished the trust vested by many in cryptocurrencies. However, many are of the opinion that cryptocurrencies will never die even though FTX was one of the largest players in the industry.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Received $300M From Prior Funding Round

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Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of FTX, reportedly earned $300 million personally from the company’s $420 million investment round in October 2021, according to a Wall Street Journal story that included SBF’s exchange’s financial records it had examined and people familiar with the deal.

According to the Journal, Bankman-Fried initially kept the agreement’s existence a secret, telling investors that it was intended to partially compensate him for the money he had spent to acquire Binance’s interest in SBF’s exchange a few months earlier.

In July 2021, Bankman-Fried acquired the 15% of the exchange that Binance, FTX’s original investor, owned. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance, tweeted last month that the buyout cost $2.1 billion in BUSD, Binance’s stablecoin, and FTT, the firm’s exchange token.

In the October 2021 investment round, financial powerhouses Sequoia Capital, BlackRock, Tiger Global, and Singapore’s Temasek raised capital valued at $25 billion for the exchange. A few months later, some of those same investors assisted in raising $400 million at a $8 billion valuation for the exchange’s U.S. affiliate.

While SBF’s firm’s 2021 certified financial statements stated the money was being held by the company for “operational expediency” on behalf of a “related party,” the Journal claimed it was unclear what Bankman-Fried did with the $300 million.

Temasek’s FTX Investment Now Worth Zero

Temasek, the state investment fund of Singapore, wrote off all of its stake in SBF’s exchange, claiming that its exposure to the failing exchange as a whole was minimal in comparison to its extensive portfolio holdings.

Temasek said in a statement that the $210 million investment, which represented 1% of FTX International, and the $65 million investment, which represented 1.5% of FTX.US, represent 0.09% of the company’s $293.5 billion net portfolio value (SGD 403 billion).

The statement said,

“There have been misperceptions that our investment in FTX is an investment into cryptocurrencies. To clarify, we currently have no direct exposure in cryptocurrencies.”

Temasek claimed that the collapse of their investment in FTX was due to a bad bet on Bankman-Fried rather than a criticism of cryptocurrencies or blockchain technology.