FTX founder and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on all counts Thursday after the jury deliberated for a mere few hours. The fees carry a possible sentence of over 100 years, but it’s unclear how a lot time he’ll serve.
Final month, Michael Lewis – the creator of “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of New Tycoon” – appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday to debate his ebook and Bankman-Fried’s frame of mind forward of the trial. CBS’ Jon Wertheim requested Lewis, who met with Bankman-Fried over 100 occasions in a two-year interval for the ebook, what the 31-year-old fears essentially the most about jail.
“Not having the web,” Lewis mentioned. “Now that sounds loopy, however I do assume that if he had the web, he may survive jail perpetually. With out having a relentless stream of data to react to – I feel he could go mad.”
“When you gave Sam Bankman-Fried a selection (that is fairly critical) of residing in a $39 million penthouse within the Bahamas with out the web, or the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn with the web, there’s no query in my thoughts he’d take the jail,” Lewis added.
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Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX imploded final 12 months, falling from being the second-largest crypto trade on the earth valued at an estimated $32 billion to getting into chapter in November 2022. A part of its demise was linked to the so-called “crypto winter” after Bitcoin fell under the $16,000 stage, it has since rebounded.
FTX’s collapse occurred because it was hit with a rush of withdrawals amid reviews it had commingled funds with its sister hedge fund, Alameda Analysis, to cowl the hedge fund’s losses. Alameda was run by Bankman-Fried’s prime deputy and ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who pleaded responsible to wire fraud and conspiracy final 12 months and was a key witness in opposition to Bankman-Fried, testifying that he instructed her to commit fraud.
Prosecutors alleged that Bankman-Fried had tried to intimidate Ellison by sharing her writings with journalists.
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Clients of the crypto trade misplaced billions of {dollars} amid the collapse, and present FTX CEO John Ray III, who was introduced in to interchange Bankman-Fried following the agency’s collapse, has been working to claw again these funds. Retail investors who put cash into FTX could not see the restoration of their investments because the chapter course of continues to play out.
The collapse of FTX additionally left collectors starting from Amazon Internet Providers to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Resort within the Bahamas hanging within the lurch.
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Ray, who beforehand oversaw the chapter of scandal-plagued power agency Enron in 2001, slammed Bankman-Fried’s administration of the agency writing in bankruptcy filings final November, “By no means in my profession have I seen such an entire failure of company controls and such an entire absence of reliable monetary info as occurred right here.”
Among the many examples of Bankman-Fried’s mismanagement famous by Ray had been the usage of emoji approvals for worker funds, the shortage of a complete listing of financial institution accounts or a full roster of workers, plus the usage of company funds to purchase properties and private gadgets.
Bankman-Fried has beforehand acknowledged that he ought to have “stress tested more rigorously” however has denied mishandling or stealing funds. He maintained that place throughout his trial.
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Bankman-Fried was first arrested within the Bahamas, the place FTX Worldwide was primarily based, earlier than being extradited to the U.S. in December. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have accused Bankman-Fried of deceptive traders and lenders, and stealing billions of {dollars} in buyer funds to purchase actual property, make political contributions, and make up for losses at Alameda.
He was launched on $250 million bail and remained on home arrest for a number of months on the California residence of his dad and mom, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, earlier than U.S. District Choose Lewis Kaplan revoked his bond in August over prosecutors’ claims the previous CEO tried to tamper with no less than one witness.
Bankman-Fried pleaded not responsible to all the costs in opposition to him, however members of his interior circle — 4 former FTX and Alameda executives — have all pleaded responsible to crimes related to the businesses’ downfalls and testified in opposition to him within the trial after agreeing to cooperate with the federal government.
FOX Enterprise’ Breck Dumas, Chris Pandolfo and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Unique article supply: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s biggest fear in jail revealed by author
