Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried, once a pivotal figure in the cryptocurrency industry, was convicted in November 2023 of committing fraud and conspiracy for stealing billions of dollars of money belonging to customers of his FTX crypto exchange, funneling the money to Alameda Research, his hedge fund. FTX had been one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges before its demise, a major player in derivatives trading including perpetual futures. The company's undoing was spurred by a CoinDesk scoop in November 2022 showing Alameda's balance sheet was mysteriously full of the FTT token issued by FTX – calling into question both Alameda and FTX's financial stability. The Bahamas-based company filed for bankruptcy nine days after the story. Before his downfall, SBF (as the former billionaire is commonly known as) had been a leading figure in crypto, pushing for regulation of the industry in the U.S. He was a major political donor and the public face of effective altruism, a movement geared toward maximizing the amount of good done by philanthropy. SBF was arrested in December 2022, and his bail was revoked due to alleged witness tampering. His trial began in October 2023, and he was convicted on Nov. 2, 2023, a year to the day after the CoinDesk story that caused his crypto empire to crumble.

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Demonizing Crypto Industry After FTX Collapse 'Fundamentally Unfair:' US Congressman

U.S. Congressman Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) discusses his take on the legislation needed in the aftermath of FTX's collapse and how much of it is due to fraud. "Demonizing a whole industry based on the fraudulence of one actor is fundamentally unfair," Torres said. "Sam Bankman-Fried is not representative of crypto finance any more than Bernie Madoff is representative of conventional finance."

Dec 14, 2022

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