Welcome to HODL FM. The only crypto publication that won’t shut up. Sometimes we even chase down spy agencies to ask them about SBF. Our itinerary today is about him, the innocent man who made ‘history’ in the ‘History of Fraud”.
Related: FTX’s Big Bang 2.0: How do Investors get Benefited?
Back to the Past
One and a half years after one of the biggest crypto fraud headlines, and its victims are still unable to find closure. FTX Trading LTD chief executive John J. Ray III told the court that Mr. Bankman Fried ran the firm with arrogance, and disrespect for basic laws.
In a furious letter to federal judge Lewis A. Kaplan, Mr Ray refuted claims that FTX’s harm to investors, customers and lenders was zero, he said the assertion by Mr. Bankman Fried claimed the exchange was solvent by the time it collapsed in November 2022 were false, and ‘delusional’.
Mr. Bankman Fried, who is awaiting sentencing by New York’s federal court this Friday, was convicted on grounds of fraud and conspiracy in November 2023 – almost a year after his extradition from the Bahamas.
Once touted as a trailblazer in the cryptocurrency world, even appearing on the famous Super Bowl _ now has a jury of lawyers convinced he stole bitcoins belonging to FTX customers and converted them to luxury real estate purchases, risky financial bets, and political donations. According to Mr Ray – a corporate restructuring expert who took over the ruins of FTX – those bitcoins, almost 100,000 are lost and unavailable to be returned in-kind to FTX victims.
The harm was vast. The remorse is nonexistent. Effective altruism, at least as lived by Sam Bankman-Fried, was a lie. … Make no mistake; customers, non-governmental creditors, governmental creditors, and non-insider stockholders have suffered and continue to suffer.
John Ray, in the Wednesday court filing
Read more: The Crypto Bunker: FTX’s Bold Plan for Surviving the Apocalypse
SBF continues to lead a life of delusion, and ‘the business he left behind was neither safe nor solvent’ blasted the CEO. As per the letter to Kaplan, the exchange left massive harm on its customers, and despite this, SBF continues to show no remorse. Prosecutors on the other hand allege that the former CEO orchestrated a year-long scheme to steal customer funds and finance his selfish political, luxury, and financial interests.
Even after a large team committed itself for one and a half years to stabilize the operations of the crypto exchange, Ray noted in the letter, that customers, creditors, non-inside stockholders, and investors are unlikely to ‘be made whole again’, they have suffered, and they continue to suffer. He also explained the work they’ve had to do to recover every remaining dollar from the rubble of Bankman-Fried’s criminal establishment.
At the time of its collapse, only 105 bitcoins were left in the FTX exchange despite customer claims of approximately 100,000 bitcoins. As such, Ray has strongly refuted a submission by SBF’s defense claiming FTX was solvent before it entered bankruptcy proceedings.
More Info on FTX:
- Hedge Fund Closes Operations After Losing Funds in the FTX Exchange
- The U.S. Justice Department Charged Three Individuals For $400M FTX Hack
- FTX and Alameda Research Transfer $10.8M to Binance, Coinbase, and Wintermute
The defense aims to reduce Sam’s expected prison term of 40 – 50 years to 6.5 years, and this goal heavily depends on the claims that Ray has rebutted. As per the defense lawyers, customer funds were going to be reimbursed back, but Ray, on the other hand, has pointed out to the court that it will be impossible to make customers whole again.
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