FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, collapsed over a period of ten days and filed for bankruptcy on Nov 11th. The exchange, and its crypto hedge fund, Alameda, lost/stole billions of customer funds, whether through intentional theft or poor corporate management. Probably both. The total number lost to its customers is not yet known.
What we know for sure is that Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO and mastermind behind FTX and Alameda, is a fraudster of epic proportions. If you don’t already know his name, you will soon as it will be a household name. This scandal will surely rank up there with Enron, Bernie Madoff, and Elizabeth Holmes.
For more insight on what FTX is and why it collapsed so quickly, here is a great breakdown.
To put this into perspective, John J. Ray III, FTX’s new CEO who also came in to reorganize Enron after that company fell apart, stated that he’s never “seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”
Sam Bankman-Fried is surely going to jail. And the sooner, the better (he recently posted a $250MM bail!). As such, I thought I would put together Sam Bankman-Fried’s future prison reading list.
Happy holidays!
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