The Sam Bankman-Fried case: How did this young billionaire lose everything and now faces up to 115 in jail if convicted? Here's the big picture.
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00:00That's how this young billionaire lost everything and now faces up to 115 years in jail if convicted.
00:05This is Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF. In 2017, he was just 25 when he created Alameda
00:11Research, a cryptocurrency trading company which was earning up to $1 million a day by 2018.
00:16In 2019, he created FTX, a crypto exchange platform. It was a massive success.
00:21SBF became one of the most influential personalities in crypto and was even
00:24featured on the cover of Forbes magazine. A multi-billionaire, he appeared on different
00:28TV shows where he told people that he wanted to use his riches to make the world a better place.
00:32It was all smooth sailing until some news outlets began doubting the stability of FTX.
00:36By November 2022, all hell broke loose. There were allegations that SBF used billions of
00:41dollars of FTX customer money for Alameda Research. When word got out and customers
00:46started withdrawing billions of dollars from FTX, the withdrawals were halted as SBF tried
00:51to get a bailout. Suddenly, FTX's more than 1.2 million users were unable to access their
00:56crypto wallets. That's when the truth about SBF started tumbling out. He had bought more than 30
01:00luxury villas, slept in $60,000 a night hotel rooms, and spent more than $7 million on meals.
01:06Since Amazon didn't deliver to FTX headquarters in the Bahamas, he even hired private jets to
01:10deliver packages from Miami. On December 12, 2022, SBF was arrested. He was charged with fraud and
01:17spent 10 days in jail before being bailed out with $250 million, paid by his parents and two
01:22unknown donors. He was sent back to the US where he was placed under house arrest,
01:25had his password revoked, and was forbidden from talking to his former colleagues.