Image: SAUL LOEB / AFP
At an initial hearing he pleaded not guilty. In addition, his company is demanding a total of more than a billion dollars in allegedly embezzled funds from him and other former FTX managers.
The new management of the crypto exchange has now also sued Bankman-Fried’s parents. They benefited from their son’s embezzled funds. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers dismissed the allegations as “completely false.”
Here are some questions and answers about Bankman-Fried and this affair:
WHO IS SAM BANKMAN-FRIED?
Sam Bankman-Fried is the son of university professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried. The 31-year-old grew up in California and studied at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
After graduating from university, he joined the Jane Street brokerage firm as a cryptocurrency trader and made a fortune betting on Bitcoin price differences on stock exchanges in the USA and Asia. In 2017 he became self-employed with the brokerage firm Alameda, and in 2019 he founded the crypto exchange FTX.
FTX will be valued at $32 billion in early 2022. Forbes magazine estimates Bankman-Fried’s personal fortune at $26.5 billion. The trademarks of Bankman-Fried, known in financial circles by his initials “SBF”, are his curly head of hair and unconventional appearances in T-shirts and shorts. He donated $5.2 million to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020 and is one of the largest donors to his Democratic Party.
WHY DID FTX COLLAPSE?
After rumors of irregularities and a failed rescue by arch-rival Binance, investors are withdrawing money from FTX on a large scale at the end of 2022. The crypto exchange then filed for bankruptcy protection on November 11th. According to insiders, Bankman-Fried is said to have secretly transferred ten billion dollars in FTX customer funds to Alameda. In November 2022, he himself told the Reuters news agency that his “confusing internal labeling” had been misinterpreted.
WHY WAS BANKMAN-FRIED ARRESTED?
Bankman-Fried will be arrested at his home in the Bahamas in mid-December 2022 and extradited to the USA. The authorities there accuse him of, among other things, fraud. If convicted, he could face up to 115 years in prison. FTX customers also want to file a class action lawsuit. Bankman-Fried does not initially have to be in custody in return for bail of $250 million, but is under arrest in his parents’ home. His mother and father, among others, are responsible for this sum.
Bankman-Fried will have to go to prison in August 2023. A judge believes it has been proven that the witness influenced the upcoming fraud trial against him in at least two cases.
My themes
For your saved topics were
new articles found.
info By clicking on the icon you can add the keyword to your topics.
info
By clicking on the icon you open your “my topics” page. They have of 15 keywords saved and would have to remove keywords.
info By clicking on the icon you can remove the keyword from your topics.
Add the topic to your topics.
Source: Nachrichten
