Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried[2] (born March 5, 1992), commonly known asSBF,[3] is an Americanentrepreneur who was convicted offraud and related crimes in November 2023. Bankman-Fried founded theFTXcryptocurrency exchange and was celebrated as a "poster boy" for crypto,[4] with FTX having a global reach with more than 130 international affiliates.[5] At the peak of his net worth, he was ranked the 41st-richest American in theForbes 400.[6]
Sam's younger brother, Gabriel (b. 1995), had been a legislative assistant and a Wall Street trader. He became director of thenonprofit Guarding Against Pandemics and its associatedpolitical action committee. The PAC had come under scrutiny by federal investigators after the discovery that much of the US$35 million on its books had been stolen by Sam from Alameda Research customer accounts.[21][22][23]
Both of his parents were sued by the new owners of FTX, to return assets Sam had given the couple in the form of cash and a home valued at over $32 million. His parents admitted Sam gave them the assets as gifts but denied wrongdoing and the case was eventually dropped.[24][25]
He graduated from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in physics and a minor in mathematics. As an MIT student, he lived in a coeducational group house called Epsilon Theta.[26][28][29][30]
In November 2017, following fund injections from billionaire computer programmerJaan Tallinn and investor Luke Ding,[33] Bankman-Fried and CEA's Tara Hedley (née Mac Aulay[34]) cofounded the quantitative trading firmAlameda Research.[26][35] By 2021, Bankman-Fried owned approximately 90 percent of Alameda Research.[26] In January 2018, Bankman-Fried organized anarbitrage trade, moving up to $25million per day to take advantage of the higher price ofbitcoin in Japan compared to the United States.[26][32] After attending a cryptocurrency conference inMacau in late 2018, he moved toHong Kong.[26][36]
Bankman-Fried founded theFTX cryptocurrency derivatives exchange in April 2019; it opened for business the following month.[26] In September 2021, Bankman-Fried and the entire senior staff of FTX moved from Hong Kong to the Bahamas.[37][38] Bankman-Fried was included on the 2021 list ofForbes 30 Under 30[39] but was also included on Forbes 2023 Hall of Shame list, featuring ten picks the publication wishes it could take back.[40][41]
On December 8, 2021, Bankman-Fried, along with other industry executives, testified before theCommittee on Financial Services about regulating the cryptocurrency industry.[42][43] On May 12, 2022, it was disclosed that Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd., which was majority owned by Bankman-Fried, had bought 7.6 percent ofRobinhood Markets stock.[44][45] In a November 2022affidavit before theEastern Caribbean Supreme Court,[46] and prior to his arrest, Bankman-Fried said he and FTX cofounderGary Wang together borrowed over $546million from Alameda Research in order to finance Emergent Fidelity Technologies' purchase of Robinhood Markets stock.[47]
In September 2022, it was reported that Bankman-Fried's advisors had offered on his behalf to help fundElon Musk's purchase of Twitter.[48] According to messages released as part of the lawsuit between Twitter and Musk during the latter's acquisition of Twitter, on April 25, 2022, investment bankerMichael Grimes wrote that Bankman-Fried would be willing to commit up to $5billion.[49] No investment actually took place when Musk finalized the acquisition.[50] Bankman-Fried invested $500million inAnthropic[51] and more than $500million inventure capital firms, including $200million inSequoia Capital, itself an investor in FTX.[52] Sequoia published a "glowing" profile of Bankman-Fried, which it subsequently removed after the solvency crisis at FTX.[53][54][55] In July 2023, allegations emerged that Bankman-Fried had considered "purchasing" the island country ofNauru to use as a bunker in the event of an apocalyptic event, in what has been described as a "misguided and sometimes dystopian" project.[56][57]
He was a member ofGiving What We Can and donated around half of his Jane Street salary to charity.[62] In June 2022, he signedthe Giving Pledge;[63] his name was removed from the list's website in December 2022 following his arrest.[64] Bankman-Fried is the founder of Future Fund, whose team included Scottish philosopher and authorWilliam MacAskill, one of the founders of the effective altruism movement. After the collapse of FTX, all members of Future Fund simultaneously resigned.[65] As of September 1, 2022, Future Fund stated it had committed around $160million to 110 nonprofits.[66][a]
The stated reason for FTX's relocation to the Bahamas was the friendly regulatory environment,[68] and Bankman-Fried openly discussed paying off the country's $9billion national debt.[69] In November 2022, Bankman-Fried participated in an interview withVox writerKelsey Piper overTwitter private messages. He said that his and his company's advocacy for crypto regulation was not sincere and was "justPR", adding that regulators "make everything worse" and "don't protect customers at all".[70] On his "ethics stuff", he agreed it was "mostly a front" and described ethics as a "dumb game wewoke Westerners play where we say all the rightshibboleths and so everyone likes us".[70] He later claimed to have been referring toESG,CSR, andgreenwashing, as opposed to effective altruism,anti-malaria nets, and pandemic prevention.[71][72]
In November 2022,Binance CEOChangpeng Zhao revealed on Twitter that his firm intended to sell its holdings of FTT, FTX's token,[73] which triggered a spike in customer withdrawals from FTX that FTX was unable to fulfill, much like abank run.[74][75] Binance received $529million worth of FTT as part of a sale of its equity in FTX in 2021.[76] Zhao published his tweet soon after a report fromCoinDesk stating that the bulk of the holdings of Alameda, Bankman-Fried's trading firm, were in FTT.[76] Bloomberg and TechCrunch reported that any sale by Binance would likely have an outsized impact on FTT's price because of the token's low trading volume.[77][78] The announcement by Zhao of the pending sale and disputes between Zhao and Bankman-Fried on Twitter led to a decline in the price of FTT and other cryptocurrencies.[79] Shortly before, Zhao had criticized Bankman-Fried's lobbying efforts.[80]
On November 8, Zhao announced that Binance had entered into a nonbinding agreement to purchase FTX due to aliquidity crisis at FTX.[81][82] Zhao stated that Binance would complete due diligence soon and that all crypto exchanges should avoid using tokens as collateral.[83][84] He also wrote that he expected FTT to be "highly volatile in the coming days as things develop". On the day of the announcement, FTT lost 80 percent of its value.[85] On November 9, theWall Street Journal reported that Binance had decided not to acquire FTX.[86] Binance cited reports of FTX's mishandling of customer funds and pending investigations of FTX as the reasons the firm would not pursue the deal.[87] Amid the crisis, Bankman-Fried was no longer a billionaire, according to theBloomberg Billionaires Index.[88] The very next day, Bloomberg reported that theSecurities and Exchange Commission andCommodity Futures Trading Commission were investigating FTX and the nature of its connections to Bankman-Fried's other holdings.[89]
On November 11, 2022, FTX, Alameda Research, and more than 130 associated legal entities declared bankruptcy.[90] Anonymous sources cited byReuters stated that, earlier in 2022, Bankman-Fried had transferred at least $4billion from FTX to Alameda Research without any disclosure to the companies' insiders or the public. The sources said that the money transferred included customer funds and that it was ostensibly backed by FTT and shares inRobinhood.[91][92] An anonymous source cited byThe Wall Street Journal stated that Bankman-Fried had disclosed[where?] that Alameda owed FTX about $10billion, which was secured through customer funds held by FTX when FTX had, at the time, $16billion in customer assets.[93] According to anonymous sources cited byThe Wall Street Journal, the Chief Executive of Alameda Research,Caroline Ellison, told employees that Bankman-Fried was aware that FTX had lent its customers' money to Alameda to help it meet its liabilities.[94]
Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO of FTX on November 11, 2022, and was immediately replaced byJohn J. Ray III, who from 2004 to 2009 had chaired the effort to recoverEnron assets for creditors through litigation against numerous banks in theEnron Bankruptcy case.[95] FTX and related entities filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on the same day.[90]
One day after FTX declared bankruptcy, on November 12, Bankman-Fried was interviewed by theRoyal Bahamas Police Force.[96] On November 17, Ray stated in a sworn declaration submitted in bankruptcy court that according to the firm's records, Alameda Research had lent $1billion to Bankman-Fried, adding, "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information."[97][98]
In the testimony Bankman-Fried had prepared to present in December 2022 to theHouse Financial Services Committee, he maintained that "[FTX] is solvent" but he was "pressured" by FTXgeneral counsel and former partner at theSullivan & Cromwelllaw firm, Ryne Miller, to declare bankruptcy. He also implied that the managing team and the law firms managing the bankruptcy were using theEnron precedent in an effort to reap inordinately large amounts of fees from the process.[99] After his arrest and imprisonment, he did not testify in Congress; John J. Ray III testified instead.[100]
Earlier that day, theSouthern District of New York had charged Bankman-Fried withwire fraud, wire fraudconspiracy,securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, andmoney laundering.Philip Davis, thePrime Minister of the Bahamas, commented on the arrest that "the Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law ... [W]hile the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, the Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX".[9][101][102] Braden Perry, a former senior trial lawyer at theCommodity Futures Trading Commission, opined that a conviction on any of the charges might result in a prison sentence of years or even decades.[103][104]
After being held atFox Hill Prison inNassau for ten days, Bankman-Fried consented to his extradition from the Bahamas to the United States to face charges.[105][106] He was allowed to remain free on a $250million bond, the largest such bond ever set in an American criminal proceeding. Among the conditions was that he would stay at his parents' home in California.[107]
On January 3, 2023, Bankman-Fried pled "not guilty" to fraud and the other charges.[108][109] On February 1, 2023, the judge presiding over his case, JudgeLewis Kaplan, tightened the bail conditions and forbade Bankman-Fried from contacting current or former employees of FTX without attorneys present. The restriction was imposed as Judge Kaplan considered his contact with a potential witness as a "material threat of inappropriate contact with prospective witnesses",[110] and hinted Bankman-Fried might deserve to be jailed pending trial.[111]
Four additional criminal charges levied against Bankman-Fried were announced on February 23, 2023, primarily focused on his making "more than 300 illegal political donations."[112] A March 2023 indictment accused Bankman-Fried and others that they had "directed and caused the transfer" of at least $40million in cryptocurrency to Chinese government officials, in order tounfreeze accounts of Alameda Research.[113] In July, prosecutors dropped acampaign finance charge filed against him due totreaty obligations tothe Bahamas created by his extradition.[114] In a separate illegal campaign finance indictment in August, Bankman-Fried was accused of using $100 million in stolen funds of FTX customers towards 2022 U.S. elections campaign contributions.[115][116]
The trial began on October 3, 2023, at theDaniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse inManhattan, presided over by JudgeLewis Kaplan. Bankman-Fried faced seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.[117]The Guardian summarized the trial as a question of "whether Bankman-Fried is a crypto criminal mastermind or just an unlucky 'math nerd'". Bankman-Fried was accused of having "stole[n] billions from thousands of people" by funnelling customers' money from FTX into Alameda to fund investments, loan repayments, real estate, and political donations. The defense, on the other hand, told the story of a young but earnest entrepreneur critically out of his depth. Bankman-Fried, they said, worked 12 to 22 hours a day, "didn't drink or party", and wanted to fund more work on pandemic prevention. A series of mistakes from him and his inexperienced executive team, a devastating market crash, and adversarial action from external parties caused his companies to spiral into bankruptcy. But at no point, they insisted, was there intention to commit fraud.[118][119][120][121]
Over a dozen witnesses testified for the prosecution, including FTX executivesCaroline Ellison,Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh, as part ofplea deals. For his plea bargain, Wang testified that "with some simple tweaks to computer code," he helped Alameda Research misappropriate as much as $65 billion from FTX customers and that he "lied about this to the public."[122] Nearly all the testimony for the defense was provided by the defendant, with small contributions from a risk management expert and a Bahamian lawyer.[123]
Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse
The case revolved largely around two ways that Alameda was able to access the funds of other FTX customers. The first was theline of credit Alameda had on the exchange. A credit line is a relatively common facility that enables an entity to function more efficiently as aliquidity provider, andmargin traders on FTX were generally allowed to borrow from one another and do as they pleased with the borrowed funds. However, Alameda's credit line was "essentially unlimited", and it was exempt from posting collateral on the exchange to formally secure the borrows. Senior engineers testified that they had added these features at the direction of their CEO. Bankman-Fried contended that he had merely requested something that would prevent erroneousliquidation. He was not aware of the specific solution implemented, he said, although he was aware that Alameda ultimately borrowed "around $2billion" this way.[124][125]
Bankman-Fried also denied knowledge of a crucial part of the second way that Alameda accessed customer funds. Before FTX had a bank account, it had used Alameda and otherpayment processors to receivefiat deposits from customers. "What I believed is that either the funds were just being held in a bank account and not used or moved, or that they were being sent to FTX in one way or another," Bankman-Fried testified. He assumed that if Alameda had been spending the funds, that would have been reflected as a borrow on Alameda's main account on FTX. Not until October or November 2022, did he claim that he finally confirmed otherwise. The main Alameda account was not tracking these transactions and Alameda had taken $8billion. Other FTX executives conceded that "it seemed like he might not know" exactly how these funds were being processed and that while FTX's systems were tracking this liability, it was not displayed on the admin user's dashboard. But they also emphasized that ultimately at both businesses, Bankman-Fried was the only individual in charge.[125][126]
Much attention was given to the contrast between Bankman-Fried's public statements about his companies and the private realities. For example, on November 8, 2022, he had tweeted, "FTX is fine. Assets are fine." One FTX executive said these statements were false after first describing them to prosecutors as true but "misleading" because Bankman-Fried had been careful to talk solvency rather than liquidity. Misleading but technically true statements were a common theme. Bankman-Fried maintained, for instance, that he had never said Alameda was treated the same as other customers in all respects, only that Alameda was notfront-running other customers. He also claimed to have only skimmed the "dishonest" balance sheets that Alameda's CEO sent to lenders and the defense made a great effort to demonstrate her autonomy in the role, the prime example being her refusal to follow Bankman-Fried's advice tohedge against a market downturn.[127][128][129]
The trial ended on November 2, 2023, with the jury pronouncing Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven counts. The sentencing hearing was scheduled for March 28, 2024.[130] Federal criminal court sentencing experts speculated on the potential amount of prison time likely to be meted out.[131][132][133] On March 28, 2024, the court sentenced Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison.[134] Under provisions of the First Step Act and in conjunction with other time credit programs, Bankman-Fried may actually serve approximately 18 years.[135][136] The court ordered the defendant to pay the sum of $11.02 billion inforfeiture for engaging in a series of fraudulent actions against customers and investors.[11] In preparation for his incarceration, Bankman-Fried engaged the services ofprison consultantSam Mangel.[137]
A second trial, on five charges including bank fraud and bribery, was originally scheduled for early March 2024. These charges were brought by federal prosecutors after Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas in December 2022. He had asked for these charges to be dismissed because they were not part of the extradition agreement withBahamian authorities, or alternatively he requested that they be resolved under a separate trial.[138][139]
Prosecutors announced on December 30, 2023 that they would not proceed to a second trial, stating that its benefits would be outweighed by the "strong public interest" to promptly resolve the case. Furthermore, a second trial would not affect how much time Bankman-Fried could face in prison under recommended federal guidelines.[140]
On April 11, 2024, Bankman-Fried appealed his conviction and the 25-year prison sentence. The appeals process could take years, and would require convincing higher courts that Judge Lewis Kaplan made significant errors that deprived Bankman-Fried of his legal rights and made the trial unfair.[141]
On September 13, 2024, Bankman-Fried requested a new trial, claiming Judge Kaplan was biased. His lawyers argued the judge mocked their defense and criticized their questioning in front of the jury. They also alleged the judge pressured jurors to reach a quick verdict by offering meals and rides home on the first day of deliberations.[142]
On November 4, 2025, a federal appeals court in New York heard an argument by Bankman-Fried's attorney that his conviction for fraud should be overturned. A ruling is pending.[143]
Prior to August 11, 2023, Bankman-Fried was out on bail and living with his parents under court ordered restrictions. On July 26, 2023, prosecutors allegedwitness tampering after Bankman-Fried gave a reporter personal writings of formerAlameda Research CEOCaroline Ellison.[144] Three weeks later, on August 11, after Judge Kaplan concluded that witness tampering had likely occurred, he revoked Bankman-Fried's bail; Bankman-Fried was led from the courtroom in handcuffs andremanded into custody at theMetropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn.[145][146]
On August 22, 2023, Bankman-Fried's counsel averred that his client was not being provided a vegan diet and that his medications forADHD and depression were running low.[147] He added that Bankman-Fried could not prepare for the trial subsisting on bread, water, and peanut butter.[148] By November 2023, it was reported he had access to a vegetarian diet and prescription drugs and that he was participating in the"mack" economy by buying packets ofmackerel from theprison commissary and exchanging them for services from other prisoners, such as a haircut.[149] After his trial conviction and sentencing, Bankman-Fried was assigned register number 37244-510.[150] He requested to remain incarcerated in MDC Brooklyn while he pursued an appeal.[151] As of late September 2024, he was assigned to the same dormitory-style cell asSean Combs.[151] In March 2025,Tucker Carlson interviewed Bankman-Fried, who made an "indirect pitch to Mr. Trump" to pardon his case, emphasizing that some of his donations went for Republican causes.[152] The interview was unsanctioned by prison authorities and he was immediately placed insolitary confinement then moved out of the New York area toFederal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island, a low security Federal prison in Los Angeles.[153][154]
Contributions were made to both U.S. political parties, with SBF saying he gave an equal amount.[158] For Democrats, Bankman-Fried donated $27million toProtect Our Future, a DemocraticPAC.[159] During the 2021-22 election cycle, he gave $990,000 to Democrat candidates and $38.8m to outside groups, according to public records.[158]
Public records showed donations toRepublican Party campaigns in the 2021–22 cycle of $262,200,[160] including donations to senatorsSusan Collins of Maine,Mitt Romney of Utah,Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, andBen Sasse of Nebraska.[155] Journalist Matthew Kassel says that Bankman-Fried had often donated to politicians who cultivate goodIsrael–United States relations but concluded "it is unclear if his backing of pro-Israel candidates was coincidental or motivated by any personal interest in Middle East policy."[161] Bankman-Fried said he donated additional money to Republicans throughdark money channels. "All my Republican donations were dark," he said because the press were "super liberal" and he wanted to keep it secret.[158]
Bankman-Fried was the second-largest individual donor to Democratic causes for the2022 U.S. elections, with total donations of $39.8million, only behindGeorge Soros,[162][163][164] of which $27million was given to the Protect Our Future PAC.[165][166][167] Additional recipients included The Next 50 PAC, Guarding Against Pandemics PAC, and the leadership PAC forBrendan Boyle.[23][168][169] Bankman-Fried said in February 2022 that his political contributions were not aimed at influencing his policy goals for the cryptocurrency ecosystem; however, FTX was circulating a list of suggestions to policymakers at the time.[155] He said in an interview that he would prefer theCommodity Futures Trading Commission take a larger role in regulating and guiding the crypto industry.[155] According toThe New York Times, the CFTC has a reputation for favoring relatively relaxed regulations for the industry when contrasted with other regulators like theSecurities and Exchange Commission.[170]
Bankman-Fried pushed for regulations via the proposedDigital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA) by extensively lobbying Congress, which was perceived as being favorable to FTX but harmful to the broader industry, especially itsdecentralized finance competitors.[171][172][173] In May 2022, Bankman-Fried stated that he planned to spend "north of $100million" in the 2024 presidential election with a "soft ceiling" of $1billion.[174] In October 2022, he walked back his pledged spending, calling it a "dumb quote on my part".[175] However, inGoing Infinite,Michael Lewis revealed that Bankman-Fried had begun to investigate the legality of directly payingDonald Trump not to run for president in 2024, with Trump's team allegedly giving a potential figure of $5billion.[69]
In the aftermath of the FTX scandal, recipients of Bankman-Fried's and other FTX executives' political campaign contributions have been donating equal amounts to charitable organizations. Elected officials doing so include SenatorKirsten Gillibrand,[176] as well as RepresentativesChuy García andKevin Hern.[177] A spokesperson for former Texas gubernatorial candidateBeto O'Rourke said that his campaign had received a $1million donation from Bankman-Fried in October 2022 but returned the funds in early November, prior to the election.[178]
Pandemic prevention contributions and related controversy
Bankman-Fried and his younger brother, Gabriel, contributed towardpandemic prevention initiatives, according to an investigative report byThe Washington Post.[179] One funding recipient was the Guarding Against PandemicsPAC, founded by Gabriel.[23] On May 15, 2022, FTX announced it had donated $18million to support "TOGETHER Trial," a private, international, research consortium conducting clinical trials to test existing drugs as treatments for various conditions, includingCOVID-19.[180][181]
On July 20, 2023, an Insiders Avoidance Complaint was filed against Bankman-Fried and three former FTX/Alameda senior executives seeking to recover "hundreds of millions of dollars that Defendants misappropriated." The plaintiffs were FTX Trading Ltd., Alameda Research LLC, Alameda Research Ltd., North Dimension Inc., Cottonwood Grove Ltd., and Realm Shires, Inc. Their complaint stated that Guarding Against Pandemics—which received $35million from Bankman-Fried between October 2021 and May 2022—and its associatedpolitical action committee "needless to say, did nothing to prevent pandemics."[182]
In December 2022, FTX's new management commenced efforts to "claw back" donations that had been made to politicians, celebrities, and charities as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. The company announced that it "intends to...require the return of such payments, with interest accruing from the date any action is commenced." Reports on this development included the assessment that "clawing back payments made to politicians and charities is likely to be one of the easier parts of the bankruptcy process," on the basis of U.S. legislation that presumes "payments or transfers made within 90 days of bankruptcy to be preferential if they result in a creditor getting more than it would have been entitled to at the end of the bankruptcy process," with the caveat that a "clawback can attempt to recover the difference in the payments."[183]
By April 2023, $7.3billion[184] of the original $8billion[185] in missing funds had been recuperated inliquid assets. While an anonymous bidder reportedly valued the remaining portfolio at "at least $2billion",[61]Bloomberg'sMatt Levine noted that"'We lucked into enough money to pay everyone back' is not a legal defense to fraud".[186] In October 2023, FTX and its affiliated debtors revealed a proposed settlement of customer-property disputes, set to be presented for approval to the competentbankruptcy court. Accounting for both priority and non-priority claims against FTX, the settlement's parties offered their estimate that customers of FTX.com and FTX US would receive, collectively, over 90% of distributable value worldwide.[187][188]
Bankman-Fried isvegan.[36] He was raised in aJewish family.[189][161] In mid-2021 it was reported that he lived with approximately 10 roommates in a five-bedroom Bahamian penthouse bought by co-CEO of FTXRyan Salame.[29][61][190] After FTX's collapse, the penthouse was put up for sale for close to $40million.[191] Bankman-Fried had a relationship with Alameda Research CEOCaroline Ellison that lasted around six months and ended on April 15, 2022.[61][192] While testifying against him in court in October 2023, she claimed that his hairstyle and clothes were part of a "well calculated" image that he tried to project. She stated that Bankman-Fried believed he had received higher bonuses while working atJane Street because of his hair and used his appearance as "an important part" of FTX's "narrative and image."[193] In court, he appeared wearing a grey suit with trimmed hair.[194]
Bankman-Fried once played the video gameLeague of Legends while on a call attempting to secure an investment from Sequoia Capital, talking about how FTX would become a “super app.” The investors were "incredibly impressed,” with one calling the call “one of those your-hair-is-blown-back type of meetings.” Afterward, Sequoia ended up investing over $200 million in FTX.[195] An article in theFinancial Times later characterized Bankman-Fried's "win ratios" inLeague of Legends as "average-to-bad".[196]
Τhroughout the legal process, Bankman-Fried's parents stood by him, writing in a December 2022 letter, around the time of the arrest, "You are innocent." In an e-mail toThe New Yorker, his mother, Barbara Fried, denounced the actions of the prosecution and the bankruptcy team as "McCarthyite" and a "relentless pursuit of total destruction," which is enabled by "a credulous public." After Bankman-Fried was incarcerated during the trial, his parents took turns traveling every Tuesday from California to be with him at the Brooklyn jail where he awaited the outcome of his trial, and the sentencing phase.[197] She wrote a letter to the judge in February 2024 arguing for lenient sentencing, saying that Bankman-Fried would face extreme danger in prison because he has "trouble responding appropriately to many social cues".[198]
^In the meantime, Bankman-Fried reportedly had spent approximately $135million on naming rights for theMiami Heat's basketball arena and an estimated $30million on a singleSuper Bowl ad.[67]
^Murphy, Heather Tal (November 7, 2023)."The Other Bankman-Fried".Slate. RetrievedNovember 16, 2023.The fact that most of this funding was coming from Gabe's brother was never a secret. At least $10 million of the $17.5 million to $35 million Sam donated to GAP—and maybe much more—came from a mixture of customer and non-customer accounts at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, according to estimates from federal prosecutors and bankruptcy filings.
^Bultman, Matthew (November 2, 2023)."Bankman-Fried's Pre-Trial Antics Haunt Him Before Sentencing (1)".Bloomberg Law.Archived from the original on November 5, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2024.Former federal prosecutors predict the fallen FTX co-founder will receive at least 20 years in prison. At the high end, federal sentencing guidelines could recommend what equates to a life sentence for Bankman-Fried, who turned 31 in March. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has been critical of the guidelines and often imposed more lenient sentences in previous cases before his court.
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