The trial of disgraced former FTX CEO and Democrat mega donor Sam Bankman-Fried began on Tuesday as the public sees the tech guru once seen as the “next Warren Buffett” transform into an indicted defendant who told his former girlfriend, “In a lot of ways I don’t really have a soul.”
Bankman-Fried faces seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering on his alleged use of FTX customer funds on the digital currency trading platform to cover the losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research. He also reportedly used those funds to purchase real estate and cover other personal expenses. The former crypto CEO has pled not guilty to all counts and he could face a sentence of up to 110 years in prison.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (second on left) is led away in handcuffs by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau, Bahamas, on December 13, 2022. (MARIO DUNCANSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite the loss of customer funds and the general downturn the collapse of FTX created in the digital currency market, Bankman-Fried appeared to be apologetic but denied “any improper use of customer funds.”
“I really deeply wish that I had taken like a lot more responsibility for understanding what the details were of what was going on there. A lot of people got hurt, and that’s on me,” he told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos.
Bankman-Fried in August 2023 had his bail revoked after prosecutors argued he had violated the conditions of bail, and allegedly tampered with witnesses less than two months before trial. His lawyer decried his conditions in jail, which included a lack of vegan meals, claiming his client subsists on only a diet of “bread and water.”
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, speaks during the Bloomberg Crypto Summit in New York, US, on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Before Bankman-Fried became a defendant, he was considered a rising star , a generous philanthropist, and a major Democrat donor.
The disgraced former FTX CEO made it on the cover of Fortune Magazine in August 2022, and the financial outlet asked if Bankman-Fried, sometimes referred to as “SBF,” was the “next Warren Buffett.”
The trial coincides with the release of biographer Michael Lewis’s book about Bankman-Fried, Going Infinite, which tried to portray Bankman-Fried as a hero but largely fails to capture the tragedy surrounding the collapse of FTX.
Bankman-Fried portrayed himself as an “effective altruist,” who promised to give money on the use of reason and data to do good.
However, it appeared that much of the use of the money he gave out went to politicians, as he sought to become the next George Soros:
Lewis seems so attached to the protagonist of his narrative that he takes an awful lot in stride. He tells us that Bankman-Fried is so worried about the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump that he was planning to give the Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell “$15-$30 million” to “defeat the Trumpier candidates in the U.S. Senate races.” Thirty million? To Mitch McConnell? To save democracy? (Bankman-Fried also said that he was told that Trump might be willing to sit out the next election for $5 billion.)
Despite his media portrayal as the next larger-than-life investor, Lewis claims that Bankman-Fried lost a half a million dollars every day after his hedge fund launched.
Lewis also wrote that Bankman-Fried argued with his mom about his if he should wear long pants instead of his preferred cargo shorts.
Bankman-Fried also sent his “on-and-off” against girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who was the CEO of his Alameda Research hedge fund, a list of pros and cons of being in a relationship with him.
Bankman-Fried reportedly wrote in the memo to Ellision, “In a lot of ways I don’t really have a soul. There’s a pretty decent argument that my empathy is fake, my feelings are fake, my facial reactions are fake. I don’t feel happiness. What’s the point in dating someone who you physically can’t make happy?”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.