The distance between the luxury apartment complex of Albany in the Bahamas and the maximum security prison in Fox Hill where the founder of the FTX platform is located is relatively short, but now his life is completely, completely different
Twenty-seven kilometers is enough to change your whole life?
For Sam Bankman-Fried, the “king” of cryptocurrencies is, from his luxurious villa and the wild life he led in the Bahamas with the stolen money of his clients, he is now in the prison of the Caribbean country, in which the conditions they are miserable.
The distance between the luxury apartment complex of Albany in the Bahamas to the maximum security prison in Fox Hill where the founder of the FTX platform is located is relatively short, but now his life is completely, completely different, as described by El Pais.
In particular, Fox Hill Prison – the only correctional institution in the Bahamas – is “notorious” for its rats, worms, insects and bocha, according to the latest State Department report on the Bahamas.
The deposed cryptocurrency kingpin must remain in jail as he was denied bail. Bankman-Fried faces eight counts of conspiracy and fraud. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison.
In addition to his parents and professors from Stanford attending the hearing, the 30-year-old also said goodbye to his life of deep wealth, which of course was a bubble as he spent the $8 billion he had embezzled from clients. of. The 30-year-old had even spent hundreds of dollars to acquire luxury mansions in the Bahamas along with other company executives.
The founder of FTX lived in a large penthouse with his twentysomething friends, who were also company executives. His parents lived in another house on the island, which was also bought with the company’s money, and several other houses had been bought from the properties of his clients.
Life in the Bahamas
Bankman-Fried not only misled investors, lenders and customers, he tried to fool everyone by impersonating common mortals.
He drove a Toyota Corolla, wore a simple t-shirt and shorts, and gave the impression that he was altruistic, with the sole purpose of donating his millions to a good cause.
In fact, when talking about his luxurious mansion worth 30 million dollars, he described it as “an apartment” intended for four people.
“It’s nice[the apartment]even though we’re overcrowded,” he said in an interview with CNBC three months ago, when he was still boasting about how generous he is. His food, massages and other expenses were paid for by the company. There was no separation between work and play.”
In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, the friends, who were also senior executives of FTX, used to often exchange romantic partners in the luxurious mansion where they lived.
The group even seemed to be using pills, such as stimulants, anti-depressants and others.
“Stimulants when you wake up, sleeping pills if you need them when you sleep,” Bankman-Fried himself tweeted in 2019.
The “fallen king” had even mentioned in a podcast in 2020 that “probably half of all people or more should be taking some medication because it just makes their life so much better.”
However, Bankman-Fried in a recent interview with the New York Times had claimed that he had never used illegal drugs in the office or at home.
He also denied throwing wild parties and claimed he drank almost no alcohol. “When we had parties, we played board games,” he said.
However, the profile that one can create with the above information is not at all similar to the one he had at the beginning of his career.
Sam Bankman-Fried was a brilliant student. He was born in 1992 on the Stanford campus, where his parents worked. As a teenager, he showed great ability in mathematics. He attended MIT, where he joined a fraternity that was more interested in playing video games than getting drunk. At MIT he met Wang, who was already an expert on cryptocurrencies.
Bankman-Fried interned at the investment firm Jane Street Capital.
He stayed there for three years and then founded Alameda Research, an investment firm specializing in cryptocurrencies.
Bankman-Fried’s next step was to create his own cryptocurrency trading platform to help large and small investors access the market. He took the big step in 2019. He founded FTX in Hong Kong. The exchange platform worked quite well, it was well designed and it was a success. However, it lacked internal controls and risk management protocols (payment requests were approved with emojis on an online chat platform). So when the market crashed the company’s billion fraud was exposed.
Bankman-Fried, once described as the “white knight” of cryptocurrency, was actually a con artist.
If convicted, the 30-year-old could spend a lifetime behind bars.
moneyreview.gr
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
