It’s been nearly a year since the spectacle of Sam Bankman-Fried’s sudden transformation from crypto boy genius to (alleged) crypto criminal. This is undoubtedly a dramatic story because the media (wealth includes) cataloging every step of the saga—from the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November to the former CEO’s bail revocation in August for allegedly tampering with a witness.
With the eve of one of the most high-profile white-collar crime trials in our recent memory, let’s take a look at the main protagonists and adversaries in this massive case that has attracted countless eyeballs both inside and outside the crypto world.
defendant
Bankman-Fried’s story — like the latest tech icon, Elizabeth Holmes, to become a prisoner in order to stoke the public’s outrage and imagination — begins at Stanford University.
The fathers of the future (and now former) CEO of FTX were two Stanford University law professors in Palo Alto.He was a classic quant, using his talents first to earn a degree at MIT and then Jane Streeta high-frequency trading firm that relies not on one bold bet but on millions of calculated, risk-averse trades.
Bankman-Fried, who embraces the philosophy of effective altruism and believes in using limited resources to do the most good, has an appetite for risk, and in 2017 he left Jane Street to found Alami Alameda Research, a hedge fund using a similar approach. A quantitative-first approach—but for cryptocurrencies.
Alameda’s term is rockbut it cash Participate in the cryptocurrency craze, including arbitrage opportunities on Bitcoin prices between the United States, Japan, and South Korea. In 2019, Bankman-Fried capitalized on this momentum and launched FTX.Cryptocurrency exchanges have grown exponentially to become one of the largest and most valuable exchanges in the world $32 billion as of its last round of funding.
But by 2022, as the broader cryptocurrency market collapsed, so did Alameda and FTX. November, Coin platform Doubts raised about the health of Alameda’s crypto assets, after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao explain He was skeptical of FTX’s solvency, and there was a bank run that FTX could not afford. The exchange declared bankruptcy on November 11, and a month later the Justice Department charged Bankman-Fried with fraud.
defense
Photo illustration courtesy of Fortune; Eduardo Muñoz—Reuters
The charges against the federal government on behalf of Bankman-Fried in October were Mark Cohen and Christian Everdeltwo lawyers with decades of experience and register Well-known former clients.
Cohen and Everdel are both former federal prosecutors. Cohen attended Cornell University for his undergraduate studies and law school at the University of Michigan. From 1990 to 1995, Everdell served as an associate attorney in the Eastern District of New York. Everdell attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School. From 2007 to 2016, he served as an associate attorney in the Southern District of New York, the same office that now prosecutes SBF.
While serving as a federal prosecutor, Everdell was part of the team that helped take down notorious drug lord El Chapo, and both he and Cohen later became part of the defense team representing Ghislaine Maxwell, who · Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse children. Cohen, who founded his eponymous firm Cohen & Gresser in 2002, has also represented Goldman in a lawsuit that was dismissed in 2012 over a stock trading dispute, as well as an ongoing lawsuit filed in 2010 alleging systemic gender discrimination at the financial giant case.
government
Photo illustration courtesy of Fortune; Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images
White-collar criminal cases like Bankman-Fried’s are complex, intertwined cases in which a team, not just one attorney, prosecutes the defendant.
The buck stops with the boss, however, and for the Southern District of New York, which has an extensive record of successfully prosecuting white-collar criminal cases like Bernie Madoff or Trump fixer Michael Cohen, the buck stops with the boss. Damian Williams.
When President Joe Biden appointed Williams, 43, as U.S. attorney for the Southern District in 2021, he became first black lawyer to lead an office that is more than two centuries old. Williams earned degrees from Harvard and Yale before serving as a prosecutor in the Southern District, where he quickly took on a series of high-profile cases after his appointment. These include the indictments of Ghislaine Maxwell, Bankman-Fried and Robert Menendez, who was recently appointed to the Senate. charged and bribery.
Two former Southern District prosecutors said Williams, who oversees about 450 employees, will likely not be bogged down in the day-to-day grind of prosecuting a former cryptocurrency whiz. wealth. His oversight is mediated through a number of mid-level managers, including his deputy, Andrea Griswold; Daniel Gitner, chief of the criminal division; and Matt Podolsky and Scott Hartman, directors of the office’s securities and commodities division. And then there are front-line prosecutors like Danielle Sassoon and Nicholas Roos who will actually go to court and argue cases in front of juries.
That doesn’t mean Williams isn’t keenly aware of the complexities of the case and what a successful prosecution would mean for his legacy. “Pleas guilty today,” he explain FTX Lt. Ryan Salame said in reference to a recent agreement with the Southern District that “reflects the commitment I made in December that my office will continue to pursue expeditious justice against individuals at FTX and its affiliates.” “
lieutenants
Photo illustration courtesy of Fortune; Singer: Bob Van Voorhees-Bloomberg/Getty Images; Allison: Twitter/@CarolineCapital; Salam: Spencer Platt-Getty photo agency
Who will testify at the trial remains up in the air – according to a recent report, the government submitted a list of more than 50 potential witnesses. Archive— but Sam Bankman-Fried’s former deputy could play a key role.
In December, the government announced that Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research and Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, who grew up with Bankman-Fried in Silicon Valley, had agreed to plea deals. Another co-founder, Nishad Singh, surrendered two months later in February, and as of September, Salame, co-chief executive of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, was the latest to fall.
While it’s unclear whether all four will testify, Ellison, Wang, Singer and Salam are among the top executives in the Bankman-Fried empire, and their guilty pleas are critical to growing scrutiny of Bankman-Fried. It was a coup for Kerman-pressured prosecutors — Fried and his lawyers.
Allison, in particular, has become a focus of the case, both because of her central role in the events that ultimately led to FTX’s downfall (Alameda Research used FTX clients’ funds to make risky bets) and because she has become a bankman -One of the masterminds behind Fried. scapegoat This is also the indirect reason why he was imprisoned.
July, New York Times published article Ellison’s private diary while in Alameda.Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried leaked the writings to era Attempting to “publicly discredit a government witness” and calling for his bail to be revoked. In August, the judge in Bankman-Fried’s trial granted prosecutors’ motion and the former FTX CEO has spent the past month and a half behind bars.
parents
Photo illustration courtesy of Fortune; Stephen Young—Bloomberg/Getty Images; Eduardo Muñoz—Reuters
According to a recent report, when the United States extradited Bankman-Fried last December, his parents attended the hearing at the Bahamas District Court, sitting in the third row. New Yorker article. Almost a year later, there’s a good chance Alan Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried will appear in court again to support their son.
But the Bankman-Fried family, which includes not only the former FTX executive’s parents but also his younger brother Gabe, is more than just an observer of the rise and fall of cryptocurrency exchanges.they are positive Participants and beneficiaries of Bankman-Fried’s generosity.
Both his father, Bankman, and his mother, Fried, teach law at Stanford University. (Fried is now retired.) The banker specialized in tax law; Fried specialized in legal ethics, and philosophy and politics were often discussed at the dinner table.
as a recent feature BloombergBusiness weekly and new yorker Specifically, once Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire grew, FTX became a family business. Bankman became a salaried employee of FTX and took a leave of absence from Stanford University to fully support the cryptocurrency exchange. Fried was also involved to a lesser extent, attending dinners with staff and sometimes mediating between his son and staff.
In September, the FTX estate sued the parents in an effort to recoup bankruptcy funds, claiming they had “misappropriated millions of dollars” from the exchange for “personal gain.”
However, Bankman and Fried believe the lawsuit is without merit. “This is a dangerous attempt to intimidate Joe and Barbara and undermine the jury process just days before their children’s trial is to begin. These claims are simply false,” Joseph Bankman’s Attorney Sean Hecker and Barbara Fried’s attorney Michael Tremonte spoke with wealth.
Judge
Photo illustration courtesy of Fortune; John Marshall Mantel—The New York Times/Redux
The adult in the room presiding over the legal dealings between Bankman-Fried, his attorneys, his parents, star witnesses and the government is the Honorable Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.
President Bill Clinton appointed Kaplan to the federal district court in 1994. Kaplan graduated from Harvard Law School and spent most of his career in private practice before serving as a judge. Since then, Kaplan, 78, has presided over his fair share of high-profile trials. and complex cases.
They include author E. Jean Carroll’s recent civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, in which Kaplan has resisted repeated requests by Trump’s defense team to delay the trial.Previously, a federal judge presided over the civil lawsuit trial Charges against actor Kevin Spacey for allegedly sexually abusing a 14-year-old child; another case against prince andrew British Royal Family Alleged Sexual Abuse Linked to Jeffrey Epstein; and Prosecution of Guantanamo Bay Detainee Ahmed Ghailani Sentenced up to life imprisonment.
Known for not being “moved by public sentiment,” according to an April report contour Depend on New York Times, Kaplan has a no-nonsense reputation. Bankman-Fried’s attorneys repeatedly pleaded with the judge before and during the trial to allow him to temporarily stay out of jail. Kaplan remained unmoved.
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