CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
WTF
Disgraced FTX Founder SBF to Speak At New York Times DealBook Summit
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to make first public appearance after the bankruptcy filing. "Nothing is off limits" said NY Times reporter
By Bhushan Akolkar
11/24/22
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX will be speaking at the New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit next week, as per the earlier schedule. SBF himself confirmed the same on his Twitter timeline a few hours back.
This would be SBF’s first public appearance since crypto exchange FTX sought bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy proceedings have uncovered a lot of dark details about FTX. This involves the misappropriate use of customer funds, using company funds to buy personal properties, and much more.
Due to this irrational behavior with customers’ funds, FTX faced a $51 billion crash in its collateral. Speaking on this, SBF said:
“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I would give anything to be able to go back and do things over again. I did not realize the full extent of the margin position, nor did I realize the magnitude of the risk posed by a hyper-correlated crash”.
What to Expect from FTX Chief At the Summit?
One of the spokespersons at the New York Times stated that SBF will participate from the island nation of the Bahamas where the crypto exchange is based. The crypto community has accused the NY Times of its soft reporting on the entire FTX episode. But in his tweet, Sorkin said:
“There are a lot of important questions to be asked and answered. Nothing is off limits.”
With the bankruptcy proceedings over the last week, SBF has already resigned as the CEO of the company. His public persona has also been muted. Instead of appearing on TV, SBF has chosen to make long tweet threads. But this social media presence has also brought trouble for the FTX founder.
In the court hearing, lawyers said that SBF’s “incessant and disruptive tweeting” were undermining their restructuring efforts. Law firm Paul Weiss noted that they have stopped representing SBF citing “conflicts”. Top U.S. regulatory agencies are now seeking help from new FTX Chief Executive Officer John J. Ray III.
11/24/22
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX will be speaking at the New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit next week, as per the earlier schedule. SBF himself confirmed the same on his Twitter timeline a few hours back.
This would be SBF’s first public appearance since crypto exchange FTX sought bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy proceedings have uncovered a lot of dark details about FTX. This involves the misappropriate use of customer funds, using company funds to buy personal properties, and much more.
Due to this irrational behavior with customers’ funds, FTX faced a $51 billion crash in its collateral. Speaking on this, SBF said:
“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I would give anything to be able to go back and do things over again. I did not realize the full extent of the margin position, nor did I realize the magnitude of the risk posed by a hyper-correlated crash”.
What to Expect from FTX Chief At the Summit?
One of the spokespersons at the New York Times stated that SBF will participate from the island nation of the Bahamas where the crypto exchange is based. The crypto community has accused the NY Times of its soft reporting on the entire FTX episode. But in his tweet, Sorkin said:
“There are a lot of important questions to be asked and answered. Nothing is off limits.”
With the bankruptcy proceedings over the last week, SBF has already resigned as the CEO of the company. His public persona has also been muted. Instead of appearing on TV, SBF has chosen to make long tweet threads. But this social media presence has also brought trouble for the FTX founder.
In the court hearing, lawyers said that SBF’s “incessant and disruptive tweeting” were undermining their restructuring efforts. Law firm Paul Weiss noted that they have stopped representing SBF citing “conflicts”. Top U.S. regulatory agencies are now seeking help from new FTX Chief Executive Officer John J. Ray III.
Crypto Firm FTX’s Ownership of a U.S. Bank Raises Questions
Story by Stephen Gandel • Yesterday
Among the many surprising assets uncovered in the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX is a relatively tiny one that could raise big concerns: a stake in one of the country’s smallest banks.
The bankruptcy of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange is exposing a number of odd assets.© Marco Bello/Reuters
The bank, Farmington State Bank in Washington State, has a single branch and, until this year, just three employees. It did not offer online banking or even a credit card.
The tiny bank’s connection to the collapse of FTX is raising new questions about the exchange and its operations. Among them: How closely tied is FTX, which was based in the Bahamas, to the broader financial system? What else might regulators have missed? And in the hunt for FTX’s missing assets, how will Farmington get dragged into the multibillion-dollar bankruptcy?
Sign up for The Morning newsletter from The New York Times
The ties between FTX and Farmington State Bank began in March when Alameda Research, a small trading firm and sister to FTX, invested $11.5 million in the bank’s parent company, FBH.
At the time, Farmington was the nation’s 26th-smallest bank out of 4,800. Its net worth was $5.7 million, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Related video: Crypto lending company Genesis suspends withdrawals, reportedly considering bankruptcy
Duration 2:05 View on Watch
What FTX Fallout Means for VC Funding in Crypto
FTX’s investment, which according to financial regulators was more than double the bank’s net worth, was led by Ramnik Arora, a top lieutenant of the exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. Mr. Arora was responsible for many of the much larger deals that FTX signed with Sequoia Capital and other venture capitalists that eventually failed.
Farmington has more than one crypto connection. FBH bought the bank in 2020. The chairman of FBH is Jean Chalopin, who, along with being a co-creator of cartoon cop Inspector Gadget in the 1980s, is the chairman of Deltec Bank, which, like FTX, is based in the Bahamas. Deltec’s best-known client is Tether, a crypto company with $65 billion in assets offering a stablecoin that is pegged to the dollar.
Tether has long faced concerns about its finances, in part because of its reclusive owners and offshore bank accounts. Through Alameda, FTX was one of Tether’s largest trading partners, raising concerns that the stablecoin could have yet-undiscovered ties to FTX’s fraudulent operations.
Before the acquisition, Farmington’s deposits had been steady at about $10 million for a decade. But in the third quarter this year, the bank’s deposits jumped nearly 600 percent to $84 million. Nearly all of that increase, $71 million, came from just four new accounts, according to F.D.I.C. data.
It’s not clear what F.T.X.’s plan was for Farmington. Online, Farmington now goes by Moonstone Bank. The name was trademarked a few days before F.T.X.’s investment. Moonstone’s website doesn’t say anything about Bitcoin or other digital currencies. It says Moonstone wants to support “the evolution of next generation finance.”
Deltec and Moonstone did not return a request for comment.
It’s unclear how FTX was allowed to buy a stake in a U.S.-licensed bank, which would need to be approved by federal regulators. Banking veterans say it’s hard to believe that regulators would have knowingly allowed FTX to gain control of a U.S. bank.
“The fact that an offshore hedge fund that was basically a crypto firm was buying a stake in a tiny bank for multiples of its stated book value should have raised massive red flags for the F.D.I.C., state regulators and the Federal Reserve,” said Camden Fine, a bank industry consultant who used to head the Independent Community Bankers of America. “It’s just astonishing that all of this got approved.”
Story by Stephen Gandel • Yesterday
Among the many surprising assets uncovered in the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX is a relatively tiny one that could raise big concerns: a stake in one of the country’s smallest banks.
The bankruptcy of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange is exposing a number of odd assets.© Marco Bello/Reuters
The bank, Farmington State Bank in Washington State, has a single branch and, until this year, just three employees. It did not offer online banking or even a credit card.
The tiny bank’s connection to the collapse of FTX is raising new questions about the exchange and its operations. Among them: How closely tied is FTX, which was based in the Bahamas, to the broader financial system? What else might regulators have missed? And in the hunt for FTX’s missing assets, how will Farmington get dragged into the multibillion-dollar bankruptcy?
Sign up for The Morning newsletter from The New York Times
The ties between FTX and Farmington State Bank began in March when Alameda Research, a small trading firm and sister to FTX, invested $11.5 million in the bank’s parent company, FBH.
At the time, Farmington was the nation’s 26th-smallest bank out of 4,800. Its net worth was $5.7 million, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Related video: Crypto lending company Genesis suspends withdrawals, reportedly considering bankruptcy
Duration 2:05 View on Watch
What FTX Fallout Means for VC Funding in Crypto
FTX’s investment, which according to financial regulators was more than double the bank’s net worth, was led by Ramnik Arora, a top lieutenant of the exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. Mr. Arora was responsible for many of the much larger deals that FTX signed with Sequoia Capital and other venture capitalists that eventually failed.
Farmington has more than one crypto connection. FBH bought the bank in 2020. The chairman of FBH is Jean Chalopin, who, along with being a co-creator of cartoon cop Inspector Gadget in the 1980s, is the chairman of Deltec Bank, which, like FTX, is based in the Bahamas. Deltec’s best-known client is Tether, a crypto company with $65 billion in assets offering a stablecoin that is pegged to the dollar.
Tether has long faced concerns about its finances, in part because of its reclusive owners and offshore bank accounts. Through Alameda, FTX was one of Tether’s largest trading partners, raising concerns that the stablecoin could have yet-undiscovered ties to FTX’s fraudulent operations.
Before the acquisition, Farmington’s deposits had been steady at about $10 million for a decade. But in the third quarter this year, the bank’s deposits jumped nearly 600 percent to $84 million. Nearly all of that increase, $71 million, came from just four new accounts, according to F.D.I.C. data.
It’s not clear what F.T.X.’s plan was for Farmington. Online, Farmington now goes by Moonstone Bank. The name was trademarked a few days before F.T.X.’s investment. Moonstone’s website doesn’t say anything about Bitcoin or other digital currencies. It says Moonstone wants to support “the evolution of next generation finance.”
Deltec and Moonstone did not return a request for comment.
It’s unclear how FTX was allowed to buy a stake in a U.S.-licensed bank, which would need to be approved by federal regulators. Banking veterans say it’s hard to believe that regulators would have knowingly allowed FTX to gain control of a U.S. bank.
“The fact that an offshore hedge fund that was basically a crypto firm was buying a stake in a tiny bank for multiples of its stated book value should have raised massive red flags for the F.D.I.C., state regulators and the Federal Reserve,” said Camden Fine, a bank industry consultant who used to head the Independent Community Bankers of America. “It’s just astonishing that all of this got approved.”
FTX Collapse: 'Emperor' Bankman-Fried Had No Clothes
Story by Luc Olinga • Yesterday TheStreet
A face of the regime of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, was revealed on November 22 during the firm's first hearing in Delaware bankruptcy court.
The 30-year-old former trader was virtually considered an "emperor" among his employees: This is the image used by an FTX lawyer to describe what happened after Bankman-Fried filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on his crypto empire made up of FTX and Alameda Research.
Everyone realized for the "first time the emperor had no clothes," James Bromley, co-head of the restructuring practice at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, told Judge John Dorsey.
Bromley also said the downfall of FTX was "probably" one of the "most abrupt and difficult corporate collapses in the history of corporate America."
The firm ran out of cash when its customers rushed to withdraw their money by selling the cryptocurrencies they had previously purchased on the platform. FTX was using the client cryptocurrencies as collateral to borrow money which in turn it had transferred to Alameda Research, a trading platform with which it shares several links. Alameda used this money to invest in crypto businesses and also for trading operations.
You can read the FTX collapse timeline here.
FTX books a 'complete failure', investors did 'little homework' with billions owed
A $1 Billion Personal Loan
John Ray, FTX's new CEO in charge of restructuring, had already scathingly criticized Bankman-Fried and his two associates -- Zixiao "Gary" Wang and Nishad Singh -- on November 17, explaining that they had failed on every level.
Bankman-Fried received a personal loan of $1 billion from Alameda, according to Ray,. The firm also gave a $543 million personal loan to Singh, and $55 million to Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, one of FTX's affiliates.
"In the Bahamas, I understand that corporate funds of the FTX group were used to purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors," Ray said. "I understand that there does not appear to be documentation for certain of these transactions as loans, and that certain real estate was recorded in the personal name of these employees and advisors on the records of the Bahamas."
Bankman-Fried lives in the Bahamas.
Ray further indicated that, to be reimbursed for business expenses, employees only had to submit the request by chat and a supervisor would immediately approve with a personalized emoji.
"The debtors did not have the type of disbursement controls that I believe are appropriate for a business enterprise," Ray wrote. "For example, employees of the FTX Group submitted payment requests through an on-line 'chat' platform where a disparate group of supervisors approved disbursements by responding with personalized emojis."
The conclusion of this veteran restructuring was final:
"Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here," Ray wrote in a 30-page document filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
"From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented."
A face of the regime of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, was revealed on November 22 during the firm's first hearing in Delaware bankruptcy court.
The 30-year-old former trader was virtually considered an "emperor" among his employees: This is the image used by an FTX lawyer to describe what happened after Bankman-Fried filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on his crypto empire made up of FTX and Alameda Research.
Everyone realized for the "first time the emperor had no clothes," James Bromley, co-head of the restructuring practice at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, told Judge John Dorsey.
Bromley also said the downfall of FTX was "probably" one of the "most abrupt and difficult corporate collapses in the history of corporate America."
The firm ran out of cash when its customers rushed to withdraw their money by selling the cryptocurrencies they had previously purchased on the platform. FTX was using the client cryptocurrencies as collateral to borrow money which in turn it had transferred to Alameda Research, a trading platform with which it shares several links. Alameda used this money to invest in crypto businesses and also for trading operations.
You can read the FTX collapse timeline here.
FTX books a 'complete failure', investors did 'little homework' with billions owed
A $1 Billion Personal Loan
John Ray, FTX's new CEO in charge of restructuring, had already scathingly criticized Bankman-Fried and his two associates -- Zixiao "Gary" Wang and Nishad Singh -- on November 17, explaining that they had failed on every level.
Bankman-Fried received a personal loan of $1 billion from Alameda, according to Ray,. The firm also gave a $543 million personal loan to Singh, and $55 million to Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, one of FTX's affiliates.
"In the Bahamas, I understand that corporate funds of the FTX group were used to purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors," Ray said. "I understand that there does not appear to be documentation for certain of these transactions as loans, and that certain real estate was recorded in the personal name of these employees and advisors on the records of the Bahamas."
Bankman-Fried lives in the Bahamas.
Ray further indicated that, to be reimbursed for business expenses, employees only had to submit the request by chat and a supervisor would immediately approve with a personalized emoji.
"The debtors did not have the type of disbursement controls that I believe are appropriate for a business enterprise," Ray wrote. "For example, employees of the FTX Group submitted payment requests through an on-line 'chat' platform where a disparate group of supervisors approved disbursements by responding with personalized emojis."
The conclusion of this veteran restructuring was final:
"Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here," Ray wrote in a 30-page document filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
"From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented."
ALEXANDER BOLTON -
11/23/22
FILE – A sign for the FTX Arena, where the Miami Heat basketball team plays, is illuminated on Nov. 12, 2022, in Miami. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, Nov. 11
FILE – A sign for the FTX Arena, where the Miami Heat basketball team plays, is illuminated on Nov. 12, 2022, in Miami. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, Nov. 11
. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday calling for a criminal investigation of what they called the “fraudulent tactics” of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of FTX Trading Ltd., which filed for bankruptcy this month.
“Given the department’s commitment to holding perpetrators of white-collar crime personally accountable, we expect DOJ to investigate the actions leading to the collapse of FTX with the utmost scrutiny,” the senators wrote in a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The collapse of FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, which was once valued at $32 billion, leaves investors facing as much as $8 billion in losses.
The senators pointed out that in the days leading up to FTX’s collapse, Bankman-Fried tweeted that the exchange “has enough to cover all client holdings” and asserted “we don’t invest client assets (even in treasuries).”
Bankman-Fried later admitted that an affiliated trading platform that he also founded, Alameda Research, owed FTX approximately $10 billion in customer deposits that were lent without customers’ consent, which Warren and Whitehouse called “a violation of both U.S. securities laws and FTX’s own terms of service.”
“The fall of FTX was not simply a result of sloppy business and management practices, but rather appears to have been caused by intentional and fraudulent tactics employed by Mr. Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives to enrich themselves,” the senators wrote in the letter addressed to Garland and Kenneth Polite, the assistant attorney general in charge of the DOJ’s civil division.
Warren is a member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Whitehouse sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
They argue that Bankman-Fried “revealed his true interests of self-enrichment last year when he siphoned $300 million to his own wallet,” citing a Wall Street Journal report.
The Journal reported that “it couldn’t be determined” what Bankman-Fried did with the $300 million, but Reuters reported on Tuesday that Bankman-Fried, his parents and senior executives at FTX bought at least 19 properties worth $121 million in the Bahamas over the past two years.
The Democratic senators also pointed out that John Jay Ray, the corporate turnaround specialist who has taken over as FTX’s CEO, reported in a recent court filing that he had never seen “such a complete failure of corporate control” at the exchange and described the use of software to conceal the misuse of customers’ funds.
“New facts will undoubtedly shed more light on how Bankman-Fried and his associates’ deception has harmed FTX’s customers, and customers of any company that was exposed to the contagion,” the senators wrote. “We urge the Department to center these ‘flesh-and-blood victims’ as it investigates, and, if it deems necessary, prosecute the individuals responsible for their harm.”
Warren called for broader federal regulation of cryptocurrency markets in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Tuesday.
“FTX’s implosion should be a wake-up call. Regulators must enforce the law before more people get cheated, and Congress must plug the remaining holes in our regulatory structure — before the next crypto catastrophe takes down our economy,” she warned.
She urged the Justice Department to use “its full range of tools, including criminal penalties” against crypto executives who break the wall.
“If Mr. Bankman-Fried and FTX executives committed fraud, then federal prosecutors should send them to prison,” she wrote in The Journal. 2024 Tracker: Here’s who is running for the GOP nominationZelensky says UN must not be ‘hostage’ to ‘terrorist’ Russia
Bankman-Fried donated nearly $40 million to Democratic candidates, political action committees and liberal-leaning groups during the 2022 midterm elections.
His father, Joseph Bankman, a Stanford Law professor, helped draft tax legislation in 2016 and donated $2,500 to her campaign in 2011, according to reporting by Fortune and Fox News.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday calling for a criminal investigation of what they called the “fraudulent tactics” of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of FTX Trading Ltd., which filed for bankruptcy this month.
“Given the department’s commitment to holding perpetrators of white-collar crime personally accountable, we expect DOJ to investigate the actions leading to the collapse of FTX with the utmost scrutiny,” the senators wrote in a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The collapse of FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, which was once valued at $32 billion, leaves investors facing as much as $8 billion in losses.
The senators pointed out that in the days leading up to FTX’s collapse, Bankman-Fried tweeted that the exchange “has enough to cover all client holdings” and asserted “we don’t invest client assets (even in treasuries).”
Bankman-Fried later admitted that an affiliated trading platform that he also founded, Alameda Research, owed FTX approximately $10 billion in customer deposits that were lent without customers’ consent, which Warren and Whitehouse called “a violation of both U.S. securities laws and FTX’s own terms of service.”
“The fall of FTX was not simply a result of sloppy business and management practices, but rather appears to have been caused by intentional and fraudulent tactics employed by Mr. Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives to enrich themselves,” the senators wrote in the letter addressed to Garland and Kenneth Polite, the assistant attorney general in charge of the DOJ’s civil division.
Warren is a member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Whitehouse sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
They argue that Bankman-Fried “revealed his true interests of self-enrichment last year when he siphoned $300 million to his own wallet,” citing a Wall Street Journal report.
The Journal reported that “it couldn’t be determined” what Bankman-Fried did with the $300 million, but Reuters reported on Tuesday that Bankman-Fried, his parents and senior executives at FTX bought at least 19 properties worth $121 million in the Bahamas over the past two years.
The Democratic senators also pointed out that John Jay Ray, the corporate turnaround specialist who has taken over as FTX’s CEO, reported in a recent court filing that he had never seen “such a complete failure of corporate control” at the exchange and described the use of software to conceal the misuse of customers’ funds.
“New facts will undoubtedly shed more light on how Bankman-Fried and his associates’ deception has harmed FTX’s customers, and customers of any company that was exposed to the contagion,” the senators wrote. “We urge the Department to center these ‘flesh-and-blood victims’ as it investigates, and, if it deems necessary, prosecute the individuals responsible for their harm.”
Warren called for broader federal regulation of cryptocurrency markets in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Tuesday.
“FTX’s implosion should be a wake-up call. Regulators must enforce the law before more people get cheated, and Congress must plug the remaining holes in our regulatory structure — before the next crypto catastrophe takes down our economy,” she warned.
She urged the Justice Department to use “its full range of tools, including criminal penalties” against crypto executives who break the wall.
“If Mr. Bankman-Fried and FTX executives committed fraud, then federal prosecutors should send them to prison,” she wrote in The Journal. 2024 Tracker: Here’s who is running for the GOP nominationZelensky says UN must not be ‘hostage’ to ‘terrorist’ Russia
Bankman-Fried donated nearly $40 million to Democratic candidates, political action committees and liberal-leaning groups during the 2022 midterm elections.
His father, Joseph Bankman, a Stanford Law professor, helped draft tax legislation in 2016 and donated $2,500 to her campaign in 2011, according to reporting by Fortune and Fox News.
FTX miniseries gets go ahead, covering the ‘most brazen frauds ever committed’
The Russo’s are reported to have said that FTX “is one of the most brazen frauds ever committed” in their reasoning for wanting to create the show.
The Russo’s are reported to have said that FTX “is one of the most brazen frauds ever committed” in their reasoning for wanting to create the show.
An eight-episode limited series exploring the unraveling and scandals behind sunken crypto exchange FTX and its leadership is slated to soon begin production.
The series has been purchased by technology conglomerate Amazon, and will likely air on Amazon’s video streaming service Prime.
It’s understood to be based on “insider reporting” from journalists covering FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried according to a Nov. 23 report from the entertainment magazine Variety.
Brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, famed for directing Avengers: Endgame and multiple other Marvel-owned movies are reported to have sold the idea to Amazon and are slated to direct the mini-series.
Details are sparse with what direction the series will take, the source material it will draw from, and what time period and people it will focus on, with all of it still kept under wraps for the time being.
In their reason for pursuing a series on the FTX story, the Russos brothers told Variety what happened with the exchange “is one of the most brazen frauds ever committed,” and opined on Bankman-Fried:
“At the center of it all sits an extremely mysterious figure with complex and potentially dangerous motivations. We want to understand why.”
Amazon is slated to start producing the show as early as March 2023, and while the characters and the actors who will play them are unknown, it's reported the Russos are in discussions with prior Marvel actors they’ve worked with to fill the main roles.
The idea for FTX-inspired movies akin to The Big Short and the Wolf of Wall Street has already been joked around on Twitter over a week ago, with some members of the community already taking the initiative to cast who would play Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and other related players, such as Terra's Do Kwon.
One Twitter user pitched the idea of “FTX THE MOVIE” on Nov. 12, selecting Wolf of Wall Street’s Jonah Hill to play Bankman-Fried, while comedian Jimmy O. Yang could play Changpeng Zhao.
Another user created a promotional poster with their take on the film’s title: “The Wolf of Effective Altruism” spoofing The Wolf of Wall Street and poking fun at Bankman-Fried’s philosophical stance of wanting to help others.
It appears Hollywood is eager to snap up the rights to stories centered on the collapse of the world’s top crypto exchanges.
Related: Sam Bankman-Fried still speaking at events and the community is furious
Author and financial journalist Michael Lewis, known for his book “The Big Short” on the 2008 financial crisis, is reportedly looking to sell book rights on an FTX story after spending six months with Bankman-Fried in the months leading up to FTX’s implosion.
Big Tech player Apple is reportedly the front-runner for the rights beating out competitors Amazon and Netflix, with intentions to create a film for its video-streaming service Apple TV Plus.
No comments:
Post a Comment