This is the story of one man – a fairy tale, but without a happy ending. The main character is a Jewish prince, as he is in the book: The boy with the conspicuously curly hair was born in 1992 in Stanford (California) – right on the campus of the world-famous university.
Both of his parents, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, are professors at Stanford Law School. Raised in the sheltered left-wing milieu of the Ivy League University, Sam’s mathematical talent was noticed early on. His parents made sure he was allowed to attend advanced courses and sent him to Canada/USA Math Camps in the summer, a popular vacation spot for mathematically gifted youth. It was there that the talented Sam, terribly bored in regular school, blossomed.
Its crypto exchange FTX was valued at $32 billion.
He was particularly enthusiastic about so-called “puzzle hunts” – puzzle tours through places or landscapes in which teams compete against each other to solve a series of tasks. Later, Sam Bankman-Fried, whom soon everyone would call SBF, organized these puzzle hunts on a large scale, pitting schools against each other.
His mother says she discovered a completely different side of him that she had never seen before – namely “impressive managerial skills” and “the ability to develop a visible, contagious, exuberant enthusiasm for things,” like she quotes the news portal »Yahoo Finance«. A skill that the young man has retained to this day.
STUDENT In 2010 he enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His fraternity Epsilon Theta (ET) consisted of nothing but nerds who preferred strategy games until late at night instead of the usual US alcohol excesses. SBF excelled in games that required quick thinking and acting. When chess was played, fellow students recalled Bankman-Fried, he always insisted on playing against the clock. He retained his love for the »League of Legends« video game well into university.
Bankman-Fried graduated from elite university with a major in physics and a minor in math. His rejection of conventional education remained. Looking back, he said in an interview: “None of what I learned in college turned out to be useful in hindsight – except for some social development. On the academic side, on the other hand, everything is damn pointless.«
At the same time, SBF developed a fascination for the controversial donation ideology of »effective altruism«. Bankman-Fried went vegan, worked at various investment firms, blogged about a better world, and finally founded his crypto exchange FTX at the age of 25.
private assets FTX grew at lightning speed – and soon Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the richest Americans with a personal fortune of $26.5 billion. His crypto exchange for artificial currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Tether had a market value of 32 billion dollars – more than Deutsche Bank is worth.
Bankman-Fried became the darling of the stars: He was the “Jewish Prince” who only wanted to earn money to donate it, was welcome by the rich and famous in America. Quarterback legend Tom Brady advertised for him, his ex-wife, top model Gisele Bundchen, basketball stars Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry also promoted FTX and invested themselves.
But then the crypto house of cards collapsed along with its feverish trade. On November 11, FTX and several subsidiaries in the USA filed for bankruptcy – so the takeover ideas of the competitor Binance were also wasted. The deposits of around one million investors – they are probably gone forever. A class action lawsuit is seeking $11 billion in damages.
TO FAIL On December 13, SBF was arrested in his 30 million mansion in the Bahamas after he had attended the New York Times’ DealBook Summit via video link on November 30 and asked questions about the guilt and cause of the FTX -Crash answered.
At the conference, which was also attended by guests such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Bankman-Fried emphasized his innocence. Bankman-Fried explained that he tried to save his hedge fund Alameda Research with FTX deposits with commercial incompetence. “We totally failed,” says SBF.
He was fascinated by the controversial donation ideology of effective altruism.
Failing as one who only wants billions made to donate, failing as the Prince of Stanford, the effective altruist. When the handcuffs clicked, this Jewish tale of the brilliant loner who wanted to earn money to save the world seemed to come to an abrupt end. Eventually, Bankman-Fried agreed to be extradited to the United States. There he now has to face charges of fraud. Cheating on his investors? He has always vehemently denied that.
credits According to media reports, SBF and other managers are said to have received billions in private loans from Alameda Research. This was reported by former CEO Caroline Ellison. She and FTX co-founder Gary Wang recently testified in court, pleaded guilty, and are now working with investigators in a plea deal in hopes of a reduced sentence. Both will presumably testify in court against Sam Bankman-Fried.
The prince who wanted to save the world, the gifted child, the effective altruist, he is now mentioned in the same breath as serious criminal investment fraudsters like Bernie Madoff. The courts will now clarify whether this is correct.