Sam Bankman-Fried, additionally identified by the initials SBF, has tumbled from crypto king to courtroom defendant.

The trial of the founding father of the FTX cryptocurrency change is because of begin on Tuesday 3 October.

The fraud prices towards him – which he denies – stem from the November 2022 collapse of his now-bankrupt business.

But how did the 31-year-old go from such astronomic monetary heights to dealing with a authorized combat for freedom?

His formative years

Bankman-Fried grew up in California’s rich San Francisco Bay space, the place he attended a $56,000-a-year college.

Both his mother and father had been professors on the prestigious Stanford Law School.

He studied on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the place he lived in a gaggle home referred to as Epsilon Theta, which promotes itself as an alcohol-free group “known for liking beanbags, board games, puzzles, and rubber ducks”.

He as soon as informed an FTX podcast he didn’t apply himself in courses and didn’t know what to do along with his life for many of school.

Bankman-Fried graduated in 2014 with a serious in physics and a minor in maths.

Vegan, teetotaller, efficient altruist

Bankman-Fried did not lose the values of Epsilon Theta after commencement, if what he has informed journalists is to be believed.

He pushed again towards claims of drug and alcohol use at FTX, telling the New York Times’ DealBook Summit there have been no “wild parties” on the firm.

“When we had parties, we played board games and, you know, 20% of people would have three-quarters of a beer each or something like that. And you know, the rest of us would not drink anything,” he mentioned.

He can also be identified for being a vegan – and has caught to his rules in jail regardless of not being supplied with vegan meals, according to his lawyers.

They mentioned he was “literally subsisting” on bread, water and peanut butter within the run-up to his trial.

His veganism is linked to a historical past of animal rights activism – which in flip is sure up with the efficient altruism motion.

While finding out, he was reportedly contemplating a profession in animal welfare, having organised a protest towards manufacturing unit farming in his first 12 months of school.

But he met with Will MacAskill, one of many motion’s leaders, who informed him he may make extra of an affect by discovering a profession that paid effectively, after which donating cash to charity.

This is named “earning to give” and it is one of many central pillars of efficient altruism, a motion that seeks to do good through the use of assets successfully.

When Bankman-Fried took a job at quantitative buying and selling agency Jane Street after graduating, he mentioned he donated about half of his wage to charities, together with animal welfare organisations.

He talked about plans to ultimately donate a lot of the cash made in his lifetime, with a give attention to “long-termism” or safeguarding the way forward for humanity.

Read extra:
The rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
Does SBF’s arrest mean crypto is fundamentally unsound?

The begin of the crypto king

After three years at Jane Street, Bankman-Fried give up along with his eye on taking extra dangers to earn more money.

He landed on crypto as one of the simplest ways of getting wealthy shortly.

It began with Bitcoin. He realised it was promoting for extra in Asia than it was within the US – and figured if he may purchase it in a single place and promote it in one other he may flip a simple revenue.

“I got involved in crypto without any idea what crypto was,” he informed Forbes. “It just seemed like there was a lot of good trading to do.”

In 2017 he co-founded cryptocurrency buying and selling agency Alameda Research, bringing in different recruits from the efficient altruism group and reportedly donating half of the corporate’s earnings to charity.

At its peak, the corporate was shifting $25m in Bitcoin every day.

Two years later, he based FTX, an change which allowed customers to purchase and promote purchase cryptocurrencies, and moved to Hong Kong.

The FTX growth

From Hong Kong, operations moved to the tax haven of the Bahamas, the place Bankman-Fried purchased a multimillion-dollar waterfront penthouse.

The luxurious property, overlooking an space used for filming the scene the place Daniel Craig famously emerged from the water as James Bond in Casino Royale, was additionally used as a house workplace for Bankman-Fried and as much as 9 of his FTX devotees.

In 2021, Forbes described him as “the richest twentysomething in the world” with a internet value of $22.5bn, placing him at 32 on The Forbes 400 wealthy listing.

Relationship with Caroline Ellison

Bankman-Fried had an on-again, off-again relationship with Caroline Ellison, having met her whereas working at Jane Street.

He persuaded her to hitch Alameda Research. As a fellow efficient altruist, she was additionally attracted by the prospect of incomes cash to provide to charity.

The pair lived collectively within the Bahamas penthouse.

Ellison, who turned Alameda’s co-chief govt in 2021 and assumed full management final 12 months, has pleaded responsible to fraud prices and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

She appeared to have been sad at Alameda lengthy earlier than its collapse.

In July, the New York Times printed an article citing her private writings from early 2022, by which she described feeling “unhappy and overwhelmed” at work and “hurt/rejected” by a breakup with Bankman-Fried.

Bankman-Fried was jailed for allegedly sharing the writings with the reporter, with a choose saying it possible amounted to witness tampering.

Political donations

Bankman-Fried was the second-largest particular person donor to Joe Biden within the 2020 election cycle.

He was additionally among the many largest donors to Democratic candidates and causes forward of the November 2022 midterm elections.

Prosecutors mentioned he used $100m in stolen FTX deposits to fund those donations, which he hoped would spur the passage of crypto-friendly laws.

He was initially charged with conspiring to interrupt US marketing campaign finance legal guidelines, however this cost was dropped after The Bahamas mentioned it was not a part of its settlement to extradite him.

However, a choose has mentioned the political donations can nonetheless be mentioned on the trial as a result of they’re “intertwined
inextricably” with the fraud prices.

The prices towards SBF

Bankman-Fried faces seven prices of fraud and conspiracy stemming from the collapse of FTX.

Prosecutors have accused him of looting billions of {dollars} in funds from FTX prospects to plug losses at Alameda, purchase luxurious actual property and donate to political campaigns.

He has pleaded not guilty to the costs whereas acknowledging threat administration failures.

The trial in Manhattan is anticipated to last as long as six weeks.