Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      How South Africa’s banks became bakgat

      30 November 2023

      Putin’s daughter pursues digital plan in push to embrace Africa

      30 November 2023

      MTN slashes prepaid data prices: 200GB for R399

      30 November 2023

      Spar confident worst of ERP disaster now behind it

      30 November 2023

      Icasa takes aim at ‘illegal’ Starlink sales in South Africa

      29 November 2023
    • World

      ‘Go f… yourself’: Musk lashes out at fleeing advertisers

      30 November 2023

      Microsoft to take non-voting position on OpenAI board

      30 November 2023

      Hackers stole customer support data in Okta breach

      29 November 2023

      Orange withdraws from process to buy into Ethio Telecom

      28 November 2023

      Musk’s X hit by advertiser exodus

      27 November 2023
    • In-depth

      Africa has a feature phone problem

      23 November 2023

      Is your ISP monitoring your online activity?

      10 November 2023

      The real Big Brother Africa

      2 November 2023

      Compared: Starlink prices around the world – including Africa

      30 October 2023

      Africa is booming

      30 October 2023
    • TCS

      TCS+ | OneTrust’s Joseph Byrne: privacy risk management done right

      29 November 2023

      TCS+ | Ricoh – safe and secure role in today’s digital ecosystems

      27 November 2023

      TCS+ | NEC XON on going toe to toe with cybercriminals

      22 November 2023

      TCS | How ShotSpotter is fighting gun crime in Cape Town

      13 November 2023

      TCS+ | SOC-as-a-service: CYBER1 SOC and the future of cybersecurity

      13 November 2023
    • Opinion

      Could Cape Town become Africa’s Silicon Valley?

      14 November 2023

      Chris Kruger: What I learnt in my decades in IT leadership

      6 November 2023

      Ransomware attacks: how South African companies should respond

      6 November 2023

      Fibre providers urged to go ‘nano’ to cut costs

      31 October 2023

      Big banks, take note: PayShap should be free

      20 October 2023
    • Company Hubs
      • 4IRI
      • Africa Data Centres
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Systems Integration
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • CallMiner
      • CoCre8
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • E4
      • Entelect
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • iKhokha
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • LSD Open
      • Maxtec
      • MiRO
      • NEC XON
      • Next DLP
      • Paratus
      • Ricoh
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Velocity Group
      • Videri Digital
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • E-commerce
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Metaverse and gaming
      • Motoring and transport
      • Open-source software
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Sections » Cryptocurrencies » SBF ‘lied to the world’ as he built crypto empire

    SBF ‘lied to the world’ as he built crypto empire

    Sam Bankman-Fried lied to the world as he built FTX, prosecutors said on the first day of a historic fraud trial.
    By Agency Staff5 October 2023
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Sam Bankman-Fried
    Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces fraud charges over the collapse of FTX, looks on outside the Manhattan federal court in New York City, 30 March 2023. David Dee Delgado/Reuters

    Sam Bankman-Fried lied to the world as he built his cryptocurrency empire at FTX, telling only his friends and girlfriend the truth about what was happening, prosecutors said on the first day of a historic fraud trial.

    Nathan Rehn, an assistant US attorney, painted a picture of the 31-year-old as a calculated criminal who used investor deposits at FTX as a personal bank account before the company collapsed into bankruptcy a year ago. He said that only Bankman-Fried’s small inner circle knew that he was taking customer money to fund his lifestyle.

    “He had wealth, he had power, he had influence, but all of that was built on lies,” Rehn told jurors in a federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday. “He was committing a massive fraud, and taking billions of dollars from thousands of victims.”

    He was committing a massive fraud, and taking billions of dollars from thousands of victims

    Prosecutors included several references to former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison in their opening statements, as one of the individuals that knew what was going on behind the scenes. Ellison is the government’s star witness after reaching a plea deal last year. Gary Wang, former FTX chief technology officer and Nishad Singh, FTX’s former engineering director, are also expected to take the stand as cooperating witnesses.

    The case, which the government has labelled one of the biggest financial crimes in the country’s history, will explore how an awkward 20-something from California came to run and allegedly ruin one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. The MIT graduate faces a maximum prison term of 20 years for each of the five most serious charges against him.

    Bankman-Fried was expressionless as Rehn spoke, but briefly looked at the jury as the government lawyer emphasised “billions of fraud”, before turning back to stare at his laptop. The former crypto executive’s parents, a pair of Stanford University law professors, sat in the gallery behind their son.

    ‘Unprecedented’

    John Reed Stark, a former SEC enforcement attorney and crypto critic, said on X that the prosecution’s “stockpile of cooperating prosecution witnesses is arguably unprecedented for a financial fraud trial”.

    “For the past year or so, these three informants, together with a legion of other informants, turncoats and whistleblowers (who are also similarly desperate to save their own skin), have been providing the prosecution with a road map of SBF’s alleged criminal activities.,” said Stark, who now runs his own consulting company.

    The company’s terms of service as well as old Bankman-Fried tweets assuring customers that their money was safeguarded were among the examples Rehn touched upon to indicate to the jury that FTX engaged in fraud.

    Wild FTX allegations include plan to buy private island

    Rehn said that FTX misleadingly told customers that the money belonged to them, not the the company. “FTX’s advertising slogan was about how customers could trust it,” he said.

    He made reference to a Bankman-Fried’s tweet that “FTX has a long history of safeguarding assets and that remains true today”. Statements about FTX keeping customer money safe “were lies”, Rehn said.  — Bob van Voris, Yueqi Yang and Ava Benny-Morrison, (c) 2023 Bloomberg LP

    Get breaking news alerts from TechCentral on WhatsApp

    FTX Gary Wang Nishad Singh Sam Bankman-Fried
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleGoogle bulls undeterred by biggest antitrust case in decades
    Next Article UK to probe AWS, Microsoft for cloud dominance

    Related Posts

    How South Africa’s banks became bakgat

    30 November 2023

    DCA, Huawei and WBBA host Africa Fibre Forum 2023

    30 November 2023

    Accelerate innovation with platform engineering

    30 November 2023
    Promoted

    DCA, Huawei and WBBA host Africa Fibre Forum 2023

    30 November 2023

    Accelerate innovation with platform engineering

    30 November 2023

    NEC is Cisco’s infrastructure partner of the year for Emea

    29 November 2023
    Opinion

    Could Cape Town become Africa’s Silicon Valley?

    14 November 2023

    Chris Kruger: What I learnt in my decades in IT leadership

    6 November 2023

    Ransomware attacks: how South African companies should respond

    6 November 2023

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2023 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.