Note that Sam Bachmann-Friede’s reputation has now started to fly downhill. And while previously some media outlets tried to exonerate him, you can now find quite harsh statements in articles about Sam. For example, a recent issue of the New York Post described Bunkman-Fried as a “hairy conspirator” who “asked to be bailed out because he’s a depressed vegan”. Here’s the appropriate cover.

The cover of the latest issue of the New York Post about Sam Bankman-Friede

There are more and more reasons for this attitude. For example, yesterday the Commodity Futures Trading Commission revealed that trading company Alameda Research had an advantage in the speed of transactions on the FTX crypto exchange. According to their information, this involved bypassing basic automated verification procedures, such as confirming the availability of funds for a transaction. As a result, Alameda’s transactions were faster than those of other exchange users.

Amusingly, members of the blockchain community had previously complained that the speed of order execution was too slow. However, Bankman-Fried, in a response on Twitter, advised them to change their browser, as it was allegedly the cause of the lags.

When will Bankman-Fried go to jail?

According to Williams, what happened to FTX can safely be considered “one of the biggest frauds in the history of the United States”. It’s worth noting that the exchange filed for bankruptcy in November but it had financial problems much earlier. It came on the heels of the bankruptcy of other crypto platforms on the market a few months earlier during the market’s sharp collapse in May 2022 amid the death of the Terra ecosystem.

According to Decrypt’s sources, the operation to find and arrest Bankman-Friede was carried out with concerted coordination by agencies in several countries. Here’s how Williams comments.

Every day for the past month, prosecutors from this office and our partners at the FBI, SEC and SEC have been working around the clock to build a picture of what happened and begin the search for justice.

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams

As mentioned earlier, Sam Bunkman-Fried even after the collapse of FTX tried to exonerate himself in the eyes of the public. However, the prosecutor pointed out that FTX management had been running fraudulent operations almost from the very inception of the exchange. In addition, Sam openly lied to investors, creditors and the government about the complete stability of his company. This was highlighted by Gurbir Grewal, the SEC’s Director of Enforcement. Here is his rejoinder.

FTX was operating under a shell of “legality”. But even it cannot be called legitimate with certainty.

Ex-CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried

Grewal also claimed that Sam’s words about protecting clients were “bogus” because Bankman-Fried had given the trading firm Alameda Research, which he himself founded, an unlimited line of credit. Financial flows from FTX – which included client funds – were misused, including for insider trading.

The former FTX CEO is accused of defrauding not only FTX customers but also its lenders, who gave money to Alameda Research, and those who invested in its exchange. Bankman-Fried has also received suspicion of violating campaign finance law. Williams claimed that the stolen client funds were used by Sam to donate to politicians and gain influence among them.

Sam was to speak about this and more in a report before the Financial Services Committee of the US House of Representatives. Congresswoman Maxine Waters invited him to the December 13 meeting. After Bankman-Friede’s arrest, she, like many others, wondered about the “good date” of the event. Here is her rejoinder.

The public was looking forward to getting these answers under oath before Congress, and the inopportune timing of this arrest deprives the public of that chance.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters

Wasn’t all this done to ensure that Bachmann-Fried “didn’t blab too much” in front of Congressmen? In response to numerous questions about why Bachmann-Fried was not allowed to testify before Congress before his arrest, Williams said the office had authorised proceedings against Sam last week on Wednesday and charged him on Friday.

We had a warrant for his arrest. The timing was dictated by law enforcement and not any other considerations, including the time of his congressional testimony.

The meeting was held without Sam but was attended by the new head of FTX, lawyer John Ray III. He shared some details about the operations of the exchange and its management, again mentioning the abysmal performance of the Bankman-Friede team.


Apparently, such language from the U.S. attorneys is a pretty clear indication that there is no way FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be able to escape punishment. What the punishment will be will be known later. However, it is now clear that life imprisonment is a likely possibility for Sam.


Follow the situation and other news on our millionaire cryptochat. There we will discuss other important developments from the world of blockchain and decentralisation.