These Were Sam Bankman-Fried's Terrible Ideas About The Multi-Billion Dollar FTX Scam

Following his conviction in November, Sam Bankman-Fried awaits sentencing for the massive fraud that brought down the much-hyped cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Making the case for a prison term of 40 to 50 years, federal prosecutors have now laid out a list of the disgraced CEO's bad ideas for turning around his company's bankruptcy in the weeks after it collapsed.

“Note: these are all random possibly bad ideas that go unchecked. CONFIDENTIAL,” reads a note at the top of it Google Doc. In the text below, Bankman-Fried laid out possible ways he can wrest control of the FTX narrative that range from vague (“Come out as extreme pro crypto, pro liberal”) to desperate (“Send out a twitter poll asking people what to do “). The brainstorm shows how desperate his situation had become in November 2022, when FTX entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

More striking, however, are Bankman-Fried's musings on a political project: “Go on Tucker Carlsen [sic], come out as a republican,” is the third topic featured, with “Come out against the revival agenda” below. In another Google Doc filed in court, Bankman-Fried lined up lawmakers and journalists he could turn to for help, including Sen. Cory Booker and author Michael Lewis, who had shadowed him for a book, Going Infinite. But under the sub-heading “Random Subgroup Support,” he dismissed the “Alt right,” and the only name that appears under “Allies” is “Skreli,” presumably meaning Martin Shkreli, another reviled and convicted financial fraudster who was released from prison in 2022 after serving four years of a seven-year sentence.

Bankman-Fried eventually pursued a number of the strategies described in these documents, such as blaming bankruptcy attorneys and the Chapter 11 proceeding for FTX's failure to compensate its customers. Another proposed plan he put in place was “Radical Candor on Twitter”, including revealing “grim details” of what happened in the exchange. Indeed, Bankman-Fried stunned the financial world (and no doubt disappointed his own legal team) by continuing to discuss openly his fallen crypto empire, even after he had been criminally charged and extradited from the Bahamas, both on social media and in high-profile interviews.

Prosecutors who argued at trial that Bankman-Fried stole at least 10 billion dollars via FTX said the documents show he “was motivated to start his redemption narrative and has already thought about how to spin it,” according to Business Insider. In addition to a decades-long sentence for crimes they have compared to Bernie Madoff, they are seeking an $11 billion judgment. Attorneys representing Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but pressed that she receive no more than six and a half years.

Bankman-Fried's sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 28 and he faces a maximum sentence of 110 years, with the U.S. Probation Office recommending a 100-year sentence. His lawyers requested this recommendation”nondescript“, while his family told the court that his social embarrassment could put him at increased risk in a prison environment. A lenient sentence, however, would likely anger crypto investors who have called for his jail time since FTX collapsed — and remain bitter about it contaminate their market with a historical scandal.