In October of last year, Bankman-Fried, the MIT-educated son of two Stanford Law School professors, was one of the highest-profile CEOs in the world. After founding FTX just four years ago, he built it into one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, amassing billions and becoming a power player in the worlds of celebrity and politics.
Additionally, argued Bankman-Fried’s attorney Mark Cohen, all of the decisions were reasonable, and were not evidence of profligate spending or malicious intent. Did customers who wanted to use FTX have to wire money to a bank account controlled by sister company Alameda Research? Yes, but this was necessary in the early days because FTX didn’t have its own bank account.