FTX and SBF: how deep does corruption run in America?

Mr Ellison, father of Caroline Ellison (co-CEO of Alameda along with Sam Bankman-Fried), was the boss of Gary Gensler (former investment banker and now Chair of the U.S. SEC/Securities and Exchange Commission). Both Mr Ellison and his wife are economists at MIT.

Sam-Bankman Fried's (founder and co-CEO of FTX and Alameda) parents are both law professors at Stanford. They own a 16.5m beachfront Bahamas house in a gated community bought through FTX funds. Sam Bankman-Fried called ethics a "dumb game we woke westerns play where we say all the right shibboleths so people will like us."

Judge Abrams, whose husband's law firm was contracted to work for FTX in 2021, *Judge Gorenstein allowed Sam Bankman-Fried to be released home on 250 million bail - paid for with the help of his parents and two undisclosed bail guarantors. Once the bail decision had been made, judge Abrams stepped down from the case citing possible conflict of interest. Sam Bankman-Fried has asked his new judge, Kaplan, to keep the names of his two bail guarantors secret. Judge Kaplan's past rulings include ruling in favor of oil giant Chevron in their 2014 environmental case.

While out on bail, Sam Bankman-Fried has allegedly been busy moving 1.5m in crypto funds out of Alameda as well as opposing the seizing of his 450m worth of Robinhood shares so he can pay his legal defense. The justification for this objection, and this is not a joke, is that he needs the money more than anyone who invested their money in FTX.

I guess the last and final court ruling of this case will show how deep corruption runs in America. (Or not.)

​

*ETA: correction as per u/Mr_Bob_Ferguson - thank you! The judge who granted SBF bail was NOT judge Abrams, who stood down due to conflict of interest BEFORE they did anything, but judge Gabriel Gorenstein (who also let Bernie Madoff out on bail).