Sam Bankman-Fried Charged With Fraud And Money Laundering — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00once heralded as the wonderkind
2. 0:02entrepreneur of cryptocurrency Sam
3. 0:03bankman freed today is in a jail in the
4. 0:06Bahamas where he's vowing to fight his
5. 0:08extradition to the U.S in New York
6. 0:10Federal authorities laying out their
7. 0:12criminal case against him and I want to
8. 0:14be clear
9. 0:15this case is about fraud fraud is fraud
10. 0:17and they say this fraud is one of the
11. 0:19biggest in U.S history with a staggering
12. 0:22eight billion dollars in customer
13. 0:23deposits now missing prosecutors
14. 0:26charging the 30 year old with eight
15. 0:27criminal counts including conspiracy to
16. 0:29defraud investors lenders and the U.S
17. 0:32government and they say he moved
18. 0:34billions of dollars of FDX customer
19. 0:35funds to his hedge fund Alameda he used
20. 0:38that money for his personal benefit
21. 0:40including to make personal Investments
22. 0:42and to cover expenses and debts of his
23. 0:45hedge fund Alameda research according to
24. 0:48a civil complaint filed by the SEC
25. 0:49bankman freed lied to both investors and
26. 0:52customers creating a business that the
27. 0:54government says was a house of cards
28. 0:56promising consumer protections that were
29. 0:58never there and pitching the exchange
30. 1:00with high-profile celebrities according
31. 1:03to the SEC customers around the world
32. 1:04believed his lies and sent billions of
33. 1:07dollars to FDX bankman freed allegedly
34. 1:10used the money for his own personal gain
35. 1:12including lavish real estate purchases
36. 1:14and large political donations the former
37. 1:17FTX CEO denied the accusations of fraud
38. 1:20in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin
39. 1:22I made a lot of mistakes or things I
40. 1:25would give anything to be able to do
41. 1:26over again
42. 1:28um I didn't ever try to commit fraud on
43. 1:31anyone up bankman freed was supposed to
44. 1:33testify out of congressional hearing
45. 1:35Tuesday instead the new CEO of the now
46. 1:37bankrupt FTX who took over after bankman
47. 1:40freed resigned sat answering questions
48. 1:42for four hours trying to explain how the
49. 1:45company fell apart the fds groups
50. 1:48collapse appears to stem from absolute
51. 1:49concentration of control in the hands of
52. 1:51a small group of grossly inexperienced
53. 1:54and unsophisticated individuals when
54. 1:57asked to respond to bankman Freed's
55. 1:59denial that there was fraud he had this
56. 2:01to say I don't find any such statements
57. 2:03to be credible
58. 2:05so bankman freed told the court in the
59. 2:07Bahamas he's going to fight extradition
60. 2:08his attorneys say they are considering
61. 2:10considering all legal options while the
62. 2:12Magistrate Judge rejected bail and said
63. 2:15he will be held in custody in the
64. 2:16Bahamas until February 8th bankman freed
65. 2:19was in the courtroom supported by his
66. 2:21parents yesterday both professors right
67. 2:23yeah yeah at Stanford yes the law school
68. 2:26Professor all right that's right thank
69. 2:28you hey thanks for watching don't miss
70. 2:30the Today show every weekday at 11 A.M
71. 2:33Eastern 8 Pacific on our streaming
72. 2:35Channel today all day to watch head to
73. 2:38today.com all day or click the link
74. 2:42right here