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Nobody is laughing at the fall of the FTX Exchange, certainly not its founder, one Sam Bankman-Fried. He faces extradition back to the U.S. after being arrested in the Bahamas earlier this week.
Well, someone actually is laughing.....his mom.
She was spotted laughing during portions of the hearing, which pertained to allowing Bankman-Fried bail.
From Business Insider:
During the proceedings, Bankman-Fried's mother Barbara Fried laughed when her son was called a "fugitive," according to CoinDesk's report, which described his parents as showing both "dejection and defiance." She also "clenched her jaw and chewed on the frames of her glasses," per the Times.
His father, Joseph Bankman, "occasionally put his fingers in his ears as if to drown out the sound of the proceedings," per CoinDesk.
Bail was ultimately denied.
No word yet on the status of Daniel Friedberg. Described as "the adult in the room" (yeah, FTX was run by a bunch of folks with the mindset of juveniles it now appears), Friedberg served as Compliance Officer for the company. Our friends at CoinGeek were the first to report he was also entrenched in an insider poker cheating scandal that came to light back in 2008.
Friedman is said to reside in Seattle.
And while the U.S. Justice Department aggressively seeks to prosecute Bankman-Fried, The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also wants him. They accuse Bankman-Fried of “orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors” and deliberately misleading customers out of millions of dollars.
“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” the S.E.C. chair, Gary Gensler, said in a statement.
As the exchange's former Compliance Officer, Friedberg could come under the microscope with the SEC. Stay tuned.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
