Sam Bankman-Fried Attempts to Clean Up Image: 'I Didn’t Steal Funds'

You know the saying: Sleep with dogs, you are going to get flees. 

Now before all the dog lovers come after us, it's a popular saying that applies to people.  Of course, you can still happily sleep with your dog.

Disgraced FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is on a "image healing" tour of sorts in recent days by distancing himself from the company that may be responsible for causing FTX's downfall.

He claims not to have "run Alameda for the past few years".

If true, who was running Alameda?

Caroline Ellison and Sam Trabucco were named co-CEOs of Alameda in October 2021.

But one Daniel Friedman is reportedly cooperating with the feds, per Reuters, and he's connecting SBF directly to Alameda Research.

The Reuters update discloses that Friedman shared with investigators details of how Bankman-Fried is alleged to have used FTX and numerous related business entities to build his personal business empire through allegedly fraudulent and misrepresented transactions and disclosures. That included the FTX- controlled crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, which was built on air as a crypto investment vehicle, was exempted from FTX’s internal financial controls, and which plowed through at least $8 billion in customer deposits made into FTX and converted for Alameda use.

Friedman might know a thing or two about how money moves around and travels through some interesting places.

Our friends at CoinGeek - specifically Steven Stradbrooke - recently explained this bizarre shell game involving FTX, Alameda and other entities.

Stradbrooke explains the convoluted funding scheme that appears to be tied to FTX and Bankman-Fried (SBF):

The SEC’s complaint against SBF cited the billions that FTX customers had indirectly deposited to the exchange via a convoluted workaround involving an Alameda subsidiary called North Dimension Inc. SBF directed customers to deposit via North Dimension, whose website offered no indication of any ties to FTX/Alameda, to disguise the fact that these funds were instead going to Alameda (the funds were then credited to FTX customer accounts but not actually transferred to FTX).

North Dimension was incorporated in Delaware in August 2020, its incorporation papers drawn up by none other than Friedberg’s Fenwick & West. Last week, NBC News reported further details on North Dimension’s now-disabled (but archived) website, noting that it “appears to have been a fake electronics retailer.”

Registered in Hong Kong in November 2021, North Dimension’s website is replete with garbled English and most internal links default to the ‘about’ page.

North Dimension's website promised some awesome phones and laptops priced well above their list value with set goal to “build trust in eliminating counterfeits and assisting our users in making informed purchasing decisions.”

Friedman previously was involved with an online poker room accused in an insider cheating scandal, should you have any doubts about his character traits.  We will say no more.

One thing is close to certain, Sam Bankman-Fried probably won't come out of this smelling like roses.  It's fair to say, nobody likes the guy.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com