Aurelia Butler

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A few years after graduating from college, Sam Bankman-Fried grew worried he was not taking enough risks.So the son of two Stanford Law School professors quit his Wall Street job and in 2017 started a cryptocurrency hedge fund, setting off a sequence of events that culminated on Thursday in his criminal conviction over what federal prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.Two years after launching a hedge fund, Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried founded FTX, an exchange that let users buy and sell digital assets such as bitcoin. Cryptocurrency valuations surged over the following two years, propelling Bankman-Fried to a net worth of $26 billion, according to Forbes magazine, before he turned 30.He parlayed his wealth into political clout, becoming one of the biggest donors to Democratic candidates and causes ahead of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections. Based in the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried became known for his mop of unkempt curly hair and for wearing rumpled shorts, even when entertaining dignitaries like Bill Clinton.In a cryptocurrency sector plagued by hacks and money laundering, Bankman-Fried hired celebrities including NFL quarterback Tom Brady and comedian Larry David to feature in advertisements portraying FTX as safe. He publicly backed efforts to regulate crypto.But prosecutors say his laid-back demeanor combined with his cultivation of a responsible image concealed his years-long embezzlement of customer funds. They contend the theft came to a head in 2022, when crypto prices swooned and he used FTX funds to plug losses at Alameda.His trial began on Oct. 4 in Manhattan federal court. Three former members of his inner circle, who have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, testified against him and painted an unflattering portrait of his character, detailing instances in which he snapped angrily at colleagues and suggested his quirky persona was mostly an act.”He said he thought his hair had been very valuable,” said Caroline Ellison, Alameda’s former chief executive and Bankman-Fried’s on-and-off girlfriend.She said that ever since he started his career on Wall Street, “he had gotten higher bonuses because of his hair and that it was an important part of FTX’s narrative and image.” Ellison and the other two cooperating witnesses, former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, have not yet been sentenced. Prosecutors may urge U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to take their cooperation into account in determining their punishment.Testifying in his own defense, Bankman-Fried, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, said he wore shorts and T-shirts because they were “comfortable” and that he did not often get haircuts because he was “busy and lazy.” Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. He has acknowledged inadequate risk management, but denied stealing funds. Bankman-Fried, now 31, testified that he made mistakes, such as not implementing a risk management team, that harmed FTX customers and employees. But he said he never intended to defraud anyone or steal customer money. “We thought that we might be able to build the best product on the market,” Bankman-Fried said during his six hours of testimony in Manhattan federal court. “It turned out basically the opposite of that.”BANKMAN-FRIED SOUGHT TO AVOID ‘COMFORTABLE’ PATHBankman-Fried had little crypto experience before founding Alameda, which initially made money by exploiting differences in prices in digital tokens between the United States and Asia. A physics major at MIT, he told an FTX podcast that he did not apply himself in classes and did not know what to do with his life for most of college.But he grew interested during those years in a movement known as effective altruism, which encourages talented young people looking to make a mark on the world to focus on earning money and giving it away to worthy causes. That led him to take a job as a quantitative trader at Jane Street, but he began to doubt whether he was earning all he could.”If I really think that I should be trying to maximize expected values, that probably implies substantially riskier strategies than what seems intuitively right,” he said in the June 4, 2020, podcast. “I should be careful not to fall prey to trying to choose a comfortable path.”He brought on Gary Wang, an old friend from math camp, and later Ellison, a fellow effective altruist from Jane Street. Both would join him in the Bahamas, where they shared a $30 million penthouse with other Alameda and FTX executives, including Nishad Singh.Bankman-Fried was jailed in mid-August, after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked his bail for likely trying to tamper with witnesses at least twice – including by sharing Ellison’s private writings with a New York Times reporter. “There will probably never be anything I can do to make my lifetime impact net positive,” Bankman-Fried said in his own private writings following his arrest, which he shared with a social media influencer who gave them to the Times. “And the truth is that I did what I thought was right.” More

(Reuters) – Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud conviction on Thursday marks the culmination of a yearlong legal saga stemming from the dramatic collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded.Below is a timeline of key events leading to the verdict:2017Bankman-Fried, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, quits his job as a quantitative trader at Jane Street Capital and launches Alameda Research, a trading firm focused on cryptocurrency.MAY 2019Bankman-Fried and former Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) employee Gary Wang found FTX as a new platform to trade crypto tokens and derivatives.OCTOBER 2021FTX raises $420 million in venture funding, valuing the company at $25 billion. Bankman-Fried debuts on the Forbes billionaires list, which estimates his net worth at $22.5 billion. The magazine’s assessment of his wealth would rise to $26 billion by the end of the year.FEBRUARY 2022The NFL Super Bowl’s broadcast is heavy on cryptocurrency advertisements, signifying the height of the craze for the booming asset class. FTX’s “Don’t Miss Out” spot features actor Larry David, whose skepticism about the platform is portrayed as akin to an early human doubting the importance of the wheel.JUNE-JULY 2022Bankman-Fried emerges as the cryptocurrency sector’s so-called “white knight” amid a collapse in the prices of Bitcoin and other digital assets. Alameda gives crypto lender Voyager Digital a $200 million credit facility, and FTX gives lender BlockFi a $250 million loan.NOV. 2, 2022Crypto news website CoinDesk publishes a leaked Alameda Research balance sheet showing that much of its $14.6 billion in assets is held in FTX’s own token, called FTT. The token subsequently sheds around $400 million of its market cap, and rival exchange Binance says it will sell its FTT holdings.NOV. 8, 2022After FTX sees $6 billion in customer withdrawals in three days, Binance boss Changpeng Zhao says the company has signed a nonbinding agreement to buy FTX’s non-U.S. unit. Binance scraps the deal the next day.NOV. 11, 2022FTX files for U.S. bankruptcy protection, and Bankman-Fried resigns as its chief executive officer.NOV. 16, 2022David and other FTX celebrity promoters, including NFL quarterback Tom Brady, are sued over claims they engaged in deceptive practices. The celebrities have said the suit should be dismissed, arguing they did not cause FTX investors’ losses.DEC. 12, 2022Bankman-Fried is arrested in the Bahamas, where he lives and where FTX is based. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan later confirms that a federal grand jury has indicted him for fraud and conspiracy charges.DEC. 21, 2022Bankman-Fried leaves the Bahamas after agreeing to be extradited to the United States. While he is in the air, prosecutors reveal that Wang and Alameda chief executive Caroline Ellison have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.DEC. 22, 2022Bankman-Fried makes an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court and is released to home detention at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, on $250 million bond.JAN. 3-12, 2023Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty and U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan schedules his trial for October. In a post-arrest blog post, Bankman-Fried denies stealing funds and blames FTX’s collapse on a broader downturn in crypto markets.FEB. 28, 2023Nishad Singh, the former director of engineering at FTX, adds to the pressure on Bankman-Fried by becoming the third former member of his inner circle to plead guilty to fraud charges and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors.AUG. 11, 2023Kaplan revokes Bankman-Fried’s bail after finding probable cause to believe he tampered with witnesses at least twice, including by sharing Ellison’s private writings with a New York Times reporter. Bankman-Fried is remanded to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center pending trial.OCT. 3, 2023Trial begins in Manhattan federal court.OCT. 28, 2023Bankman-Fried testifies in his own defense, saying a “lot of people got hurt” when FTX collapsed but insisting he did not defraud anyone or steal billions of dollars from customers.NOV. 2, 2023Bankman-Fried is convicted of all seven charges he faced. More

TOKYO (Reuters) -Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda will continue to dismantle the central bank’s ultra-easy monetary policy settings and look to exit the decade-long accommodative regime sometime next year, an inherently risky plan that would require skilful execution.Ultimately, however, the BOJ chief’s exit strategy will require a bit of good fortune too, especially given global uncertainties including the Middle East conflict and worries about whether the U.S. economy could achieve a soft landing as well as China’s growth trajectory.Ueda’s intentions are based on interviews with six sources familiar with the BOJ’s thinking, including government officials with direct interaction with the bank.Ueda will stick to a pattern he established six months in his tenure, which is to move gradually toward an exit while maintaining the dovish rhetoric of his predecessor, the sources say.Since taking the helm in April, the central bank chief has mostly echoed his predecessor’s pledge to keep monetary policy ultra-loose until sustained achievement of the BOJ’s 2% price target comes into sight.With inflation exceeding 2% for over a year, however, Ueda has steadily been phasing out the Kuroda-era stimulus starting with a removal in April of a commitment to keep rates at low levels.Yet, Ueda will be mindful of the narrow exit path as even small hints could trigger a spike in bond yields and upend the BOJ’s plan for a soft-landing.”The BOJ’s main message now is to maintain ultra-loose policy, even it seems to conflict with what it’s actually doing,” one source said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly.”Given uncertainty over the economic outlook, the BOJ probably wants to wait at least until spring next year in normalising policy,” said another source. “If so, it makes sense to keep the BOJ’s guidance dovish.”YEN RISKSThe pressure point could be the weak yen, a side-effect of ultra-low rates that has pushed up import prices and households’ cost of living. If the yen continues to fall, that could heighten political pressure on the BOJ to exit sooner than it wants, some analysts say.But knowing well the challenge of an exit based on his experience as former BOJ policymaker, Ueda will tread carefully even at the cost of causing yen falls, the sources say.”The key is they want to leave policy easy, even if there is a cost, to leave 30 plus years of deflation behind,” said Robert Samson, joint head of global multi asset at Nikko Asset Management.”In their minds, I imagine avoiding a ‘decisive end’ would be preferable. Gradualism, if possible, is their preference.”But Ueda hasn’t turned a blind eye to market forces. As bond yields crept up, the BOJ raised to 1% from 0.5% in July a cap set for the 10-year yield in a carefully planned tweak to yield curve control (YCC) – a policy that sets a target for the maturity around 0%.In another step toward dismantling yield control, the BOJ relaxed its grip on long-term rates again on Tuesday by watering down 1% as a reference rather a rigid ceiling.Having taken teeth out of YCC, the BOJ’s next focus is to end its negative interest rate policy and push short-term rates to zero, from the current -0.1%, the sources say.Exiting negative rates would be more significant than ending yield control as it means hiking a policy rate central banks have direct control over, and mark a shift to a more neutral policy stance.’LOT OF HURDLES’Many BOJ policymakers see the likely timing of such a move around spring next year, when there is clarity on whether annual wage negotiations may lead to strong pay hikes, the sources say.A pivot by the BOJ, which remains a dovish outlier amid global central banks that aggressively hiked rates, could jolt markets by causing a huge repatriation of Japanese funds.Even small signs from the BOJ of an exit could also unleash a bond sell-off that would inflict major losses on investors, and boost the cost of funding Japan’s huge public debt.”There’s a lot of hurdles to clear before an exit, which means you don’t want to get markets too excited about the chance of an early lift-off,” a third source said.With the cost of a spike in market rates seen as too high, the most likely scenario of an exit would be for the BOJ to end YCC and negative rates – but retain a loose pledge to intervene in the market if bond yields rise abruptly, the sources say.Fresh BOJ estimates, which project inflation to stay well above 2% this year and next, also cast doubt on Ueda’s argument that sustained achievement of his price goal was yet in sight.The risk of sharp yen falls and an inflation overshoot may leave the BOJ with less time than it wants to exit.”The BOJ may not afford to wait that long because the situation surrounding inflation could change sharply,” said Hiromi Yamaoka, a former central bank official who worked under Ueda when he was board member. “The BOJ doesn’t have much time left, a point governor Ueda is probably mindful of.” More