Charges filed over the past two days make clear that the U.S. government is treating Bankman-Fried as the ambitious and calculating criminal that he is, not as merely a bumbling tech wunderkind who made some bad bets. A laundry list of incredibly serious civil and criminal charges have come from three U.S. agencies: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and, most importantly, the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The charges are comprehensive, and the theory of the case presented is unambiguous – all of the agencies claim that Sam Bankman-Fried knowingly and with significant forethought committed fraud on a scale only comparable to history's most elaborate cons. FTX will be remembered alongside not just Enron, but the Credit Mobilier scandal of the 1860s-1870s, and the South Sea swindle of the 1720s.
It turns out Sam Bankman-Fried was not a genius of crypto or finance, but he was unambiguously a kind of idiot savant of financial crime. There is a very good chance that he will never breathe free air again.
The three primary sets of charges are distributed according to the purview of the three charging agencies. The SEC supervises securities, and charges focus on Bankman-Fried's fraud against equity investors, rather than against customers. Those charges will almost certainly result in huge fines and Bankman-Fried's barring from the financial industry, probably for life. While the CFTC picked up on the commingling of deposits between FTX and Alameda.
What we really care about are the criminal charges, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York. They are unbelievably extensive and serious, with wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering making up just three of the eight total charges. The charging documents are reportedly vague on purpose, to give prosecutors leeway to assemble a case and specific allegations as their investigation progresses.
It's an open question whether the government will offer a plea deal or seek to make an example of SBF. But the general path of events from here has been set, and it will not end well for Sam Bankman-Fried. As you read this, he is in a literally maggot-infested Bahamian prison, awaiting what I hope will be a rapid extradition to a high-security facility in the United States.So, bon voyage to the former wonder boy. In a life defined by big bets, he made the wrong ones, again and again.
– David Z. Morris
