A lot of us thought we knew Sam Bankman freed.

He was a curly-haired math nerd who built a crypto giant called FTX.

Not only one of the nicest people in crypto, but one of the smartest as well.

The Michael Jordan of crypto, if you will.

He promised to revolutionize finance and use his billions to save the world.

Instead of answering questions like, well, you know, how much money do I need to eat?

You're answering questions like, well, how much money does the world need to eat?

But last year the company Bankman freed founded FTX, collapsed.

And a different story has started to come out.

This morning we unsealed an eight-count indictment charging Samuel Bankman freed FTX's founder

with a series of interrelated fraud schemes that contributed to FTX's collapse.

Bankman freed now stands accused of stealing billions of dollars from his customers and investors.

It found guilty.

He faces decades behind bars.

I'm Caitlin Ostroff, and I cover crypto for the Wall Street Journal.

For the past year, I've been not a rabbit hole, trying to find out everything I can about Bankman freed.

To answer the question, did he set out to defraud his customers?

I've listened to hours of interviews with him.

I mean, look, I screwed up.

And I've spoken to his rivals, friends, and the people who lost huge investments on FTX.

Imagine being with this amazing relationship, and like one day out of the blue,

you found out that this person is not exactly the person you think he or she was.

...