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Listen Now: Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried

SmartLess

SiriusXM | SmartLess LLC

Discussion, Education, Music, Comedy, Science, Culture, Society & Culture, Entertainment, Interview, Learning

4.651.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From Wondery and Bloomberg, the makers of The Shrink Next Door, comes a new story of incredible wealth, betrayal, and what happens when “doing good” goes really, really bad.

When nerdy gamer Sam Bankman-Fried rocketed to fame as the world’s richest 29-year-old, he pledged to donate his billions to good causes. But when Sam's crypto exchange FTX collapsed, billions of dollars went missing, and Sam was in handcuffs, those who knew him were left wondering — who was Sam really? A well-meaning billionaire who made a mistake? Or a calculated con man?

Listen to Spellcaster: Wondery.fm/SC_Smartless

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Ah, the Bahamas.

0:02.3

What if you could hang out with celebrities, live in a penthouse above the crystal clear

0:06.2

ocean with all your best friends and have it be 100% paid for?

0:11.9

FDX founder Sam Bankman Fried made that dream a reality, but US prosecutors say he was

0:17.8

hiding a dark secret.

0:19.6

As cryptocurrency gained mainstream popularity, FDX was the poster child, spending millions

0:24.5

on pro-sports sponsorships and a list celebrity endorsements from the likes of Tom Brady, Larry

0:29.1

David and even Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary with some investing their own money in the

0:33.7

marketplace.

0:34.7

Many thought Sam Bankman Fried was changing the game as it graced the pages of Forbes

0:38.4

and Vanity Fair.

0:39.7

Barely 30, the young crypto billionaire became a powerful financial figure and was influencing

0:45.1

the global economy.

0:46.4

But in just one month, his exchange would collapse, and SPF would find himself in handcuffs,

0:51.7

as tens of thousands of investors would blame him for their fortunes lost.

0:56.2

That's one of the most dramatic falls from grace and represents one of the most spectacular

1:00.6

failures of corporate control in American history.

1:03.7

Here exclusive tape of Sam and his former girlfriend and business partner Caroline Ellison,

1:08.9

who later admitted something had gone very wrong inside their operation.

1:13.9

From Bloomberg and Wondery comes Spellcaster, a new six-part docuseries about the meteoric

1:18.6

rise and fall of FDX and its founder Sam Bankman Fried.

1:22.6

I'm about to play a clip from Spellcaster, the fall of Sam Bankman Fried, while you're

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