The Secret Story of FTX’s Rise and Ruin Part 1

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

News

4.7 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sam Bankman-Fried was once called the “crypto king.” But in November 2022, his company, FTX, imploded within a matter of days. All around the world, customers of the cryptocurrency exchange were suddenly cut off from their money.

“I tried to withdraw an amount, you know, and it would spin and say, your, your withdrawal is pending,” says Tareq Morad, an investor from Canada. “I remember myself doing that around 7, 8 o’clock at night, checking back, going to look: Okay, did it go through? Did it go through? No. No. No.”

Meanwhile, inside the company, employees were panicking. “All that we were told was there's been a run on the bank and, somehow, money is missing and we don't know who to trust,” remembers Caroline Papadopoulos, part of FTX’s accounting leadership at the time.

This week on Reveal, through prison interviews with Bankman-Fried, his parents, FTX insiders, and customers, we take you through the frantic week of FTX’s collapse and the controversial and less well-known bankruptcy that followed. At a cost of nearly $1 billion, it has become one of the most expensive in history.

Support Reveal’s journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the scoop on new episodes at Revealnews.org/weekly
Connect with us on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, this is Al, and I'm sure it is no surprise to you that President Trump doesn't like us very much.
0:06.7	He called the press the enemy of the people.
0:09.0	Credential journalists have been banned from press briefings just for asking tough questions.
0:14.3	Trump personally sued news networks demanding billions.
0:18.6	And now, at his urging, Congress has voted to gut all federal funding for
0:23.7	public broadcasting. And I think I know why. I think we all do. It's because real journalism
0:28.7	brings sunlight, scrutiny, accountability. When power feels threatened, it lashes out. And that tells you
0:36.0	just how vital independent reporting is right now.
0:40.0	Here it reveal, we don't answer to billionaires, or politicians, or special interests.
0:45.4	We only answer to you, our listeners, but we can't do this alone.
0:50.2	Stand with us. Support fearless independent journalism that refuses to back down. Donate today.
0:57.6	Just visit revealnews.org slash fearless. Again, that's revealnews.org slash fearless.
1:04.9	Thanks. From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal. I'm Al Letson. Last summer, Reveals
1:12.9	Jonathan Jones got an unexpected phone call from a relative who said he had a scoop for him.
1:18.9	It's not generally when your family calls you up with story ideas. It's you should take everything
1:24.1	with a grain of salt. It's a little perilous. The relative just had dinner with Barbara Freed and Joe Bankman.
1:31.3	Their Stanford Law professors widely considered experts in their fields,
1:35.3	and they're also the parents of the former cryptocurrency CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.
1:42.2	Remember Sam Bankman-Fried?
1:48.6	He founded the Cryptocurrency Exchange, FTX, became the face of the industry and one of the world's youngest billionaires. And then one day, from Crypto King to criminal
1:54.9	suspects. Arrested in the Bahamas on Monday, so many people wondering where their money is.
1:59.8	It was one of the biggest financial scandals in American history.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.