The Trial of Crypto’s Golden Boy Episode 1: The Limit Does Not Exist

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News, Business News

4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before his downfall, Sam Bankman-Fried drew comparisons to Warren Buffett, J.P. Morgan and other titans of finance. As his trial approaches, WSJ’s Caitlin Ostroff charts the meteoric rise of crypto’s golden boy, exploring how he sold customers and powerful people on his ideas, while hiding secrets under the hood of his flashy crypto empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	On an August day in a New York courtroom, I saw a man handcuffed and taken to jail.
0:13.7	I've reported on lots of court cases, but this moment was dramatic.
0:19.0	It happened seconds after the judge gave his order.
0:22.3	Everyone in the courtroom stood.
0:24.1	The man began taking off his jacket.
0:26.5	He took off his tie, his shoelaces, and handed them to his lawyers.
0:31.9	Two court marshals wearing black latex gloves handcuffed him.
0:36.4	Behind them, his mother tried to rush toward him, but a marshall stopped her.
0:41.2	She was crying.
0:43.4	This kind of thing happens all the time in courtrooms across America, but I never imagined
0:48.3	it would happen to this man.
0:49.8	He had been a billionaire, a philanthropist, and a golden boy.
0:54.5	His name is Sam Bankman Fried.
1:03.7	I've reported on crypto for the Wall Street Journal, and Sam Bankman Fried was the face of
1:08.4	the industry.
1:10.4	He ran a huge crypto exchange called FTX, and was instantly recognizable for his curly
1:15.6	hair and uniform of shorts and a t-shirt.
1:19.2	The city planned to use his fortune to make the world better.
1:36.0	Bankman Fried convinced investors to back him with billions.
1:39.8	He forged huge partnerships with sports stars, and he won support from lawmakers, usually
1:45.0	skeptical of crypto.
1:47.7	People compared him to titans of business, JP Morgan, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg.
	...

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