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HISTORY This Week

Wondery & Bloomberg Present - Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried

HISTORY This Week

The HISTORY® Channel

History, Education, Society & Culture

4.63.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2023

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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? 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.


Listen to Spellcaster: Wondery.fm/SC_HTW



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Transcript

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0:00.0

Ah, the Bahamas.

0:01.7

What if you could hang out with celebrities,

0:03.7

live in a penthouse above a crystal clear ocean with all your best friends,

0:07.5

and have it be 100% paid for?

0:10.0

FTX Founder Sam Bankman Fried made that dream a reality.

0:14.5

But US prosecutors say he was hiding a dark secret.

0:18.7

FTX was the poster child of cryptocurrency,

0:21.4

spending millions on pro-sports sponsorships,

0:24.3

and a-list celebrity endorsements from the likes of Tom Brady, Larry David,

0:28.7

and even Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary,

0:30.8

with some investing their own money in the marketplace.

0:34.0

Many thought Sam Bankman Fried was changing the game

0:37.0

as he graced the pages of Forbes and Vanity Fair.

0:40.0

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

0:45.0

and was influencing the global economy.

0:47.2

But in just one month, his exchange would collapse,

0:51.2

and he would find himself in handcuffs

0:53.5

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

0:58.3

It's one of the most dramatic falls from Greece,

1:00.7

and represents one of the most spectacular failures of corporate control in American history.

1:05.5

Here exclusive tape of Sam,

1:07.6

and his former girlfriend and business partner Caroline Ellison,

...

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