CRYPTO CHAOS
CRYPTO King Sam Bankman-Fried was part of a ‘polyamorous’ group that ran his business before it collapsed losing £27 billion, it’s been claimed.
Bankman-Fried, 30, and Caroline Ellison were themselves said to be in an on-off relationship and reportedly lived as part of the 10 person bed-hopping band in a Caribbean penthouse.
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He is facing criminal investigation over the collapse over FTX, which has sent the price of BitCoin plummeting.
Bankman-Fried's unconventional style - which saw him sleep on a beanbag in the office - and commitment to progressive causes saw him hobnobbing with figures such as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.
FTX was also able to secure the endorsement of high-profile celebrities including Tom Brady and his ex-wife Gisele Bundchen, who both invested in it, as well as comedian Larry David.
But it’s now emerged “the whole operation was run by a gang of kids in the Bahamas” who are, or used to be, paired up in romantic relationships, CoinDesk reports.
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“They’ll do anything for each other,” said a person familiar with how the company operated.
The term 'polycule' has been used to describe the unusual set-up.
“Sam Bankman-Fried ran in a polycule that may have destroyed the crypto market,” tweeted tech executive Ed Zitron.
The cabal all lived in a £32million penthouse in the Caribbean tax-haven and they included Ellison, the 28-year-old CEO of FTX’s trading affiliate, Alameda.
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The Harry Potter obsessed, Stanford mathematics graduate sparked controversy after revealing on Twitter back in April that she used amphetamines.
“Nothing like regular amphetamine use to make you appreciate how dumb a lot of normal, non-medicated human experience is,” she wrote.
FTX is alleged to have secretly transferred up to £8.3 billion of customer funds to Alameda to fund risky cryptocurrency trades prior to its collapse.
The five-bedroom property has been billed as the “ultimate in waterfront living’ and is part of the high-end 600-acre Albany resort.
It’s now on sale and according to the brochure it “hosts a sumptuous master bedroom suite with his and her bathrooms and walk-in closets plus a private balcony with lounge area and spa”.
The area featured in the scene in the James Bond movie Casino Royale when Daniel Craig emerged from the ocean.
It was bought with the £62 million his company spent on property this year.
Bankman-Fried posted pictures of the giant beanbag on which he would sleep beside his desk
He boasted to interviewers that he paid himself only £84,000 a year and drove around in a Toyota Corolla.
Bankman-Fried is now “under supervision” in the Bahamas along with other members of the cabal, including Ellison, according to CoinTelegraph.
They are suspected of trying to get to Dubai, which has no extradition treaty with the US.
FTX has been described as a Ponzi-scheme – a pyramid investment vehicle in which cash from new investors is used to pay out to existing investors.
Over one million people and businesses could be owed money by the collapse of FTX, bankruptcy filings show.
Brady, Gisele and David are among around a dozen celebrities now being sued in a class action that alleges they were used to take “advantage of unsophisticated investors”.
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“Part of the scheme employed by the FTX Entities involved utilizing some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment,” the lawsuit states.
That resulted in investors “pouring billions of dollars into the Deceptive FTX Platform to keep the whole scheme afloat”.
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