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Joy Sung

Federal prosecutors charged Sam Bankman-Fried with multiple counts of fraud on Tuesday, just hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission accused the disgraced FTX founder of orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors.

The indictments against Bankman-Fried accuse him moving billions of dollars illegally from FTX to Alameda. Prosecutors describe it as a “dirty money” scheme that helped fuel Bankman-Fried’s effort “to buy bipartisan influence and impact the direction of public policy in Washington.”

Meanwhile, the House Financial Services Committee forged ahead with a hearing into the cryptocurrency exchange’s recent implosion despite the arrest Monday night of Bankman-Fried, its star witness, who was taken into custody in the Bahamas after U.S. officials requested his extradition.

Lawmakers heard from John J. Ray III, who was brought in as FTX’s chief executive as Bankman-Fried stepped away from the company. Ray described the alleged crimes at the heart of the crypto company’s collapse as “plain old embezzlement” and said FTX customers will not fully recover their money.

Bankman-Fried is set to be arraigned Tuesday in the Bahamas.

The Washington Post will be covering developments here as they unfold.

The entrepreneur is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/13/sbf-sec-fraud-charges/" target=_blank>facing charges</a> in one criminal and two civil cases.

A judge in the Bahamas <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-hearing-bahamas-live/#link-LMHURV2MPZDSTMAXSDGVOC7G5Y" target=_blank>denied bail</a> to Bankman-Fried.

At a House hearing, FTX’s new chief executive, John J. Ray III, described the events that led to FTX’s downfall as “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-hearing-bahamas-live/#link-P72TMZOA2FEX5KT3MRQNY6KOX4" target=_blank>plain old embezzlement</a>” and said customers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-hearing-bahamas-live/#link-FAA24VGWFBD63JYGC3O6CNATSY" target=_blank>will not recover</a> all their money. Ray was brought into the company to manage the bankruptcy.

The Justice Department’s eight-count indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried was carefully tailored to stop the FTX co-founder from using the ambiguity of crypto as a defense, says a person who once crafted such charges.

“What you’re seeing is a belt-and-suspenders approach,” said Brendan Quigley, a partner at international law firm Baker Botts. “The Southern District of New York is seeing all the ways a crypto executive might fight back and building that into their charges.”

Quigley would know: He previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District, where he tried securities fraud cases.

The charges against Bankman-Fried include wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. But they also come with some redundancy, including separate charges to cover fraud against both lenders and customers, and conspiracy to commit both commodities and securities fraud.

Regulators have been divided on whether crypto is a commodity or a security. By charging Bankman-Fried with fraud in both areas, Quigley said, the prosecution sidesteps the question. And filing separate counts for lenders and customers reduces the odds of defense lawyers muddling who actually was hurt by FTX, which can be hard to determine with so much money coming in and out.

The Justice Department’s complaint even added a campaign-finance-fraud conspiracy charge to include alleged Federal Election Commission victims in Washington.

There’s another reason for the breadth, Quigley said.

Under the U.S.-Bahamas extradition treaty, defendants can be tried only on charges filed at the time of extradition. Defense lawyers could argue that any charges added later should be thrown out because it would mean the extradition took place under false pretenses.

“They may not get another chance,” Quigley said. “So they did as much as they could now.”

Steven Zeitchik

Sam Bankman-Fried receives fraud, conspiracy charges

A trio of U.S. agencies filed a flurry of charges ranging from fraud to campaign finance violations against disgraced cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday, one day after he was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government.

The Justice Department accused <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-hearing-bahamas-live/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4&itid=lk_inline_manual_24">Bankman-Fried</a>, 30, of multiple crimes, including conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and violating campaign finance laws. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that he defrauded his investors, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed fraud accusations as well. The accusations show the reach and influence the young crypto baron amassed in just a few years.

Up until recently one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, valued at $32 billion by its investors, FTX <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/11/ftx-bankman-fried-bankruptcy/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5&itid=lk_inline_manual_25">collapsed into bankruptcy</a> in November, enraging the scores of clients who had thought their cryptocurrency holdings were safely stored on the company’s exchanges. FTX had established a veneer of legitimacy, winning investments from respected venture capital firms, paying to have its logo on shirts of Major League Baseball umpires, spending lavishly on Super Bowl ads and pouring money into political donations.

But U.S. officials allege Bankman-Fried was actually perpetrating a massive, global fraud, using customer money to pay off debts incurred by his hedge fund Alameda Partners, invest in other companies and make donations. And now, it seems, much of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/22/crypto-exchange-has-substantial-missing-assets-ftx-lawyer-says/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8&itid=lk_inline_manual_26">the money is missing</a>.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/13/sbf-sec-fraud-charges/?itid=lk_inline_manual_27" target=_blank>Read the full story</a>

Gerrit De Vynck

Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded and led FTX, arrested in Nassau

A judge in the Bahamas denied bail to Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday, one day after he was arrested in the country at the request of U.S. authorities.

After a contentious hearing that lasted much of the day, Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt said Bankman-Fried should remain in jail without bail as he fights extradition to the United States.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyer had argued that it is customary to grant bail to nonviolent offenders. But Bahamian prosecutors argued that Bankman-Fried is a flight risk who might still have significant amounts of money hidden in other countries.

Tim Craig

NEW YORK — Authorities from a broad range of United States agencies held a news conference at the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York offices Tuesday and laid out what they said was a damning case against Sam Bankman-Fried and the cryptocurrency firm FTX he once led.

“By anyone’s lights, this is one of the biggest financial frauds in American history,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.

Earlier Tuesday, Williams announced an eight-count indictment that charged Bankman-Fried with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities and securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, among other charges. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed sweeping complaints.

Bankman-Fried’s plan to testify Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee did not influence the decision to move rapidly last week, Williams said. But several lawmakers had expressed surprise and criticism Bankman-Fried was arrested before he could appear.

Prosecutors and regulators have looking into FTX over the past month, Williams said. Michael J. Driscoll, FBI assistant director in charge, said the case came together quickly. Williams also described a fast arrest timeline in which he authorized charges Wednesday, a grand jury issued an indictment Friday and the arrest was made Monday in the Bahamas.

Williams did not offer a timeline for getting Bankman-Fried extradited to New York.

Officials said FTX’s activities were enabled by its highly polished image. Gurbir Grewal, director of enforcement for the SEC, said that the firm “operated behind a veneer of legitimacy” and that it deceived victims “by repeatedly claiming that those assets were at all times safe, segregated and secure.”

Williams was asked if Bankman-Fried didn’t fit the profile of an alleged criminal because of his casual appearance. “Well, you can commit fraud in shorts and a T-shirt,” he said.

Shayna Jacobs

US-bankruptcy-Crime-FTX

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon in New York, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams described the charges filed against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried as “a series of interrelated fraud schemes that contributed to FTX’s collapse.”

The FBI and federal regulators started looking into FTX when the company’s finances unraveled a month ago, “destroying billions of dollars in customer value overnight,” Williams said.

“This is one of the biggest financial frauds in American history,” he added.

As the House Financial Services Committee digs into FTX’s collapse, crypto boosters on the panel are dividing their criticism between Sam Bankman-Fried and a figure closer to home — SEC Chair Gary Gensler, whom they faulted with not laying out clear industry rules. “Frankly, Chair Gensler has failed at his job,” said Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.).

Tory Newmyer

FTX customers will not fully recover their money, the company’s new chief executive, John J. Ray III, told the House Financial Services Committee.

“At the end of the day, we’re not going to be able to recover all the losses here,” he said, adding his team’s process to recover what they can will take “months, not weeks.”

House GOP Members Meet to Elect Leadership Positions

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) got FTX CEO John J. Ray III to commit to handing over internal communications between the company and the regulator.

Emmer is a leading <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/12/08/tom-emmer-crypto-house-gop/?itid=lk_inline_manual_55" target=_blank>crypto champion</a> and critic of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler’s efforts to police the industry. Crypto die-hards have been searching for evidence the two were working toward a regulatory carveout.

Embattled FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces a litany of new criminal and civil charges Tuesday connected to alleged fraud during his time leading the crypto exchange company.

Here’s a sum-up of the charges filed against the FTX founder:

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-hearing-bahamas-live/" target=_blank>unsealed an eight-count indictment</a> against Bankman-Fried on Tuesday, alleging fraud and conspiracy charges.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-hearing-bahamas-live/" target=_blank> filed fraud charges</a> against the entrepreneur Tuesday, seeking restitution for investors and customers in civil court.

The Securities and Exchange Commission <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-hearing-bahamas-live/#link-PCWJR7LFGBHNPMHHAGWDVZYRY4" target=_blank>lobbed its own civil charges</a> at Bankman-Fried for allegedly “orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors.”

Rachel Lerman

FTX CEO John J. Ray III sees the alleged crimes at the heart of the crypto company’s collapse as simple, despite the seemingly complex nature of the circumstances.

“This isn’t sophisticated whatsoever. This is just plain old embezzlement,” he told Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.) in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee.

Bitcoin winter snow

The day Sam Bankman-Fried’s portrait graced the cover of Forbes in October 2021, cryptocurrency was a $2.2 trillion market — a valuation that would swell past $3 trillion a month later. Then 29 and one of the youngest self-made billionaires to land on the magazine’s ranking, he touted plans to give away his $22.5 billion fortune for the good of humanity.

But now his wealth is gone, his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, has filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried is facing a slew of civil and criminal fraud charges. Yet the FTX implosion is only a grim finale to a year in which several major crypto players and their larger-than-life founders collapsed. Nearly all of the companies have filed for bankruptcy, and at least one of their founders appears to be on the lam. Here’s a look at how the “crypto winter” began.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/12/05/crypto-ftx-collapse-bankruptcy-companies/?itid=lk_inline_manual_68" target=_blank>Read the full story</a>

Julian  Mark

FTX CEO John J. Ray III gives evidence at US House Financial Services Committee, Washington Dc, USA - 13 Dec 2022

FTX CEO John Ray has repeatedly declined requests by House Financial Services Committee members to detail the corporate wreckage he is sorting through with specific numbers, pointing to the company’s bad recording-keeping. That includes how many U.S. customers are on the hook.

“We need to get to the bottom of those customer numbers,” he told Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio).

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) just cited Sam Bankman-Fried’s reported but unpublished planned testimony to the House Financial Services Committee that used an expletive to describe his own mistakes atop FTX, calling it “so disrespectful” and “absolutely insulting.”

House Financial Services Committee Hearing On FTX

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), among the most outspoken crypto critics in Congress, uses his time in the House Financial Services hearing to paint Sam Bankman-Fried as emblematic of his industry rather than a stand-alone bad apple, calling the industry “a garden of snakes.” He urges lawmakers not to hand crypto oversight authority to the CFTC, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/28/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-cftc/?itid=lk_inline_manual_77" target=_blank>an FTX priority</a>.

FTX CEO John J. Ray III told the House hearing that Sam Bankman-Fried took multiple loans from the company with no or little documentation. In one case, Ray said, the former executive was listed as both the issuer and the recipient of a loan. He said investigators have no description of the purpose of the transactions yet.

Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), who will chair the House Financial Services Committee next year, said he had looked forward to getting Sam Bankman-Fried’s “lies here on record under oath” but welcomed his arrest. He said that despite the alleged fraud at FTX, he believes “in the promise of digital assets and those around the world building on blockchain technologies.”

U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing investigating the collapse of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, in Washington 

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, launched the hearing Tuesday morning by saying she was “so deeply troubled to learn how common it was” for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and his team “to steal from the cookie jar” to finance their “lavish lifestyles.”

FILES-US-CRYPTOCURRENCY-MARKET-FTX-BANKRUPTCY

NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors unsealed an eight-count indictment against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, alleging fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from the misuse of billions in cryptocurrency assets his company oversaw.

Bankman-Fried was accused Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan of diverting funds from FTX customers to Alameda Research, a hedge fund he controlled. Prosecutors allege he aimed to enrich himself through a criminal effort that has wiped out accounts held by the crypto exchange’s users.

“Bankman-Fried agreed with others to defraud customers of <a href="http://ftx.com/" target=_blank>FTX.com</a> by misappropriating those customers’ deposits and using those deposits to pay expenses and debts of Alameda Research,” the indictment says.

Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried used those funds “to make investments” and illegally moved money from the accounts of FTX users to Alameda Research, his “proprietary crypto hedge fund.”

The indictment does not disclose the amount of losses to FTX customers or how much Bankman-Fried allegedly profited.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Bankman-Fried with conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers and lenders, as well as wire fraud on customers and lenders. He also faces counts of conspiracy to commit commodities and securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The 14-page indictment also alleges campaign finance fraud conspiracy against the Bahamas-based cryptocurrency entrepreneur.

Bankman-Fried is expected to make a court appearance Tuesday in the Bahamas. It was not immediately clear when he would be extradited to New York.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission leveled fraud charges against Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX on Tuesday,  alleging they and  FTX’s sister trading arm Alameda Research “intentionally or recklessly” made “untrue or misleading statements” in connection with the sale of commodities.

The agency is seeking civil penalties and a jury trial.

The complaint alleges that Bankman-Fried used as much as $8 billion of customer funds from FTX to support activities at Alameda without disclosing this to customers who had put money on the crytpo platform.

Alameda had “unlimited ability to borrow and withdraw digital assets directly from FTX Trading to put towards its off-platform activities,” the complaint alleges. It also alleges that Bankman-Fried “furtively used” customer funds to pay for naming rights to the Miami Heat arena and FTXs’ Super Bowl commercial in February.

It does not specify damages but wants the defendants “to make full restitution by making whole each and every customer or investor whose funds were received or utilized.”

Bankman-Fried had been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/28/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-cftc/?itid=lk_inline_manual_103" target=_blank>seeking cooperation</a> with the CFTC to regulate his activities before his company filed for bankruptcy last month.

FTX CEO John J. Ray III, a corporate wind-down expert now guiding the collapsed crypto company through bankruptcy, is set to take a starring role before the House Financial Services Committee after the Monday night arrest of his predecessor, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Ray, who also oversaw Enron’s liquidation, is set to tell lawmakers that Bankman-Fried presided over “an utter failure of corporate controls at every level of an organization” unlike any he has seen before, according to <a href="https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhrg-117-ba00-wstate-rayj-20221213.pdf" target=_blank>his prepared testimony</a>.

Bankman-Fried was scheduled to testify remotely at the hearing, but his arrest means he won’t be available. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

The executive blames FTX’s implosion on Bankman-Fried and his inner circle. Ray’s prepared remarks say the company’s failure stems from “the absolute concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals.”

Ray identifies what he terms “unacceptable management practices” that allowed executives to take customer funds from the FTX trading platform — “without any effective limits” — and use them to place risky bets through Alameda Research, an affiliated hedge fund also founded by Bankman-Fried. The practice exposed unwitting customers to “massive losses.”

Ray’s remarks say his investigation into FTX’s lost fortune also has found the company went on a $5 billion spending spree starting late last year, making investments “which may be worth only a fraction of what was paid for them.” The company shelled out more than $1 billion on top of that in loans and other payments to insiders, according to his prepared testimony.

The company’s new chief executive says the scope of work facing his team is “enormous” as they retrace how the former crypto empire disintegrated and will take time to complete, echoing statements he has made in filings in federal bankruptcy court since taking over.

What to know about Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX collapse

Just getting caught up on FTX’s spectacular collapse and its embattled founder Sam Bankman-Fried?

Washington Post reporters Tory Newmyer, Julian Mark and Peter Whoriskey have been following every twist and turn of the saga, and explain in a video all you need to know about the crypto exchange and its once idolized former CEO.

Watch the video above or <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/business/what-to-know-about-sam-bankman-fried-and-the-ftx-collapse/2022/12/12/48e40f1b-5265-4781-bfd0-175f15eb7561_video.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_117" target=_blank>here.</a>

Key Speakers At IIF Annual Membership Meeting

The revelation in November that up to a million investors may be harmed by the collapse of FTX exposes what critics say is a fundamental flaw in the foundations of the $850 billion market for digital currencies.

As the implosion of the Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange company stirred turmoil across crypto markets, experts said the concern lies less in cryptocurrency itself than in the lightly regulated companies that serve crypto investors.

For investors, FTX was a gateway to the crypto world, an exciting marketplace where celebrity ambassadors like quarterback Tom Brady invited them to open accounts and trade digital currencies such as bitcoin and ether. FTX in turn functioned in many ways like the banks and brokers of traditional finance, maintaining customer accounts, exchanging currencies and making loans and investments with customer assets.

But like other crypto exchanges, FTX operated outside the traditional banking system, and this created enormous risks. Though they act like banks and brokers, crypto exchanges typically are not subject to the same type of regulation, insurance and disclosure rules that protect customers of traditional banks.

“At some level, the fall of FTX is not a crypto story at all,” said Adam Levitin, a Georgetown University law professor and a principal at Gordian Crypto Advisors, a firm that provides advice regarding crypto bankruptcies. “People invested billions in an unregulated financial institution based in a Caribbean island. How could this end well?”

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/16/ftx-collapse-crypto-exchanges-regulation/?itid=lk_inline_manual_125" target=_blank>Read the full story</a>

Peter Whoriskey

Dalton Bennett

FTX Bankman Fried Arrested

Federal regulators allege that former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried improperly diverted customer funds to his investment arm, Alameda Research, which he treated as his “personal piggy bank.”

He also allowed Alameda to use the commingled funds for whatever purposes he wanted, including “to buy luxury condominiums, support political campaigns, and make private investments, among other uses,” the Securities and Exchange Commission <a href="https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2022/comp-pr2022-219.pdf" target=_blank>charged in its complaint.</a>

“None of this was disclosed to FTX equity investors or to the platform’s trading customers,” the agency said.

The FTX funds held by Alameda were used by Bankman-Fried for loans to FTX executives, the complaint alleged, as well as to “purchase tens of millions of dollars in Bahamian real estate for himself, his parents, and other FTX executives.”

Alameda had other benefits from FTX, the complaint alleged, including being allowed to hold a negative balance, something no other customer could do. That gave the hedge fund a “line of credit” to use FTX funds, according to the complaint.

Bankman-Fried told Alameda to hide the “line of credit” from lenders, the SEC charged.

“The customer funds diverted to Alameda were used, among other things, to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in ‘loans’ to Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives, as well as hundreds of millions more to fund additional venture investments,” the complaint said.

FTXBAHAMAS 

NASSAU, Bahamas — Before Sam Bankman-Fried’s $16 billion empire<b> </b>imploded, Margaux Avedisian remembers thinking there was something unsettling about the cryptocurrency wunderkind.

Bankman-Fried had become a legend by pushing an image of monkish aloofness, vowing to forsake the allures of his extraordinary wealth — sleeping on beanbag chairs, driving a Toyota Corolla — and to give away his fortune for the greater good.

Yet in April, when Avedisian was hired as a master of ceremonies for a conference in the Bahamas sponsored by FTX, Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, she saw how the 30-year-old billionaire really lived: in a guarded island compound, every need closely catered to, the world’s elite at his beck and call.

Conference guests partied in casinos where Bahamians weren’t allowed to gamble and hobnobbed with celebrity attendees, including singer Katy Perry and football veteran Tom Brady. For one party, VIPs took a boat from the island to a second, even fancier island for a feast of lobster, a private DJ concert and an open bar.

“You’re living this lifestyle of poverty, but you’re partying with Katy Perry?” she recalled thinking. “Why would you want to hang out with these celebrities if you’re so head-down trying to change the world?”

When Bankman-Fried and his band of crypto risk-takers moved to the Bahamas last year in a blitz of extravagant spending, they promised to remake the island paradise into a global capital of the new financial elite. Some Bahamians said they felt lucky to have an opportunity to work so close to a superstar.

Instead, Bankman-Fried stepped down as FTX’s CEO after presiding over one of the fastest meltdowns of wealth in modern history. FTX, valued earlier this year at $32 billion, has been declared bankrupt, and his $16 billion personal fortune nosedived to zero in less than a week.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/24/ftx-bahamas-albany-fried/?itid=lk_inline_manual_144" target=_blank>Read the full story</a>

Drew Harwell

Nitasha Tiku

Just hours after his arrest in the Bahamas, Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with violating U.S. securities law, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday morning.

The former chief of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX was accused of “orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors” in the company, the regulator said.

“FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy Mr. Bankman-Fried created by, among other things, touting its best-in-class controls, including a proprietary ‘risk engine,’ and FTX’s adherence to specific investor protection principles and detailed terms of service,” SEC enforcement director Gurbir S. Grewal <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-219" target=_blank>said in a statement.</a> “But as we allege in our complaint, that veneer wasn’t just thin, it was fraudulent.”

In its complaint, the SEC alleged that Bankman-Fried was using billions of dollars of customer funds “for his own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire.”

FTX and Bankman-Fried have been under intense scrutiny since last month when the company filed for bankruptcy after it was unable to honor customers’ withdrawal requests.

Top U.S. Derivatives Watchdog Testifies Before Senate Agriculture Committee On Crypto

Before his undoing, crypto magnate Sam Bankman-Fried aggressively pursued powerful allies in Washington. None was more important than Rostin Behnam.

The chief of the federal agency that oversees commodities markets, Behnam holds a strategic perch among the nation’s financial regulators. And the 44-year-old Washington bureaucrat was indispensable in the boyish billionaire’s ambitious plans to reshape U.S. crypto regulation.

Since last year, the two have worked in parallel on critical initiatives which, if not for the sudden demise of Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire, might have radically altered the nation’s attempts to govern the freewheeling market for digital currencies.

Now that FTX has collapsed amid allegations of fraud, those initiatives may be doomed. But as the financial world examines why major firms threw hundreds of millions of dollars at the 30-year-old Bankman-Fried, the capital is looking anew at his courtship of Washington and why he sought to build ties with Behnam and the agency he leads, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/28/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-cftc/?itid=lk_inline_manual_158" target=_blank>Read the full story</a>

Columbia University, BA in American history

Tory Newmyer covers economic policy and the intersection of Wall Street and Washington. He previously worked at Fortune, where he spent seven years as the magazine's Washington correspondent.

The Arthur F. Burns Prize for Foreign Reporting

Columbia University and Yeshiva University

Steven Zeitchik covers the emerging technologies that are transforming our lives – from cryptocurrency to the metaverse to AI to cutting-edge digital shifts still to come. He also has covered the business of entertainment. examining the industry's trends, challenges, issues and ideas.

Carleton University, BA in Journalism and Global Politics

Gerrit De Vynck is a tech reporter for The Washington Post. He writes about Google, artificial intelligence and the algorithms that increasingly shape society. He previously covered tech for seven years at Bloomberg News.

2016-2017 Knight-Bagehot Fellow for Business Journalism at Columbia University

Gannon University, BA in English communications

Tim Craig is a national reporter on the America desk. He previously served as head of The Washington Post’s Afghanistan-Pakistan bureau, based in Islamabad and Kabul. He has also reported from Iraq, the District and Baltimore.

Bankman-Fried bought D.C. influence by spending ‘dirty money,’ prosecutors say

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