In the eyes of Sam himself, he is so innocent

[DapanasFruit]

After so many details coming out of the FTX collapse, it is as clear as the sunshine that Sam and his minions committed many forms of fraud basically going against the very terms the company published...and am sure there will be more condemning evidences to look forward most especially if there are going to be cases against the man.

Now, in a very recent interview in New York Times per Forbes, Sam claimed that although he admitted to have failed in many aspects of the management of FTX he actually got no intention to defraud anybody - meaning he is as clean as white as far as allegations leveled against him while being the man at the helm of the company.

Who here think that Sam is just another victim of circumstances and not really the villain in this chaotic and far-reaching story of collapse?

[Darker45]

It might not be his exact intention to defraud people but that's what he's actually doing. He might not really be thinking of taking people's money away, but that's basically what it means when he made huge withdrawals of his users' money and moved them to Alameda, donated to politicians, squandered on expensive properties in the Bahamas, gave away to his parents for them to splurge, lend to some companies, and so on.

Sam Bankman-Fried probably didn't think of running away with his users' money, but his irresponsibility, his childish financial management, is equally damaging. 

[bittraffic]

With the people behind him like the government officials, they can really put a picture of him being the victim and innocent when the media comes and paints him being the victim. How innocent can a man be while you see him eating cucumber on tv?

All it needs is another fall guy or the group of kids deciding for FTX who can take the blame.

[franky1]

i feel his mind was more on personal profits

where he thought he had the legal right to take funds and do as he pleases because there are no crypto laws stating that any hand over of funds to him comes with any fiduciary responsibility.

so he doesnt see it as fraud, but instead doing business.. where his customers by losing is just the customers cost of 'doing business' with him

[Zlantann]

Who here think that Sam is just another victim of circumstances and not really the villain in this chaotic and far-reaching story of collapse?

Most people that commits crime never accepts that they are guilty. Their lawyers would always argue or give reasons or the circumstances that necessitated the criminal offence. From the link OP provided Sam Bankman-Fried acknowledged that he made some mistakes but failed accept that he knew that is actions were risky or financially unsound. John Ray the new CEO of FTX has unveiled that the firm he was assign to rescue is in a total mess and past mangers failed to apply simple risk management principles. It is alarming to know that a multi-billion dollar firm like FTX don't have a risk management department. Which means that Sam, his friends and family had unlimited access to depositors funds and they used it the way they liked.

Most of these successful technological or crypto firms might have been founded by young entrepreneurs but it is important they employ experienced staff that are proficient in management practices, especially in investment and risk management.  
  

[tranthidung]

It might not be his exact intention to defraud people but that's what he's actually doing.

As an owner of a cryptocurrency exchange, with many trading types: Spot, Margin, Future and more, Sam Bankman-Fried should know very well about mechanisms to liquidate FTX users' collateral. That is not much different than mechanisms of forced liquidation on other exchanges and similar to bank liquidation too.

Sum up, he should know very well about extremely high risk of using FTT token as collateral for his company loan. He can not say he did not know about that risk and is innocent.

He might not really be thinking of taking people's money away, but that's basically what it means when he made huge withdrawals of his users' money and moved them to Alameda, donated to politicians, squandered on expensive properties in the Bahamas, gave away to his parents for them to splurge, lend to some companies, and so on.

Sam Bankman-Fried probably didn't think of running away with his users' money, but his irresponsibility, his childish financial management, is equally damaging. 

Think or not think to run away with customer money, it is not a matter.  A serious matter is he and his colleagues used customer money without any inform to them and any permission from their customers. That is enough to be called as guilty but worse they used such capital for their own benefits (buying expensive real estates, building up their reputation with politicians, etc.). All of these were not done for benefit of FTX customers at any scale.

[OgNasty]

It’s amazing how delusional he is. Saying he thinks FTXUS is solvent… I think he really believes what he was doing was honest and legitimate. It goes to show you that these kids can get handed everything in life, including their education while not knowing the basic business principles at the level of your average middle school pot dealer.

[Accardo]

Blames may not solve anything, he didn't blame himself for the billions of dollars lost through his exchange, he doesn't perceive it like we do. Think of Two Gun Crowley in Dale Carnegies' book, Despite being a murderer, in his letter he said: ‘Under my coat is a weary heart, but a kind one – one that would do nobody any harm.’ Even Al Capone didn't blame himself for disturbing Chicago. Therefore, SBF, has millions of reasons to prove he's not guilty. And blaming or condemning him won't help as he won't condemn himself. I'd say, until he is tried in the court of law for his carelessness SBF will always tell the world he's a good man who tried to save the cryptocurrency market.

[Hispo]

He had no intention to defraud anyone but at the same time he was mismanaging billions of dollars and donating millions of dollars to political parties? I do not buy it.

He is just delusional and probably a narcissistic person.
Actually, I am starting to see a pattern here among people like Sam, Do Kwon, the Faketoshi, etc. Narcissism, disregard for other's well-being and lack of the ability to accept their responsibility and lies.

I wish he gets imprisoned so does Do Kwon.

[franky1]

more recently
he done a live interview on youtube with NYT
10min highlight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9hPQ_FZw7E

highlights -
he says FTX.US "has collateral to meet customer balances and could make those customers whole"
(which we all know funds shuffled after the bankrupcy filing to make that happen)

as for FTX international thats something else

(paraphrasing(not verbatim) watch whole video for full context)
interviewer: "it appears there was co-mingling of funds.. was there co-mingling of funds?"
scam b fraud:"i didnt knowingly co-mingle funds, one piece of this you have the margin trading, you have customers borrowing from each other, of which alemeda was one of them [customers]... i was surprised about how big alemedia position was, which points to another failure of oversight on my part, and a failure to appoint someone to be chiefly in charge of that. but i was not trying to co-mingle funds"

seems he is pointing the finger at his ex-GF[alemeda ceo] as the big customer funds taker but how she took customer funds "legally" by being a customer herself of ftx and used "margin calls" to grab customer funds into alemeda

he also blames the ftx funds /accounts discrepancy on alemeda[his ex-gf]

well she is in japan and not in us-bahama jurisdiction. so ofcourse he will take the blame off himself in 2 jurisdictions investigating him for prossible crimes

"it wasnt me officer"

anyway, full length >1hour video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyoGdwVIwWw

[Majestic-milf]

 He should tell himself some home truths; his actions, no matter how right he thinks they are, also put him in this situation! Even though he hasn't been proven guilty, his actions and conduct which led to FTX going underwater is capable of keeping him lol in prison for 20yrs. That's a lot for an "innocent man" if you ask me.
 Quoting him in an interview, he said; "I have a duty to explain what happened..I don't see what good is accomplished by me just sitting locked in a room pretending the outside world doesn't exist".. Will all this change the fact that that many investors funds have been carted away by some careless businessman? I doubt not.

[Ben Barubal]

After so many details coming out of the FTX collapse, it is as clear as the sunshine that Sam and his minions committed many forms of fraud basically going against the very terms the company published...and am sure there will be more condemning evidences to look forward most especially if there are going to be cases against the man.

Now, in a very recent interview in New York Times per Forbes, Sam claimed that although he admitted to have failed in many aspects of the management of FTX he actually got no intention to defraud anybody - meaning he is as clean as white as far as allegations leveled against him while being the man at the helm of the company.

Who here think that Sam is just another victim of circumstances and not really the villain in this chaotic and far-reaching story of collapse?

   When he said that, it is obvious that he is not telling the truth, it is also not true that he says that he has no intention of deceiving anyone and that in fact, he has managed to defraud many investors who have invested large amounts of money in Ftx.

   His interview with the New York Times was just used to show that he was innocent and did nothing wrong. In addition to this, I even watched Sam Bankman-Fried interview an interview with a well-known influencer, Tifanny Fong, who also revealed in the interview here that he is innocent and knows nothing about what happened in Ftx... Here it seems It also appears that he paid Tifanny Fong just from my own assessment, but I'm not sure, But that's what I had been thinking of it.

[slaman29]

I think he is not more evil than almost all of the guys working in corporate bodies and especially in crypto types.

He just happens to be the CEO.

His entire board were smoking and snorting marijuana and having sx with each other. Well not like that exactly lol but anyway none of them are clean is what I mean.

And his investors saw his pitches while he played video games and slept on couches. They all thought that made him cool and genius. So in the end he has a right to say "hey I was doing all this shit and you were cool, what did you think would happen??"

Bitcoin is so unsexy, but that's what I like about it.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Have you seen at least one criminal who would not say that he did not want anything bad? All of them are always white and fluffy, with angel wings behind their backs. But reality always says otherwise. Those who manage large amounts of money must always understand all the risks and be responsible for the funds that they have been entrusted with. All other justifications for loyalty and devotion to the cause are a desperate attempt to remove suspicion from yourself. Such people need to be very severely punished so that their history is an example for those who intend to engage in fraud.

[mindrust]

He exactly knows what he is doing. He greased the right people with the money he stole from his customers and now he is getting rewarded for this.

This is what happens when the corruption spreads everywhere in a country and this is happening right in front of our eyes in the United States which is the world’s most developed country, where people have rights, where law matters, or so they say.

This incident alone is enough to make the US an African country where people kill each other to steal their stuff.

[worle1bm]

So do you think he will come up with evil smile on his face laughing at all of us saying you were all innocent in believing what he said to all and took FTX to make money out of your pocket.Now he got busted he is seeking sympathy from all of us but that's not going to help him.His ponzi scheme crashed but he has his funds already separated out of which he will enjoy later and he is still innocent?

[mindrust]

He had no intention to defraud anyone but at the same time he was mismanaging billions of dollars and donating millions of dollars to political parties? I do not buy it.

He is just delusional and probably a narcissistic person.
Actually, I am starting to see a pattern here among people like Sam, Do Kwon, the Faketoshi, etc. Narcissism, disregard for other's well-being and lack of the ability to accept their responsibility and lies.

I wish he gets imprisoned so does Do Kwon.

“If you stole a hundred bucks, it is your problem. If you stole a billion dollars, it is the bank’s problem.”

This exactly what is happening here. Since he stole big, he will walk away because he can buy protection with the money he stole.

It seems to me everybody has a price nowadays.

Judges, police, politicians (especially)…

There are no honest people anymore.

It is happening in this forum too. Lots of people take the risk of promoting a scam casino just because they are getting paid...

[EarnOnVictor]

Innocent indeed, maybe he is being deceived by his look, not by his actions. Under any law (local and international), he is guilty, unless the articles I read and the documentaries I watched about him and his shady/fraudulent deals are all fake. He will surely serve his jail term unless the Bahamas government would compromise. This is highly unlikely as the US is so interested in the case and the Bahamas government would want to protect their internal image.

However, three of the likely charges are; Collecting money under false pretence, Misappropriating clients' money and Conspiracy.

[Sayeds56]

I don't think he is the victim of circumstances. As CEO,he is totally responsible for the collapse of FTX, he should have built up a strong protective system/mechanism to avert such huge crisis which not only deprived millions of investors from their lifetime savings but also created huge negativity of crypto which will continue hurting it for many months to come.

Let's wait for the outcome of investigation to know what went wrong and who was behind this crash.

[yazher]

It doesn't really work that way, he can say what he wants but the evidence will be the main thing that the judges will look upon and will gonna be judged according to it. There are already many versions of stories about what happened and we need to wrap this thing up as soon as possible so that we can move on and use this lesson for our own good in the future. That's just how it is, even though you don't have any intention to defraud anyone but when all the evidence will prove you wrong, you will end up in bad situations like others in jail.

[Ayers]

I have never seen anyone after stealing other people's money and then saying that they intentionally stole everyone's money, all will always excuse themselves as a victim in all those mistakes and say sorry to others. I don't know who is the mastermind behind it all but we do know one thing that SBF runs FTX and he is the one with access to everyone's assets. He has to take responsibility as CEO of FTX, don't try to be innocent or pitiful, billions of dollars are stolen not just a few dollars.

[Sayeds56]

It doesn't really work that way, he can say what he wants but the evidence will be the main thing that the judges will look upon and will gonna be judged according to it. There are already many versions of stories about what happened and we need to wrap this thing up as soon as possible so that we can move on and use this lesson for our own good in the future. That's just how it is, even though you don't have any intention to defraud anyone but when all the evidence will prove you wrong, you will end up in bad situations like others in jail.

You are right, he will have to prove his innocence by presetting credible evidence which should convince the judges that he did not commit anything wrong and whatever happened it was the outcome of bad circumstances, then he can say whatever he likes but as of now the stories circulating in media point finger towards him. It is also possible that it was be a huge management failure, but we can't say anything unless the matter is fully investigated.

[Yatsan]

He's simply negligent for now knowing there are irregularities with the fund already. No one would confess that they're guilty 'coz they would suffer the consequences of their action. From the past years, I've never seen someone being jailed in this industry even if there are obvious evidences, concerning project owners. They have the resources to steer the result or judgement in any trial court as long as they are more powerful than the complainant/s.

I have never seen anyone after stealing other people's money and then saying that they intentionally stole everyone's money, all will always excuse themselves as a victim in all those mistakes and say sorry to others. I don't know who is the mastermind behind it all but we do know one thing that SBF runs FTX and he is the one with access to everyone's assets. He has to take responsibility as CEO of FTX, don't try to be innocent or pitiful, billions of dollars are stolen not just a few dollars.

That's the only thing they could do to protect themselves. Mastermind? no one. That's just pure negligence on their end. I believe things are unplanned but were also not expected by them which resulted into a huge problem. Breach or what, they should have secured every aspect of their project no matter what.

[NotATether]

Who here think that Sam is just another victim of circumstances and not really the villain in this chaotic and far-reaching story of collapse?

This guy needs to be detained in a US facility so that the world can get a collective break from reading the constant torrent of news every time he talks some gibberish about his failed exchange.

[teosanru]

Exactly, even based on his tweets that I saw where he said that FTX US is still solvent it's looking as if he has saved FTX US from all this but actually he has destroyed FTX altogether due to his illegal handling of funds of people. I think by saving FTX US he might have saved himself from being tried in the US at least. Now he will be tried in some other country where the laws might be comparatively lenient. He and his PR are trying to act as if all this was just a glitch and it fell like house of cards and they are victim of this as well.

[franky1]

he is not the victim

he is trying to say his ex girlfriend(alameda) is the fraud/theif/bad investor. although HE owns alameda too.

he is trying to pretend he had nothing to do with alameda and he is a victim for not getting involved.

HE did not have security to limit how much alameda 'supposedly' took(or probably better worded: how much he gave over to alameda with an emoji)

its like he is saying also that alameda didnt take customer funds but done a margin call to 'loan' those funds as a customer of ftx.. yet any loan officer would be doing a credit check and ensuring he knows how much is being loaned per customer.

he is trying too hard to play dumb and ignorant and victim. when he knows he is the CEO and founder of both companies that screwed over customers

we seen funds shuffle about after the bankruptcy filing although what should have happened is a halt on all movements and let the administrators come in look at the books and then find the funds.

he shuffled the books and assets after bankruptcy to try to put funds into ftx.us to try to make the US entity look whole so that he can avoid US criminal charges.. then try shifting all losses onto alameda(japanese) to shift blame away from the bahama's entity.. to escape any wrist slap/criminal charges of the bahamas .

seeing as he had the ability do to these games the week of the filing. means that he isnt dumb and isnt an outsider that had no control. he had control. but abused it and then trying to shift evidence to hide any crime

[BitcoinPanther]

Who here think that Sam is just another victim of circumstances and not really the villain in this chaotic and far-reaching story of collapse?

I do not think that Sam is just another victim of circumstances.  

1st he is the one giving orders and decisions for the company.
2nd he exploit the FTX client by approving his own loan that cost 50% of the fund of FTX client to benefit his other company
3rd.  FTX clients suffered losses because of his misappropriation of fund.

Where is the circumstances there that he never made a choice?  It is his decision that made millions of client of FTX to lose huge amount of money. So whether it is his intention or not, he is responsible of those losses by FTX clients.

[Stedsm]

Why he can't be the villain if he knew almost everything happening in FTX? He's not so innocent as he defines himself or else he'd have taken important steps to stop the future (already happened) collapse and do something that'd have saved major investors from losing their confidence in both FTX and crypto.

[South Park]

After so many details coming out of the FTX collapse, it is as clear as the sunshine that Sam and his minions committed many forms of fraud basically going against the very terms the company published...and am sure there will be more condemning evidences to look forward most especially if there are going to be cases against the man.

Now, in a very recent interview in New York Times per Forbes, Sam claimed that although he admitted to have failed in many aspects of the management of FTX he actually got no intention to defraud anybody - meaning he is as clean as white as far as allegations leveled against him while being the man at the helm of the company.

Who here think that Sam is just another victim of circumstances and not really the villain in this chaotic and far-reaching story of collapse?

Even if we were to believe him and accept his explanation that he had no intention to defraud anyone that is what he ended up doing anyway, so his defense for his actions and all the bad things he did is so weak that I doubt his lawyers will ever use it in court out of fear of been ridiculed by the judge, and that is if he still has lawyers left as I have read they are sick and tired about the guy not shutting up, since he is bound to say stuff that will later be used against him by the prosecution.

[Adbitco]

It is obviously he doesn't feels remorse for the incident that happened, every criminal never accepted of being a criminal rather he is trying to protect himself and prove against what happened was just a common attack which is likely to be occured in the crypto space, my questions did he put customers first as his first priority?

He might not really be thinking of taking people's money away, but that's basically what it means when he made huge withdrawals of his users' money and moved them to Alameda, donated to politicians

In as much he did this then he is never to be trusted anymore, on what condition would he released such amount of money to donate to a politician Was does funds not invested in his custody (FTX). Well he has ruined his life and trusted vesting in him.

[hopenotlate]

He, and his partner in crime Caroline, are the worst of the worst:they knowingly engineered the mega scam they have set up, created a backdoor to move funds between FTX and Alameda without being noticed, launched fundraisers to "mainly interact with regulators and improve the overall user experience as well as the overall performance of the platform" for a total of $420 million while SBF then sold a portion of its stake in the company and made $300 million out of $420 million.

The list could go on for pages and pages, not to mention e is currently lying in interviews, but the thing that disgusts me the most is his pretending to be a philanthropist with no interest in money at all.

[serjent05]

It looks like the recent interview in New York Times is planned to give Sam the chance to clear his name and at the same time act as a victim.  No wonder Sam isn't dropped out on the list of speakers.  this shows how bullcrap our society is.  It is obvious that Sam is at fault here but they intend to twist the truth by making Sam a victim.  What a joke.

All traces of evidence and circumstances point to the mismanagement of SBF.   Now, I think that there is a powerful force that is working behind the scene in order to make SBF innocent.  Probably we might hear the news that the main perpetrator of the FTX collapse has been found, LOL.

[Russlenat]

He had no intention to defraud anyone but at the same time he was mismanaging billions of dollars and donating millions of dollars to political parties? I do not buy it.

He is just delusional and probably a narcissistic person.
Actually, I am starting to see a pattern here among people like Sam, Do Kwon, the Faketoshi, etc. Narcissism, disregard for other's well-being and lack of the ability to accept their responsibility and lies.

I wish he gets imprisoned so does Do Kwon.

Still everything falls on defrauding as he is more on fulfilling his own greed for money by siding some of the political parties and feeding them with millions of dollars. As long as cheating or swindling is there, Sam is still responsible for all the consequences that has happened to FTX so he should be punished and should be given proper sanction. Well, falling as a victim may seem very common for people who have been in his position, but I doubt if he’s still a victim when everything is planned and manipulated by a person like Sam.

[coolcoinz]

It might not be his exact intention to defraud people but that's what he's actually doing. He might not really be thinking of taking people's money away, but that's basically what it means when he made huge withdrawals of his users' money and moved them to Alameda, donated to politicians, squandered on expensive properties in the Bahamas, gave away to his parents for them to splurge, lend to some companies, and so on.

Sam Bankman-Fried probably didn't think of running away with his users' money, but his irresponsibility, his childish financial management, is equally damaging.  

Do you really believe that a guy who gave his parents a house worth 16 million when the liquidator found out FTX had liquid assets worth, if I remember correctly, about $800k?
We could say he couldn't count, but he was a math geek, a guy who graduated with a degree in physics.
The company was drowning and had no money months before the collapse, but he kept lying to people, telling them their funds are safe and FTX is solvent.

Sam is a liar and a thief.

[romero121]

Looking for the ways to reach the top position have made him do all these stuffs and caused the collapse of his empire. Over the years he slowly grew, and at some point what he have targeted seems to be beyond his limits. To reach the position he have chosen the wrong way and got to be the victim.

He thought of being the crypto billionaire of the year, but things didn't work as he calculated. His intentions weren't to defraud the users, but the failure of his plans made it to be a defraud.