👀 La Comédie Humaine within the FTX Mess

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BitDegree Insider
October 19, 2023

GM Readers. Your daily dose of BitDegree insights is ready 👀

Today’s selection:

  • 🤔The SBF Story Unfolds

  • 📰Bite-Sized News

  • 👌Selected Meme of The Day

AND SO IT GOES….

Today is October 19th. The SBF saga unfolds, new pages reveal new details, new facts, new stories, new character development. Much depend on how this case will conclude. Therefore, let’s not look away from the court, and see what is going on with the world’s most famous crypto criminal.

On October 18, District Judge Lewis Kaplan grew increasingly frustrated during Sam Bankman-Fried's trial, admonishing lawyers from both sides involved in the criminal court case. The judge's exasperation followed a brief 15-minute testimony by a witness who had traveled from Texas to participate.

Cory Gaddis, a policy specialist at Google, endured a three-hour journey to affirm Google's metadata revealing that Caroline Ellison and Bankman-Fried were linked to a doctored balance sheet of Alameda Research.

This corroborated Ellison's prior testimony, in which she disclosed creating seven alternative spreadsheets to deceive Alameda's lenders regarding its financial status in 2022.

During cross-examination, Bankman-Fried's defense counsel swiftly ended Gaddis' testimony, realizing he lacked technical expertise, resulting in a concise 15-minute appearance. Judge Kaplan expressed his dissatisfaction, saying, "Lawyers should do better than this," in reference to the prosecution and defense's witness handling.

The judge's impatience was not unwarranted, as noted during the morning session when Eliora Kats, a former FTX lobbyist, underwent a brief examination confirming FTX's public advocacy for crypto regulation in Washington, D.C., a fact already in the public domain. Judge Kaplan emphasized the sacrifice of the jurors' time, stating, "These people [jurors] are giving up weeks of their lives, and I care about it."

Prosecutors are anticipated to conclude their case on October 25, while the defense counsel has yet to confirm their case.

As you can sense, the trial is starting to take its toll on the judge himself. And it’s far from the end of it.

What’s more, accounting professor Peter Easton conducted a forensic financial analysis, shedding light on the alleged mingling of funds between FTX and Alameda Research since 2021.

Easton's analysis unveiled that Alameda had invested in various entities, including Genesis Capital, K5 Global Holdings, Anthropic PBC, Dave Inc, Modulo Capital, and others, partially utilizing funds from FTX customers. In June 2022, Alameda showed a negative balance of $11.3 billion with FTX, while the two companies collectively held liquid assets amounting to $2.3 billion, resulting in a $9 billion deficit between the affiliated firms.

It’s not the first time we’re writing about the sums of money… But every time they just unplug my sense of reality for a moment. We’re talking about BILLIONS here… Billions of US Dollars. Stolen, evaporated into thin air.

Another significant finding from the analysis was that Alameda possessed 57 accounts with FTX that could have negative balances, distinguishing it from other customers. This challenges Bankman-Fried's defense argument that Alameda had similar privileges as other market makers on FTX.

The analysis further revealed that during the bear market in 2022, Alameda repaid $6.6 billion in loans to crypto lenders, with 68% ($4.5 billion) traced as customer assets and 32% ($2.1 billion) originating from its own funds.

Additionally, at least 35 properties in the Bahamas, totaling $228.5 million, were acquired using customer funds, according to Easton's analysis.

Here you have it folks… Housing crisis is a problem somewhere, while illegally acquiring 35 properties in Bahamas, is a problem somewhere else.

La Comédie humaine.

TL;DR: District Judge Lewis Kaplan expressed dissatisfaction with lawyers on both sides during SBF's trial, particularly due to a brief 15-minute testimony by a witness. Meanwhile, a forensic financial analysis by accounting professor Peter Easton unveiled significant findings, including the alleged mingling of funds between FTX and Alameda Research, highlighting a substantial $9 billion deficit between the two entities, the existence of 57 accounts with negative balances exclusive to Alameda, and the acquisition of 35 properties in the Bahamas totaling $228.5 million using customer funds.

BITE-SIZED NEWS

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SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is strictly educational. None of this information is intended to be financial advice. Always do your research and act responsibly with your profits.