Sam Bankman-Fried considered paying Trump $5 billion not to run for president, Michael Lewis tells ’60 Minutes’
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, arrives at court as lawyers push to persuade the judge overseeing his fraud case not to jail him ahead of trial, at a courthouse in New York, August 11, 2023.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
Sam Bankman-Fried, the alleged crypto criminal who stands accused of masterminding one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history, was considering paying Donald Trump $5 billion not to run for president, according to best-selling author Michael Lewis.
In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday, Lewis said the FTX founder wanted to put a stop to a Trump White House run in 2024 over fears that the former president was a threat to democracy. Lewis traces the rise and fall of the crypto entrepreneur in his latest book, “Going Infinite,” which comes out on Tuesday, the same day Bankman-Fried’s first criminal trial gets underway in New York.
“Sam’s thinking, ‘We could pay Donald Trump not to run for president. Like, how much would it take?'” Lewis said. “He did get an answer. He was floated — there was a number that was kicking around. And the number that was kicking around when I was talking to Sam about this was $5 billion. Sam was not sure that number came directly from Trump.”
According to Lewis, Bankman-Fried’s ambition to derail Trump’s presidential campaign ultimately went nowhere, in part because he wasn’t sure if his proposal was legal. Also, his crypto empire imploded in November 2022, wiping out Bankman-Fried’s billions of dollars of wealth.
A Bankman-Fried representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, told NBC that Bankman-Fried is a “liar” who “is back to his conning ways and trying to deceive people.”
A superseding indictment alleges that Bankman-Fried used customer funds to make more than $100 million in campaign contributions for the 2022 midterm elections. The government has incorporated that accusation within two of the charges that are still standing: wire fraud and money laundering. That case is set to go to trial next month in in federal court in Manhattan.
Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Lewis, who said he met with the FTX founder more than 100 times in two years, said that there’s a big difference between the alleged crimes committed by Bankman-Fried and those of past high-profile financial criminals.
“This isn’t a Ponzi scheme,” Lewis said. “Like, when you think of a Ponzi scheme, I don’t know, Bernie Madoff, the problem is — there’s no real business there. The dollar coming in is being used to pay the dollar going out. And in this case, they actually had — a great real business. If no one had ever cast aspersions on the business, if there hadn’t been a run on customer deposits, they’d still be sitting there making tons of money.”
Bernie Madoff leaves federal court in New York on March 10, 2009.
Jin Lee | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bankman-Fried, who faces a potential lifetime in prison if convicted on various fraud and conspiracy charges, had accumulated a net worth of around $26 billion before he was 30 based on how private investors valued FTX.
Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried misused billions of dollars worth of customer money for personal gains, like upscale real estate, as well as to cover bad bets made at his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research.
The government says customer cash was shuttled to Alameda via two channels: users depositing cash directly into accounts held by Alameda and through a secret backdoor that was baked into FTX’s code.
When asked whether Lewis believed Bankman-Fried had knowingly stolen customer money, Lewis responded, “No.”
“In the very beginning, if you were a crypto trader who wanted to trade on FTX and wanted to send dollars or yen or euros onto the exchange so you could buy crypto, FTX couldn’t get bank accounts,” Lewis said. “So Alameda Research, which could get bank accounts, created bank accounts for people to send money into so that it would go to FTX.”
Ultimately, $8 billion of FTX customer money piled up inside of Alameda Research. Here’s how Lewis said Bankman-Fried explained his lack of recognition of that much money sitting in a private fund.
“You have to understand that when it went in there, it was a rounding error, that it felt like we had infinity dollars in there, that I wasn’t even thinking about it,” Lewis said.
Lewis balked at the comparison to Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who’s in prison facing a sentence of more than 11 years for defrauding investors about the capabilities of her company’s blood-testing technology.
“It’s a little different supplying, you know, phony medical information to people that might kill them,” Lewis said. “And in this case, what you’re doing is possibly losing some money that belonged to crypto speculators in the Bahamas. On the other hand, this is not to excuse. He shouldn’t have done that.”
Lewis shared an anecdote about Bankman-Fried of the FTX founder playing a videogame during his first interview on television.
“He goes on TV in his cargo shorts and his messy hair and he’s playing video games while he’s on the air,” Lewis said. “If you watch the clip you can see his eyes going back and forth, back and forth. It’s because he’s trying to win his video game at the same time he’s on the air.”
Packing up to 852 hp and a cutting-edge technology stack developed by Huawei, Chinese luxury brand Maextro just revealed its latest entry into the Mercedes-Maybach EQS and Rolls-Royce Spectre segment of ultra-luxe EVs. Meet the all-new Maextro S800.
Despite a somewhat steady stream of new Chinese EVs that defy expectations and threaten to re-set the global order of performance cars, semi trucks, and just about everything in between, brands like Maybach, Rolls-Royce, and even Bentley have seemed relatively “safe,” in the sense that their value is based on something a bit less objective than lap times or kW/mile.
The new Huawei Maextro S800, first shown as a series of renderings late last year, seems to have found some of Henry Rolls’ secret sauce – and they’ve sprinkled it liberally all over the S800.
Huawei sparkles – literally
The shimmering, sparkly, fiber-optic headliner was pioneered by Rolls-Royce over a decade ago, pushing back against the more open and accessible glass-roofs that were becoming popular in the higher end market. Huawei goes a step further, adding similar, Swarovski-like shimmer to not just the headliner – but the door handles, the headlights, projections dancing around the car as you approach it in the street.
It looks and feels special, in other words. And these cars are all about making their owners feel special. Different.
When Henry Rolls began work on his first US factory in Springfield, Massachusetts way back in 1919, there was supposedly a mantra that management repeated to the workers. It went, “every time you touch the car, you add cost. Make sure you add value.”
I’m not here to argue that Huawei is living up to the same maxim with the Maextro, but I am here to argue that this car’s bespoke, purpose-built platform doesn’t share any parts with a lesser offering from the Mercedes or BMW or Volkswagen lineup in the way that a Maybach, Rolls-Royce, or Bentley does. That may not mean much to you and me, but the people shopping six- and seven-figure cars, it might.
Those well-heeled buyers will get a choice of EREV or “pure” battery electric powertrains good for between 480 and 852 all-electric horsepower. 32 ADAS sensors including both radar and lidar compliment a suite of cameras analyze the road ahead and feed data to Huawei’s ADS road perception system, which is constantly adjusting torque distribution, suspension compression and rebound, and front and rear steering to deliver a tech-driven chauffeur experience that Huawei insists is second to none.
That digital chauffeur is also pretty handy when the weather goes sideways, too. Huawei says the Maextro’s sensor array can help it to increase the detection distance in rain, fog, and dust by 60% compared to the benchmark, while delay was reduced by 40%.
In the event a collision is unavoidable, the car can adjust its stance, seating position, raise the windows, and unlock the central control lock to enable outside help to open the doors. Following the collision, the Maextro S800 switches the redundant power supply and calls for help, as well.
Finally, reports indicate that the Maextro S800 supports the 800V high-voltage system in some trims, suitable for 6C charging, which means it can be energized with up to 390 kW of charging power, taking just 10.5 minutes to charge the 66 kWh battery in the EREV version (523 hp) from 10% to 80%.
The Maextro S800 will enter the Chinese in May this year with a price range of 1 – 1.5 million yuan (about $135–205,000 US).
Maextro S800 | gallery
SOURCE | IMAGES: Maextro, via CarNewsChina.
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Volvo Penta will debut its latest modular and scalable battery energy storage system (BESS) platform for the off-grid construction and mining industries at the bauma equipment show – here’s what you can expect.
Best-known for its marine engines and gensets, Volvo Penta is the power production arm of the Volvo Group, specializing in putting energy to work. Operating under the tagline, ‘Made to Move You’, Volvo Penta is headed to bauma 2025 with a plan to keep construction, port shipping, and mining operations moving productively and competitively throughout their transitions to battery and (in theory, at least) hydrogen power.
To that end, the company will show off a job site ready version of the scalable and modular BESS subsystem concept shown last year.
Volvo says its new, modular BESS subsystem will enable other OEMs and third party system integrators to seamlessly deploy electric power to meet the ever-exceeding energy needs in construction and mining.
“Our modular and scalable battery-electric platform is designed to support the electrification ecosystem—combining high-performance drivelines with the crucial energy storage subsystems for efficient charging and operation in construction and mining,” says Hannes Norrgren, President of Volvo Penta Industrial. “We want to meaningfully collaborate with our customers on value-added customization that will enable them to stay productive, efficient, and future-ready.”
The Penta substation at bauma will be built around the company’s “Cube” battery pack, an energy-dense solution with a favorable C-rate designed to make it easy for BESS manufacturers to offer more compact job site solutions capable of charging and discharging energy with high levels of speed and efficiency, enabling both stationary and mobile BESS configurations that can change and grow to meet the evolving needs of a given asset fleet or project.
A Volvo Penta-developed DC/DC unit converts the voltage from the Cube battery packs (600 V) into lower voltage (24 V) for powering auxiliaries and portable offices.
Electrek’s Take
Volvo Penta has always provided power. Historically that’s been from combustion, but the company is looking ahead, developing products that will bring energy to job sites, tractors, and more long after the last ICE engine shuts down.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Penta.
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Just days after Rivian announced that it would be making its iconic electric delivery vans available to anyone willing to pay for one, the company launched the new Rivian Upfit Program, offering a “one-stop shop” to help fleet managers put its EVs to work.
Launched in partnership with commercial vehicle heavyweights Ranger Design, Sortimo of North America, Bush Specialty Vehicles, Holman, LEGEND, and EV Sportline, the Rivian Upfit Program helps fleet buyers make the switch to electric by simplifying the ordering process and delivering an experience that more closely reflects the experience fleet managers get at dealerships.
Despite partnering with leading brands and launching into a well-establish market, however, the program’s web page seems largely aimed at people outside the space – even kicking off with an explanation of what upfitting is:
Upfitting is the process of customizing a vehicle in order to meet fleet, business, or individual consumer needs to tackle the job at hand. This work is done after the vehicle has been built and released from the factory, and can include everything from shelving modifications, flooring options, to sirens and flashers and much more.
The program was announced on LinkedIn with a number of photos indicating upfit options for Rivian’s R1T and R1S vehicles focused on lifeguard and roadside assistance duty, and Rivian’s van upfit with a HVAC/telecom style toolbox arrangement.
No word on pricing or turnaround time.
Electrek’s Take
The general consensus around the Electrek water cooler is that the direct-to-consumer model offered by Rivian, Tesla, and even CarMax deliver a superior customer experience, I’ve consistently drunk the franchise dealer Kool-Aid, arguing that the industry-leading margins enjoyed by these companies actually indicate they’re giving consumers an objectively worse deal than they’d get in a more competitive dealer landscape.
That same competitiveness has led to talented fleet managers at those franchise dealers putting in the effort to get to know the needs of the businesses and buyers in their regions, to understand what upfit options makes sense for their local markets, and – crucially – what to stock for quick turnaround when their customers need it.
Rivian is hoping its upfit partners will do a lot of that heavy lifting for them, but my two cents is that if building cars is hard, building relationships is harder, and Rivian isn’t going to make a good first impression by talking down to its customers. If you think differently, let me know how I got it wrong in the comments.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Rivian, via LinkedIn.
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