Sam Bankman-Fried was breathlessly described as a wunderkind – a boy wonder transforming the world of finance.
Renowned for his messy hair and unkempt appearance, he graced the covers of Forbes and Fortune, who pondered whether he could become the next Warren Buffett.
The 32-year-old was the founder of FTX, which had quickly become the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange – a place where investors could buy and sell digital assets like Bitcoin.
Image: Larry David appeared in an advert for FTX during the Super Bowl in 2022
Star-studded adverts featuring the tennis player Naomi Osaka and the comedian Larry David added to its allure – with eye-watering sums spent on sponsorship deals.
But in November 2022, Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire came crashing down after it emerged that customer funds worth $10bn (£7.9bn) was missing.
A year later, a jury convicted the fallen entrepreneur of fraud and money laundering after just five hours of deliberations – based on evidence from close colleagues who had turned against him.
Now, “SBF” is beginning a lengthy prison sentence of 25 years for what prosecutors have described as “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history”.
His punishment may be little comfort to five million FTX customers who were suddenly locked out of their accounts as the company entered bankruptcy – and are yet to receive any compensation.
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November: ‘Crypto king’ guilty of fraud
An estimated 80,000 of Bankman-Fried’s victims were based in the UK. Some of them had millions of pounds tied up in the company after entrusting him with their life savings.
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While slick marketing campaigns had presented FTX as a safe way to invest in volatile cryptocurrencies, the reality behind the scenes couldn’t have been more different.
Secret back doors had been established that allowed SBF’s other company, Alameda Research, to access money belonging to FTX customers and make risky bets without their knowledge.
Meanwhile, executives were spending lavishly. Private jets ferried Amazon orders from Miami to the firm’s headquarters in the Bahamas, £12m was spent on luxury hotel stays in just nine months, and employees in the US were allowed to order £160 of food deliveries each a day.
The fallout from FTX’s demise also reaches as far as the White House. Bankman-Fried was one of the largest donors to Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020, with the president subsequently facing pressure to return millions of dollars.
Image: Sam Bankman-Fried’s colleague and on-off girlfriend Caroline Ellison testified against him. Pic: Reuters
A new chief executive has been tasked with untangling where all the money went. Soon after FTX went under, he said: “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls.”
Unusually, and thankfully, FTX victims are expected to be compensated in full eventually – kind of.
The payouts they receive will be based on what cryptocurrencies were worth in November 2022. But Bitcoin was trading at £16,000 back then and is now worth £55,500.
Bizarre plans to bring FTX out of bankruptcy and reopen the exchange have also been abandoned.
Other entrepreneurs in this space – who had loyal, cult-like followings and huge profiles – are also facing jail time.
Image: Changpeng Zhao has pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. Pic: Reuters
His company had allowed individuals in Syria, Iran and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine to evade economic sanctions – and allegedly made it easy for terrorists and criminals to move money.
The billionaire faces jail time when he is sentenced next month.
Do Kwon created two cryptocurrencies that spectacularly collapsed in May 2022, with investors losing an estimated $40bn (£31.7bn) in a matter of days.
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He later went on the run but was captured in Montenegro last year after attempting to fly to Dubai using a fake passport.
A civil fraud trial against Kwon and his company Terraform Labs began this week, with prosecutors warning: “Terra was a fraud, a house of cards, and when it collapsed, investors nearly lost everything.”
Image: Do Kwon created two cryptocurrencies that lost tens of billions of dollars – then went on the run. Pic: Reuters
In a way, Bankman-Fried’s sentence marks the end of an era for crypto – when extravagant excesses and a lack of regulatory oversight were the norm.
Bitcoin’s recent gains have been driven by regulated products that allow investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency’s price without owning it directly.
And many of these products are offered by established, traditional finance firms like BlackRock, which is the world’s largest asset management company.
A damning report described the rise and fall of FTX as a tale of “hubris, incompetence and greed” – with Bankman-Fried and his inner circle showing little regard for the financial wellbeing of his customers.
Millions of people had their fingers burned, and many will be put off from ever investing in cryptocurrencies again.
But while the industry has learned some lessons, the crypto market’s rapid surge in recent months mean there’s a real risk of another bubble forming – and new bad actors taking advantage of investors looking for a piece of the action.
Michelle Obama says she and husband Barack Obama were due to see director Rob Reiner and his photographer wife Michele Reiner the night they were killed.
The former US first lady has paid tribute to the couple, who were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home on Sunday night.
The Reiners’ son, Nick, 32, was arrested and will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents.
Image: Michelle Obama revealed the couple had been due to meet the Reiners the night they died. File pic: AP
Speaking on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Ms Obama said of the Hollywood couple: “We’ve known them for many, many years, and we were supposed to be seeing them that night.”
Rob Reiner was active in politics, supporting liberal causes.
Ms Obama’s comments came after Donald Trump suggested the 78-year-old died because of his anti-Trump views.
He referred to the director as “tortured and struggling” and said he and his 68-year-old wife had died “reportedly due to the anger he caused” by opposing the Republican president.
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Reiners were ‘not deranged’
Ms Obama said: “Let me just say this, unlike some people, Rob and Michele Reiner are some of the most decent, courageous people you ever want to know.
“They are not deranged or crazed. What they have always been are passionate people in a time when there’s not a lot of courage going on.”
Image: File pic: AP
The former first lady highlighted how caring the couple were; stating they cared about their family, country and fairness and equality.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump suggested the Reiners died “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome”.
“He was known to have driven people crazy by his raging obsession of President Donald J Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before.”
Image: Rob Reiner with Hillary Clinton. Pic: Reuters
Rob Reiner was known for directing some of the most-loved films of the 1980s and 1990s, including the rom-com When Harry Met Sally and the legal thriller A Few Good Men.
Tributes pour in
Former US presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton as well as former US speaker Nancy Pelosi also paid tribute to the director.
Mr Obama added: “Beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people – and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action.”
Image: Michelle Obama spoke to Jimmy Kimmel. Pic: AP
Among the other high-profile figures paying tribute was actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who played Reiner’s ex-wife in the hit comedy series New Girl. She said: “I will always remember them as they lived. Passionate. Political. Surrounded by family and friends.”
US actor Kevin Bacon, who starred in A Few Good Men, appeared emotional in a video he shared on Instagram, praising the director for giving him the role.
Bacon said: “The making of that movie was one of the best experiences that I’ve ever had on a set.
“It was a magical time. So, I’m just sending love to everybody that knew him, because I know that everyone’s hurting today.”
Reiner’s other films included The Princess Bride (1987), Ghosts Of Mississippi (1996) The Story Of Us (1999), The Magic Of Belle Isle (2012) and LBJ (2016).
Actress and activist Jane Fonda said she was “reeling with grief” in a post on Instagram, while Stephen King, whose books were adapted into Reiner’s 1986 Stand By Me and 1990’s Misery, said he was “horrified and saddened” by the death of the Reiners.
A doctor has been sentenced to eight months of home confinement over the fatal overdose of Friends star Matthew Perry after pleading guilty to a drugs charge.
Mark Chavez, whose sentence included three years of supervised release, addressed the judge on Tuesday, saying he had recently lost a loved one and understood the grief that Perry’s death caused.
“I just want to say my heart goes out to the Perry family,” he added.
Mr Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another doctor, Salvador Plasencia, who supplied ketamine to Perry.
Plasencia contacted Chavez, 55, after learning that Perry, whose history of drug addiction was well documented, was interested in obtaining ketamine.
In text messages, Plasencia told Chavez – who previously ran a ketamine clinic – “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets [sic] find out”.
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Image: Matthew Perry in 2015. File pic: Reuters
Chavez, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, admitted in his plea agreement to diverting ketamine from his former clinic to sell to Plasencia.
He also admitted to making false representations to a wholesale ketamine distributor in a bid to get more of the drug for Plasencia, submitting a bogus prescription in the name of a former patient without her knowledge or consent.
Plasencia was introduced to Perry in September 2023 by one of his patients, who described the actor as a “high profile person” willing to pay “cash and lots of thousands” for ketamine.
The same day they met, the doctor contacted Chavez, and drove to Costa Mesa to purchase $795 (£590) in ketamine vials and tablets, syringes, and gloves from him.
Plasencia then drove to Perry’s Los Angeles home, injected the star with ketamine, and left at least one more vial of ketamine with Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, 60, who paid the doctor $4,500 (£3,350).
Plasencia is said to have distributed 20 vials and multiple tablets to Iwamasa and Perry, netting $57,000 (£42,500) from 30 September to 12 October, 2023, despite the going price of ketamine being roughly $15 (£11) per vial.
Image: Salvador Plasencia. Pic: Reuters
The 44-year-old was jailed for two-and-a-half years on 3 December after pleading guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, having already surrendered his California medical license.
However, he did not supply the dose that killed Perry, who was found drowned in his hot tub at home after taking ketamine in October 2023.
Iwamasa, 60, admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine, despite having no medical training, including multiple times on the day he died.
He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death and will be sentenced in January.
Also charged is Erik Fleming, 54, who admitted in court documents that he supplied the ketamine that killed Perry, having distributed 50 vials to Iwamasa – half of them four days before Perry died.
He further stated he obtained the drug from 42-year-old Jasveen Sangha, a dual US-UK citizen, nicknamed the “Ketamine Queen”.
Fleming pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.
Sangha pleaded guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
They will be sentenced in January and February respectively.
Perry had been taking ketamine legally as a treatment for depression, but sought more of the drug and started taking it unsupervised in the weeks before his death, acquiring it illegally from different sources.
The actor starred in 10 seasons of Friends, from 1994 to 2004, alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer, as well as appearing in the 2021 reunion show.
Police investigating a deadly shooting at a US university have released a new image and video clips of a “person of interest”.
It comes as the manhunt for a gunman who killed two Brown University students and injured nine more in a classroom continued for a fourth day.
The shooting on Saturday afternoon unfolded on the first floor of the engineering and physics building while exams were taking place.
A law enforcement official said the attacker fired more than 40 rounds from a 9mm handgun in Providence, Rhode Island.
The new image showed a man dressed in dark clothing, wearing a black hat and face mask, walking down a street that day.
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In all of the videos made public, the suspect’s face was either covered by a mask or turned away. He is described as stocky and about 5ft 8in (173cm) tall.
Authorities have released a video timeline showing the movements of the person of interest, including of him before the attack, in the hope that someone might recognise him.
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The clips showed a man walking briskly, and at one point running, between 2pm and 3pm local time, along several different streets, about a block away from the building where the attack would later take place.
The shooting happened at 4.03pm, and another clip showed the same person from a distance walking from the building’s car park towards the street, even as police cars with flashing lights arrived at the scene.
The final clip showed the man walking along that street about three minutes after the shooting.
Authorities on Sunday released a man who had been detained in connection with the attack.
Police have said there was no clear video of the gunman from inside the building.
Attorney general Peter Neronha said there were cameras in the newer part but “fewer, if any, cameras” where the shooting happened “because it’s an older building”.
The attack and the gunman’s escape have sparked concerns about campus safety, including the absence of security cameras, and led to calls for improved door locks.
More details about victims emerge
The students who were killed were Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from Birmingham, Alabama, and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Brandermill, Virginia.
Ms Cook was vice president of the College Republicans club at Brown University and Mr Umurzokov, whose family came to the US from Uzbekistan when he was a child, was an aspiring neurosurgeon.
The Reverend R Craig Smalley described Ms Cook as “an incredibly grounded, faithful, bright light” who encouraged and “lifted up those around her”.
In a GoFundMe post, Mr Umurzokov’s family described him as “incredibly kind, funny, and smart”.
“He always lent a helping hand to anyone in need without hesitation, and was the most kind-hearted person our family knew,” they said.