Sam Bankman-Freed justified his actions that led to the collapse of FTX

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, while under house arrest, wrote hundreds of pages of reflections that could form the basis of his defense at the October 3 hearing. The material was published by The New York Times.

Approximately 250 pages of records, including an unpublished "essay" in X of 15,000 characters, were handed over by a top manager on 12 criminal charges to journalist Tiffany Fong. They contain details of his life in recent months and give an idea of the worldview of the ex-CEO of FTX.

Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the States, where he was released on bail of $ 250 million. Later, the court canceled his release and imprisoned the former head of the exchange until the next meeting. 

Fong was among the few people who gained access to SBF during his stay with his parents.

According to the journalist, during his house arrest, Bankman-Fried spent most of his time in his office, where he played computer games, chess and sometimes slept on the couch. There, the ex-CEO worked on legal defense, writing down thoughts on hundreds of pages, she added.

In the drafts, SBF traced the growth of the business from childhood in Palo Alto to a penthouse he bought in the Bahamas near FTX headquarters.

"I probably will never be able to do anything that would affect my life in general positively. The truth is that I did what I thought was right," the unpublished thread said.

In the drafts, SBF criticized some of his closest colleagues, seasoning the arguments with photos from school years and images of popcorn and a garden maze from photo banks.

Every few pages, a key moment of the narrative is accompanied by a link to clips of Alicia Keys, Katy Perry or Rihanna. Using a separate link, you can go to a spreadsheet with a list of his orders on Amazon for 2021.

One of the documents under the heading "Inception V2" is a lengthy attack on the current team of lawyers of the company and contains a screenshot from the movie "The Beginning" by Christopher Nolan.  

SBF came to the conclusion that the firm Sullivan & Cromwell, which is carrying out the FTX restructuring process, created a version that he misappropriated user funds.

"They played incredibly well. If it hadn't destroyed almost everything that is dear to me in life, I would have taken off my hat to them," he admitted.

In other documents, SBF accused the ex-head of Alameda Research and his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison of helping cause the collapse of FTX.

Bankman-Fried also criticized Sam Trabucco, Ellison's predecessor, who was unable to build a constructive relationship with her. The latter preferred to "go on dates with a bunch of guys while circumnavigating the world by boat, while in the process of quietly leaving," SBF complained.

Bankman-Fried described Allison as ill-prepared for work. The ex-CEO claimed that she cried during a meeting with him and refused to implement trading strategies that could protect the business from a market collapse.

After the incident, the former head of FTX sent her a message with "the nastiest thing I've ever said to her."

"If Alameda had hedged, it would have remained solvent and prevented this whole sad story," he complained.

SBF's concerns about the market maker intensified in the spring of 2022. At that time, a group of employees, including Allison, were feverishly discussing a possible deficit in the company's accounts.

According to Bankman-Fried, the conversation focused on an account labeled fiat@. According to regulators, FTX executives used to redirect customer funds to other projects.

"I've heard about it before, but I never knew exactly what it was," he pointed out.

In a document titled "Truth", SBF wrote that he was not lying.

"It's something I really strongly believe in," Bankman—Fried explained.

Recall that the SBF mother's ethical compass could explain how her son could ignore obvious moral flaws in the name of what he considered the highest good, according to Bloomberg.

Earlier, Bankman-Fried's lawyers asked for his "temporary release" to prepare for trial.