Sam masqueraded himself as a generous billionaire. He wasn’t making money for himself; it was all for you.

Sam was your typical generous, altruistic billionaire, an exponent of a thing called “effective altruism.”

Effective altruism is a philosophical and social movement that advocates “using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis”. People who pursue the goals of effective altruism, called effective altruists, often choose careers based on the amount of good that the career achieves while donating to charities based on maximising impact.

Apparently, Sam should have read this description. Mistaking impact for personal profits, whilst forgetting he was meant to be helping others. Not himself to customer funds.

Sam claimed that FTX only existed to make money that could then be given away, and donated to many charitable foundations to fuel the ruse of his effective altruism. Including global warming, Covid-19 preparedness, animal welfare, and of course, BLM.

Now his philanthropy and crypto aspirations are in shambles.

FTX loved this thing called ESG. They talked of profits being used for better causes. If you want to show that you REALLY care about a cause. Improve your ESG rating — as opposed to actually caring. It is a great medieval Snake oil-style scam. Companies no longer seek to improve profits. No, they need to improve their ESG score to ensure activists don’t shut the company down.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with these causes. These enormous companies use their ESG rating to hide all the disgusting actions hidden away from public viewing. Think sweatshops, slave labour, and tax evasion.

Everyone loved the fact that Sam drove a Toyota instead of buying a fancy sports car. Sam hid behind the smoke and mirrors of ESG while stealing customers’ funds.

He is another copy of the many charlatans we know from our history, he successfully seduced investors to the platform using a combination of celebrity schillers, promises of riches and the ridiculous notion that money should be given away for social good instead of pocketed for personal gain. And regardless of history, we always put these frauds on a pedestal. We blindly follow these frauds into the abyss. Repeatedly.

Instead of riches investors have been left with a bitter taste in their mouths.

The sanctimonious fall of Bankman-Fried was a cautionary tale. It shows us investors, that predatory corporations are always, and will always be driven by greed and profits.

FTX could be the catalyst that finally destroys centralised finance. At the very least it will force more cryptocurrency investors to withdraw their money off from centralised exchanges and store them in their own wallets.

I will forever remember SBF as the genius kid, who charmed billions of dollars out of investors. And almost got a way with it.

He got too close to the sun and got burnt.

The millions of customers who got scammed will quickly be forgotten. Thousands of victims who gambled their life savings hoping to improve their lives. These people have potentially lost their houses, relationships, reputation, and unfortunately, their lives.

They will be forgotten, but Sam will be remembered.

I’m truly sorry for anyone else who lost money in the Luna crash or FTX. And all those future crashes.

The fall of SBF is not a tragedy. It’s a reminder that greed always corrupts people. And highlights that these crooks will never get away with their scams.

Eventually, the house of cards comes tumbling down.

With the story getting crazier by the minute. Then mid December disgraced crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas. Bankman-Fried’s sister trading firm Alameda Research apparently used billions of dollars of FTX customer funds. But you should be reassured as he told the BBC:

“I didn’t knowingly commit fraud, I don’t think I committed fraud, I didn’t want any of this to happen.”

There are now rumours circulating that Sam and ex-Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison was involved in a group aptly named “wirefraud”- which fits perfectly with Caroline’s recent “joke” about having a “section on wire fraud” on her internet dating profile.

Absolute insanity.

The FTX saga is a valuable lesson for crypto investors. Don’t trust the snake oil salesman. Don’t allow history to repeat itself, stop the charlatens before cryptocurrency dies completely.