Source: David Yaffe-Bellany, The New York Times

Translation: Joy, PANews

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, offered a candid assessment of his predicament in the final, never-before-published 15,000-word Twitter thread. "I'm bankrupt, wearing an ankle monitor, and one of the most hated people in the world," he wrote. "I may never be able to do anything positive with my life again."

He added, "The fact is, I did what I thought was right."

Accused of fraud in connection with the collapse of FTX, SBF was arrested in December 2022, then released on bail and placed under house arrest. Subsequently, he wrote hundreds of pages of sometimes rambling self-justifications, covering everything from childhood memories to mathematical calculations.

In a draft of the unsent thread, formatted as a series of tweets spanning about 70 typed pages, he criticized some of his closest colleagues and interspersed his arguments with photos from his high school years, as well as images of popcorn and garden mazes. Every few pages, key moments in the narrative were accompanied by links to music videos by Alicia Keys, Katy Perry, or Rihanna.

The 31-year-old SBF was once a prolific poster on Twitter, marking the thread as "draft of a draft of an idea" and including 29 other links related to FTX documents. One document, titled "Inception V2," was a lengthy attack on the company's bankruptcy lawyer, featuring screenshots from the 2010 Christopher Nolan film. A separate link opened a spreadsheet listing SBF's Amazon orders since 2021.

These approximately 250 pages of documents had never been reported before, providing a window into SBF's mindset during his eight months of home detention, as a judge recently revoked his bail in August. The contents also offered new details about his potential legal defense, beyond what his lawyers revealed in court, revealing how he plans to justify his actions at the trial scheduled for October 3.

Prosecutors accused SBF of orchestrating a scheme to move FTX customer funds to the hedge fund Alameda Research he founded, so that his company could engage in venture capital investments, purchase real estate, and make donations to politicians. He has not previously pleaded guilty, as he faces decades in prison if convicted.

During his house arrest, SBF sent these documents to Tiffany Fong, a social media influencer with a YouTube channel about the cryptocurrency industry. Fong shared the contents with The New York Times.

"He liked that I don't work for anyone," she said. "He thought I could draw my own conclusions."

Representatives for SBF declined to comment.

In several documents, SBF accused his former girlfriend and ex-deputy Caroline Ellison of contributing to FTX's downfall. He claimed she was not capable of handling the role he assigned her as head of Alameda, alleging that she had cried at one of his meetings and refused to devise trading strategies that could have protected his company from market collapses.

"She consistently avoided discussing risk management—avoided my advice—until it was too late," he wrote in a document titled "Alameda's Hedge Fund Failure." "Every time I made a suggestion, it only made her feel worse. I'm convinced being an ex didn't help."

In the Twitter draft, SBF also criticized Alameda's co-CEO Sam Trabucco. The documents stated that Trabucco and Ellison did not get along. While Trabucco had good instincts for risk management, by the end of 2021, he was "quietly exiting."

SBF wrote that Trabucco preferred to "sail around the world while dating a bunch of men." He then linked to Rihanna's music video "Cheers (Drink to That)."

Ellison and two other former executives of SBF have admitted to the fraud charges and agreed to testify against him. Additionally, a fourth person pleaded guilty this month but did not commit to cooperating in court. Trabucco has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Trabucco and Ellison's lawyers declined to comment.

FTX was once hailed as a trusted force in the unregulated world of cryptocurrency, but it collapsed in November last year, causing billions of dollars in losses to users and dealing a devastating blow to the entire industry. After his arrest, SBF was released on bail and allowed to live with his parents in Palo Alto, California, where they have a German Shepherd named Sandor as their guard dog.

For months, SBF has hosted guests including the writer Michael Lewis and several journalists, as Lewis works on a book about him.

Few people had as much access to SBF as KOL Fong did, having established a rapport with him online before FTX's failure. Fong said she visited SBF at his parents' home more than ten times and recorded their conversations, which she may eventually release.

Fong said that during his house arrest, SBF spent most of his time in the study, where he played computer games, set up chess boards, and sometimes slept on the couch. She said that most of the time, he was writing his legal defense, recording his thoughts on the case in a hundreds-page Google document. SBF also told her that his family was installing a pickleball court in the yard for him.

SBF handed these documents to Fong in late January. It is currently unclear what he wants her to do with them. Fong suffered losses in the collapse of the cryptocurrency company Celsius Network, and she expressed sympathy for the victims of FTX and skepticism about many of SBF's claims. She sent a document to Alameda's former engineer Aditya Baradwaj, who systematically refuted Mr. SBF's claims, pointing out that Alameda's hedge fund would be "irrelevant" if FTX did not misuse client funds.

In the Twitter thread draft, SBF traced the evolution of his business, from his childhood in Palo Alto to the top-floor apartment he purchased near FTX headquarters in the Bahamas. He recalled meeting Trabucco at a math camp, where he and his future colleague sneaked out after curfew to bake cheesecake brownies, and he described his early admiration for Ellison, calling her "very smart." He also inserted some personal photos, including one showing him holding a T-shirt Trabucco bought for him in high school.

In another section, SBF posted a link to a document he wrote in 2019, "Tonight We're Young," a report of his interaction with Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (aka CZ) at a conference in Taiwan. (He also added a link to the music video for Fun's "We Are Young.")

"Tonight was a night of alcohol, women, lasers, and noise, shocking music, but there was a strange little climate that seemed to accompany me," SBF wrote. "I passed CZ several times tonight, and each time he diverted his gaze from other things and hugged me: people have a lot of ideas about us."

Last November, CZ's post triggered a run on withdrawals, leading to FTX's collapse. Representatives for Binance did not respond to requests for comment.

Some of SBF's documents detail the arguments presented by his lawyers in court. In documents titled "Inception V2," "Inception V3," and "Inception Evidence," SBF claims that the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, overseeing FTX's bankruptcy, fabricated the allegations of his misappropriation of user funds.

"They played it very well," he wrote. "If it hadn't destroyed everything I care about in life, I would tip my hat to them."

A spokesperson for Sullivan & Cromwell declined to comment. Prosecutors argued that SBF's claims about the firm amounted to "innuendo."

In several documents, SBF also dissected his history with Ellison, writing that their relationship "ended in the way most of mine do."

"They wanted more intimacy, commitment, and public recognition than I was comfortable with," he wrote in the thread, "and I felt claustrophobic."

In another document, he expressed that despite his strong advocacy, Ellison still refused to hedge Alameda's aggressive trading strategies. He recalled sending her a message once that was "the meanest thing I've ever said to her" (he said he no longer has a record of this message).

"If Alameda had hedged, it would have stayed solvent and avoided the whole unfortunate story," he wrote.

In the Twitter draft, SBF wrote that in the spring of 2022, as he packed his bags for Washington, his concerns about Alameda intensified. A group of employees, including Ellison, were frantically discussing potential deficits in the company's accounts. SBF wrote that he was only half involved, but he heard enough to realize that the focus of the conversation was an account labeled "fiat@"—regulators said FTX executives used this account to move client funds to other projects.

"I'd heard the name before, but I never knew what it was," he wrote.

After Ellison pleaded guilty, she stated that she and SBF conspired to support Alameda's financial condition with client funds. He denies misusing the funds.

"Overall, I won't lie," he wrote in a document titled "The Truth." "This is something I feel quite strongly about."

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