While Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the kingpin of fraudulent crypto cartel FTX might be facing imprisonment for life, his key cohorts in the racket are still skipping from media’s attention. According to bankruptcy filings, more than 130 entities made up the FTX racket ranged from a crypto exchange to venture arm to a videogame company. But every activity of the racket was controlled by only a powerful cohort of SBF who led the racket’s deal-making and made crucial decisions about how FTX spent its once-vast supply of cash. It is unclear if each of the key culprits of FTX would face music as the fraud case against Sam Bankman-Fried is mainly focused on the transfer of billions of dollars from FTX customer accounts to affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research, which accumulated trading losses that led to the racket’s collapse.
Former Alameda chief executive office Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have both pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with the fund. Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty, claiming he did not know what was going on at Alameda.
Nishad Singh, FTX’s former engineering chief and one of the key cohorts of SBF, who had played key role in secretly smuggling-out hundreds of millions of dollars to several countries, including India, Dominica and the United Arab Emirates met with prosecutors in early January.
Former federal prosecutor Rebecca Mermelstein said the government often likes to have more cooperators to cover up “warts” in some witnesses’ credibility, but there’s a limit to how many they need.
“Three cooperators is already quite a lot”, she said. “Someone who wants to cooperate here needs to ask themselves what they have that Ellison and Wang can’t give to the government”.
Other executives who may not have been part of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle likely remain on tenterhooks as legal proceedings move forward against their ex-colleagues at FTX and Alameda, according to Kevin O’Brien, a former federal prosecutor.
“All these people, any high-level executives there, at either shop, you would expect to lawyer up and get good counsel”, he said.
Here are some of the key cohorts of SBF who have played important role in cheating hundreds of thousands of investors and committing grand fraud.
Nishad Singh
Nishad Singh, a high school friend of Bankman-Fried’s younger brother, was FTX’s director of engineering and one of his boss’s roommates in the Bahamas. According to bankruptcy court filings, he helped write code that allowed Alameda to secretly borrow essentially unlimited amounts from the exchange’s customer accounts and himself borrowed millions of dollars from the fund. Singh is a mega-donor of the Democratic Party who has given more than US$9.30 million to several candidates and committees of the party since 2020.
Key members FTX racket are accused of violating campaign-finance laws and using political donations to help launder the proceeds of broader fraud.
Ryan Salame
Ryan Salame is the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, the exchange’s main Bahamas-based business entity. He was another major political donor, although he favored Republicans. Salame is also a big borrower from Alameda Research. He owns five restaurants in Lenox, Massachusetts, and the Berkshires.
Brett Harrison
Brett Harrison resigned suddenly from his position as president of FTX’s US subsidiary in September 2022, a little over a year after he came on board. He previously worked at Citadel Securities and quantitative trading firm Jane Street, where Sam Bankman-Fried also worked. Salame had been raising money for a crypto startup when FTX filed for bankruptcy, and Anthony Scaramucci announced on January 14 that he was investing in Harrison’s company.
Sam Trabucco
Sam Trabucco, Caroline Ellison’s co-CEO at Alameda Research, abruptly stepped down in August 2022, stating in a tweet that he had chosen “to prioritize other things” and would instead become an adviser of the FTX fraud racket.
Caroline Ellison had previously said in an interview with Bloomberg that Trabucco’s role was more external-facing than hers, describing him as handling the company’s presence on Twitter.
Ramnik Arora
Ramnik Arora, FTX’s former head of product, led efforts to lure more customers to the fraudulent crypto exchange and brokered deals with retail-focused startups like Dave Inc. Arora was also involved in deal-making at the group, representing FTX Ventures in talks with major venture capital firms, according to people familiar with the matter.
Amy Wu
Amy Wu, a former partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, was recruited to lead the newly launched FTX Ventures in January 2022. Under her leadership, the fund backed some 50 startups prior to shutting down, according to data from research firm PitchBook.
Constance Wang
Constance Wang is one of Sam Bankman-Fried’s top lieutenants, Wang served as FTX’s chief operating officer until November and was also the co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets. She managed global user growth, partnerships and public relations, and also represented the company publicly with appearances at conferences and previously worked at crypto exchange Huobi Global as a business development manager.
Claire Watanabe
Claire Watanabe, a senior executive in FTX’s business development team, is also Nishad Singh’s longtime girlfriend. She was also reportedly a driving force in trying to put together a US$100 million sponsorship deal with Taylor Swift.
Here are some of the comments on the FTX fraud racket:
Victor: Bunch of kids having fun billionaire style. Now its reality!! Adult problems, time to pay up!!
David: All these people should be investigated NO EXCEPTION – all of them are directly and indirectly involved should be held accountable – no deal – BILLIONS of money lost – those money have been worked hard for by the people of America and these RICHY people that can’t be touched should be PUT in JAIL and LOCK THEM UP until they are 60’s or 70’s! Please LOCK THEM ALL!
Jennifer: This is what you get for being impatient and greedy and giving your ‘hard-earned’ money for something intangible. It is all a scam.
Brad: A quick tutorial on how to start your own crypto currency. Start with a large stack of cash, place it in the backyard in a nice pile, add a little starter fluid and ignite. Instant Crypto
Eugene: Each of them should go to jail.
Joseph: Sam Bankman-Fried probably will get off on probation, then get a job with a major trading company dealing with crypto earning millions. Unless authorities impose total ban on crypto, many more people will be cheated by similar rackets.
Lindsay: It was a drug infused nerd fraternity that lost all reality. Claiming incompetence would be the best defense for these people.
Liam: Why were FTX insiders summoned to the white House last month?
Patrick: Have very little sympathy for folk who want to give their hard-earned dollars to scam artists.
