Free Republic

A Manhattan judge ripped Sam Bankman-Fried as a “remorseless” scammer obsessed with political power as he sentenced the fallen crypto mogul to 25 years in prison Thursday — five months after he was found guilty of stealing more than $8 billion of funds from customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Judge Lewis Kaplan said the 32-year-old convicted fraudster “presented himself as the good guy” all in favor of “appropriate regulation of the crypto industry” — but it was just an “act.” “He did it because he wanted to be a hugely, hugely political influential person in this country,” Kaplan...

Sam Bankman-Fried's defense has filed a collection of letters from interested parties on Tuesday asking for leniency for the former FTX CEO - who is being sentenced this week. A friend of his from his MIT days said 'vegan' Bankman-Fried would be 'an asset to society' if given a lenient sentence, in the new court documents. 'Sam felt deeply for every living being, farm animals included - so much so that he adhered to a vegan diet and convinced several others in our living group to become vegan, too. He took every actionable step he could to reduce suffering,' the...

Three Kentucky Fried Chickens (KFC) “abruptly shut off” the lights and fled Chicago’s South Side this week, reports Fox 32. One utterly useless alderman is all kinds of butthurt. “A closed business is not only a sore eye, but it’s a gateway for violence because when you see abandonment, it looks as if there is no love, no hope in the community,” Ald. William Hall of the 6th Ward told local news. Alderman Useless added, “It’s something we’re seeing across the city, but nevertheless, [in] neighborhoods, it hits differently.” He continued, “Any job lost is a life lost, in my...

A big part of Sam Bankman-Fried's journey to criminal court traces back to the $35 million Bahamian property he shared with nine people...The 11,500-square foot apartment overlooks the marina and the Atlantic Ocean.

Florida Democrats speaking out on censorship during National Banned Books Week. Party Chair Nikki Fried says Governor DeSantis is to blame for the fourteen-hundred books being removed from school libraries. Florida law requires schools be more transparent and give parents a chance to have input on selecting school library books. It also creates a process for school districts to ban books through a public hearing and vote by the school board.

Tom Brady was paid $55 million for doing about a week’s worth of work total over a three-year period by disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, according to a bestselling author. Michael Lewis, who wrote “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon,” told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that the former FTX head Bankman-Fried, whose federal trial on fraud and money laundering charges is set to begin in Manhattan on Tuesday, splurged on endorsements from Brady, Stephen Curry, and Larry David. Bankman-Fried, who has pleaded not guilty, oversaw a $32 billion empire that collapsed after his firm allegedly used customer...

"Sam's thinking, We could pay Donald Trump not to run for president. Like, how much would it take?" Lewis said. "He did get an answer. He was floated - there was a number that was kicking around. And the number that was kicking around when I was talking to Sam about this was $5 billion. Sam was not sure that number came directly from Trump."

Inmates inside the prison where disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is to be held during his trial have previously been stuck in freezing cells with limited power for a week. The Metropolitan Detention Center houses more than 1,600 inmates and is situated near the waterfront in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. As well as new inmate Bankman-Fried, the prison had previously held high profile individuals including R. Kelly, Ghislaine Maxwell and Martin Shkreli. Other inmates have been linked to high-profile drug trafficking and terrorism cases, while others are comparatively anonymous New Yorkers awaiting trial. In 2019, the prison made headlines after inmates...

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sent to jail Friday to await trial after a bail hearing for the fallen cryptocurrency wiz left a judge convinced that he had repeatedly tried to influence witnesses against him. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered Bankman-Fried’s bail revoked after prosecutors said he’d tried to harass a key witness in his fraud case last month when he showed a journalist her private writings and in January when he reached out to the general counsel for FTX with an encrypted communication. His lawyers insisted he shouldn’t be jailed for trying to protect his reputation against...

He was charged with fraud and campaign finance violations by donating $90 million of customer deposits to political candidates and political action committees. He was extradited from the Bahamas to the United States, but the Caribbean nation later clarified that they did not intend the extradition to be on campaign charges. .....

A team of food scientists has found a possible link between frequent fried food consumption and increased levels of anxiety and depression in consumers. In their study, the group describes analyzed patient data for 140,728 people. The research team noted that prior research efforts established links between western dietary patterns and mental health issues. Suspecting at least some of the evidence could be traced back to frequent consumption of fried foods, the team compared rates of reported anxiety and depression with accounts of eating behaviors that include frequent consumption of fried foods. They found that those who reported eating a...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — The Tallahassee Police Department arrested 11 people Monday night outside of city hall including Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party and Senate Democratic minority leader Lauren Book. outside Tallahassee City Hall Strong winds brought down trees and power lines in the Bainbridge area Monday afternoon. A dozen trucks were stuck in traffic on Faceville Highway due to a downed, live power line in the road. 040323 protesters arrest tallahassee city hall Fs1hVq7WIAEpru7.jpg By: WTXL Digital Staff Posted at 10:04 PM, Apr 03, 2023 and last updated 10:15 AM, Apr 04, 2023 TALLAHASSEE, Fla....

(Last Updated On: March 24, 2023) If you like your spuds, National Tater Day on March 31st is for you! The day recognizes all kinds of potatoes which provide us with essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber. #NationalTaterDay Potatoes are quite versatile, which might explain why so many people like them. They are the number one consumed vegetable in the United States. And when you consider how many ways we can eat the over 200 different kinds of potatoes in the United States, you shouldn’t be surprised. First off, we can bake them. Who doesn’t like a baked potato? Yeah, we...

Nishad Singh is third person in founder’s inner circle agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors ... The collapse of FTX has set off the largest crypto-related bankruptcy ever ... Singh said that in mid-2022 he learned that Mr. Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund Alameda Research was borrowing FTX customer funds. By September 2022, Alameda was no longer able to repay the billions of dollars that it had taken from FTX, Mr. Singh said. He said that, at the direction of Mr. Bankman-Fried, he falsified FTX’s revenues to make the company more appealing to investors. ... Mr. Singh also pleaded guilty to...

A former dean of Stanford's law school and a computer science researcher at the university co-signed indicted FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried's bond, according to court records made public on Wednesday. Bankman-Fried, 30, has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges over the collapse of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange. He has been out on $250 million bond co-signed by his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, who pledged their Palo Alto, California, home as collateral for his return to court. His parents are both professors at Stanford Law School. The names of two other sureties had been redacted until Wednesday,...

(Last Updated On: January 31, 2023) NATIONAL TATER TOT DAY On February 2nd, National Tater Tot Day recognizes a kitchen staple. In the United States, we consume approximately 3.5 billion of these nuggets of potato goodness per year. #NationalTaterTotDay These bite-sized bits of golden deliciousness created from the scraps from making French fries once were used to feed cattle. But how do the cast-offs from making French fries become the bite-sized, kitchen-friendly morsels we love to devour today? Through persistence and ingenuity, of course! Two brothers, Nephi and Golden Grigg, along with their brother-in-law started dabbling in frozen food when...

Failed Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke has claimed that he returned a $1 million donation from disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried; however, it appears that he did not return all of the money, according to a report. A spokesman for O’Rourke said in November that the campaign returned the “unsolicited” $1 million donation Bankman-Fried gave the Texas Democrat in October. An O’Rourke spokesman said that the refund was issued prior to FTX’s bankruptcy and the discovery of Bankman-Fried’s reportedly illegal business practices. However, the Washington Free Beacon found that the O’Rourke team did not return all of the money:

In a court filing, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried asked to redact the names of the co-signers to his $250 million bail. The filing said the U.S. government has not taken a position on the request and that it's being done to protect the privacy and safety of the sureties. The filing said the two remaining sureties have yet to sign their individual bonds, the amounts of which have not yet been determined, but plan to do so by the Thursday deadline. "In recent weeks, Mr. Bankman-Fried's parents have become the target of intense media scrutiny, harassment, and threats. Among...

Democratic donor met with senior Biden advisor Steve Ricchetti on September 8 He had at least three other meetings with staffers, report Thursday stated Bankman-Fried's brother Gabriel also had White House talks on May 13 Further evidence of his deep ties with Washington and the Democratic party White House has refused to say if Biden will give back donations from him Disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried met with four Biden officials this year before the collapse of his FTX empire and his arrest in the Bahamas. The Democratic donor, 30, awaiting trial for what prosecutors say is one of the...

The fraud and money laundering case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was reassigned to a new judge after the formerly appointed judge recused herself over a possible conflict of interest. Judge Ronnie Abrams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York removed herself from the case last week because her husband is a law partner in a firm that worked with FTX previously. In Abrams' place comes Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has presided over a number of high-profile cases in recent years, including a defamation lawsuit brought against former President Donald Trump by E. Jean Carroll....