55 min

Who is Sam Bankman-Fried and What Really Happened at FTX? | Marc Cohodes Hidden Forces

    • Business

In Episode 282 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with famed short seller Marc Cohodes about Sam Bankman-Fried, the recent bankruptcy of FTX, and the bigger story behind the alleged fraud that he and his network of enablers have perpetrated.
Marc Cohodes has famously exposing numerous corporate frauds at great personal expense and risk to himself and his family. So, when Cohodes began raising the alarm earlier this year by publicly calling FTX a scam, while describing Sam Bankman-Fried as a fraudster, many of us took notice. During this time, Sam Bankman-Fried was largely seen as the new golden child of crypto. He spent the last several years cultivating a cultish following and rubbing shoulders with some of the most powerful people in the world. He was the second largest donor to Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign behind only George Soros and worked hand-in-glove with politicians and policymakers to regulate the crypto industry in a manner that would favor him, his companies, and his network of financial enablers.
On its surface, this looks like your typical financial fraud case. And in some sense, it is. But there are elements to this story that are uniquely suspicious, like Sam’s own origins and how he developed his wealth to begin with. The origins of his co-founder Gary Wang—who no one talks about—and the backgrounds of other members of his organization including chief compliance officer Dan Friedberg and chief operating officer Constance Wang also raise concerns.
How this otherwise disheveled multi-billionaire who reportedly sleeps on a futon in the Bahamas came to exercise so much political influence and hold so many ownership stakes in companies and venture funds in and outside of crypto remains a mystery. But it’s a story that Marc Cohodes has been working on for almost a year and it is the focus of today’s explosive conversation.
You can gain access to our premium feed and listen to today’s episode by subscribing to any one of our three content tiers at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. This will give you access to our entire episode library which you can listen to on your phone using your favorite podcast app just like you are listening to this episode right now
If you want access to our Hidden Forces genius community, which includes Q&A calls with guests, access to special research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners, feel free to send an email to info@hiddenforces.io, and Demetri or someone else from our team will get right back to you.
If you enjoyed listening to today’s episode of Hidden Forces you can help support the show by doing the following:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | CastBox | RSS Feed
Write us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify
Subscribe to our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Subscribe & Support the Podcast at https://hiddenforces.io
Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod
Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas
Episode Recorded on 11/10/2022

In Episode 282 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with famed short seller Marc Cohodes about Sam Bankman-Fried, the recent bankruptcy of FTX, and the bigger story behind the alleged fraud that he and his network of enablers have perpetrated.
Marc Cohodes has famously exposing numerous corporate frauds at great personal expense and risk to himself and his family. So, when Cohodes began raising the alarm earlier this year by publicly calling FTX a scam, while describing Sam Bankman-Fried as a fraudster, many of us took notice. During this time, Sam Bankman-Fried was largely seen as the new golden child of crypto. He spent the last several years cultivating a cultish following and rubbing shoulders with some of the most powerful people in the world. He was the second largest donor to Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign behind only George Soros and worked hand-in-glove with politicians and policymakers to regulate the crypto industry in a manner that would favor him, his companies, and his network of financial enablers.
On its surface, this looks like your typical financial fraud case. And in some sense, it is. But there are elements to this story that are uniquely suspicious, like Sam’s own origins and how he developed his wealth to begin with. The origins of his co-founder Gary Wang—who no one talks about—and the backgrounds of other members of his organization including chief compliance officer Dan Friedberg and chief operating officer Constance Wang also raise concerns.
How this otherwise disheveled multi-billionaire who reportedly sleeps on a futon in the Bahamas came to exercise so much political influence and hold so many ownership stakes in companies and venture funds in and outside of crypto remains a mystery. But it’s a story that Marc Cohodes has been working on for almost a year and it is the focus of today’s explosive conversation.
You can gain access to our premium feed and listen to today’s episode by subscribing to any one of our three content tiers at HiddenForces.io/subscribe. This will give you access to our entire episode library which you can listen to on your phone using your favorite podcast app just like you are listening to this episode right now
If you want access to our Hidden Forces genius community, which includes Q&A calls with guests, access to special research and analysis, in-person events, and dinners, feel free to send an email to info@hiddenforces.io, and Demetri or someone else from our team will get right back to you.
If you enjoyed listening to today’s episode of Hidden Forces you can help support the show by doing the following:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | CastBox | RSS Feed
Write us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify
Subscribe to our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Subscribe & Support the Podcast at https://hiddenforces.io
Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod
Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas
Episode Recorded on 11/10/2022

55 min

Top Podcasts In Business

REAL AF with Andy Frisella
Andy Frisella #100to0
The Dough
Lemonada Media
The Ramsey Show
Ramsey Network
The Marketing Architects
Marketing Architects
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Money News Network
The Money Mondays
Dan Fleyshman