Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire "effective altruist" who turned out to be one of the biggest alleged crypto crooks of them all, did exactly what you'd expect Sam Bankman-Fried to do when told to preserve all records: he started deleting them, say prosecutors.
In an updated indictment unveiled on Thursday, prosecutors said that Bankman-Fried had deleted the post by the general counsel of FTX US, who had instructed employees to keep records to assist any investigations. The episode took place in November, according to prosecutors, who didn't specify a date. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection that month. Bankman-Fried disregarded the general counsel's directive at the time, prosecutors alleged, saying he also deleted some of his tweets in November. Additionally, they said he continued to use the encrypted messaging app Signal, on which users can auto-delete messages. … Prosecutors alleged that Bankman-Fried had a practice of talking to employees on Signal using auto-deleting messages, "in part to prevent the preservation of evidence that could be used against him," according to the indictment.
It must have been an amazing experience, exulting in the wealth and influence while occasionally wondering if his media sycophants were credulous or just so cynical they didn't care.
