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Blood Ties

Listen Now: Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried

Blood Ties

Wondery

Fiction, Blood Lines, Josh Gad, Christian Navarro, Dolby Atmos, Drama, Atmos, Bloodlines, Dolby, Gillian Jacobs

4.413K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From Wondery and Bloomberg, the makers of The Shrink Next Door, comes a new story of incredible wealth, betrayal, and what happens when “doing good” goes really, really bad.

When nerdy gamer Sam Bankman-Fried rocketed to fame as the world’s richest 29-year-old, he pledged to donate his billions to good causes. But when Sam's crypto exchange FTX collapsed, billions of dollars went missing, and Sam was in handcuffs, those who knew him were left wondering — who was Sam really? A well-meaning billionaire who made a mistake? Or a calculated con man?


Listen to Spellcaster: Wondery.fm/SC_BT

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Ah, they're Bahamas.

0:01.8

What if you could hang out with celebrities, live in a penthouse above the crystal clear

0:05.5

ocean with all your best friends and have it be 100% paid for?

0:09.8

FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried made that dream a reality, but U.S. prosecutors say he was

0:14.6

hiding a dark secret.

0:16.4

As cryptocurrency gained mainstream popularity, FTX was the poster child, spending millions

0:22.0

on pro-sports sponsorships and a-list celebrity endorsements from the likes of Tom Brady, Larry

0:26.8

David, and even Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary, with some investing their own money in the marketplace.

0:32.4

Many thought Sam Bankman Fried was changing the game as he graced the pages of Forbes

0:36.6

and Vanity Fair.

0:37.9

Barely 30, this young crypto billionaire became a powerful financial figure, influencing

0:42.6

the global economy.

0:44.0

But in just one month, his exchange would collapse, and SBF would find himself in handcuffs

0:49.1

as tens of thousands of investors would blame him for their fortunes lost.

0:53.5

It's one of the most dramatic falls from grace in American history and represents one

0:57.5

of the most spectacular failures of corporate control.

1:00.6

Here exclusive tape of Sam and his former girlfriend and business partner, Caroline Ellison,

1:05.4

who later admitted something had gone very wrong inside their operation.

1:09.6

From Bloomberg and Wondery comes Spellcaster, a new six-part docuseries about the meteoric

1:14.6

rise and fall of FTX and its founder Sam Bankman Fried.

1:18.4

You're about to hear a clip from Spellcaster, the fall of Sam Bankman Fried, while you're

1:23.5

listening, follow Spellcaster wherever you catch your podcasts.

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