Case 1:22-cr-00673-LAK Doc 407-3 Filed 02/27/24
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programming employees used it for a Hackathon. Sam lived in it and – paid hire for that privilege – for
six months-about half of the time he was within the Bahamas. Even when he was formally dwelling in
the house, he was extra prone to be discovered elsewhere – usually sleeping on a bean bag chair in
the workplace. Like every thing about Sam, that wasn’t an affectation. He simply would not care concerning the
creature comforts that the majority of us worth. He’s equally tired of hobnobbing with the wealthy
and well-known and customarily uncomfortable with consideration. He did what he thought he needed to do for
the nice of the corporate, usually at some important private value to himself. What FTX spent on
promoting, journey, and housing is in step with what comparable multibillion greenback firms
spend, and a small fraction of what many do spend. For anybody who is aware of Sam, the favored
portrayal of him as a high-rolling, celebrity-secking, CEO pushed by greed is just weird.
I’m the son of a small businessman and advised Sam what I imagine my father would have advised him:
take some cash out for your self and put it someplace secure. Or purchase one thing particular, so that you
can take pleasure in life extra. Others, together with senior counsel, advised Sam the identical factor. In response to
one enterprise journal, by 2022, Sam had a internet value of greater than $20 billion. He might simply
have offered a billion {dollars}’ value of inventory. He would not do this, although. He needed to depart
each penny within the enterprise to finance its development. He had a wage of $200,000, which was extra
than sufficient for his private consumption wants. He had nothing “salted away” when the crash
got here.
Barbara and I stayed with Sam within the Bahamas for the month following the collapse, and
witnessed firsthand his single-minded give attention to getting a refund to depositors, lengthy after there
was any chance he would have the ability to save any of his fairness or wealth. A couple of week after the
implosion, Sam and I had been talking to a potential protection counsel. The lawyer was aghast
when Sam advised him that he was spending all of his time working with the Bahamian authorities
to get depositors their a refund. The lawyer strongly suggested Sam to give attention to his protection.
“Are you conscious,” requested the lawyer, “that at the same time as we communicate, there may be most likely a room of vivid,
hard-working and bold folks someplace whose objective is to place you in jail?”
“Yup,” answered Sam, “and that is just about irrelevant to me in comparison with serving to depositors.”
I acknowledge that the Sam I’ve described is strongly at odds with how the general public sees him, and
could appear unbelievable to the readers of this letter, together with this court docket. I might add lots of of
different examples of his kindness and real and deep concern for others, however I am unsure how
a lot distinction they’d make, and doing so would absolutely attempt the endurance of readers. I’ll
add solely that had been the social prices of claiming something optimistic about Sam at this second in time
not prohibitive, I’m assured many others who’ve recognized him all through his life would
describe a lot the identical individual.
I need now to return to the challenges I referred to in the beginning, and their implications for
sentencing. Sam has struggled all through his life to be taught and management issues most of us take for
granted, equivalent to eye contact, small speak, and responding to social cues.
There’s a optimistic aspect to this wrestle. Sam’s life expertise has made him tolerant of
range in the way in which most of us can’t be. Sam employed staff with communication
difficulties so nice that they might not in any other case get or preserve one other job. I keep in mind him
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Ex. A-2
