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 condominium, he was extra prone to be discovered elsewhere – typically sleeping on a bean bag chair in
the workplace. Like all the pieces 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 usually uncomfortable with consideration. He did what he thought he needed to do for
the great of the corporate, typically at some important private value to himself. What FTX spent on
promoting, journey, and housing is in keeping with what comparable multibillion greenback corporations
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 solely weird.
I’m the son of a small businessman and informed Sam what I imagine my father would have informed 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, informed Sam the identical factor. In keeping with
one enterprise journal, by 2022, Sam had a internet value of greater than $20 billion. He may simply
have offered a billion {dollars}’ value of inventory. He would not try this, although. He wished 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 deal with 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 chatting with a potential protection counsel. The lawyer was aghast
when Sam informed 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 deal with his protection.
“Are you conscious,” requested the lawyer, “that at the same time as we converse, there may be in all probability a room of vibrant,
hard-working and bold folks someplace whose purpose 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 may add lots of of
different examples of his kindness and real and deep concern for others, however I am undecided how
a lot distinction they’d make, and doing so would certainly attempt the persistence of readers. I’ll
add solely that had been the social prices of claiming something constructive about Sam at this second in time
not prohibitive, I’m assured many others who’ve identified him all through his life would
describe a lot the identical particular person.
I would like now to return to the challenges I referred to initially, and their implications for
sentencing. Sam has struggled all through his life to be taught and management issues most of us take for
granted, resembling eye contact, small speak, and responding to social cues.
There’s a constructive aspect to this wrestle. Sam’s life expertise has made him tolerant of
range in the best way most of us can’t be. Sam employed workers with communication
difficulties so nice that they might not in any other case get or maintain one other job. I keep in mind him
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Ex. A-2
