The Fraud Chronicles feat. Coffeezilla

17 Jan 2024 (11 months ago)

FTX + Coffeezilla Commentary (1m40s)

FTX was a crypto exchange and hedge fund founded by Sam Bankman-Fried in 2019.
FTX funneled customer money for personal expenses and risky trades carried out by a sister firm, Alameda Research, run by Caroline Ellison.
FTX collapsed in November 2022 after news broke that its books contained a large number of tokens backed by nothing.
Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with stealing at least $10 billion from FTX customers.
Coffeezilla confronted Sam Bankman-Fried in interviews, highlighting his misleading statements and lack of transparency.
Sam Bankman-Fried's trial began in October 2023, and his ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, testified against him.
Coffeezilla expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the trial and the consequences for Sam Bankman-Fried.

SafeMoon was a cryptocurrency launched in March 2021 with the promise of a guaranteed price increase.
It used a system that put a 10% fee on every transaction, with half of the fees locked in a liquidity pool.
The creators of SafeMoon had backdoor access to the liquidity pool and withdrew more than $200 million from the project.
The SEC and the Department of Justice charged the top executives of SafeMoon with fraud.
Celebrities and YouTubers promoted SafeMoon without disclosing their financial relationships or the risks involved.

Charlie Javis was the founder and CEO of Frank, a fintech startup that claimed to help students access financial aid and scholarships.
Javis fabricated user data to inflate the value of Frank and deceive JP Morgan into buying the startup for $175 million.
JP Morgan realized the scam after failing to contact the users provided by Javis and sued her.
The SEC charged Javis with securities fraud, wire and bank fraud, and money laundering.
JP Morgan has also been accused of rigging the gold and silver markets for years.

Credit Suisse, a prestigious Swiss bank, faced a series of scandals and crises in recent years.
The bank was involved in fraud, funneling money for weapons to foreign governments, and spying on a former executive.
Credit Suisse lost nearly $1 billion in two investment funds in 2021, leading to the resignation of its chairman.
Clients withdrew $119 billion from the bank by the end of 2022, causing a liquidity crisis.
Credit Suisse failed to raise enough capital to stay afloat and was sold to its rival, UBS, for $3.3 billion in March 2023.
The downfall of Credit Suisse questioned the "too big to fail" notion for banks and Switzerland's position as a safe global banking hub.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) blamed TikTok influencers for promoting a scam that resulted in $1.2 billion in fake GST claims.
The scam exploited the Australian tax system by creating fake businesses, submitting false statements, and claiming GST refunds.
The scheme gained traction through TikTok, where influencers promoted it as an easy way to make money from the government.
The ATO detected the fraud in early 2022 and launched an investigation called Operation Proto, stopping $2.7 billion in fraudulent claims but paying out $1.6 billion before halting the scammers.
The scam involved at least 56,000 participants, some of whom used stolen identities, and was linked to outlaw motorcycle gangs.
The ATO claims to have contained the fraud, but reports suggest it may still persist on a smaller scale.
The scam exposed a vulnerability in Australia's tax system, highlighting the slowness of government response compared to the swiftness of modern social media.

"The Day Before" was announced as an open-world MMO zombie shooter with impressive visuals, but it turned out to be a scam.
Despite promising a groundbreaking game, the developer, Fntastic, had only two people on board, Edward and Aen Gutter, with a mixed development history.
The game's trailers were found to contain stolen content from other games and stock library assets, raising suspicions.
The release date was pushed back multiple times, and when the game was finally released on Steam Early Access, it was plagued with bugs, crashes, and missing features.
Players quickly realized they had been misled, leading to a barrage of refund requests and negative reviews.
Fntastic faced allegations of asset dumping, trailer and gameplay plagiarism, manipulation of Steam wish list numbers, and reliance on unpaid volunteers.
The studio closed down just four days after the game's launch, deleting all their online presence and making the game unavailable for purchase.
Fntastic was based in Russia but incorporated in Singapore, using a fake address to evade authorities.
Estimates suggest that the brothers may have pocketed around $3 million from pre-orders.

Miles Guo, a former Chinese property tycoon who fled to the US in 2014, claimed to be a dissident and media mogul.
Guo started a media platform called GTV, claiming to expose the truth about the Chinese Communist Party and recruiting thousands of people to join his cause.
He raised $1 billion from investors through an online membership club and a cryptocurrency platform, promising large returns.
The money was used to fund a lavish lifestyle for Guo and his right-hand man, William Je, including expensive properties, luxury cars, yachts, and extravagant items.
US authorities exposed the scam, seizing over $632 million from their bank accounts and charging them with multiple counts of fraud and money laundering.
Guo's apartment caught fire shortly after his arrest, raising suspicions of an attempt to hide evidence.