Case 1:22-cr-00673-LAK Doc 407-3 Filed 02/27/24
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programming workers 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 residing in
the residence, he was extra more likely 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 does 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 nice of the corporate, typically at some vital private value to himself. What FTX spent on
promoting, journey, and housing is in step 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 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 get pleasure from life extra. Others, together with senior counsel, advised Sam the identical factor. In accordance with
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 try this, although. He needed to go away
each penny within the enterprise to finance its progress. 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 be capable of 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 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 whilst we converse, there’s in all probability a room of vibrant,
hard-working and bold individuals 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 seem unbelievable to the readers of this letter, together with this court docket. I might add a whole lot of
different examples of his kindness and real and deep concern for others, however I am undecided how
a lot distinction they might make, and doing so would certainly strive 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 at first, 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 battle. Sam’s life expertise has made him tolerant of
variety 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 preserve one other job. I keep in mind him
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Ex. A-2
