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 dwelling in
the condo, he was extra more likely to be discovered elsewhere – usually sleeping on a bean bag chair in
the workplace. Like every part about Sam, that wasn’t an affectation. He simply would not care in regards to 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, 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 solely weird.
I’m the son of a small businessman and instructed Sam what I consider my father would have instructed 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, instructed 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 do this, although. He needed to depart
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 concentrate on getting a reimbursement to depositors, lengthy after there
was any chance he would be capable to save any of his fairness or wealth. A few week after the
implosion, Sam and I had been talking to a potential protection counsel. The lawyer was aghast
when Sam instructed him that he was spending all of his time working with the Bahamian authorities
to get depositors their a reimbursement. The lawyer strongly suggested Sam to concentrate on his protection.
“Are you conscious,” requested the lawyer, “that whilst we converse, there’s most likely a room of vibrant,
hard-working and impressive individuals someplace whose aim 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 courtroom. I may add tons of 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 absolutely attempt the persistence 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, comparable to eye contact, small discuss, and responding to social cues.
There’s a optimistic aspect to this battle. Sam’s life expertise has made him tolerant of
range in the way in which 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 bear in mind him
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Ex. A-2