0:00

Ah, the Bahamas. What if you could hang

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out with celebrities, live in a penthouse above

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the crystal clear ocean with all your best

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friends, and have it be 100% paid for? FTX

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founder Sam Bankman-Fried made that dream

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a reality, but US prosecutors say

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he was hiding a dark secret. As

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cryptocurrency gained mainstream popularity,

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FTX was the poster child, spending

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millions on pro-sport sponsorships and

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A-list celebrity endorsements from the likes of Tom

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Brady, Larry David, and even Shark

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Tank's Kevin O'Leary, with some investing

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their own money in the marketplace. Many

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thought Sam Bankman-Fried was changing

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the game as he graced the pages of Forbes and

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Vanity Fair. Barely 30, this

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young crypto billionaire became a powerful

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financial figure, influencing the global economy.

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But in just one month, his exchange

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would collapse, and SBF would find himself

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in handcuffs as tens of thousands of

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investors would blame him for their fortunes

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lost. It's one of the most dramatic falls

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from grace in American history, and represents

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one of the most spectacular failures of corporate

0:59

control. Here exclusive tape of

1:01

Sam and his former girlfriend and business

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partner Caroline Ellison, who later admitted

1:06

something had gone very wrong inside

1:08

their operation. From Bloomberg and Wondery

1:10

comes Spellcaster, a new six-part

1:13

docuseries about the meteoric rise

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and fall of FTX

1:16

and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

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You're about to hear a clip from Spellcaster,

1:21

The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried. While

1:23

you're listening, follow Spellcaster wherever

1:25

you get your podcasts. And hey, Prime members,

1:28

you can listen to episodes ad-free on

1:30

Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music

1:32

app today.

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The Baja Mar Resort is a gargantuan

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hotel on a gorgeous stretch

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of Bahamas beachfront. You

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enter by crossing a Roman-style

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bridge over a landscaped lake,

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where every night there's a glitzy fountain

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show with pulsing lights and extremely

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loud music.

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It's like the Bellagio on the Caribbean.

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Taygan Klein checked into the Bahammar

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one afternoon in April of 2022. So

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you arrive and there's a fish tank behind

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the check-in desk. A big vertical tank

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filled with lionfish to be more specific.

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There were signs for crypto Bahamas everywhere.

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It really felt like the whole island was

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kind of buzzing about this event. Taygan

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was a 29-year-old crypto entrepreneur

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and influencer. She'd done a lot

2:28

of these crypto conferences before, but

2:30

she didn't know much about this one called crypto

2:32

Bahamas. Other than that, it was invite

2:34

only and she'd agreed to speak the event.

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It almost had this dark fantasy Disneyland

2:39

Vegas vibe to it. And

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it really felt surreal from the moment that I landed.

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She got her badge and was directed

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toward the VIP reception. She

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walked out on the hotel lawn to find a small

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gathering of people surrounded by cabanas

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and giant video screens. A

2:56

local marching band played in the background. There

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was one big table. It was a long rectangular

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table set for about 60 people. So

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we kind of coalesced in the middle of that table and

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we all talked together. It was a

3:07

three-course meal, no caviar, but

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definitely nice food. The guests

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took turns introducing themselves. There

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were a lot of the usual suspects. Hedge-fun

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guy, venture capital dude, crypto

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bro. Then a woman sat

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down at the table. She came with two guys

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and they were very nice. They apologized for being

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late to the dinner. Tagan recognized the

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woman right away. It was Katy

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Perry as an international

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pop superstar Katy Perry. Then

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the guy next to her spoke up. He said, I got

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famous from my role playing Legolas

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in Lord of the Rings and it was actually Orlando

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Bloom. But for this crowd, Katy

3:45

Perry and Orlando Bloom weren't

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the biggest celebrities there.

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The next morning,

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Michael Lewis, the world-renowned business

3:54

journalist, sat on stage

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with an awkward-looking 30-year-old guy

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with a mop of a of curly hair, wearing

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shorts and a baggy t-shirt. Three

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years ago, nobody knew who you were. And

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now you're sitting on the cover of magazines

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and you're a gazillionaire and your business is— This

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was who people

4:12

were here to see. The co-founder

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and CEO of FTX,

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one of the world's largest crypto exchanges.

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He was a billionaire many times over,

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a prolific political donor, a

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boundary-breaking philanthropist, and

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he'd done it all in just a few years.

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These are world— this is— you're

4:32

breaking land speed records and

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I don't think people are really noticing what's

4:37

happened, just how dramatic the

4:39

revolution has become. There's a status

4:41

upheaval that's going on in the financial world and

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you're sitting right in the middle of it.

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Sam Bankman Freed. Yeah,

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I mean, basically, and I think the

4:51

way that I approached it was like,

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what should the product be? Like, you know, let's think

4:57

about it. Lewis has written some of the definitive

4:59

business books of the past 40 years. Moneyball,

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Liar's Poker, and The Big Short.

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He has spent a lifetime sorting

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businesses' good guys from the charlatans.

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And on stage, at least, he sounded impressed

5:14

by what Sam Bankman Freed had accomplished.

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And Sam didn't just sit with Michael Lewis.

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He was everywhere. He shared the

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stage with former President Bill Clinton

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and former British Prime Minister Tony

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Blair.

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He had an intimate heart to heart with

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Tom Brady and then another

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with the quarterback's then wife, Giselle

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Bündchen, the Brazilian supermodel.

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I bet you start.

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You

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know, I mean, ultimately, the

5:42

scale of impact you can have on

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the world is just really, really large.

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Sam was beyond awkward. His leg

5:50

bounced wildly as he spoke. His

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eyes darted around the room. And,

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you know, that's, I think, what really sets

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it apart. His audience

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did. didn't seem to care. His awkwardness

6:02

came off as a kind of charm. Like

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he was totally indifferent to what people

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thought about it. And they lapped

6:09

it up. Especially when he

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talked about his driving motivation.

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Doing good. Sam

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had promised to give all of his wealth away.

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All $26 billion of it. The

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FTX Foundation's recent announcement to give up

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to $1 billion this

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year alone to high impact charities show

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how Sam is transforming corporate governance

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and becoming the modern day CEO that

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the world needs. On

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stage with Giselle, Sam unveiled a

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new ad showing him standing with

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his arms crossed with a calmly

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confident, even virtuous expression

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on his

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face. He wore a hoodie and

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shorts. The quote on his ad

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said, I'm in on crypto because

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I want to make the biggest global impact

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for good. There you are.

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Watch

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out, he might leave crypto to start modeling career. Kagan

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Klein had never seen anything like

7:09

it. I think a lot of people were kind

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of in awe. The crowd was captivated

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by Sam's good intentions, by the celebrities

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and world leaders he kept company with,

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and the sheer scale of his promises.

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This is where I realized that it was

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kind of the Sam show. In

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the spring of 2022, crypto

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was booming and Sam Bankman Freed

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was the star.

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At one point, FTX said it was

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processing on average $12.5 billion

7:39

worth of transactions each day.

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And it was all Sam claimed in the name

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of one day giving his fortune away

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to save the world. Then,

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not long after his star turn in the

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Bahamas, the Sam show began

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a very different season.

7:59

and regulators began to circle.

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Crypto prices were falling. Behind

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the scenes, Sam's closest advisors

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were abandoning him. At the same

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time, my colleagues at Bloomberg

8:13

started poking at the myth of Sam

8:15

Bankman freed. And we published stories

8:17

about it. We weren't the only ones. But

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even we couldn't imagine the full scale

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of what was wrong inside Sam's empire.

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By year's end, FTX was

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bankrupt.

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$8 billion were missing,

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and Sam was in handcuffs. Investors,

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prosecutors, lawyers, and crypto

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fans were all left to figure

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out what was real and what

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wasn't.