FTX unhealthy boy Sam Bankman-Fried’s soft home arrest was brightened up Tuesday by a go to from an attractive single crypto influencer who mentioned he appeared “surprisingly optimistic” forward of his trial on a number of fraud costs, The Put up has discovered.
Sources mentioned Tiffany Fong stayed late into the night time throughout her journey to see the accused fraudster — holed up at his mother and pa’s home in Stanford, Calif. — who has been federally charged in what’s shaping as much as be one of many greatest monetary scandals in historical past.
Fong, 26, who focuses on crypto content material, was the primary individual FTX founder Bankman-Fried opened as much as about his rumored polyamorous intercourse life in a cellphone name that was first printed in November.
Nevertheless, when contacted by The Put up, she mentioned she had met the ankle-monitored former billionaire within the dwelling’s library and their chat was strictly enterprise.
Fong mentioned Bankman-Fried “appeared much like how he at all times is,” including that he “stays surprisingly optimistic, though conscious of [the gravity of his situation],” referring to the jail sentence of as much as 115 years he faces if convicted on all costs.
“He doesn’t appear to need to discuss an excessive amount of about worst-case eventualities,” she added.
Bankman-Fried was arrested within the Bahamas, the place he had been operating the FTX crypto trade earlier than its collapse, on Dec. 12. He was the jailed for every week within the nation’s infamous, rat-infested Fox Hill jail earlier than agreeing to be extradited to the US.
Fong added they’d “touched upon his time in Fox Hill,” however wouldn’t be drawn out on how he’d fared within the jail.
She added: “He positively expressed remorse and regret a variety of occasions” throughout their chat for the purchasers who misplaced hundreds of thousands as the results of Bankman-Fried’s alleged monetary misdeeds that led to FTX’s collapse.
“He’s making an attempt to collect his tackle occasions. … He gave the impression of he was making an attempt to collect his ideas about what occurred,” Fong added, noting Bankman-Fried was on his pc as they talked, however was not gaming.
As a part of the phrases of his $250 million bail settlement, Bankman-Fried is allowed on the web however not allowed to make purchases over $1,000 or begin a enterprise. He’s solely allowed to depart the house for train, authorized conferences or court-mandated substance abuse and psychological well being remedy.
In response to sources: “Bankman-Fried’s dad and mom must formally approve any guests beforehand, in order that they know what’s occurring. It’s their home.”
Fong — who boasts 19,000 YouTube followers and 39,000 Twitter followers — describes her present occupation on LinkedIn as a self-employed “Reluctant Crypto Content material Creator” and mentioned she simply occurred to be in close by San Francisco to spend the vacations together with her sister and her husband when she obtained a message from Bankman-Fried.
Rapidly rising within the crypto neighborhood, Fong caught the discover of the Biden administration, which invited her to the White Home Christmas social gathering, the place she quipped that she let President Biden “scent my hair” in an Instagram submit of her smiling beside the president.
In one other submit from contained in the White Home, she joked: “hiya @potus, i’ve some questions on your son’s laptop computer.”
She has carefully adopted FTX’s implosion and Bankman-Fried’s authorized troubles on her YouTube channel, which she claims she began to “vent” about cryptocurrency.
In her first video, posted in June, Fong defined how she misplaced $200,000 within the collapse of the US crypto lender Celsius Community, which filed for chapter in New York in July.
Fong additionally carefully coated the fallout from Celsius Community and its embattled founder and former CEO Alex Machinsky on her channel.
Bankman-Fried’s interview schedule hasn’t slowed down regardless of him being underneath home arrest at his Stanford legislation professor dad and mom’ $4 million home — which they needed to put up as collateral to satisfy his bail necessities.
On Friday, he was visited for a number of hours by bestselling creator Michael Lewis, as he seems to be turning the collapse of his crypto empire right into a blockbuster.
Sources advised The Put up on Tuesday that the “Moneyball” and “The Large Quick” author met with Bankman-Fried simply hours after he landed in California — presumably to speak about how a 30-year-old went from a billionaire CEO to dealing with as much as life in jail in a matter of weeks.