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 prone to be discovered elsewhere – typically sleeping on a bean bag chair in
the workplace. Like every part about Sam, that wasn’t an affectation. He simply does not care in regards to the
creature comforts that almost all of us worth. He’s equally tired of hobnobbing with the wealthy
and well-known and customarily uncomfortable with consideration. He did what he thought he needed to do for
the nice of the corporate, typically at some important private price to himself. What FTX spent on
promoting, journey, and housing is according to 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 informed Sam what I consider my father would have informed him:
take some cash out for your self and put it someplace secure. Or purchase one thing particular, so that you
can take pleasure in life extra. Others, together with senior counsel, informed Sam the identical factor. Based on
one enterprise journal, by 2022, Sam had a web value of greater than $20 billion. He might simply
have bought a billion {dollars}’ value of inventory. He would not do this, although. He wished to go away
each penny within the enterprise to finance its development. 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 talking to a potential protection counsel. The lawyer was aghast
when Sam informed 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 at the same time as we communicate, there may be most likely a room of vibrant,
hard-working and bold folks 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 might add lots 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 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 initially, and their implications for
sentencing. Sam has struggled all through his life to study and management issues most of us take for
granted, corresponding to eye contact, small discuss, and responding to social cues.
There’s a constructive facet to this battle. Sam’s life expertise has made him tolerant of
range in the best way most of us can’t be. Sam employed staff with communication
difficulties so nice that they may not in any other case get or preserve one other job. I keep in mind him
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Ex. A-2