Sam Bankman-Fried is his own worst enemy, says former SEC official John Reed Stark

John Reed Stark, Duke senior lecturing fellow and former chief of SEC Office of Internet Enforcement, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the high-profile trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, how Bankman-Fried's defense could play out, the possible legal peril facing Bankman-Fried's parents, and more. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: cnb.cx/2NGeIvi
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[@CNBCtelevision]

Watch the full CNBC documentary - The Collapse Of FTX: Insiders Tell All: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqLaeKdsbtV3jrM

[@swedesam]

LET THE GUEST SPEAK and FINISH HIS POINT!

[@mulemule]

Pompous Sorkin always pretends he's the smartest guy in the room to compensate for being bullied on the schoolyard.

[@LichenAndMoss]

Naw, Sorkin was right to interrupt.

[@christianjorgensen3522]

AGREE. The host is SUPER annoying

[@tjbellah349]

Lol “don’t get me started on the parents.” Y’all gotta have this dude on more. This is journalism.

[@OddWoz]

Agreed. Speaking truth and common sense for once.

[@mylzhi]

And an unfrozen cave man lawyer reference. I need more of this

[@NickKautz]

The guy on the right is embarrassingly off base

[@nerm5530]

Glad he got the boot in on the parents.

[@JorisWitteman]

I agree with you and the speaker except it's not journalism, it's having someone on with an opinion (that we happen to like)

[@kingofcorridosfilm2154]

This guy was fantastic. Seemed the interviewer was getting a little snarky there for no reason. Guest handled it like a pro. Great job to the guest!

[@OddWoz]

I’ve been saying this along with any sane person that’s actually paying attention… The parents should _absolutely_ be on trial right now, too. They are just as culpable, if not even more so, than many of the actors who _were_ charged. They’re corrupt af. And they’re the ones that should’ve known before anyone what they were doing was highly illegal-they helped him dip and dodge.

[@nickb8006]

I mean they are both only Standford Law Professors.Either that or all current and past students, who took their courses, should sue the school and ask for their money plus interest back.

[@NickKautz]

Good thing you aren't a detective. It doesn't take all that much bandwidth to disconnect from the dogpile narrative and figure out what actually happened from an objective standpoint.

[@OddWoz]

@@NickKautz too bad you weren’t capable.

[@NickKautz]

RIP me. @@OddWoz

[@fromhigherground4272]

Andrew Ross Sorkin when you had a stake you happily gave th SBF a pass and played softball. You’re so weak.

[@vapsa56]

Yep. He sure did. And so did everyone else on CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, Forbes, and every other business news station. He bought hook line and sinker everything that SBF said. SBF was the wunderkind. Spinning twine into gold. He failed at his job. And now he is trying to salvage his integrity by acting as a journalist.

[@OP-fd4lh]

Interesting...host was part of SBF rise, now host asks how this happened while going after guest who has questions we all have.

[@gaggablagblag9997]

Exactly.

[@InTecknicolour]

terrible interview. the male host kept interrupting the guest over and over.

[@dehoyosrudolph8885]

I liked it when the guest said” he spent his time talking to you “, that rubbed him the wrong way, 😂!

[@loki_of_earth]

The host thinks if SBF is found guilty that'll be it. I doubt it. Anyone who has broken the law, and or is complicit will be next. I'd be worried if I was his parents.

[@rcl9635]

@@dehoyosrudolph8885 Exactly. I think that's what made the host (Sorkin) start attacking the guest. In fact, Sorkin seems a bit too eager for there NOT to be follow-up investigations if SBF is convicted. A bit suspicious...

[@ChiefKene]

It’s incredible that some people think his parents have no involvement

[@maybenot267]

it's a cali-dem synagogue thing.... mazeltopf!

[@NickKautz]

It's incredible that some people think his parents are anything besides upstanding responsible citizens.

[@runabath]

His parents need to go down

[@bipolarpunt5721]

CNBC intereviewed SBF many times, now they act like hes a stranger.

[@lancesay]

thank you-so, true... the emperor has no clothes and no one tells him, he is walking around naked!

[@NickKautz]

Lets see if they'll figure out how completely wrong the whole narrative is around SBF/FTX.

[@user-rm5il4uh3i]

Communist News Bimbo Service is all this is.

[@rcl9635]

@@NickKautz So please tell us the correct narrative. What really happened then?

[@NickKautz]

Quite boring actually. People entrust FTX to provide them a promised return on their money. Money is invested effectively into many different companies and projects, all relatively smart moves. Not enough capital kept liquid during economic downturn coupled with a lot of money stored in FTT, creating a vulnerable situation. Someone leaks FTX financial docs to Coindesk. Coindesk uses the leak to write the equivalent of a hit piece on FTX and SBF based on a hyperbolicly negative interpretation of the data. This causes a panic and daamages confidence in FTX , causing massive losses in value and major withdrawals. A popular bandwagon narrative forms blaming SBF and FTX employees and accusing them of having caused the problem through fraud and misconduct. Right wing media see's SBF as a democrat donor and trashes him , the government and left media see crypto as right wing dark money and a scam so they pile on, filing charges based on the framing of the public narrative. Prosecution realizes there is no basis for most of the claims made about ftx/sbf criminal intent, but don't care. They force several employees into plea agreements by scaring the crap out of them, causing them to plead guilty to crimes that only exist given the prosecutions framing of events that falsely allege Sam conspired to defraud all along. So they basically plead guilty to things they didn't even do, and now their sentences are tied to how well they help the government convict SBF, who also never deliberately did anything at FTX with bad intentions. Public is now too invested in "sam man bad" to course correct. Same thing that happened with Trump hatred but nobody on the defense. Can't imagine how maddeningly cruel it must seem to him and his parents. That's what compells me to share this angle. He's looking at life and FTX already has enough money to pay everyone back because of the investments he made. He could even pick up with FTX where it left off , and put Coindesk in the hot seat if justice prevails.@@rcl9635

[@thrombolin]

Absolutely fantastic guest. More of him!

[@youwillnotgetmyintents]

actual crackpot lol but I get some of it

[@jendi8510]

Andrew Sorkin brain in 2nd gear compared to this guy

[@buckeroonii]

This guy being interviewed kicks ass!!

[@bitcoinbeavis7742]

Yup guy’s spot on. We all know his lawyers didn’t tell him it was ok to steal 8 billion dollars

[@NickKautz]

There's no evidence he did that, though. His lawyers told him to file bankruptcy when the company was still revivable.

[@bitcoinbeavis7742]

@@NickKautz lol. Ok sure. His whole balance sheet was mostly FTX token cuz he blew everyones money already and it clearly said in the terms that they don’t use customers funds to trade or invest. He had to file bankruptcy because ftx was anything but viable, customers couldn’t access their funds because they weren’t there. That equals game over for ftx because the business revolves around having customer funds available. No one on earth would deposit funds if they know no one else can currently get theirs and revenue quickly dries up. I mean he had a back door that funneled customer funds to alameda even. That’s evidence right there. There’s also the zero hour stolen crypto that went through a wallet he had previously posted as belonging to him on Twitter, so he even kept stealing funds after it fell. He hasn’t been charged with that yet but will be. My uncle is Chairman of the board of a bank. I asked him how much money could he take from customer accounts if he was a dishonest person, which he isn’t. He told me zero dollars and that there are safeguards in place where that can’t happen. He stole everyone’s money to trade with that’s a fact. If you win you win big with other peoples money and they are none the wiser, if you lose you don’t lose any of your money just the customers money. He lost really big and then it became very noticeable. You are about only 5 people in the world who don’t think he’s guilty. Everyone else knows he is and this trial is about to prove it, with all his ex friends turning witnesses against him to detail his crimes in full.

[@Tangvu]

Andrew is clearly still on Fried's payroll since he continues to defend him and his parents to this day. Unbelievable. Either that, or he's connected to the family somehow and not disclosing this.

[@NickKautz]

If you want to learn something about yourself that will benefit you massively going forward. Trace back specifically how you came to believe what you do about SBF. Try to pinpoint the factors that influenced your perspective. Then examine those sources and determine if they delivered the information with bias or if they objectively offered info for you to make your own decision. If there was bias, then try to set aside their influence and picture the situation from the opposite perspective , and see if there's any possibility that could be true.

[@Tangvu]

@@NickKautz -- I judge given the facts I have. I know we won't get all the facts until after the trial, but so far we know FTX lost a lot of money for a lot of people. So this is either fraud on a massive scale or complete incompetence. SBF's attitude and behaviour tells me he's definitely guilty of not caring for the damage he's done. He claims innocence but I don't think he understands what the word means, because his actions do not reveal any remorse whatsoever.

[@Sam-uz4iy]

​@@NickKautz What Stark said was based on the ftx emails freely available online. If you have evidence to counter his points, feel free to make it instead of spewing vague nonsense.

[@MrADTNZ]

They are both of the same tribe

[@flapflapflap]

Sorkin is probably friends with the SBF family. DISGUSTING.

[@CryptoClaimsPro]

It's hard to take Andrew seriously on FTX given his post bankruptcy NY Times softball interview which ended with SBF getting a round of applause!

[@Erik-rp1hi]

They need to go after the parents. How can you think they are not guilty?

[@NickKautz]

Noob

[@americansailor7967]

The parents are Stanford Progressives. There's no consequences for Progressives. Consequences and accountability are only for the working class and irredeemable's.

[@paulrobbo321]

Andrew is a SBF fanboy

[@renzgrand]

Andrew is trying to save Sam has some interest in saving his Face or public persona

[@juliametcalf2660]

Lawyers should sue Stanford Law for faulty ethic practices ...Stanford needs to prove its graduates have an ethical grounding.. would be nice if all lawyers had to prove they understand what is honesty...

[@Holaman123]

Why is CNBC defending SBF and his parents?

[@dchi815]

This guest was great

[@capricemadrid5353]

What about Scam Bankrupt-Fraud's parents????

[@zwatwashdc]

Other people committed crimes. Their crimes don’t go away if SBF is convicted.

[@jonetyson]

It is noticeable that he is not charged with campaign finance violations. How many politicians are complicit in this?

[@MexicanWorkEthic]

It’s actually $1MM that the dad was complaining about in the email not $10MM. But yes the dad and mom did get a beach house that was valued at over $15MM.

[@indysitebroker]

The parents are law professors? And Andrew thinks they will not be tried?

[@frankm5150]

Let the man speak.

[@Paddynest]

Great callback! The SNL Caveman Lawyer - Phil Hartman…..that’s when SNL was funny

[@JOsh-ur7xx]

Liberal andrew trying help SBF with question #1. Good for John Stark to rebuff that

[@tknudcarter]

Andrew Ross Bankman-Fried still has a man crush on his soul brother Sam.

[@markpatterson2764]

David was so nice to SBF but seems really upset with a guy speaking the blindingly obvious truth that his parents were in on it

[@SweetSpot909]

how come the trial started so soon? I thought federal trials take years to get started?

[@stonecoldval]

Because the best chance for a dismissal is going to be under this administration...

[@preferanonymous2398]

JP Morgan is getting sued for copying ripples Blockchain code. Why did you guys talk about that? How corrupt JP Morgan

[@2003jason]

Trying to buy politicians because he thought democracy was in jeopardy. That is what is wrong people buying politicians.

[@DJBenito304]

Yeah let’s focus on SBF and putting him under the jail ⛓️

[@erichaynes7502]

Man I'd love to have a professor like Stark.

[@edwardjsinger]

no offense, but the host has little knowledge of law. if there is a conviction, there is still the likelihood of an appeal. thus, continuing litigation on all fronts must be done to secure justice.

[@HODL_BTC]

Great interview

[@KizzMyAbs]

From a mansion in the Bahamas to a cell in rikers. Classic

[@Kawiboy]

Of course he is. And it's FANTASTIC 👏👏👏..

[@ricardoblikman2676]

Those parents will get away with it, they are networked and they try to scurry away to the dark spots like cockroaches.

[@billjohn3287]

Sam Bankman needs to be in jail for life, without parole

[@johnbascom4523]

Someone is going to have to sit down with SBF and tell him if he wants to walk free from this trial he has to get a diagnosis.

[@christinehopping]

He keeps interrupting. How rude!

[@TruthRules2]

Despite what happened with B. Madoff, maybe not all at the SEC were incompetent or crooked.

[@johnpendarvis7885]

He's so obviously guilty it's ridiculous.

[@thegodofcycle216]

A lot of people have said he is an idiot for giving all of those interviews. He seems to think he can talk his way out of trouble, but all he is doing is giving the prosecution the evidence they need to convict.

[@SusieAspen]

FTX should consider renaming itself 'FamilyTX' with all this parental involvement!

[@NolanCardwell-ht3xi]

Funny how they go after this kid but dont put everyone in jail for reverse splits. .

[@DevRSVR]

That SEC guy is seriously enthusiastic. SBF, his parents and the wood nymph are doomed

[@weeraanmelden]

Why does this man has 4 clocks? All displaying the same time? I though having a full suit on when from home was a bit insane, but the 4 clocks are a red flag

[@AlbertFraklin1970]

How is it that Sam is no good for California yet he's great in the Bahamas?

[@ikatydid]

My dad would go ballistic when we kids answered w/IDK!

[@mrwilliamwonder]

They, his parents, NEED the 16 million to pay for Sams defense. However the guy caught growing some pot plants gets all his assets seized including his house so he can't pay for a defense.

[@robertcooper8939]

Are we going to see the people that took money from him prosecuted

[@Starfish2145]

Elite math nerds gone wrong …including the parents

[@alexgoode5569]

Stop calling him “Freed”!!! It’s “Fried”, like fried chicken. What a BS.

[@PureBadBreath]

His parents surely have to be indicted, I mean the handling of stolen funds.

[@bloatedtonydanza7798]

Worst enemy is the incompetent SEC

[@gijbuis]

Well there is already a civil lawsuit filed against Sam Bankman-Fried's parents in an effort to recover his customer's money which Sam lost, spent and possibly squirreled away.

[@christontz9034]

Just a bad interview. The guy had a lot of interesting things to say and was cut off at every turn

[@dwk8081]

Lock him up!

[@tiffsaver]

GREED was Sam Bankman Fried's worst enemy.

[@dksharron]

Alameda Research did not lose ALL of the money trading. It was sent elsewhere to be retrieved at a later date.

[@albundy7623]

Caveman lawyer wants punitive and compensatory damages

[@scottpetty4568]

So all of the people swindled by FTX are watching $200,000,000 of money they have a claim on being spent to assist criminal prosecution of someone the scale of whose conviction seems unlikely to improve their recovery from him and his family? I find this a confusing allocation of resources that would leave me feeling financially injured again were I among those defrauded.

[@mel2000]

John J Ray has so far recovered about $7 billion in liquid assets out of $8.9 billion missing for FTX customers. I'd say he's spending the FTX money quite well.

[@katebunch2047]

Go after the parents...

[@scholarlyreader383]

Indeed most westerners suffer from the dunning and Kruger affect.

[@magellanicspaceclouds]

Fried's gotta have some personality/hyperactivity disorder. Normal people don't behave like him and don't actively try to incriminate themselves.

[@LichenAndMoss]

Every other article about SBF states his diagnosis.

[@magellanicspaceclouds]

@@LichenAndMoss Makes total sense to me.

[@npcwill283]

He basically said even with the full force of the secret criminal intel operation he still got caught .

[@mikehollowayuk]

John reed stark. Saul Goodman. 😂

[@jackiwannapaint3042]

any truth to the story that a pair of Sams's cargo shorts sold for $200,000 on Ebay?

[@Tom-sj3vn]

Have any of the democrats returned any of the stolen money ?

[@mariapilarme]

No! Stanford University did. But he also gave money to Republicans, don’t even think these people have principles or something, they corrupt everyone and everything.

[@jafrasar1]

Good question???? Return the funds from political donations.

[@Tom-sj3vn]

@@jafrasar1 it’s not even a question on the medias radar. Strange.

[@jamestreanor182]

The dude can’t take his Fed hat off, I guess that’s why he went to academia rather than private practice

[@altkoin]

The dog ate my homework lol

[@alexisjing5253]

Wow. This is one of the worst network interviews I’ve ever seen.

[@alexisjing5253]

And to be clear I’m talking about Andrew Sorkin’s absolutely shameful behavior here.

[@scholarlyreader383]

This guy is law professor? Really ... I want my money back

[@777jones]

This criminal family did everything Madoff did and more.

[@mariapilarme]

What a rude journalist! Learn to ask questions!!!

[@Soccox]

I agree, most media (talking heads) never let the quests speak. The talking heads like to make it all about them.

[@trondfrland1290]

The stupid people have to pay and the thief have to pay too.

[@Pixx4you]

Stay tuned . . . more SBF charges to come.

[@AlwayzFresh]

6:59 one of the most blatant anti justice comments I have ever heard from a main stream news personality. That is wild to say you don't care about many other folks breaking the law and stealing because one of the guilty parties was caught?

[@marvinbrando722]

USA system is so ridiculous

[@csxcobracsxcobra334]

FACING 24 YEARS IN JAIL.

[@nudestsquirrel]

we all are

[@ronaldmcdonald3965]

Both Elizabeth Holmes and SBF were at detained at the same time (for a short period) in Palo Alto, next door to me. Tells you something fishing is going on in the Silicon Valley startup community I am ex-start up guy and I can tell ya stories....

[@mariapilarme]

Yeah and probably all of them are vegetarians! It’s the Palo Alto syndrome, all the 30 years old are spoiled entitled little baby’s of the baby boomers. Mostly false democrats, false vegetarians, false human rights activist etc it’s all a pose. They brought their University Degrees with mom and pa influence. Yeah tell us stories!

[@noworriesimfijian]

You asked him for his opinion and you want to debate his answers? Stfu already……

[@aprilfox1057]

This interviewer is always snarky and likes to think he is smarter than the quest. 🤷‍♀️. Great guest from SEC.

[@TheDeepImpact965]

Is he playing Fortnite in court?

[@cyuiyuwyguiyui8540]

LOL, both Trump and Sam in the hot seat..

[@erandeser5830]

I bet he's got some enemies far worse. But nothing beats a sound bite, not even intelligence.

[@CitizenPain69]

Look...OBVIOUSLY, this guy's "parents" are professional grifters, by trade, and are doing their damnedest to profit by their blood association with their criminal offspring. But trying to grab everything that wasn't nailed down at his companies is not the same thing as knowing that he was literally robbing Peter/ftx's customer accounts to PAY Paul/alameda research's massive trading losses. Do we think the parents are guilty as hell? Hell YEAH...but the charges are going to be vastly different (akin to doing all they could to loot the corporate coffers). That's not the same as the charges sam is facing for the MASSIVE fraud and theft.

[@thiemtranthi7760]

Toi khong biet nghe cac ban noi

[@user-tb7rp1vd7s]

John Reed Startk you are so mean. I don't like you.

[@lancesay]

entitlement capitalist... you have to love these generations!

[@maybenot267]

HASHTAG OBVIOUS😂

[@thiemtranthi7760]

Xin loi cac ban chong toi la nguoi army chu khong phai nguoi dan su nhu cac ban day

[@beezee7691]

No personal interest