SBF's Lavish Bahamas Facade

Austin Rief shares his firsthand experience visiting Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) at his Bahamas residence before FTX's collapse.

"I went to the Bahamas with an investor friend who had invested in FTX. We stayed at the Albany, which is where the ultra-wealthy live - Tiger Woods owns it, Justin Bieber and Will Smith live there.

We arrived at SBF's $20 million penthouse apartment. First thing I noticed was 50 pairs of shoes lying everywhere - just crappy Nikes. My friend told me the entire executive team lived together in this one apartment.

When we got there, Sam was in the kitchen cooking but wouldn't turn to face us. His first words, without making eye contact, were 'So what do you think about Indian crypto exchanges?'

For dinner, he cooked everyone one Beyond sausage and two brussels sprouts. The $20 million apartment was a complete mess - hardware everywhere, cables, PS3s, Xboxes scattered around.

The most fascinating thing was Sam was a genius, but only about things that directly benefited FTX. He knew everything about Tom Brady because Brady was sponsored by FTX, but probably didn't know what a first down was. Same with politicians - he knew every senator's stance on crypto, but nothing else about them.

At the time, everyone at the Albany was enamored with him. The security guards would say 'You think the celebrities are famous? The famous people want to meet Sam.' Now in hindsight, there were so many red flags. Everyone kept saying he lived a low-key lifestyle, but he was in a $20 million apartment with an Olympic-sized swimming pool on his balcony."