LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Natalie Tien, the former assistant of Sam Bankman-Fried, has accused him of being a dishonest thief.
However, she also believes that he is "misunderstood" and that he is not driven by greed.
Tien worked as the head of PR and marketing at FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange where SBF served as CEO.
She attended nearly every day of his trial and left the company before its collapse.
Now, Tien has admitted that she may still view her former boss positively due to Stockholm syndrome.
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What did Natalie Tien reveal in her interview?
Sam Bankman-Fried sent his head of PR/executive assistant a link to Eminem's "Without You" after being released from his Bahamian jail.
The lyrics go: ""Guess who's back. Back again."https://t.co/a5QiVE0VQl
— Lucinda Shen (@ShenLucinda) November 6, 2023
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Natalie Tien sat down with Lucinda Shen of Axios in a Q&A interview that was released on Monday, November 6, where she revealed, “Like it hurts me to hear people say FTX is a complete fraud. We had the technology and a real product. And that's the thing I wonder: Is it because I used to work for him, so I brainwashed myself? And was I brainwashed so deep that I'm still defending it? I still don't know.”
The California resident, who worked alongside Sam for two and a half years, has reportedly lost over $500,000 in the scam.
However, unlike many of their former colleagues at FTX, Natalie believes that the founder of SBF, who was unprepared to lead the company, is not a money-hungry mastermind fraudster.
Rather, she sees him as a well-meaning young adult who started the company with good intentions.
“Maybe because I saw a more human side of Sam, and I just feel like it was watching a kid do something that went really wrong,” Tien explained.
“Every time a witness or one of the prosecutors talked about Sam like he was a robot with no emotion, or that he was ruthless, I didn't agree. He worked hard and was super-approachable,” she added.
Natalie also revealed, “Other CEOs have preferences, like they want to have this hotel or this car. Sam wasn't like that. So when the prosecution said in their closing argument to the effect of: ‘Sam lied, he stole, he was greedy,’ I thought: ‘Lie? Yes. Steal? Yes.’ But he wasn't greedy. I genuinely still believe that he wasn't in it to make himself a fortune.”
The founder of FTX, who had a spectacular rise and fall in the cryptocurrency industry, has been convicted of fraud by a New York jury.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s whirlwind journey included testifying before Congress, airing a Super Bowl advertisement, and dreaming of a future presidential run.
He was ultimately found guilty of stealing at least $10 billion from customers and investors.
Tien pointed out in her Axios interview that during SBF's testimony, she suspected he was lying about flying private.
“Cross asked him questions like: Do you fly charter? And he said ‘I don't remember.’ And I obviously know the answer. And I'm thinking, ‘Come on, Sam,'” she said.
Tien revealed that she attended the trial because she was seeking closure and wanted to know what happened.
She expressed her sadness over seeing her former boss convicted. Despite knowing that he is guilty, she somehow believes that he is misunderstood.
The sins of Sam Bankman-Fried
The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, a 31-year-old executive, shed light on the emerging cryptocurrency industry and a group of young entrepreneurs in their 20s who lived together in a luxurious $30 million apartment in the Bahamas.
Their aim was to become the most dominant player in the new financial sector.
The court convicted Bankman-Fried of embezzling billions of dollars from FTX customer funds in order to support Alameda Research, a sister company.
He also used some of the money to make speculative investments and to contribute to political campaigns in the US.
The court presented the jury with pictures of Bankman-Fried sleeping on a private jet, sitting with a deck of cards, and socializing at the Super Bowl with celebrities like Katy Perry.
Assistant US Attorney Nicolas Roos referred to Bankman-Fried as someone who enjoyed "chasing after celebrities."
After a month-long trial, the jurors rejected Bankman-Fried's claim that he never committed fraud or intended to cheat customers before FTX, which was once the world's second-largest crypto exchange, collapsed into bankruptcy a year ago.
The trial garnered significant attention due to its focus on fraud of a magnitude not seen since the prosecution of Bernard Madoff in 2009.
Madoff's Ponzi scheme over several decades defrauded thousands of investors out of approximately $20 billion.
Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, where he died in 2021 after pleading guilty.
Meanwhile, the disgraced crypto czar may face another trial in March next year on charges of paying a $40 million bribe to Chinese officials and conspiring to make over 300 illegal political donations in the US.
A decision on whether the trial will go on will be made in February next year, as prosecutors weigh in on whether the costs of the trial are worth it.
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