How Did I Meet SBF?? Some Background.
Explaining my journey into crypto & somehow ending up with a front row seat to the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's empire.
I’ve seen some insane rumors about me float around online… like that I’m a federal agent, a “plant” of some kind, or that I was a part of SBF’s alleged polycule in the Bahamas. These are all hilarious to me and verifiably false, but to some degree, I get it. I find it just as odd as anyone else that some random girl with zero background in finance, journalism or crypto derivatives exchanges somehow ended up with a front row seat to the biggest financial fraud scandal of our generation: the collapse of SBF’s empire.
So how tf did I end up in this mess?
First of all, I got into crypto kind of by accident. One of my relatives began mining bitcoin when I was still in high school and gave me my first bitcoin as a Christmas Gift in 2011. I had no idea what it was, so I paid very little attention to the crypto space up until the last bull market. Like many retail investors, I watched the price of ether and other altcoins skyrocket, felt FOMO, and stupidly dumped the majority of my savings into ETH at near-ATH prices. I proceeded to move 11.6 of those ETH along with 3.1 BTC into Celsius Network. Woops. I had no idea what the hell I was doing, clearly, but I liked the sound of passive income. I know, I’m a dumb bitch.
In June 2022, Celsius Network suddenly halted customer withdrawals and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the following month. To be honest, I was already going through a breakup at the time, so I felt like I had lost everything. I became severely depressed (frankly, I was suicidal), but none of my irl friends followed crypto, so I felt I nobody to talk to about my losses.
So I began posting about Celsius Network on YouTube and Twitter to vent. I wasn’t setting out to become an “influencer” (tbh that word makes me cringe); I didn’t even expect anyone to see my posts. I had practically no following at the time, but I ended up finding a small community online to commiserate with. Every day, I chatted with Celsius creditors and frantically searched for updates about my trapped life savings. I figured others might be doing the same, so I began to summarize my findings (news articles, bankruptcy filings, etc.) and post them on social media for others creditors.
A few months into posting, a disgruntled Celsius Network employee contacted me out of the blue. At first, I thought it was some scammer; the account was created recently, had 0 followers and no profile picture. I questioned the person’s legitimacy, but he later sent me a file: an audio recording of an internal all-hands meeting featuring then-CEO Alex Mashinsky. As a Celsius customer, I knew other creditors were desperately searching for answers about their funds, but at the time, Celsius’s C-Suite was dead silent. I knew I needed to share the audio, but with no background in journalism and a negligible social media following at the time, I wasn’t completely sure what to do with it. After mulling it over, I shared the audio with the New York Times and then published the full audio to my YouTube channel and a written transcript on Twitter on September 13, 2022.
Sam Bankman-Fried started following me on Twitter that day. I was new to “crypto Twitter,” so I assumed SBF found me through the leaked Celsius Network all-hands meeting I shared. Since I wasn’t particularly involved in the crypto space prior to Celsius’s collapse, I didn’t actually know too much about SBF or FTX. I had just seen his face on magazine covers and knew he was sort of a *big deal.* I messaged him thanking him for the follow.
Sam and I exchanged a couple of brief messages that day, but didn’t talk in DMs again for several weeks. I carried on posting Celsius leaks. By then, more disgruntled employees began to see me as their go-to outlet for leaks, so I eventually shared Alex Mashinsky’s wallet addresses & Celsius transaction history, another leaked internal meeting, lies around the ICO, and the bids on Celsius Network’s assets. I guess Sam followed along. He left an occasional comment on my tweets and even mentioned he was following me for my “Celsius leaks” so he could “get the news.”
At the time, people found it strange that a *big shot* like SBF was interacting with a comparably tiny account like mine, but there’s really no secret backstory here. I urge any conspiracy theorists to investigate and publicly post any evidence of a pre-existing relationship prior to September 13, 2022 when Sam followed me on Twitter.
ANYWAY, a couple months later, FTX collapsed (obviously). I won’t do a deep-dive on the collapse here. But prior to the collapse, I generally saw Sam as “one of the good guys.” How could I have been so wrong? I wanted to talk to Sam. So when FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, I decided to shoot my shot and DM Sam asking if he’d be willing to chat with me. I genuinely was not expecting a response. Most people in Sam’s shoes do NOT talk. That’s the smart thing to do. Plus, I figured every major publication likely wanted to interview Sam, so if he were to talk to anyone, it certainly wouldn’t be me.
So I carried on with my life. I was living in NYC at the time. I went out to bars, hung out with friends, went on dates, partied. Suddenly though, on November 16, 2022 when I was several drinks into a date at some Brooklyn dive bar, my phone lit up. I got a response from SBF.
Funny enough, the guy I was dating at the time actually left a LOT of crypto in FTX. I remember asking him, “what the fuck do I do?” He told me I needed to go home and ask SBF where his money was. 😂 So I scurried home.
Ok, I’ve repeated this multiple times, but I have no background in journalism, finance or in working at crypto exchanges. In fact, I’ve never actually used FTX nor any derivatives exchange (tbh I don’t even fully understand derivatives or margin trading). I sincerely was not expecting Sam to respond to my message, let alone give me an interview. I was in over my head. As I rushed home, I frantically texted a few friends asking what they would ask SBF and scrolled through the latest headlines. I made a few bulleted notes in my phone for possible questions. I was drunk.
I did the interview though. After our phone call, Sam mentioned he’d be “happy to chat again sometime!” Since I was drunk on our first call, I kind of wanted a re-do so. I reached out again on November 20, 2022 and we hopped on a second phone call.
I nervously sat on those phone calls for nearly two weeks. I wasn’t totally sure what to do with them. Do I write up an article like a “real journalist”? Frankly, I hadn’t written anything of substance since college and given my lack of knowledge about derivatives exchanges, I felt severely under-qualified to attempt a written analysis of Sam’s claims. I tried tweeting out a few of his statements, but multiple people accused me of “lying” about speaking with SBF lol. Sure though, I get it, why the hell would Sam talk to some random chick on the internet immediately after his empire imploded? It’s tough to believe. So ultimately, I figured I had to post the audio itself. I published both interviews on YouTube on November 29, 2022.
Well, those interviews sort of blew up in Sam’s face. My initial phone call with SBF was cited in the FEC complaint against him, which led to one of his criminal charges for conspiring to defraud the United States by violating campaign finance laws. 😅
I honestly never thought Sam would speak to me again. So again, I carried on with my life. SBF proceeded to set off on his bizarre media tour, was soon arrested in the Bahamas and subsequently extradited to the US and released to house arrest on a $250M personal recognizance bond. The night that he landed back at his parents’ home though in Palo Alto, CA, he texted me around 3AM PST. I woke up to this:
Sam wanted to clarify a rumor he was seeing on social media that he paid $250M bail in cash - he asserted that it was a personal recognizance bond secured mostly by his parents’ home. I took this opportunity to shoot my shot ONCE AGAIN (I guess I do that a lot) and asked if he was allowed visitors. I honestly assumed that someone on house arrest charged with a whopping eight counts from the DOJ (and more to come) was likely not allowed visitors. But Sam said yes and agreed to meet with me.
Ok this has all been stream-of-consciousness rambling and I’m apparently reaching Substack’s length limit. I can continue this in a second post if anyone cares. Maybe not.
I’ll likely share more coverage here as well as on my social media pages:
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Note: I’m not employed by anyone. I do not accept sponsorships to promote crypto shitcoins, NFTs, or Web 3 projects. I do not have a boss, an editor, a team etc. I hardly know wtf I’m doing, but I’m looking to move back to NYC in October to cover SBF’s trial in-person. If you feel inclined to donate it’s very much appreciated:
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ETH: tiffanyfong.eth
& please send me a message if you do donate so I can personally thank you! ❤️
lol, synchronicities, crazy