PLAYING HOUSE ARREST WITH SBF
Crypto-lebrity visits FTX ‘fraud’
FTX bad boy Sam BankmanFried’s cushy house arrest was brightened up Tuesday by a visit from a sexy single crypto influencer who said he seemed “surprisingly optimistic” ahead of his trial on multiple fraud charges, The Post has learned.
Sources said Tiffany Fong stayed late into the night during her trip to see the accused fraudster — currently holed up at his mom and dad’s house in Stanford, Calif. — who has been federally charged in what is shaping up to be one of the biggest financial scandals in history.
Fong, 26, who specializes in sharing crypto content, was the first person FTX founder BankmanFried opened up to about his rumored polyamorous sex life in a phone call which was published in November.
However, when contacted by The Post, she said she had met the ankle-monitored former billionaire in the home’s library and their chat was strictly business.
‘Regret and remorse’
Fong said Bankman-Fried “seemed similar to how he always is,” adding he “remains surprisingly optimistic, although aware of [the gravity of his situation],” referring to the jail sentence of up to 115 years he faces if convicted on all charges.
“He doesn’t seem to want to talk too much about worst-case scenarios,” she added.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas, where he had been running the FTX crypto exchange before its collapse, on Dec. 12. He was the jailed for a week in the country’s notorious rat-infested Fox Hill prison before agreeing to be extradited back to the US.
Fong added they had “touched upon his time in Fox Hill,” but would not be drawn on how he’d fared in the jail.
She added of their chat: “He definitely expressed regret and remorse a number of times” for the customers who lost millions as the result of Bankman-Fried’s alleged financial misdeeds which led to FTX’s collapse.
“He’s trying to gather his take on events . . . He sounded like he was trying to gather his thoughts,” she said, noting that Bankman-Fried was on his computer as they talked, but was not gaming.
As part of the terms of his $250 million bail agreement, Bankman-Fried is allowed on the Internet but not allowed to make purchases over $1,000 or start a business. He is only allowed to leave home for exercise, legal meetings or court-mandated substanceabuse and mental-health treatment.
According to sources: “BankmanFried’s parents have to formally approve any visitors beforehand, so they know what’s going on. It’s their house.”
Fong describes her current occupation on LinkedIn as a self-employed “Reluctant Crypto Content Creator” and said she just happened to be in nearby San Francisco to spend the holidays with her sister and her husband when she got a message from SBF.
Quickly rising in the crypto community, Fong caught the notice of the Biden administration, who invited her to the White House Christmas Party, where she quipped she let Biden “smell my hair” in an Instagram post of her smiling beside the president.
In another post from inside the White House, she joked: “hello @potus, i have some questions about your son’s laptop.”