At his peak, Sam Bankman-Fried was the richest person in the world under 30. On paper at least, his cryptocurrency business was worth $32bn.
He lived in a penthouse in the Bahamas with all of his colleagues – who also happened to be his best friends. In Washington, he was wined and dined by Republicans and Democrats.
And then, a year ago, the music stopped when Bankman-Fried’s business went into free fall and his friends became witnesses for the prosecution.
As US technology editor, Blake Montgomery, tells Michael Safi, this was a case that saw one of crypto’s brightest stars come crashing down, and put the entire industry in the dock.
Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP
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