华盛顿邮报 FTX帝国倒下的原因是什么？(2)（在线收听）

    I feel like I have so many questions about that.

    我觉得我有很多问题要问。

    Like, is that legal to operate this whole company offshore and do the kinds of financial things that you couldn't do here in the U.S.?

    比如，在海外经营整个公司，从事在美国境内禁止的金融事务合法吗?

    But but I also want to talk about this guy, Sam Bankman-Fried. What's he like?

    但是我还想谈谈这个人，山姆·班克曼-弗里德。他是个什么样的人?

    He's 30 years old. He grew up in the Bay Area.

    他30岁了。他在湾区(旧金山湾区)长大。

    Both of his parents were professors at Stanford Law, which becomes funny later when you understand that the dad focused in part on corporate governance, and the mom focused in part on ethics, which are two things that the company was revealed to be lacking in, to understate it wildly.

    他的父母都是斯坦福大学法学院的教授，这一点后来变得有趣起来，因为你会发现，他父亲关注的是公司管理部分，他母亲关注的是道德规范部分，而这正是这家公司被揭露出来所缺乏的且严重低估的两件事。

    But he grew up, obviously, in a you know, in a very intellectual environment.

    但很明显，他是在知识氛围里熏陶长大的。

    He ended up going to MIT for college, where he studied physics and math, and then ended up heading to Wall Street after college to a little investment firm called Jane Street, where he learned how to trade.

    他最后去了麻省理工学院读大学，在那里他学习了物理和数学，然后在大学毕业后去了华尔街一家叫Jane Street的小型投资公司，在那里他学会了如何交易。

    And while he was there, the cryptocurrency industry sort of took off, and he noticed that there were opportunities in the infancy of this industry to make certain kinds of trades that were basically sure bets.

    当他在这家公司任职的时候，加密虚拟货币行业开始腾飞，他注意到，在这个行业的起步阶段，有机会进行某些类型的交易，而这些交易基本上确定是在下赌注。

    And so he left the company in 2017 to start his own firm called Alameda Research.

    他在2017年离开了这家公司，创办了自己的公司Alameda Research。

    And this was a hedge fund, and the founding purpose of the hedge fund was just to take advantage of differences in Bitcoin in different countries.

    这是家对冲基金公司，成立的目的就是利用不同国家比特币的差异。

    And so he had a team of people that he was sending out around the world to buy and sell Bitcoin and take advantage of this price differential and pocketing huge amounts of money very quickly.

    他组织了一个团队，派往世界各地买卖比特币，并利用不同国家的价差，很快就将巨额资金收入囊中。

    He was making millions and millions of dollars.

    他赚了数百万美元。

    And that became the kind of seed money for FTX, the trading platform that he went on to found that really rocketed his wealth and prestige into a completely different, you know, level.

    这成为了FTX的本金，FTX是他后来创建的交易平台，这个平台真的把他的财富和声望提升到了一个完全不同的水平。

    So, when I've seen footage of Sam Bankman-Fried in the past, I get this impression that he's kind of awkward and also really not like your typical finance executive.

    当我观看萨姆·班克曼-弗里德的镜头时，我的印象是他有点笨拙，也真的不是典型的财务主管的样子。

    So, he is a self-described nerd who has this very distinctive mop of curly, dark hair and presented himself really as a slob.

    他自称自己是一个书呆子，有一头非常独特的深色蓬松卷发，表现得邋里邋遢。

    I mean, he would show up for conferences with heads of state in what became his kind of signature uniform of an FTX-branded T-shirt and cargo shorts and running shoes.

    我的意思是，他会身着他的标志性制服--印有FTX标识的T恤、工装裤以及跑鞋，出现在有国家元首的会议上。

    I mean, he took the stage with Tony Blair and Bill Clinton in the Bahamas at an FTX conference wearing this.

    我是说，在巴哈马群岛的FTX会议上，他穿着这些与托尼·布莱尔以及比尔·克林顿一起登台。

    He would show up to very important meetings with investors wearing this.

    他会穿着这些出现在非常重要的投资人会议上。

    This was his calling card, like he just rolled off of the beanbag that he slept in in his office for whatever meeting he happened to be taking.

    这是他的标志，就像他刚从办公室睡觉的懒人沙发上滚下来，出席他碰巧要参加的任何会议。