SBF’s senior prank

Anddddd it's Friday!?Phil Rosen here, writing to you just before boarding my flight from New York to Los Angeles.?

I've been keeping close tabs on FTX and its disgraced founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.?

The more details that emerge, the more I feel like this is going to make a great Michael Lewis book (and movie) one day.

Today, I'm breaking down the latest on the tee-shirt-and-shorts wearing video-gamer and former billionaire.?

And tomorrow:?Keep an eye out for another special weekend Q & A edition of Opening Bell, featuring one of the foremost energy experts in the business.?

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1. Bankman-Fried was meant to testify before Congress this week, but for obvious reasons (he was arrested, in case you missed that somehow), the show had to go on without him.?

A deep roster of crypto voices sounded off in this week's testimony in Washington DC, as the Senate Banking Committee asked to hear more about the debacle.?

We heard from Kevin O'Leary again, who said the market simply needs more (any?) regulation in order to thrive and move on from this fiasco. O'Leary has avoided laying any blame at SBF's feet, and also testified he believes rival exchange Binance?intentionally put FTX out of business.?

It'd be impressive if you guessed who showed up next — none other than early 2000s heartthrob-turned-crypto critic, Ben McKenzie. The star of "The O.C." has been among the loudest skeptics, and he had a lot to say about the industry, none of it good.?

Among the highlights from his testimony include his assertion that the crypto market is?"the largest Ponzi scheme in history."?

Meanwhile, Congressman Ritchie Torres?called Bankman-Fried a "pathological liar"?during an interview with CoinDesk. He?likened FTX to a college fraternity, with haphazard, reckless bookkeeping.?

That aligns with the characterization by new FTX CEO, John Ray III: "I've just never seen an?utter lack of record keeping."?

Recall that Ray had been brought in to clean up bankrupt energy firm Enron in the early 2000s. He knows a thing or two about accounting scandals.?

In his testimony?to the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, Ray said it could take months to secure all the company's assets, and that his team has?secured over $1 billion?so far.

According to Ray, under Bankman-Fried's leadership the global conglomerate?used QuickBooks?to do its accounting.?

However, one of the most intriguing anecdotes?from this week, as Insider's Morgan Chittum writes, was?something from Bankman-Fried's past, long before the fraud allegations.?

Long before Bankman-Fried was in the crosshairs of regulators, he attended Crystal Springs Uplands, a top Silicon Valley prep school, and his senior class prank reportedly included?making $100 bills with his face on them.?

The kicker? The bills were called "Bankmans," Puck reported earlier this week.

His old school had a?$56,620 annual tuition, its website shows, and there Bankman-Fried had a reputation as one of the top math students, and?also led the "Puzzle Hunt Club,"?which Puck described as a "particularly nerdy group at an already nerdy high school."

After a month of FTX and Bankman-Fried drama, what are your thoughts??Let us know in the comments.

In other news:

2. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Credit Suisse and eight other top Wall Street giants have given their predictions for stocks and the economy in 2023.?Bank of America, for one, is calling for a recession next year, but maintains an upbeat outlook for the S&P 500.?See all of the boldest takes and economic outlooks here.

3. The "ultimate buy-and-hold" investment fund is beating 96% of its competitors this year with the same stocks it's held since 1935.?The Voya Corporate Leaders Trust Fund is outperforming peers with a risk-averse, Great Depression-driven strategy.?Here's how it's still pulling in returns.

4. This retired football player turned-trader said it took him four years to nail down a profitable process.?Ellis Hobbs started trading stocks from his phone in 2016, and believes that trading guidelines aren't meant to make you earn money, but to prevent you from huge losses.?Here are his four top strategies.

5. Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson said the stock market could fall further in 2023.?Investors have yet to fully price in a growth slowdown with inflation set to throttle corporate profits, in the bank's view.?Wilson warned that the S&P 500 could drop to 3,000 in the first half of the year.

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