Category: Tech Titans

Crypto Crook’s Big Short – Will Sam Bankman-Fried Story Be Turned Into Blockbuster?

Crypto crook Sam Bankman-Fried astonishingly gets to hang out with the author of ‘The Big Short’ in spite of being on £207 million bail and now has not only Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer onside but also Prince Andrew’s judge to face also

Sam Bankman-Fried is one of those marauding millennials with an ability to simply not behave himself. Even after being arrested after allegedly defrauding investors by ‘losing’ £8.2 billion, deported from the Bahamas to the United States of America and managing to persuade a judge to let him out on a bail bond of £207 million, he’s continuing to seek attention.

Incapable of piping down and learning the art of silence, which might be wise given he’s upset a lot of very, very rich people by plundering their pockets, the aptly named Bankman-Fried has supposedly been having meetings with the author of the blockbuster The Big Short and getting tips about rap music and haircuts from the ex-con and ‘pharma thief’ Mark Shkreli.

Having also hired the very expensive lawyers the noxious nonce Ghislaine Maxwell owes a packet to in spite of himself having less than £80,000 left himself, this 30-year old is back living off the ‘bank of mum and dad’ and had author Michael Lewis round to his parents £3.3 million pad for “several hours on Friday,” according to Associated Press.

Lewis, who in addition to The Big Short penned Moneyball and The Blind Side – all of which were turned into Hollywood blockbusters – spoke of how he’d found a new “character” back in August with the Financial News.

At the time, he remarked:

“I really don’t want to reveal exactly what I’m writing about, but I found a character through whom I can write about. It weirdly links up Flash Boys, The Big Short and Liar’s Poker.”

“I guess it is possible it will be framed as a crypto book, but it won’t be a crypto book.”

‘It’ll be about this really unusual character. You’ll learn all about crypto and you’ll learn about what screwed up market structure in the United States and so on.”

Curiously, also linking Bankman-Fried to the mucky madam Maxwell, his case was reassigned to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan last week – the very same judge who handled the civil case between Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Prince Andrew back in January this year.

‘Randy Andy’ subsequently paid a sum of £12 million to Giuffre in spite of claiming he’d never had sexual relations or even met her at Maxwell’s Belgravia, London ‘bonk pad’ back in March 2001; the non-sweating, Pizza Express loving royal will be mocked again tomorrow in a Channel 4 satire titled Prince Andrew: The Musical. No doubt, if he tunes in, he’ll end up throwing his teddy bears at the telly box.

Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party.

Pictured Top – Even after being told he was deported from the Bahamas to America, Bankman-Fried got to live-it-up in luxury on a plane back to face justice. Krug anyone?

‘Prince Andrew: The Musical’ will undoubtedly be a “must watch” tomorrow, Thursday 29th December 2022, on Channel 4 at 9pm. It stars Kieran Hodgson as the Duke of York and an ensemble cast including Munya Chawawa as Prince Charles, Jenny Bede as Prince Andrew’s live-in ex-wife Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson, Emma Sidi as journalist Emily Maitlis, and Harry Enfield and drag queen Baga Chipz as Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Maggie Thatcher respectively.

The Duke of Edinburgh is known for his obsession with how his teddy bears are arranged. He may be even more so after the airing of a musical about him tomorrow; perhaps they’ll be the only thing left capable of bringing him comfort given his very own brother is currently doing all he can to send him to Siberia.

The world’s supposed biggest ever crypto crook may well find the experiences of Ghislaine Maxwell and Martin Shkreli helpful when and if he hits the clink. These equally arrogant once rich ratbags may be able to teach him a thing or two about how to survive alongside the poor, ordinary folk they once lauded it over.

‘The Big Short’ told the story of the years leading up to the 2007 housing market crash in America. It showed greed and avarice and illustrated such at its very worst. It is quite suitable a subject to remind not only Bankman-Fried, but also Maxwell and Shkreli of given they are personifications, all three of them, of such.

December 28, 2022
Lost & Linked Via Lawyers – Alleged Fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried Hires Fraudster’s Daughter Ghislaine Maxwell’s Lawyers

That the man who ‘lost’ his investors over £8.2 billion Sam Bankman-Fried has hired a lawyer used by the woman whose dad ‘lost’ £500 million of pensioners’ money Ghislaine Maxwell is telling

Birds of a feather do tend to flock together and now it seems the daughter of the pension pot plundering thief Robert Maxwell’s lawyer has moved on and taken on another alleged scammer. Now, it seems, fresh from failing to keep her out of the clink in 2021, mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer Mark S. Cohen has taken on alleged cryptocurrency conman Sam Bankman-Fried.

Said to once be worth as much as £21.5 billion ($26.5 billion, €25 billion or درهم97.3 billion) but now down to one working credit card with “maybe £81,000 ($100,000, €95,000 or درهم367,000) in that bank account,” self-declared “I didn’t ever try to commit fraud” Bankman-Fried is surely hardly a dream client but clearly Cohen, a former assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, is banking on getting a win rather than a lose this time round.

Given, however, that Bankman-Fried also spoke “against the advice of his lawyers” earlier this month at The New York Times’ Dealbook Summit, one is simply left questioning this managing partner at Cohen & Gresser’s rationale. In fact, let’s get to the point: Is Mark S. Cohen just a man who is actually a magnet for multimillionaire megalomaniacs who simply cannot and will not ever pay their bills?

Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party.

Pictured Top (left to right) – Alleged fraudster and CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried (better known just as ‘SBF’) and £3 million debtor-to-her-lawyers Ghislaine Maxwell with her late Ponzi scheming fraudster lover Jeffrey Epstein and with her late pension pot plundering papa, Robert Maxwell.

Fresh from failing for Ghislaine Maxwell, Mark S. Cohen, attorney and managing partner of Cohen & Gresser, has been retained by FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (AKA ‘SBF’) – who is also said to be consulting David Mills, a professor at Stanford Law. Joseph Bankman, the father of ‘SBF,’ is also a Stanford Law professor.

Scruffy ‘SBF’ – born in March 1992 – remarkably achieved the almighty ‘accolade’ of building a personal fortune of £21.5 billion and then very quickly losing it in his 30 years on the planet. He’s said to be down to his last £80,000 and the chances of him being able to personally pay his new lawyer, Mark S. Cohen, seem as likely as Ghislaine Maxwell ponying up and paying her outstanding said to be £3 million plus legal bills.

In happier times… Mr and Mrs Scott Borgerson (pictured left and right with a couple named Vikki Spruill and Jeff Spruill “at a cake-cutting ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the New England Aquarium on 20th June 2019) seemed like they were destined for a life of luxury and lavishness back when they met in 2015. Little did Mr Borgerson know what he was in for, or, did he plan it all along? Did he know what was coming and did he, like his fellow submarine pilot, have deviousness on the brain? They say that the “truth is stranger than fiction” and in the case of a couple who hid their union even from Ghislaine Maxwell’s siblings until she was arrested, something most definitely stinks to high heaven. Mr Borgerson now finds himself, along with his in-the-clink wife and her brother Kevin, chased by lawyers said to be seeking circa £3 million in unpaid fees.

He’s definitely moved on… Scott Borgerson clearly doesn’t miss his old ‘missus’ Ghislaine. Though he clearly was never proud enough to be open with anyone (and nor was she) during their union – they married in either late 2015 or early 2016, depending on which source you might take as gospel – he’s now living it up with a sexually saucy “yoga enthusiast” with an “ass that could crack open a walnut” named Kris McGinn. On Instagram, she describes herself to her 149 followers as a “writer” and though she’s not posted since 19th October 2021, she previously bizarrely mused about ravens in October 2020. At that time, she quoted a bit of Edgar Allan Poe – “But the Raven still beguiling my sad fancy into smiling” – and stated: “Loved learning more about these marvelous creatures with Jim Benhke for this week’s Cricket.” Clearly, whilst she then got to “smile” when Ghislaine Maxwell got sent down on 29th December 2021, all the mucky madam got instead was an errant husband who, it seems, has run off with her ‘wonga wonga.’

Aside from unpaid lawyers, the Twitterati continue to point out that Jeffrey Epstein’s one-time lover remains “the first person ever to be convicted of trafficking children to nobody.” Isn’t it time, especially if she wants to see any reduction in her sentence, that the noxious nonce Ghislaine Maxwell offered up some of the very, very high profile names to whom she and her co-conspirators (including the also croaked Jean-Luc Brunel) ‘supplied’ girls and boys even?

Ghislaine Maxwell and Scott Borgerson – Known assets that should be sold (and one that has already been sold) that should fund the payment of the lawyers they hired with the help of Kevin Maxwell

Linked by their mutual love of submarines and protecting assets and their identities in a secretive fashion, Scott Borgerson and his very much estranged wife – it is not known if they have yet divorced – are known to have most recently together been connected with the following properties:

The Phippen-Smith House (AKA ‘Tidewood’), 301 Summer Street, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Cape Ann, Essex County, Massachusetts, MA 01944, United States of America

Currently for sale for £6.52 million ($6.95 million, €7.28 million or درهم25.52 million). Purchased by a limited liability company controlled by Ghislaine Maxwell’s then “secret husband” Scott Borgerson for £2.294 million ($2.450 million, €2.564 million or درهم8.998 million) on 30th June 2016. During the transaction, decidedly deviant Ghislaine Maxwell is said to have used the pseudonym ‘Jennifer Ellmax.’

Tuckedaway, 338 East Washington Road, Bradford, New Hampshire, NH 03221, United States of America

Purchased for £1.004 million ($1.070 million, €1.121 million or درهم3.932million) in a cash transaction on 13th December 2019 by a shell company formed on 18th November 2019 named Granite Realty LLC.

Approached in November for comment as to the current status of this property by The Steeple Times, a representative selling agent at the time of Maxwell’s purchase, Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty, cryptically responded: “We have no information on this property and unfortunately have no contact information for the owner. Sorry we could not be of more help.”

44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8ES, United Kingdom

Purchased by Ghislaine Maxwell in 1997 for £290,000 ($310,000, €324,000 or درهم1.1 million) on 22^nd January 1997 and sold by her representatives on 19^th April 2021 for £1.75 million ($1.87 million, €1.96 million or درهم6.87 million).

A neighbour, approached recently by The Steeple Times, shared: “We are sick of ghouls coming to look at this house. They bang on the door and when they don’t get an answer as it is clearly empty, they pester us. One even asked me if I could help him get in as he wanted to take a picture on the landing. He said: ‘I want my Prince Andrew shot.’ I told him to bugger off.”

December 12, 2022
From Tech Titan To Property Baron – “Billionaire you’ve never heard of” 32-Year-Old Stripe Co-Founder John Collison Splashes Out £15.8m On Irish Properties

Billionaire co-owner of payment processing tech giant Stripe, 32-year-old Irishman John Collison, adds to his 1,200-acre £10.1 million Irish estate and plans to spend another £5.3 million restoring a £350,000 adjoining derelict mansion

Harvard University educated John Collison born in August 1990, astoundingly has acquired himself an estimated worth of £9.6 billion according to the 2022 Bloomberg Billionaires Index in spite of only having only been in business since 2007.

A co-founder with his brother Patrick of Stripe, an Irish-American payment processing application based in San Francisco and Dublin, this 32-year-old is now said to be the 187^th richest person in the world. Having acquired such a fortune, this young man now has the ability to acquire the ‘toys’ and ‘treasures’ the very, very, very wealthy so often acquire and aside from recently bidding for Weston Airport near Dublin, he clearly intends to more than just dabble in real estate assets also.

A pilot and a pianist who gained the backing of amongt others Elon Musk and Peter Thiel in 2010, here is a man who along with his brother became the world’s youngest self-made billionaires in 2016 and in June 2021, he splashed out on the 1,120-acre James Wyatt designed Abbeyleix estate in June 2021.

Featured in The Steeple Times in June 2020 when offered for sale for £17.8 million, Collison paid the knockdown price of just £10.1 million to Sir David Davies, a Welsh born “superstar banker and businessman” noted for describing Theresa May as “inept” and Boris Johnson as “doesn’t do his homework, and can’t be trusted.”

Late last month, the tech titan got himself another ‘bargain’ when he beat off competition from 170 other interested parties and snapped up the adjoining 9,004 square foot Millbrook House – which had formerly formed part of his Abbeyleix estate – for just £351,000 against an asking price of £132,000. The snag? He’s going to have to spend £5.3 million restoring the Victorian pile to its former glory.

They say westerners have “first world problems,” but for this very, very, very, very wealthy tricenarian it seems these ‘trifling’ sums won’t represent any kind of “billionaire world problem” even.

Pictured Top – Abbeyleix House (top left), Millnbrook House (bottom left) and John Collison.

Irish citizen John Collison, pictured (left) with his brother Patrick, is said to be worth the staggering sum of £9.6 billion ($11.4 billion, €11 billion or درهم41.7 billion) in spite of being just 32-years-old.

He purchased the 1,200-acre Abbeyleix estate from Sir David Davies (pictured in the drawing room of his now former home) in June 2021 for a sum £7.7 million lower than its asking price.

The Names & Numbers – Millbrook House (also known as ‘Millbrook Hall’), Oldtown, Abbeyleix, Leinster, County Laois, Ireland

October 2022 – Sold to John Collison through his Jersey based Comhlacht na Feirme company for circa £351,000 ($415,000, €400,000 or درهم1.5 million) after being put up for sale through Power Property for offers in excess of £132,000 ($156,000, €150,000 or درهم571,000) by Laois County Council. 170 people had registered interest in the property by a deadline set of August 2022 and Fianna Fáil councillor John Joe Fennelly eventually proposed the sale of the building to Comhlacht na Feirme Ltd.

Accompanying his bid for the property and its 4.2-acre plot, Mr Collison announced that he planned to spend £5.3 million ($6.2 million, €6 million or درهم22.8 million) restoring Millbrook House and added:

“We are already investing at the Abbeyleix Estate with a mindset of being stewards of this property for the coming generations. The Abbeyleix Estate is a keystone piece of Laois history and deserves careful guardianship.”

“We would be delighted to extend this approach to Millbrook House and we hope our offer is of interest.”

2021 – Bough by compulsory purchase by Laois County Council from the then owner John Patrick Colclough. Of this, The Irish Times later reported: “[The council had] intention to flip it on to a buyer with deep pockets who would save it from complete ruin.”

1885 – Built as a residence for a steward on the de Vesci Estate. The Victorian building provides accommodation over 4 floors and extends to some 9,004 square foot and also includes a coach house, gardens and mill pond.

The Names & Numbers – Abbeyleigh (also known as ‘Abbeyleix House,’ ‘Abbeyleix Castle’ and the ‘De Vesci Estate’), Abbeyleix, Leinster, County Laois, Ireland

June 2021 – Sold to John Collison for £10.1 million ($11.9 million, €11.5 million or درهم43.8 million), a sum 43% lower than the original asking price.

June 2020 – For sale for £17.8 million ($21 million, €20.3 million or درهم77.2 million) through agents Sotheby’s International Realty on behalf of Sir David.

At the time of the 26,910 square foot property, the Welsh born businessman commented: “I’m organising my whole estate for the benefit of my children… Although the children all love this place very much, none of them wanted to take it on… The typical refrain is ‘Dad, this is your project,’ and I’m lucky enough to have Killoughter House [another property he owns], the home of my childhood, to return to.”

1995 – Sold to Sir David Davies by the de Vesci family – who had owned the estate for circa 250 years.

Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party.

November 13, 2022