Another company of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), founder of fraudulent crypto company FTX who has swindled hundreds of millions of dollars from people with the help of a racket comprising his “friends”, “buddies” and “lovers” has now come under light. According to NBC News, SBF had customers wire money to North Dimension, a mysterious company with a fake electronics retail website. Money sent to North Dimension would end up funding Alameda Research’s so-called trading activity. The North Dimension website has been deactivated, but had misspelled words and claimed to sell laptops and phones.
In the sprawling drama of Sam Bankman-Fried’s fallen crypto Ponzi scheme, the obscure, low-profile North Dimension played a key role in putting FTX customer funds into the hands of affiliate Alameda Research and SBF’s other ventures.
According to NBC News, North Dimension operated a fake online electronics retail shop, which has now been disabled and archived. The website did not disclose any connection to Bankman-Fried or his companies.
The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) complaint against ex-Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX cofounder Gary Wang — who have admitted to abetting criminal activities of Sam Bankman-Fried, alleges that FTX told clients to wire funds to North Dimension if they wanted to trade on the crypto exchange. But those were then used to fund Alameda’s trading activities.
“Bankman-Fried had directed FTX to have customers send funds to North Dimension in an effort to hide the fact that the funds were being sent to an account controlled by Alameda”, the SEC said in the complaint.
Per NBC News’ investigation, North Dimension website claimed to sell devices such as mobile phones and laptops out of an address in Berkeley, California — the same one that housed FTX.
North Dimension’s website, which had many misspelled words and product prices that did not make sense, said it aimed to become the most popular website for mobile phone purchases by offering transparent purchasing procedures. Some of the items listed on North Dimension showed “sale” prices that were retailing well above their normal price, per NBC News. One “iPad 11 ich,” for example, was listed, as well as a mobile device on sale for US$899, compared to the normal price of US$410.
Customers found the website would then have difficulty completing any purchases. According to the NBC report, when you clicked on a product this message would appear: “Fee free to send a message. We collaborate with ambitious brands and people; we’d love to build something great together.”
An analysis by DomainTools reviewed by NBC shows that North Dimension’s site was created in November 2021 by an unidentified registrant in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, people are commenting on social media and news sites about Sam Bankman-Fried and North Dimension. Here are few of those comments:
Steven: If you have paid attention to this, you’ll notice it was banks and billionaire that invited the most in this scheme, they should have known better, but their greed got the better of them. What Billionaire or bank doesn’t love a ‘get rich quick’ scheme? So for me, having this freak take Dennis O’Leary’s money from Shark Tank, totally too funny and great news.
Alan: What is wrong with people? If I receive an email with misspellings in the subject, I know it’s spam and fake and I delete it without even reading it. The same goes with sending money somewhere. If it has misspellings, that should be a major red flag.
Stefanie: I hate that this guy gets to be under house arrest. Seems to me he’s a huge flight risk. They should have made him stay in jail while he awaited trial.
Raymond: This is what happens when Stanford-bred lawyers raise a child.
Kyle: It was back in 2015, and I decided to spend $200 on crypto to see what the fuss was about. Lost half the value, and Binance stole the money anyways. They stopped allowing US customers into their accounts. Regardless, it was obvious from the get go this was a scam. You have to go to shady sites, send copies of your ID and pictures holding up fingers… The whole thing was bizarre. The process of buying crypto felt like that one night in 5 years you go out drinking and end up in the 7 Eleven standing in line behind a score of junkies waiting to buy a 40, that you’ll regret in the morning.
Hoover: The longer this investigation goes the more we learn the phrase “a fool and their gold are soon parted” this just happens to be the latest issue of “greed quarterly magazine”.
Daniel: Transfer funds to a shell company. That’s like scamming 101. I wonder how Mr Womderful feels about that.
Matthew: Fraud from beginning to end. Who should have been doing due diligence on this company?
Bob: This hustler needs jail for a long, long time. Send the parents in too, as they appear complicit in their love for their misbehaving son.
Jeffrey: I’m starting to wonder if you might get a better return on your money by wiring it to a Nigerian Prince who needs help recovering golden treasure that is rightfully his and you’ll get 10% of the recovery.
Christopher: How is this guy walking free on bail. He should be locked up and never see the light of day again.
Lori: This Ponzi scheme is going to unravel fast now that 2 of them have rolled over for law enforcement. They’re spilling their guts and SBF is going down hard. He should have rolled over first, too late now.
Katherine: Can someone explain why Stanford University is putting up a property registered in the University’s name as a collateral for the bail bonds for SBF’s?
Mark: Putting real money in virtual reality is risky.
Anthony: I work in Silicon Valley for 40 years (before Apple went public 1982), I have not seen any crook that young and stupid. Jail time please (50 or more years).
John: Bernie Madoff has been beaten at his Ponzi game by a rank amateur.
Kristi: Clearly this dude created a fraudulent company from the beginning. What he did is wrong, but I am surely not alone in laughing at the rich who got scammed by him!!
Phillip: EVERY picture of this guy makes me believe that he has some very dirty secrets. I don’t think I want to know what they are either.
Martha: I’ll bet you that Sammy’s parents are calling all members of Congress, as well as the White House, to grant their child a lenient outcome in court.
Dominique: Sam Bankman-Fried knew that the gig was up last month, so he poured money into Democrats (and some to Republican) campaigns to get favor when he gets arrested. And it worked!!
Jessica: People participating in PONZI SCHEMES should be arrested and prosecuted as well…!…they know is a Ponzi. Is like a drug dealer selling drugs to a drug addict. The addicted should be punished as well…and treated in a mental institution. This issue about people scammed with Bitcoins, is the same thing. They know this is a Ponzi. They pay you with money from other investors. Is a Ponzi.
Joseph: Carlos Ghosn, former CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, was arrested and snuck out of Japan in a piano shipping crate. He was under house arrest when he escaped.
Eric: At least we know this guy isn’t going to walk free. Sorry for all who lost money with him and will never see a cent of it back.
Nile: Why would I feel sorry for any sucker losing money from these scams. They saw dollar signs and their greed made them blind despite the fact that everyone has been screaming what a scam crypto is. If anyone loses any more money in crypto, I won’t lose any sleep over it. They have been warned over and over again.
