Sam Bankman-Fried spent the first nights of Chanukah in the Bahamas. Wouldn’t we all?

Unfortunately for him, he did not spend them in a luxury resort, or even an all-inclusive one where you can eat your own body weight in turkey links, or even one of the numerous Bahamian properties that Sam, the good son that he is, bought for his parents.

He spent them in prison, pending extradition to the United States on Wednesday, charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud investors, lenders, and the United States, conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws, and conspiracy to commit commodities and securities fraud.

Should the charges be proven true, 30-year-old Bankman-Fried will be installed in the pantheon of American fraudsters, right up there with Bernie Madoff.

Bankman-Fried was CEO of the cryptocurrency derivatives platform FTX. Valued at $40 billion in March, it was the world’s third-biggest crypto exchange before it declared bankruptcy and collapsed in early November. Bankman-Fraud and his inner circle are alleged to have illegally diverted as much as $10 billion from FTX to its trading subsidiary, Alameda Research.

More than $7 billion is missing in what the Southern District of New York’s attorney calls “one of the biggest financial frauds in history”.

In financial terms, we’re looking at what Joe Biden would call “malarkey”, and even at malarkey so extensive as to make Madoff look smalltime. But the implications are also political.

In 2020, Bankman-Fried was the second-biggest donor to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. In the 2022 midterms, only George Soros gave more to Democratic candidates.

Major investment firms such as Sequoia and BlackRock bought into FTX, even though the crypto market is unregulated. Bankman-Fried authorised personal loans from FTX to his private accounts.

He and FTX bought an estimated $121-million worth of property in the Bahamas. He made the cover of Fortune and Forbes. In the 2022 midterms alone, nearly $40 million in donations flowed out from FTX to Democratic PACs, campaigns and candidates, including the DNC.

Much of the media attention has focused on Bankman-Fried’s appearance (shabby), and the goings-on in the Bahamian penthouse where FTX and Alameda did their offshore business (convoluted).

The Bitcoin site CoinDesk reported that all 10 residents in the FTX-Alameda penthouse “are, or used to be, paired up in romantic relationships with each other”. They included Caroline Ellison, with whom, the New York Times delicately puts it, SBF was “at times romantically involved”.

The implications are too delicate for the NY Times to mention, but the New York Post alleges that at other times life in the Bahamian “polycule” was “fuelled by drugs, vegetarian food and open sexuality”. At least they kept kosher.

“Stimulants when you wake up, sleeping pills if you need them when you sleep,” tweeted Bankman-Fried.

The Lou Reed of crypto is alleged to have been partial to using patches of ENSAM, which is derived from methamphetamine and often prescribed to Parkinson’s sufferers. Caroline Ellison blogged about polyamory, tweeted about her “regular amphetamine use,” and publicly discussed her fondness for Harry Potter novels.

In April, FTX co-hosted the Crypto Bahamas conference. On the FTX Stage, Bankman-Fried wore sliders and sweatpants as though he was vacationing with his parents. The grown-ups he shared the stage with include Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. Gisele Bundchen joined FTX as its “environmental adviser”. Philip Davis, the prime minister of the Bahamas, declared the proceedings and the islands “open for business”.

According to Fortune, a “widely shared photo” that appears to have been taken at the Crypto Bahamas conference shows Bankman-Fried hugging Rep. Maxine Waters, the Democratic chair of House Financial Services Committee. Waters’ husband Sid Williams is an ex-Mercedes dealer who became Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the Bahamas, so she’s a regular visitor.

Also sharing in the “chummy moment” is Allyson Maynard-Gibson, a former minister in Davis’ government.

Fortune says that she “worked as a lawyer for FTX”, “helped FTX become the first exchange to be registered under the Bahamas’ groundbreaking digital asset regulation”, and “sat behind Bankman-Fried during a Congressional hearing last year.”

Fortune claims that Maxine Waters and Sid Williams have “stayed at Maynard-Gibson’s home during visits to the country”. Rep Waters office has yet to reply to requests for comment.