{"id":1817794,"date":"2023-01-20T17:19:47","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T22:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1817794"},"modified":"2023-01-20T17:21:02","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T22:21:02","slug":"ftx-scandal-rocks-florida-school-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ftx-scandal-rocks-florida-school-district\/","title":{"rendered":"FTX Scandal Rocks Florida School District"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fftx-scandal-rocks-florida-school-district%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1817794&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<div class=\"featured featured-video video-ct\">\n<div class=\"contain\">\n<div class=\"info\">\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>Charlie Gasparino, Fox Business&#8217; senior correspondent, discusses new information about former FTX CEO Sam Bankman\u2013Fried \u2018Fox Business Tonight.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As prosecutors and FTX&#8217;s bankruptcy trustee comb through the wreckage\u00a0of Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s\u00a0ill-fated crypto empire, many questions remain unanswered.<\/p>\n<p>Among the biggest: How did\u00a0the man known and respected in the crypto industry as &#8220;SBF&#8221;\u00a0commit\u00a0what government officials believe was a multiyear\u00a0fraud?\u00a0Who else aided and abetted in the alleged\u00a0scheme, where billions of dollars in\u00a0customer money\u00a0from his FTX exchange were looted to cover losses from an affiliated hedge fund?<\/p>\n<p>Finally, and maybe most confounding\u00a0to those\u00a0who know Bankman-Fried: How could someone so seemingly\u00a0virtuous, making heaps of money and giving lots of it away to dozens of charitable organizations, pull\u00a0off what appears to be one of the most egregious financial crimes of the century?<\/p>\n<p>The mystery of how\u00a0Bankman-Fried went from saint to sinner may never be fully answered, of course. But it continues to\u00a0stun\u00a0people in places where you might\u00a0expect it to, including his colleagues in the crypto industry who tell\u00a0FOX\u00a0Business they had no idea that FTX was built on a house of cards and\u00a0run by an alleged crook.<\/p>\n<p>The celebrity endorsers of\u00a0FTX\u00a0thought they knew enough about SBF to feel secure in pitching his\u00a0exchange as a super-safe way to trade crypto. Government\u00a0and regulatory\u00a0officials in Washington,\u00a0D.C., who leaned on SBF&#8217;s\u00a0vast crypto\u00a0expertise, gladly accepted his political\u00a0contributions\u00a0as\u00a0they weighed ways to regulate the burgeoning market for digital coins.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline image-ct\">\n<div class=\"m\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1280px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxbusiness.com\/foxbusiness.com\/content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/931\/523\/Sam-Bankman-Fried-Court-Walk.jpg?ve=1&#038;tl=1\" alt=\"Sam Bankman-Fried court New York\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><span>Sam Bankman-Fried departs New York&#8217;s courtroom on January 3, 2023.<\/span><span> (Fatih Aktas\/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/markets\/ftx-cryptocurrency-jumps-35-ceo-john-ray-bankrupt-crypto-exchange-restart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>FTX CRYPTOCURRENCY JUMPS MORE THAN 35% AFTER CEO JOHN RAY SAYS BANKRUPT CRYPTO EXCHANGE MAY RESTART<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some unlikely\u00a0people and\u00a0places are also grappling with what seems to be the dual realities\u00a0of Bankman-Fried.\u00a0It&#8217;s hard to imagine that the school\u00a0district of Broward County, Florida, would be mired in the controversy surrounding the FTX implosion. Yet the district and students\u00a0who were\u00a0on the receiving end of SBF&#8217;s charitable efforts find themselves in the middle of the\u00a0mess \u2014 and possibly in the\u00a0crosshairs\u00a0of FTX&#8217;s bankruptcy trustee John Ray III, FOX Business has learned.<\/p>\n<p>Broward County&#8217;s involvement with the SBF ecosystem seems small in relation to the magnitude and shockwaves it has sent through the $1 trillion crypto sector. As much as $8 billion of customer money missing from supposedly safe accounts, used to finance unrelated activities, makes the fraud one of the biggest since Bernie Madoff\u2019s Ponzi scheme more than 20 years ago. The notion that a key figure in crypto looted billions of dollars in purportedly\u00a0safe client money added more uncertainty to a market that has lost half of its value since 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The FTX crash will undoubtedly lead to more regulation, which could further reduce digital asset values. SBF was arrested and charged with eight fraud counts. He could be sentenced to up to 115 years imprisonment. He has\u00a0pleaded\u00a0not guilty.<\/p>\n<p>Broward County is, however, not an epicenter of cryptocurrency. That can be found further south in Miami,\u00a0which has become a hub of digital-asset innovation. But\u00a0the story of\u00a0the county\u2019s involvement with FTX and the fallout from its collapse does provide a window into how\u00a0the\u00a0alleged scandal is roiling not just\u00a0risk-takers in\u00a0the crypto\u00a0world, but also communities in middle-class America, a\u00a0FOX\u00a0Business investigation shows.<\/p>\n<p>A racially and economically diverse region\u00a0made up\u00a0of cities and smaller towns with luxury high rises, modest single-family homes and pockets of poverty, Broward\u2019s entanglement in the SBF story begins with a\u00a0charity event\u00a0in March 2022. The project is described as &#8220;an enabling factor.&#8221;\u00a0&#8220;FTX Charity Hackathon,&#8221; it was\u00a0spearheaded by SBF\u2019s father, Stanford University law professor Joseph Bankman, and developed by SBF\u2019s aunt, Barbara Miller,\u00a0a Broward County\u00a0political consultant.<\/p>\n<p>The idea appeared to fit neatly into SBF\u2019s broader goal to use the massive wealth he accumulated in crypto, then estimated at $30 billion, to fund charities and nonprofits and\u00a0to make\u00a0the world a better place through a philosophy known as &#8220;effective altruism.&#8221; The idea was\u00a0to\u00a0entice\u00a0high school students in Broward as well as neighboring Miami-Dade\u00a0and Palm Beach\u00a0counties\u00a0to\u00a0compete for\u00a0scholarship money using their entrepreneurial skills in a format\u00a0that resembled the popular TV show &#8220;Shark Tank.&#8221; They would join forces in\u00a0&#8220;hackathon-style,&#8221;\u00a0You can borrow your name from a crypto protocol to solve many problems.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/markets\/ftx-says-hackers-stole-415m-cryptocurrency-exchange-filed-bankruptcy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>FTX SAYS HACKERS STOLE $415M AFTER CRYTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>FOX\u00a0Business is withholding the names of the students to protect their privacy. By\u00a0most accounts,\u00a0the\u00a0hackathon\u00a0was, at least initially, a lucrative and teachable moment for\u00a020\u00a0high school students who each received $15,000 in college scholarship money from the FTX Foundation. They got to work with business leaders to create a plan to turn\u00a0an\u00a0idea into a potentially viable business.<\/p>\n<p>The success of the event, such as it was, is now being questioned, with members of the public demanding answers from the school board about\u00a0its\u00a0involvement with a company accused of fraud. The school district itself is trying to sidestep any of the fallout, telling FOX Business it played no role in the\u00a0hackathon event\u00a0and\u00a0received\u00a0no funds from FTX despite the involvement of one of its board members.<\/p>\n<p>Now,\u00a0students are growing anxious. The reason: Bankruptcy lawyers say the hackathon\u00a0money\u00a0\u2014\u00a0some or all of the total\u00a0$1.3\u00a0million\u00a0FTX\u00a0handed out to\u00a0the students and the appointed &#8220;mentors&#8221; who participated with them \u2014\u00a0could be\u00a0&#8220;clawed back&#8221;\u00a0by\u00a0John\u00a0Ray, the new FTX CEO and bankruptcy trustee.\u00a0Ray is seeking to repay FTX customers\u00a0whose money was allegedly stolen, prosecutors say, to finance\u00a0SBF\u2019s various business, political\u00a0and charitable efforts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline image-ct\">\n<div class=\"m\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1280px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxbusiness.com\/foxbusiness.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/931\/523\/john-ray-III-FTX-collapse-testimony-house-financial-services-committee-2.jpg?ve=1&#038;tl=1\" alt=\"John J. Ray III, CEO of FTX Group, testifies during the House Financial Services Committee\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><span>John J. Ray III, CEO, FTX Group, testified during the House Financial Services Committee hearing titled Investigating The Collapse of FTX Part I, Washington, D.C., Dec. 13, 2022.<\/span><span> (Nathan Howard\/Getty Images\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ray didn\u2019t return emails for comment.\u00a0Whether the money falls within\u00a0his\u00a0reach remains\u00a0unclear and\u00a0depends on when he can establish\u00a0that\u00a0SBF and his team began dipping into customer accounts to finance other activities. FTX sunk\u00a0around $190 million into various charities and nonprofits since its launch in 2019, and in charging documents regulators say the fraud began as far back as its inception.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, there is precedent for\u00a0clawbacks\u00a0from charities, bankruptcy experts tell FOX Business. Those\u00a0who\u00a0put\u00a0money into Madoff\u2019s $65 billion fraud were forced to return the fake profits they took out of his fund after the Ponzi scheme was discovered in late 2008.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Coming after the kids for the $15,000 scholarships becomes a moral issue and would be at the discretion of the bankruptcy lawyers to decide whether or not it\u2019s worth it to do so,&#8221; said a top bankruptcy\u00a0lawyer not involved in the case but spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid being associated with the controversy. &#8220;But the prize money that was donated to the mentor organizations could certainly be up for grabs if lawyers are struggling to come up with the funds elsewhere.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Blurring the lines between charity and business<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to\u00a0fathom\u00a0that\u00a0just a few months ago,\u00a0SBF was touted for his investment acumen and lauded for\u00a0his vast charitable network. &#8220;He always seemed to have his heart in the right place,&#8221; said a Wall Street executive who was working on a partnership with\u00a0SBF and was\u00a0privy to his desire to use his wealth for good.<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of FTX\u2019s collapse, people who know SBF question whether his charity was merely\u00a0a\u00a0cover\u00a0for\u00a0his shady business dealings or a public relations stunt to burnish his reputation. SBF, himself,\u00a0has suggested that some of his altruism was used to advance his business as much as anything else. &#8220;When I pledged to give away $2,000 to some brand-name charity as part of some promotion to FTX\u2019s business, that was as much PR as anything else,&#8221; He spoke to The Wall Street Journal in January.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0hackathon\u00a0may not have been a brand-name charity, but\u00a0it clearly demonstrates the blurred lines between SBF\u2019s business and charitable interests.<\/p>\n<p>The venue was\u00a0the home of\u00a0the\u00a0Miami Heat basketball\u00a0team, which became known as the FTX Arena after SBF spent around $19 million on the naming rights (it has since\u00a0been renamed the Miami-Dade Arena).<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline image-ct\">\n<div class=\"m\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1280px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxbusiness.com\/foxbusiness.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/931\/523\/FTX-ARENA-MIAMI-GETTY.jpg?ve=1&#038;tl=1\" alt=\"FTX Arena in Miami at night\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><span>On Nov. 12, 2022, the FTX Arena signage, where the Miami Heat basketball teams plays, will be illuminated.<\/span><span> (AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier, File \/ AP Newsroom)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>SBF promoted the event on his Twitter feed to his million-plus followers\u00a0and tapped into celebrities,\u00a0politicians and Wall Street executives who were part of\u00a0his network of\u00a0contacts.\u00a0Kevin O&#8217;Leary &#8220;Shark\u00a0Tank&#8221; fame and an FTX brand ambassador spoke\u00a0at the conference,\u00a0as did hedge fund impresario Anthony Scaramucci, then an FTX business partner.<\/p>\n<div class=\"featured featured-image featured-image-gallery\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"content\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"slides\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"slides-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"slide-container slides-inner\">\n<div class=\"slide\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"container\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"m\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxbusiness.com\/foxbusiness.com\/content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/931\/506\/kevin-oleary-mwm-getty.jpg?ve=1&#038;tl=1\" alt=\"Kevin O&#039;Leary on \" Mornings with Maria \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"slide\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"container\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"m\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxbusiness.com\/foxbusiness.com\/content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/931\/506\/Anthony-Scaramucci-2022.jpg?ve=1&#038;tl=1\" alt=\"Anthony Scaramucci speaks event 2022\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"info mobile\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><span>&#8220;Shark Tank&#8221; Kevin O&#8217;Leary, investor in FTX, made a statement about the FTX crisis after he said he would again back Sam Bankman Fried.Getty Images\u00a0<\/span>  <span class=\"source\"> | Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/markets\/sam-bankman-fried-defends-himself-online-post-i-didnt-steal-funds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>SAM BANKMAN-FRIED DEFENDS HIMSELF IN ONLINE POST: \u2018I DIDN\u2019T STEAL FUNDS&#8217;<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Former\u00a0baseball great David Ortiz, New Jersey\u00a0Sen.\u00a0Cory Booker\u00a0and the\u00a0Miami Heat\u2019s Udonis Haslem, an early investor in FTX, also attended, FOX Business confirmed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"featured featured-image featured-image-gallery\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"content\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"info mobile\" data-v-7464dde7=\"\">\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p><span>David Ortiz delivers his speech at the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Clark Sports Center, Cooperstown, New York on July 24, 2022.Getty Images<\/span>  <span class=\"source\"> | Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>After the conference, O&#8217;Leary, Ortiz and Haslem were hackathon\u00a0judges along with comedian\u00a0Whitney Cummings. O&#8217;Leary, when contacted by\u00a0FOX Business, said\u00a0the event involved &#8220;high school students, some in underserved communities,&#8221; He declined to comment further. Cummings, Haslem and Ortiz reps did not return emails and calls seeking comment.<\/p>\n<p>Photos of the\u00a0hackathon\u00a0posted online show that it was somewhat of a family affair, as well. Bankman-Fried\u2019s mother, Barbara Fried,\u00a0a legal academic and top Democratic Party fundraiser, attended, as did his father, Joe Bankman, the point man in SBF\u2019s charitable efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Bankman referred in a promo video to the FTX Foundation. &#8220;really just a group of people. It\u2019s the founders of FTX, it\u2019s employees of FTX, it\u2019s users of FTX, that is people who trade crypto on the FTX website, and it\u2019s a company itself, and they all got together to find what they think are the most effective charities on the planet and donate to them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He also referred to the hackathon among those charitable organizations that are effective because it will challenge students &#8220;to come up with a\u00a0million-dollar\u00a0idea to improve health in your community.&#8221; Through a spokeswoman, Fried and Bankman declined comment but did not deny Bankman\u2019s role in his son\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n<p>SBF\u2019s aunt,\u00a0Barbara Miller, the other hackathon\u00a0co-organizer, didn\u2019t appear in promotional material, but she posted several photos of the\u00a0hackathon\u00a0on her Facebook page. &#8220;It was a great event thanks to the mentors, the FTX teams\u2026 and my brother Joe,&#8221; In a post, she exclaimed.<\/p>\n<p>Another prominent SBF relative attended as well: his\u00a0uncle\u00a0James Fox Miller, Barbara&#8217;s husband, Facebook posts show. He is a well-known Broward County attorney and was once the Florida Bar Association&#8217;s head. He is also a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner in New York, which is run by David Boies, a superlawyer.<\/p>\n<h3>Meet the Millers<\/h3>\n<p>Barbara Miller, 82, and James Fox Miller, 83, are considered a\u00a0Broward County\u00a0power couple. They tend to keep a low profile, though details of their lives \u2014 including their frequent trips to Italy, where they own a\u00a0fancy dwelling\u00a0in Florence\u00a0\u2014 can be found on their social media feeds.<\/p>\n<p>While James Fox Miller is considered one of Florida\u2019s top litigators, Barbara Miller\u00a0has been\u00a0an important figure in Broward school board politics\u00a0for nearly four\u00a0decades, according to local officials who spoke to FOX Business. She is a consultant and campaign adviser who helps to elect people to the school board and other local offices.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s so good at her job that\u00a0&#8220;You can&#8217;t get elected to the school board without Barbara Miller\u00a0on your side,&#8221; one prominent local politician described her power\u00a0to FOX Business.<\/p>\n<p>Various people who have business dealings with SBF say\u00a0that\u00a0Barbara and James Fox Miller\u00a0could\u00a0also have easily aided their nephew in making his $250 million bond, given their significant wealth. FOX Business was unable to confirm this matter.<\/p>\n<p>However, according to the\u00a0federal\u00a0judge who set the terms of\u00a0his bail, SBF can receive money or asset guarantees totaling\u00a0$25 million from two other people of &#8220;considerable means,&#8221; one of which cannot be a family member\u00a0to meet the conditions of his bond. SBF\u2019s bond, which allows him to remain under house arrest, includes a guarantee from his parents on their $4 million Palo Alto home, where he is currently residing.<\/p>\n<p>An attorney for Bankman-Fried and a spokesman didn\u2019t return repeated calls for comment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/politics\/house-republicans-launching-digital-asset-subcommittee-troubled-year-cryptocurrency-industry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>HOUSE REPUBLICANS LAUNCHING DIGITAL ASSET SUBCOMMITTEE AFTER TROUBLED YEAR FOR CRYPTO INDUSTRY<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Not long after the bond was set,\u00a0SBF&#8217;s lawyers asked\u00a0the court\u00a0to keep his guarantors other than his parents\u00a0confidential. Several news organizations\u00a0including The Wall Street Journal, which shares common ownership with FOX Business,\u00a0have filed requests with the court to seek their release.<\/p>\n<p>James Fox Miller didn\u2019t return phone calls and emails asking for comment on the matter of whether his wife or he helped his nephew get the bond.\u00a0Barbara Miller didn\u2019t return repeated calls\u00a0and texts\u00a0for comment.<\/p>\n<h3>Hackathon Sparks Controversy<\/h3>\n<p>Bankman and Barbara Miller received some inside help to make the\u00a0hackathon\u00a0work: Debra Hixon, a\u00a0Broward County school board member\u00a0since 2019, and a close associate of Miller.<\/p>\n<p>Miller helped elect Hixon to her post, and according to her public filings, Hixon was also an\u00a0FTX-paid\u00a0consultant for her work. She earned\u00a0$49,000 in salary in\u00a02021, school-district filings show, and another $21,000 in 2022, she confirmed to FOX Business. Her contract expired in March of last year following the hackathon,\u00a0and she says she had no further involvement with FTX.<\/p>\n<p>Hixon said she cleared her involvement through the district\u2019s lawyers and followed all county ethical guidelines. Hixon, who has been a Broward teacher for 36-years, told FOX Business that Miller asked her to contact Bankman in the fall 2021 with the idea of a charity event to promote. &#8220;mental and physical health.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a cause close to her heart following the death of her husband, Chris Hixon, the athletic director at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County who was killed in the 2018 mass shooting at the school.<\/p>\n<p>Hixon was able to immediately connect with Bankman, she stated. Bankman had been considering an FTX-funded. &#8220;Shark Tank&#8221;-like\u00a0competition that somehow promoted mental wellness while giving students a chance to develop real-world business skills.<\/p>\n<p>Hixon alongside Bankman and Miller began cobbling together the details of the\u00a0hackathon. The $1 million in student scholarships money was divided between the two teams. &#8220;mentoring organizations&#8221;\u00a0responsible for helping the winning teams\u00a0develop their business ideas.<\/p>\n<p>The three-member Broward student team and a four-member team from\u00a0the Miami-Dade\u00a0school\u00a0district eventually won top honors. Broward pitched an idea for a mobile application that linked users with undergraduate psychology students from Florida International University in order to offer online mental health mentoring. The Miami-Dade team\u2019s\u00a0winning concept involved pairing\u00a0high school\u00a0students with senior citizens to learn life skills and advance mental health.<\/p>\n<div class=\"featured featured-video video-ct\">\n<div class=\"contain\">\n<div class=\"info\">\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>Pete Pachal, tech analyst, and CoinDesk chief for staff for content, talks about Rep. Adam Schiff&#8217;s involvement with Twitter&#8217;s alleged censorship. Sam Bankman-Fried denies that the missing FTX funds were ever in his hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/apps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So far so good. Bankman promised to donate\u00a0another\u00a0$50,000 to a runner-up team.\u00a0Photos show students proudly displaying their winning checks flanked by some of the celebrity participants, including O\u2019Leary and SBF himself.<\/p>\n<p>Fox Miller, in a Facebook post, later\u00a0referred\u00a0to his wife\u2019s\u00a0role\u00a0in the\u00a0hackathon\u00a0as the &#8220;key ingredient, sort of the egg in deviled eggs,&#8221; adding, &#8220;Everything ran like clockwork&#8230; both her brother Joe Bankman and nephew Sam Bankman-Fried recognized, appreciated and acknowledged my wife&#8217;s accomplishments.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward eight months, and the mood surrounding the\u00a0hackathon\u00a0has turned decidedly sour. On\u00a0Dec. 12, just weeks after the FTX implosion, questions swirled about whether its commitments to fund charities could be met.<\/p>\n<p>On Facebook, Hixon posted\u00a0that &#8220;all scholarships as well as the grand prize were fully funded and we look forward to seeing the great things the students accomplish in the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hixon, however, conceded to FOX Business\u00a0that\u00a0she doesn\u2019t know if the mentoring organizations ever moved forward with developing the student ideas into workable entrepreneurial endeavors. FOX Business was unable to reach any students. The mentor for the Broward students was Florida International University. A spokesperson declined to comment. &#8220;I can\u2019t speculate or discuss donations of any kind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0hackathon\u00a0has also become an increasingly ugly political issue in Broward County. Red Broward, a local conservative-leaning blog, has detailed the SBF connections to the\u00a0hackathon as part of the continued dysfunction in the leadership of the Broward County school district, which has seen its share of state-mandated turnover for alleged ethical lapses.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last week at a public board meeting, Chris Nelson,\u00a0a local\u00a0conservative\u00a0political activist who refers to himself as an independent journalist,\u00a0directly\u00a0confronted Hixon.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Students were awarded scholarships through this and now because of the bankruptcy they may not get these scholarships,&#8221; He stated. &#8220;What do you have to say about this? Do you feel that there is any responsibility on you for having promoted this thing?\u00a0You and your friend Barbara Miller were promoting this thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hixon didn\u2019t answer,\u00a0but\u00a0Broward Schools communications chief John Sullivan did,\u00a0stating: &#8220;We\u2019re not going to respond to anything as it relates to this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Boies Schiller\/Fox Miller Connection<\/h3>\n<p>Back in New York, the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York, widely regarded as the nation\u2019s most prominent law enforcement agency, continues to investigate the FTX blowup and weigh additional indictments.<\/p>\n<p>According to reports, the investigation was extensive and could be the largest the office has ever conducted in decades. Fried and Bankman are not believed to be targets. They have recently hired legal counsel and a PR team to answer questions after Ray said he is scrutinizing payments they received from FTX (Fried didn\u2019t work for the exchange, but SBF donated millions of dollars to her fundraising efforts).<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no indication that Fox Miller or his wife\u00a0are involved in any of\u00a0the allegations against SBF. Indeed, according to\u00a0Fox\u00a0Miller\u2019s Facebook page, he and Barbara have been traveling extensively in the months since their nephew\u2019s crypto empire fell apart.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0pair are now on a\u00a0five-month luxury cruise around the world that\u00a0left Miami on\u00a0Jan.\u00a06, during which they will be traveling to Papeete in French Polynesia; Casablanca, Morocco;\u00a0and Barcelona, Spain, according to Facebook posts.<\/p>\n<p>The couple are\u00a0also\u00a0close with David Boies, Fox Miller\u2019s employer, best\u00a0known for arguing the Supreme Court case that helped settle the\u00a02000 presidential election. According to Facebook posts, the\u00a0families vacationed together in Marco Island, Florida,\u00a0over the Christmas period.<\/p>\n<p>But that hasn\u2019t stopped Boies Schiller from taking aim at Fox Miller\u2019s nephew. The firm\u00a0is currently representing Florida-based FTX clients in three class-action lawsuits filed in Miami federal court against\u00a0SBF and some of his celebrity brand ambassadors. None of the celebrities mentioned in the lawsuit has been charged with a crime.<\/p>\n<p>A spokeswoman for Boies Schiller didn\u2019t return calls for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charlie Gasparino, Fox Business&#8217; senior correspondent, discusses new information about former FTX CEO Sam Bankman\u2013Fried \u2018Fox Business Tonight.\u2019 As prosecutors and FTX&#8217;s bankruptcy trustee comb through the wreckage\u00a0of Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s\u00a0ill-fated crypto empire, many questions remain unanswered. Among the biggest: How did\u00a0the man known and respected in the crypto industry as &#8220;SBF&#8221;\u00a0commit\u00a0what government officials believe was &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1817797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,4810,5113,7334,3819,9455,4633,3924],"class_list":["post-1817794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-district","tag-florida","tag-ftx","tag-report","tag-rocks","tag-scandal","tag-school"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1817794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1817797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1817794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1817794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1817794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}