extreme weather is headed. we re following two hearings in capitol hill. threats against the lgbtq community. in moments i ll talk to a survivor of the club q shooting after his testimony. and a hearing digging into the crypto catastrophe. the collapse of ftx. you should recognize ben mckenzie, famous for his roles on the oc and gotham . in my opinion the cryptocurrency industry represents the largest ponzi scheme in history. it may well represent a fraud ten times bigger than maid off. things are going from bad to worse for sam bankman fried.
bars in the bahamas this morning, denied bail by a magistrate judge who deemed him a flight risk. he ll remain in the bahamas until at least february 8th until a hearing. with prosecutors punctuating their case this way. this is one of the biggest financial frauds in history. ryan nobles is on capitol hill and david bellamy, a reporter focused on cryptocurrency. we know ben mckenzie has had a lot to say about crypto and the dangers and the people who promote it. what are we hearing so far? what does this signal about how congress is looking at crypto. there are two different issues here. the ftx scandal unto itself is a fraud by any measure with or without crypto involved. that s what federal prosecutors are looking at and something that congress is concerned about.
m.i.t. lectures that the chair did on cryptocurrency and that was the origins of his whole project. david, you also interviewed sam bankman-fried. in the indictment, prosecutors allege sbf and co-conspirators made tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to democrat and republican candidates that were disguised to look as though they were coming from wealthy donors when it was allegedly from his hedge phone. what more can you tell us about those allegations? well, you know, one of the more extraordinary allegations that we saw in a kind of extraordinary day yesterday and still unfolding saga, basically the idea is that all of this money that sam bankman-fried and that his colleagues at ftx were giving to politicians in washington was actually, you know, at least in part, you know, customer funds that ordinary people had deposited in
reporter: so the big question is what to do about it. you know, there are still members of congress, torres is an example, a progressive democrat from new york city who believes the ftx scandal is not indicative of the crypto market in general but right now lawmakers are kind of talking past each other, no real solutions in place as to how to deal and regulate the crypto industry. you spoke with ben mckenzie in march and he s been critical of his peers who are crypto boosters. can you explain more of the criticisms here and why he s taking this on. sure i think he recognized a lot of colleagues, fellow actors and entertainers were accepting money from the crypto industry, promoting it without fully explaining the risks involved in these experimental financial products and it really bothered him. that was the spark that got him working on this. i think he also watched the