Cryptocurrency king Sam Bankman-Fried Charged: BBC News Review

The so-called King of Crypto has been charged with fraud.

This is News Review from BBC

Learning English. I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story.

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Now, the story.

3.1 billion dollars.

That's how much the cryptocurrency exchange company,

FTX, owes to its 50 largest investors.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO,

has been arrested and charged with fraud.

He's accused of transferring FTX

money into his own hedge fund.

You have been looking at the headlines,

Beth. What's the vocabulary?

We have 'file',

'rise and fall', and 'white knight'. This is News Review from BBC

Learning English.

Let's have a look at our

first headline. This is from the New York Times:

So US prosecutors have filed charges,

and a charge is an accusation that means he needs to go to court.

He needs to go on trial. But the word

we're looking at is 'file' - 'to file something'.

When I do this at home, it means that I take an important document like a passport,

and I put it somewhere safe that I know -

I know where it is. Is that the same sense?

Well, this is 'file' as well, it's also a verb

but it is a little bit different.

So, here we're talking about making something official in terms of the law.

Yeah, and this man has been arrested, and the headline says

that prosecutors have filed charges.

So, it's all very official,

because the prosecutors have legally confirmed that he has been

charged. Yeah, exactly.

And there are other words that we can put after 'file' just to show

that something is official in law.

Yes. So, a company could file for bankruptcy.

That means officially declare or say that they have no money.

Yeah. That's right, or a couple might file for divorce.

If you're self employed, then you might file your taxes online.

OK, let's take a look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This one is from Al Jazeera:

So, the headline talks about FTX -

the crypto currency exchange, which has gone bankrupt,

and talks about the rise and fall of this company.

Well, I know what 'rise' means: 'go up', and 'fall': 'go down'.

But, this is a set expression.

What's the sense? Yeah.

So, when we talk about the rise of something like a company,

it means it's getting better and better.

But then we get the fall.

There are some problems.

Maybe a loss of reputation.

OK. So, this expression, 'rise and fall', is that

just for companies? Financial stuff like that.

No. So, it can also be used for people or teams - regimes is another one.

Anything really that has a period of success and then becomes unsuccessful,

they lose their success. Yeah.

And that's really important that when they are successful, this expression

'rise and fall' means that they're really successful, really dominant,

and then that goes away quickly.

Yeah. Now, we do often see this in headlines,

as we have here, we see it to talk about products.

Book titles. For example, there's that book:

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs.

I also saw a headline about the rise and fall of DVDs.

Yeah. DVDs used to be everywhere.

They were dominant. Now, they're less popular because of streaming. A word

on pronunciation.

We've got the expression:

'the rise and fall of', but said together,

there's a lot of linking and some of the vowel sounds change.

So, let's listen to that: 'the rise and fall of'.

Yeah. 'The rise and fall of'. The rise and fall of the dinosaurs.

Let's look at that one more time.

Let's have a look at our next headline. This is from Reuters.

So, the headline is saying that Sam Bankman-Fried

has taken a sudden turn - that means he has changed

from being a white knight to a detainee.

A 'detainee' is someone who's being held, often by the police like

in this case, and a 'white knight' is what we're looking at. Now,

Knight. We all know a knight from myths and fiction - the person

on a horse with the armour and the sword.

Saving people.

Is that what we're talking about?

Yeah, kind of, that is a knight.

So, we're looking at 'white knights'.

It's a fictional, literary character that can be a person or a thing.

And it rescues or helps people, and

importantly, a white knight can also be someone that gives financial help.

OK. So, we have the literal knight on the horse with the armour

and we've got the metaphorical 'white knight' -

helping people, helping companies financially.

Why is the headline calling Sam Bankman-Fried a white knight?

Well, before the collapse of FTX,

he said that he was going to give money to fund science and help others.

He also had a lot of respect from people in the financial world.

So, people thought he was going to be really helpful to society

Is this expression -

'white knight' - is it used very often in an average conversation?

No, not really.

So, if someone helps you,

you're more likely to call them 'helpful', or you might say they are 'generous',

but we do hear 'white knight' in fictional stories and in headlines.

OK, let's look at that again.

We've had 'file' -

make something official by law.

'Rise and fall' - something does

well, and then does badly'. And 'white knight' - someone

or something that helps others.

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