Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on December 12th. He has since been extradited to the USA to face trial in the Southern District of New York, likely for wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering.

SBF, as Bankman-Fried is frequently referred to, was touted as a financial genius as recently as a year ago, but now risks ending up in the same category as Kenneth Lay, former CEO of energy giant Enron which collapsed under the weight of its own financial chicanery. Even less charitably, his reputation may suffer a fate similar to that of Bernie Madoff, the investment “guru” who was convicted in 2009 of the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.

In the last five years, Bankman-Fried’s personal assets went up like a rocket but came down twice as fast. In 2017 he’d co-founded an arbitrage firm called Alameda Research to trade Bitcoin. And in 2019 he founded FTX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange which quickly became the go-to platform for anyone trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solano, Cardano, and other so-called digital assets. But caveat emptor, when you see “crypto” and “derivatives” in the same business model, be prepared for hyper-volatility.

His net worth peaked at $26 billion early in 2022 when Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were riding high. By October, after six months of sagging cryptocurrencies, his estimated net worth was $10 billion. In November, when it became known that his exchange, FTX, had a solvency crisis, his net worth dropped 94% in one day to $990 million. By December, he was considered by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to have no material wealth.

Meanwhile, billions of dollars of investors’ funds have gone missing, and SBF faces a lot of awkward questions from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Meanwhile, a conviction on any of the charges could result in a prison sentence of years or decades.

Although Bankman-Fried’s birthtime is unknown, this is a case in which we can explore his Chandralagna chart with some confidence. That’s because at noon on his birthday the Moon was at 18PI42, and in the 12 hours before or after, it can only move six degrees in either direction, therefore remaining in Pisces. So, just to be clear about the process, the chart displayed here was calculated for noon on 6 March 1992 in Stanford, California, then rotated to place the Moon in the first house. There are several features of note in this Chandralagna horoscope:

Occupying the angles are the Moon, Mercury, Rahu and Ketu. Grahas in the kendras provide an immediate clue to profession. The Moon and Mercury are both of the Vaishya caste in Hindu society, a merchant class typically engaged in commerce of some kind — buying, selling, trading. Meanwhile, the Rahu/Ketu axis evokes any number of possibilities, including the involvement of high-tech, dubious products, and foreign exchange of any sort.

Among the grahas, the Moon and Mercury are considered conditional benefics. That means we approach them with an expectation of their being benefic, but to confirm it, we must subject them to tests:

  1. For the Moon, it’s simply a question of brightness. When the Moon is dark, as it is in SBF’s chart when little more than two tithis (a tithi is the Moon’s daily motion) from the Sun, it is judged malefic.
  2. Mercury is considered benefic if found on its own or largely influenced by benefics, but judged malefic when predominantly influenced by malefics. In SBF’s case, his Mercury is associated only with the (conditionally malefic) Moon, meanwhile aspected by natural malefic Saturn. Therefore, Mercury becomes a malefic.

Thus, with these two malefics in the lagna, their conjoined influence may bias the individual to engage in shady commerce of some sort.

Once we accept the role of Pisces as Chandralagna, we can next move on to look at any yogas formed in this horoscope, wherein all house lordships are determined as per this particular orientation of signs.

For a Pisces ascendant, the Moon becomes the 5th lord. By associating with Mercury, lord of both the 4th and 7th, the pair thus form two Dharma-Karma Adhipati yogas. Although such yogas are signatures for potential success — a marriage of effort and good fortune — we should nevertheless note that both grahas are weak. The Moon is dark, Mercury debilitated. Therefore, although these two yogas meet the technical requirement of formation, their lackluster avasthas (dignities) imply that such success may be more ephemeral than lasting. And aside from those respective weaknesses, the Moon is the most ephemeral of all grahas anyway.

For a Pisces ascendant, Mars and Saturn become lords of money houses, the 2nd and 11th houses, respectively. To form Dhana yoga, either must combine with one of the trikona lords, ie, of the 1st, 5th, or 9th houses. Here, this requirement is fulfilled by Mars as lord of the 9th, associated with Saturn as lord of the 11th. Remarkably, both are strong, since Mars is exalted, while Saturn is in its own sign.

However, there is a fly in the ointment. Note the degrees of Mars and Saturn. Mars is at 19deg48, while Saturn is at 19deg44, separated by a mere four minutes of arc. When two of the five true planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn) are found within one degree (60 minutes) of arc, this invokes graha yuddha, or planetary war.

Although there are three criteria by which to judge the winner of a planetary war — brightness, elevation and speed — sometimes the winner/loser debate is moot. War is destructive in general, and very often damages both of the principal combatants, affecting the houses they rule, and/or causing collateral damage to the very house in which they do battle. In SBF’s case, both money lords are damaged, while the battle itself takes place in the house of income.

Therefore, although Mars and Saturn form a Dhana yoga that superficially appears robust by virtue of the sign and house occupied, the planetary war provoked between the two has the potential to destroy everything. Like any house of cards, no matter how tall, the flick of a finger can bring it all tumbling down.

Last but not least, note that Bankman-Fried’s Moon and Jupiter are in a 6/8 relationship. This creates what’s known as a Shakata yoga. “Shakata” refers to a broken wheel, one that goes ka-thump-ka-thump as it turns, rendering a bumpy ride for the occupant of such a vehicle. More broadly, it implies ups-and-downs of some sort, often of a financial nature. Clients with a Shakata yoga, for example, are often well advised to create a budget and stick to it, else their spending habits will eclipse their earning capacity, and they may incur debt or financial jeopardy. Perhaps this is why, with respect to the missing billions of investor dollars, one of the lame excuses that SBF has allegedly offered was “bad accounting.”

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Alan Annand is a Vedic astrologer, palmist and author. He’s a graduate of the British Faculty of Astrological Studies and was for many years their sole tutor for students in USA and Canada. After being introduced to jyotish, he was certified by the American College of Vedic Astrology, and went on to enjoy advanced instruction from Hart de Fouw. Aside from consulting and tutoring, he has long been a professional writer, straddling the corporate and creative worlds. His New Age Noir crime novels feature an astrologer protagonist whom one reviewer has dubbed “Sherlock Holmes with a horoscope.” His books on Vedic astrology — Kala Sarpa, Parivartana Yoga, and Stellar Astrology, Volumes 1-3 — have been praised for the quality of their research and writing. His latest book — Kama Yoga: Love, Marriage & Sexuality in Jyotish — can be found on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Annand/e/B0052MM0PO