Gary Wang (American businessman)

Gary Wang (born c. 1993)^[1] is an American computer programmer who was chief technology officer of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which he founded in 2019 with Sam Bankman-Fried. At the height of his success in 2022, Wang was ranked the 227th richest American in the Forbes 400, and the 431st richest person in the world by The World's Billionaires.^[3] After FTX collapsed into bankruptcy, Wang pleaded guilty to wire fraud and other charges in exchange for testifying against Bankman-Fried.^[4] Before co-founding FTX, Wang worked at Google Flights, building systems for the aggregation of ticket prices.

Gary Wang
Born	1993 (age 31–32)[1] China
Nationality	American
Other names	Zixiao Wang[2]
Education	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS)
Occupation(s)	Computer programmer Entrepreneur
Known for	FTX

Early life and education

Wang was born in China and moved to the U.S. when he was 8-years-old with his parents. He graduated in 2011 from Cherry Hill High School East in New Jersey.^[2] He attended Canada/USA Mathcamp, where he met Bankman-Fried in 2010.^[5][6] After high school, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he studied mathematics and computer science.^[7] At MIT, he was the roommate of Sam Bankman-Fried for three years, and he was a member of Epsilon Theta, a coed fraternity that also included Bankman-Fried.^[5][8] After graduating from MIT, he worked at Google Flights, building systems for the aggregation of ticket prices.^[9] When Bankman-Fried cofounded Alameda Research in 2017, Wang reportedly left his role at Google to join his former roommate in that business.^[5] In 2019, Bankman-Fried and Wang cofounded FTX.^[5]

FTX

At FTX, he was the chief technology officer. He was the second-largest shareholder of FTX at the time of the collapse of the company.^[5] Wang owned 17% of FTX and 10% of Alameda Research, a sister firm of FTX and co-founded by Bankman-Fried.^[6][10] Wang was a somewhat reclusive figure, per reports.^[5] He was described as brilliant "beyond belief", and so integral that if he left FTX it would collapse.^[5] He was happiest when computer programming from home.^[5] According to an interview with his parents, Wang "wasn't interested in the communication or management parts of the company. He was only interested in his part of work, [which was] coding.”^[11]

On December 18, 2022, Wang pleaded guilty in a plea bargain^[12] in the Southern District of New York to wire fraud and three counts of conspiracy involving wire, securities and commodities fraud relating to helping Bankman-Fried defraud FTX customers, for which SBF was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.^[6] His lawyer, Ilan Graff, stated that "Gary has accepted responsibility for his actions and takes seriously his obligations as a cooperating witness."^[13][14]

As part of his plea bargain, Wang testified in United States v. Sam Bankman-Fried that "with some simple tweaks to computer code," he helped Alameda Research misappropriate as much as $65 billion from FTX customers and that he "lied about this to the public."^[6] He said he was directed to alter FTX's code between 2019 and 2022 despite knowing that it would give Alameda Research "special privileges."^[5]