IT WAS THE TICS that made Sam Bankman-Fried compelling. The fidgets, the eyes f lickering around during TV interviews, the nasally nerd voice. Then there was that garden of dark, curly hair around his chubby face. Crypto was odd drug-dealer money until this Silicon Valley Paddington Bear came along, talking about how he was going to give away his fortune, save the world from pandemics and nuclear war, maybe one day buy Goldman Sachs. And it worked. By the end of 2021, his net worth was somewhere around $26.5 billion; a year before, he hadn’t even made the Forbes billionaires list. What made his success palatable, what gave it a veneer of legitimacy, were these strange little habits of his, each of which signaled eccentricity, brilliance, a childlike innocence.
On November 2, a federal jury in Manhattan found this seemingly harmless creature guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. It took the jurors less than five hours—an astonishingly swift deliberation considering the overwhelming amount of evidence they had to consider. This included 10 million pages of documents and testimony from three co-conspirators, his company’s former lawyer, friends, and experts who singled him out as the mastermind of the $9 billion fraud that led to the collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX, and his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
This story is from the November 06 - 19, 2023 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 06 - 19, 2023 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
LIFE AS A MILLENNIAL STAGE MOM
A journey into the CUTTHROAT and ADORABLE world of professional CHILD ACTORS.
THE NEXT DRUG EPIDEMIC IS BLUE RASPBERRY FLAVORED
When the Amor brothers started selling tanks of flavored nitrous oxide at their chain of head shops, they didn't realize their brand would become synonymous with the country's burgeoning addiction to gas.
Two Texans in Williamsburg
David Nuss and Sarah Martin-Nuss tried to decorate their house on their own— until they realized they needed help: Like, how do we not just go to Pottery Barn?”
ADRIEN BRODY FOUND THE PART
The Brutalist is the best, most personal work he's done since The Pianist.
Art, Basil
Manuela is a farm-to-table gallery for hungry collectors.
'Sometimes a Single Word Is Enough to Open a Door'
How George C. Wolfein collaboration with Audra McDonald-subtly, indelibly reimagined musical theater's most domineering stage mother.
Rolling the Dice on Bird Flu
Denial, resilience, déjà vu.
The Most Dangerous Game
Fifty years on, Dungeons & Dragons has only grown more popular. But it continues to be misunderstood.
88 MINUTES WITH...Andy Kim
The new senator from New Jersey has vowed to shake up the political Establishment, a difficult task in Trump's Washington.
Apex Stomps In
The $44.6 million mega-Stegosaurus goes on view (for a while) at the American Museum of Natural History.
