Sam Bankman-Fried has been convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX. It’s a spectacular downfall for Silicon Valley’s dishevelled wunderkind, who rubbed elbows with celebrities like Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady.
On 7 November 2022, as his empire began its dizzying, irrevocable collapse, Bankman-Fried did what he always did: he weighed the odds.
Earlier that day, a rival executive had expressed concerns on social media about the finances of Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, spooking customers into a multi-billion dollar bank run.
In an online chat, Bankman-Fried consulted two of his top deputies. “To be clear you think the tweet is net bad?” he asked them.
