Sam Bankman-Fried is the subject of a new book by American author and financial journalist Michael Lewis. However, you don't need to wait until tomorrow's release for all of the juicy revelations.
Lewis appeared on 60 Minutes on October 1 to talk about the book, titled Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon. In the interview with Jon Wertheim, the 62-year-old shared stories from his time with Bankman-Fried—also known as SBF—who founded bankrupt crypto-currency company FTX and whose trial for fraud begins on October 3.
One of the most shocking insights from the interview includes Bankman-Fried's close friendship with football legend Tom Brady. According to Lewis, the pair became pals after the tech entrepreneur paid Brady a $55 million endorsement, with the former NFL quarterback "adoring" Bankman-Fried.
"I think Tom Brady thought he was just a really interesting person. I think he liked to hear what he had to say," Wertheim said.
"And he really liked Tom Brady. And Sam wasn't, like, a big sports person... The nerd of all nerds. Like, even the nerds don't hang out with this nerd, he's such a nerd.
"The quarterback somehow likes him. And he somehow likes the quarterback."
Nevertheless, the fall of FTX and the following fraud claims put an end to the friendship, with Lewis describing 46-year-old Brady as "crushed."
"I think as time has gone by, he's ceased to get a really good explanation about what's happened," Lewis continued.
"I think he's just like, 'He tricked me. I'm angry. I don't wanna have anything to do with it anymore.'"
On December 12, 2023, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas, with the U.S. Department of Justice charging the 31-year-old with defrauding investors. Prior to his legal troubles, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate was known for his eccentric personality and unkempt attire, as well as his commitment to "effective altruism"—signing a pledge to donate the majority of his fortune to charitable causes and financially backing liberal media firms and political candidates.
In 2017 Bankman-Fried founded crypto-trading business Alameda Research. By this point, he'd already built a substantial fortune by utilizing the bitcoin price differences between Asia and the U.S.
In 2019, he created his second company FTX with former Google employee Gary Wang, a crypto-currency exchange and hedge fund, and by 2021, Forbes estimated Bankman-Fried's net worth to be around $26.5 billion.
However, FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022. After it was reported that Bankman-Fried had transferred approximately $10 billion of FTX customer money to Alameda, customers hurried to withdraw 6 billion from the organization.
This was followed by an announcement from Binance CEO ChangPeng "CZ" Zhao, who said it would be offloading its FTT tokens—the currency used to access FTX's services—due to "alarming trends" regarding Bankman-Fried's businesses. This led more traders to withdraw funds, causing FTX to go bankrupt.
After his arrest, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claimed that Bankman-Fried had deceived investors by using FTX funds to pay off Alameda's debts and expenses, along with defrauding Alameda's customers by lying about the state of the hedge fund.
On December 13, Bankman-Fried was charged separately by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, who accused him of amassing $1.8 billion in equity for FTX while hiding the diversion of funds to its sister company.
Newsweek has reached out to Bankman-Fried and Brady for comment via email.
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