Opinion
Gaunt, shorn and bankrupt: fallen SBF appears in court
The former crypto mogul who once rubbed shoulders with celebrities and political leaders looked thin and dishevelled as his six-week trial began.
Matthew CranstonUnited States correspondentNew York | Sam Bankman-Fried’s view from the 26th floor of the Manhattan federal court is a vivid reminder of just how far the one-time crypto king has fallen.
Out of the window, the 31-year-old former billionaire can catch a glimpse of New York’s spectacular city skyline, including the Empire State Building, long a famous symbol of America’s wealth.
In a courtroom sketch, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (foreground) sits at the defence table. AP
As founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Bankman-Fried rubbed shoulders with celebrities and political leaders in New York and Washington, and lived a lavish lifestyle with multimillion-dollar mansions in the Bahamas.
But since his company collapsed last year, he has suffered a spectacular fall from grace. The tousle-haired wunderkind has been charged with orchestrating a conspiracy to use $US10 billion that FTX’s customers had entrusted to him for all sorts of personal projects.
Seated in the courtroom on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT), Bankman-Fried’s appearance was in stark contrast to past images of him beefy and dressed in shorts and T-shirts, smiling with Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and other world leaders.
From my seat just two metres away, I noticed Bankman-Fried, who has spent the past seven weeks in jail, is now gaunt in the face, with close-cropped hair, his body thin in a baggy, grey suit. Once worth $US26 billion ($41 billion), his wealth, health and status have vanished.
He watched proceedings flanked by his lawyers, while his parents, Stanford law professors, sat a few rows behind.
‘A calculated criminal’
In August, when he was remanded in custody, his lawyers suggested he had little to eat because the jail would not serve his requested vegan meal, leaving him on a diet of bread and peanut butter.
Nikhilesh De, a reporter from CoinDesk, the media outlet that broke the story about FTX’s crook balance sheet, says it is unclear whether Bankman-Fried’s dishevelled appearance is due to him genuinely not eating proper meals. “It’s pure speculation,” De says.
Prosecutors opened Bankman-Fried’s trial on Wednesday by portraying him as a calculated criminal who lied to the world and orchestrated one of the country’s biggest frauds.
His defence lawyers have offered a different narrative to the “cartoon” villain painted by prosecutors. He is, they said, a “math nerd” who overlooked risk management in building FTX, but did not steal customer money.
These competing arguments are likely to be at the centre of the closely watched six-week trial.
A courtroom sketch of Adam Yedidia giving evidence against Sam Bankman-Fried. AP
At the end of the Wednesday’s court proceedings, his lawyer asked Judge Lewis Kaplan to address his special request for Bankman-Fried to treat his ADHD in jail. His lawyer said he was reliant on Adderall for the distress he was suffering since FTX’s collapse. After hearing his old college friend Adam Yedidia testify against him on Wednesday, it’s easy to see why.
Yedidia said he quit FTX and stopped talking to Bankman-Fried when he learnt in early November that Bankman-Fried had used FTX customer deposits to pay back creditors of Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund.
On the ground floor of the Manhattan court is a framed sketch of Michael Milken, a trader who was indicted in the same courthouse for securities fraud in 1989. Milken was given almost two years in prison, but was pardoned by then president Donald Trump in 2020.
Bankman-Fried probably can’t rely on a similar outcome if found guilty. The MIT graduate faces a maximum prison term of 20 years for each of the five most serious charges against him.
Introducing your Newsfeed
Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.
Find out moreRead More
Latest In North America
Fetching latest articles