The Boy Who Wasn't There: How Sam Bankman-Fried Stole the Future

A book preview for supporters. Introduction, Part 1: Ends and Means.

“I was not nearly as correct.” Available at OpenSea.

Today’s a big day. Below you’ll find the beginning of my book on Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX swindle.

As I announced earlier this week, premium supporters will get early access to these chapters, in what is essentially draft form. As we progress, I’ll be exploring new ways to share the process and get feedback from readers.

Let me emphasize that - these are drafts, in fact fairly rough drafts. Your feedback is extremely valuable.

A Note: Remember that you can support my book, and own a piece of history, by bidding on my courtroom sketches. These will be framed and shipped out to buyers, with the NFTs being auctioned on OpenSea acting as proof of authenticity. You can find the above sketch of Sam Bankman-Fried here. Bidding on other sketches, including of Nishad Singh and AUSA Danielle Sassoon, starts at around $50. Each sketch includes a free lifetime subscription to Flesh/Markets, as well as a signed copy of the eventual book.

The Boy Who Wasn’t There

Introduction

Part 1: Ends and Means

“As to Count One, wire fraud against FTX customers, how do you find the defendant, guilty or not guilty?”

The speaker was a slight, energetic man called Andy (never Andrew, or Andrew Mohan, his full name). Andy stood in the imposing, wood-paneled courtroom overseen for decades by his boss, Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan. Andy stood before Judge Kaplan’s bench, facing the jury box. It was nearly 9pm, the end of a grueling day even for those of us merely observing the trial from the audience.

As clerk of the court, it was Andy who posed the final, crucial question to the jury: was 31 year old Sam Bankman-Fried, who had been for a few brief months hailed as some kind of genius, actually a total fraud? The foreperson stood, ready to deliver the binding judgment of Bankman-Fried’s peers.

At the end of a month of listening to arcane examinations of a massive alleged financial fraud, the jury had spent just four hours deliberating Bankman-Fried’s guilt on eight charges of fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy. Taken together, the charges could send the fallen boy wonder to prison for the remainder of his life.

Bankman-Fried stood just a few feet from Andy the clerk, flanked by his defense team. Behind Bankman-Fried stood two Marshalls, in suits that made them easy to mistake for yet more lawyers.

For a few moments, anything was possible.