SBF: Virtue-Signaling Scammer

The former head of crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, aka SBF, stands accused of many crimes. But no one has ever charged him with reticence.

Between 2019, when he first appeared on the scene, and December 12, 2022, when Bahamian police took him into custody—conveniently preventing him from testifying before Congress the next day—the 30-year-old MIT graduate and former billionaire would not shut up.

No audience was too small. No subject was beyond the pale. Given the opportunity, SBF would announce his veganism, discuss his fashionably liberal politics, and outline the tenets of his utilitarian worldview, his philosophy of “effective altruism.” His remarkable and short-lived career is a case study in high ideals serving as cover for low motives. It also illustrates the double-standard that liberals apply to business scandals.

Words poured from SBF’s disheveled self, faster than you can mint a bitcoin. Last year his net worth soared, reaching an estimated $20 billion. He ascended to the top rank of political donors, giving millions to Joe Biden in 2020 and contributing more money to Democratic candidates in 2022 than everyone but George Soros. Friendly media profiled “The Mysterious Cryptocurrency Magnate Who Became One of Biden’s Biggest Donors” and “A Crypto Emperor’s Vision: No Pants, His Rules.” “I have a lot of things to say,” he told New York magazine.

That’s for sure. SBF admitted to obsessive compulsion, to attention deficit disorder, to depression, and to playing Magic: The Gathering well into adulthood. He would jabber away on social media, during video game sessions, at investor conferences, and on television and podcasts. Rumors swirled about his love life, which may or may not have involved something called a “polycule.”

Invariably the writer or interviewer talking with SBF would mention his parents, described always as “Stanford Law professors,” as if this title granted them an exalted status, a grant of authority and immunity that encompassed their eccentric and exceedingly wealthy son. Less dwelt upon was the fact that one of the Stanford Law professors, Joseph Bankman, was also an FTX staffer embroiled in his son’s activities, while the other, Barbara Fried, was a well-known leftwing activist who cofounded a Democratic super PAC and counseled SBF on his political giving.

Few people looked at SBF with the incredulity he deserved. His pronouncements on ethics and politics were exceedingly banal. Veganism, in today’s world, is neither an original nor a courageous lifestyle—Olive Garden