FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried acted “peculiar” in the way he treated a biography being written about him, according to bestselling author Michael Lewis.
The writer of The Big Short and Flash Boys has described the “unusual way” in which his book about the now-disgraced crypto exchange founder came about.
And he says that things became even stranger once he began to interact with SBF.
“This book came about in an unusual way: I didn’t go looking for Sam Bankman-Fried, and he didn’t go looking for me,” he said.
“A friend of mine came to me and said, ‘I’m thinking of doing this massive business deal with a person I don’t know. He’s called Sam Bankman-Fried. Nobody knows him, he’s come out of nowhere. Forbes says he’s worth $23billion, he’s 29 years old … I’ve seen you sit down and make sense of all these other people: make sense of him for me’.”
Intrigued, Lewis met with Bankman-Fried for a walk to find out more about the potential subject.
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After spending time with the notorious crypto figure, the pair agreed to work together.
Lewis said: “To this day he’s never limited my access.”
He described SBF’s openness as “peculiar”, saying that he was present even at the height of the collapse of FTX.
The author said: “He’s let me see everything.
“When it all comes crashing down last November it’s literally me, his parents and his therapist. And I can hang around as long as I want, see whatever I want.
“And this is the other odd thing. Not only has he never sought to control anything I think, or anything I might write, he’s never even asked: what are you doing?
“He has just allowed me freedom, a freedom which is really unusual, especially given the circumstances, to just try and understand him and his situation.”
Going Infinite: the Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis will be published on 3 October.
The book is one of a number being written about the FTX crisis.
Earlier this month veteran crypto journalist Brady Dale released his book “SBF: How The FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy”.
He outlined how Bankman-Fried became “warped” as he obsessed over fame.