Author: Max Chafkin & Hannah Miller, Bloomberg; Translation: Felix & Joy, LianGuaiNews
At Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) home, Larry David is a favorite of the family. So when his parents received an email from their son Sam, their excitement was understandable. SBF wrote that his company FTX will air an advertisement during the 2022 Super Bowl, with David as the star.
The irritable comedian has played a series of skeptics throughout history, basically portraying David’s character from the HBO TV show “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in versions from the Neolithic and Elizabethan eras. The video will showcase an invention – the wheel, light bulb, Walkman, and finally FTX. And David will repeatedly reject each invention. The ad will warn viewers that if they don’t invest in cryptocurrency, they will miss a historic opportunity to get rich. The slogan is: “Don’t be like Larry.”
SBF’s parents love it. “Surreal,” wrote SBF’s mother Barbara Fried. SBF’s father Joseph Bankman expressed how happy and proud he was. A few days later, employees received additional feedback from Sam’s brother Gabe. He asked his father if he could play a role in the ad, saying his father was too modest to make the request himself. In a sense, this request was strange. Joseph Bankman did not have a formal position at FTX at the time, and neither did Gabe. Gabe runs a non-profit organization supported by FTX that is dedicated to epidemic prevention.
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Shortly thereafter, Joseph Bankman appeared on set and filmed a scene where David strongly opposes the Declaration of Independence. When told that “the people should have the right to vote,” David incredulously responds, “Even stupid ones?” Joseph Bankman, wearing a powdered wig, shouts, “Yes!” FTX spent about $20 million to produce and air this 60-second ad. Around the same time, Joseph Bankman joined the company as an employee.
Screenshot of the FTX Super Bowl ad featuring Larry David. Source: YouTube
A person familiar with the production of the ad said that in FTX’s upside-down logic, the decision to have the boss’s father play a role is significant. Like most of the people interviewed for this story, the source requested anonymity to avoid being associated with the chaotic bankruptcies, numerous class-action lawsuits, and several criminal cases. To some extent, Joseph Bankman is a co-founder of the company.
Even before their son was accused of fraud, both parents had distinguished careers. They met at Stanford University in the 1980s and taught at the law school for over thirty years, living on campus and raising two sons. Joseph Bankman is a tax expert known for his efforts to make U.S. tax law more friendly to low-income citizens. Barbara Fried is an authority in legal ethics and enjoys a high reputation in progressive politics.
During the airing of this advertisement, critics warned that FTX is attracting uninformed investors with extremely risky financial instruments, most of which are banned in the United States. When these funds were transferred to a hedge fund owned by SBF without their knowledge, the money disappeared. FTX went bankrupt and filed for bankruptcy in November 2022.
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Leading the bankruptcy proceedings of FTX is John Ray III, who previously handled the bankruptcy case of Enron, but he called this case even worse. (Note: The Enron scandal refers to the bankruptcy case of Enron Corporation that occurred in the United States in 2001. Enron was once one of the world’s largest energy, commodities, and services companies. However, on December 2, 2001, Enron filed for bankruptcy protection with the New York bankruptcy court due to financial scandals, making it the second largest bankruptcy case in U.S. history). SBF is accused of using client funds for its own, family, and other insiders’ benefit, and is seeking to recover some of the funds. What is more ominous for SBF is the criminal case, which will go to trial in New York City on October 2. Prosecutors did not charge SBF’s parents with any wrongdoing, but brought charges against SBF, including fraud, money laundering, and bribery. SBF’s net worth was estimated at $26 billion at its peak. This case could potentially result in SBF spending the rest of his life in prison. However, he has consistently pleaded not guilty and attributed the losses to mismanagement rather than criminal activity.
Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried have avoided much scrutiny surrounding FTX. This is at least in part because they have not fully disclosed the roles they played in helping their son build a vast business and political influence network. Instead, they are often portrayed as bystanders, frequently shedding tears and providing emotional support for their son during his frequent court appearances. But their names are almost certain to come up during the trial. The defense team has indicated that the team’s strategy may depend in part on the advice SBF receives from lawyers, including his parents.
A spokesperson for the couple, Risa Heller, declined to make Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried available for interviews. Heller previously stated that, apart from being supportive parents, the couple has little involvement with FTX. Heller said that Barbara Fried has never worked at the company, and Joseph Bankman’s brief tenure was primarily focused on philanthropy. Last year, SBF told The New York Times that his parents “had no involvement in any relevant parts of his company.”
Former employees and business partners say that was not the impression at the time. Legal documents show that Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried were crucial to their son’s transformation from a clumsy entrepreneurial geek to a cryptocurrency tycoon. The couple made huge profits from FTX, netting $26 million in cash and real estate in 2022 alone. They were regulars at the company’s office, boosting employee morale and being included in internal communications. Their reputation and connections were crucial to FTX’s success.
As one of FTX’s largest investors, Sequoia Capital, wrote in a complimentary article, their children seem to be “born for the role of founder and CEO of a cryptocurrency exchange.” This article attempts to explain why one of Silicon Valley’s most respected venture capital firms chose to invest $150 million in a young person who played computer games at an investor pitch event, and provides two pieces of evidence to support its claim. First, SBF had a brief stint at a Wall Street trading firm. Second, his parents are law professors at Stanford University.
In Silicon Valley, no one wants to believe that they have privilege. Venture capital firms and entrepreneurs who read Ayn Rand’s works often become angry at the idea that their decisions are not based on calculated reasoning. However, the reflexive elitism of Silicon Valley is so apparent that it does not need to be mentioned. The vast majority of investors favor companies run by white people, whose founders typically come from a small group of elite universities, while avoiding anyone who deviates from their shallow understanding of what successful founders should look like, talk like, and act like. Some openly discriminate against entrepreneurs over the age of 30, those with accents, and anyone who behaves as if they are not already wealthy.
In this world of extreme privilege, the most privileged place is Stanford University, the birthplace of companies such as HP, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Yahoo, Google, and PayPal. Barbara Fried has a background in Harvard University, Harvard Law School, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and the LianGuaiul, Weiss law firm. In 1987, Barbara Fried came to Harvard as a tenured professor and rented a house on campus. A year later, she met Joseph Bankman. Joseph Bankman graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Yale Law School, and after working as a tax lawyer in Los Angeles, came to Stanford to teach trial advocacy. After Joseph Bankman received tenure in his second year, Barbara and Joseph (as they were known on campus) publicly acknowledged their relationship. They moved in together, and in 1991, when Barbara Fried’s rented house was put up for sale, they bought it.
Bankman and Fried’s home on the Stanford University campus.
SBF grew up and was “under house arrest” in the first half of 2023 at his family’s home, located at the end of Cooksey Lane. It is valued at $3.6 million, but this is more a result of Palo Alto’s decades-long real estate boom than an assessment of its luxury. The house is a fairly typical gray Craftsman building with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a spacious porch, and a swimming pool, situated on a large plot of land surrounded by towering trees. Behind this property is the Lou Henry Hoover House; this modernist building was once the home of former President Herbert Hoover and is now the residence of the President of Stanford University.
In SBF’s childhood, there was a group of young intellectuals around him – of course there were law professors and law school students, but there were also sociologists, engineers, artificial intelligence researchers, classicists, and social scientists. On Sunday evenings, Joseph Bankman would order takeout or make something simple like spaghetti, and then they would invite 15 guests to sit down in the dining room and chat, usually about philosophy and politics. SBF and Gabe would sometimes join the conversation even during their teenage years. Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried are proud and staunch do-gooders. This couple is not married, as they tell their friends, because it is unfair that same-sex partners cannot marry. Lian Guaiul Brest, former dean of Stanford Law School, said, “They feel it is not right to take advantage of something that is not open to others. They are very moral people.”
Joseph Bankman in 2021 at Stanford Law School.
In his younger years, Joseph Bankman had a head of black curly hair, which his son inherited, along with his likable attitude that his son did not possess. This couple sent their children to Crystal Springs Uplands School, a preparatory school that costs $60,000 per year and is filled with children of Silicon Valley professionals. At that time, Joseph Bankman had become one of the most important experts in U.S. tax policy. He proposed a pilot program for the California government to tax them. The program drew strong opposition from tax preparation companies and small government advocates, and made Joseph Bankman a hero of reform-minded liberals.
For other scholars, Joseph Bankman was a sympathetic and tolerant mentor. Jay Soled, a professor at Rutgers University, recalled Joseph Bankman comforting him after a failed lecture. “That’s just the kind of person Joseph is,” he said. “There will be another time, and you will only improve.” In 2009, while still teaching full courses, Joseph Bankman entered medical school and became a clinical psychologist. After completing his internship, he started working part-time as a cognitive-behavioral therapist while teaching an elective course developed jointly with Barbara Fried, helping law school students manage anxiety.
Barbara Fried is an intellectual even smarter than her husband. Although she was popular on campus, she was also known for causing student anxiety while helping students control it. Her academic research focuses on a branch of ethics called consequentialism, which posits that the consequences of actions are more important than abstract notions of right and wrong. These ideas became something of a family belief. The philosophy is to do good for as many people as possible, but to summarize it in a less kindly way, it is “the end justifies the means.”
Barbara Fried
Barbara Fried is most famous for her paper focusing on the “trolley problem,” a famous thought experiment involving a train that is destined to have a tragic outcome. It is mainly used by philosophers to debate moral choices: should you redirect the train and kill the people standing on the next set of tracks, or do nothing and let a group of people on the main track die? Barbara Fried’s paper argues that this problem is a red herring, obscuring the moral choices policymakers face in real life – such as how much assistance to provide to the poor or how much healthcare to provide to the uninsured. “There are hundreds of thousands of pages on this subject,” said LianGuaiul Brest, former dean of Stanford Law School. “My sense is that Barbara Fried has nothing more to say after solving the trolley problem.”
SBF puts his mother’s self-righteousness at the center of FTX’s marketing. While his company may officially engage in the business of selling cryptocurrencies, it is just one way to generate income for his life-saving mission. In an advertising campaign featured in major fashion magazines, SBF and Brazilian supermodel Gisele bndchen appeared in the ad, quoting the words of the FTX founder: “I’m involved in cryptocurrencies because I want to have the biggest global impact forever.” Barbara Fried’s work is repeatedly mentioned in her son’s biography, often implying that SBF is not such a cynical billionaire.
Barbara Fried’s second famous article is more relevant to her son’s current situation. The article was published as a cover story in the quarterly Boston Review in 2013, advocating for a more lenient attitude towards offenders. “The philosophy of personal responsibility has ruined criminal justice,” wrote Barbara Fried. The title of her article is “Beyond Blame.”
SBF
In addition to the commitment to do good, operating a cryptocurrency business is always legally complex. SBF founded a hedge fund called Alameda Research in 2017, aiming to exploit price differences between cryptocurrencies traded in Asia and the United States. Soon, the fund transferred large sums of money between continents in a manner that looked (as he boasted in a podcast) exactly like money laundering. It was difficult for Alameda to open bank accounts.
SBF needed a lawyer. Luckily, there was someone perfect. In August 2022, Joseph Bankman said on the FTX podcast, “From the beginning, as long as I’m useful, I’ll lend a hand.” He added that the company didn’t have a lawyer at the time, “I think my role was pretty obvious.”
Former Alameda employees said Joseph Bankman helped draft early legal documents. Invoices from Fenwick & West, Alameda’s law firm, show that Joseph Bankman was a participant in meetings, indicating that he was involved not only in tax matters but also in the development of FTX and FTT marketing materials.
The headquarters of FTX is located in Hong Kong, until the Hong Kong government started cracking down on cryptocurrencies in 2021. An individual familiar with FTX’s operations said that Joseph Bankman played a key role in the decision to move to the Bahamas, where there are almost no restrictions on digital currencies. The specific details were arranged by a lawyer hired personally by Joseph Bankman – Daniel Friedberg, who was a lawyer at Fenwick & West law firm and later became FTX’s general counsel.
For employees, SBF gives the impression that he often consults his father. A former employee said that when someone offers legal advice, SBF would usually say it sounds good, but SBF wants to “call Joseph Bankman” first. This employee also said that almost all the lawyers working for Alameda seem to be very friendly towards Joseph Bankman.
Other former employees said that SBF can be difficult to make eye contact with and may be blunt, almost cruel, whereas his father has a way with people. Joseph Bankman, trained as a psychotherapist, is an excellent listener and a lively conversationalist. Joseph Bankman asks about employees’ personal lives, participates in cricket matches (a sport that employees are passionate about), and attends company dinners. Barbara Fried has also attended FTX dinners but is less present in the office. They both serve as mediators between the staff and their children. If SBF says something harsh or hard to understand, his father will try to explain or simply say that he understands that his son may be difficult to get along with. Another employee recalled that Joseph Bankman was seen as a “lovable old man, a capable but non-threatening figure who could prevent his son from losing control in the company.
But the most important role played by Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried is that they have gained people’s trust in their son, otherwise these individuals may not be inclined to do business with a rough nouveau riche. According to two informed sources, in 2021, when SBF approached Sequoia Capital for a large investment, the company was interested in supporting a global cryptocurrency exchange but concerned about potential legal and regulatory risks.
FTX is based overseas and operates on the edge of the law. To put it mildly, the founders of many competing companies seem to be morally flexible. Zhao Changpeng of Binance is under investigation by US and other authorities. He denies any wrongdoing but refuses to disclose the exact location of his company’s headquarters. Arthur Hayes, co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX, was sued for failing to prevent money laundering activities on the platform. According to a federal criminal indictment, he boasted about setting up BitMEX headquarters in the Seychelles, a small group of islands in East Africa, because bribing regulatory agencies there “only takes a coconut”. He resigned and eventually surrendered to authorities before pleading guilty.
The basic business of FTX is the same as Binance and BitMEX, but SBF firmly believes that his long-term goal is to obtain approval from US regulatory agencies. In addition, he has something that other companies do not have: the endorsement of a former commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Informed sources said that after a former prominent official of the U.S. SEC made a phone call, Sequoia Capital was persuaded to invest. The former SEC official had informal consultations with the company on previous transactions and is now a professor at Stanford University. The former official spoke in support of FTX’s legal strategy, which involves conducting business overseas while striving to win approval from U.S. regulatory agencies, and also mentioned that SBF happens to be the son of his friend.
This endorsement is one way, “Sam’s parents undoubtedly opened the door for him,” said one source involved in SBF’s efforts to get acceptance from U.S. political figures.
At that time, Barbara Fried had already established a left-wing Super PAC called “Mind the Gap,” positioning itself as a “resistance movement” faction in Silicon Valley. The organization provided advice on where campaign donations should be used for well-known technology donors, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. The elite donor circle welcomed a new member in 2020: Barbara Fried’s son, who donated over $5.5 million to the Democratic Party and Democratic alliance groups, immediately making him a member of the Washington, D.C. community. In 2022, he donated about $40 million.
Barbara Fried directly funded candidates recommended by Mind the Gap. Former FTX executive Nishad Singh admitted to diverting funds from FTX customers to support Barbara Fried’s political causes and donated $1 million to Mind the Gap in 2021, making him the largest donor in LianGuaiC’s recent election cycle. Mind the Gap has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Joseph Bankman
Meanwhile, Joseph Bankman often accompanies his son to meetings with regulatory agencies and elected officials. Joseph Bankman also appears as a spokesperson for the company’s charitable endeavors at FTX events. He still advocates for tax reform, but now he occasionally expresses a new interest: cryptocurrency.
During his appearance on the FTX podcast, Joseph Bankman promoted a pilot program he runs in South Florida that provides digital currency wallets for the poor as an alternative to bank accounts. “If you’re not part of the financial system, everything becomes more difficult,” he said. “The cost of cashing a check is high. The cost of transferring funds is high. So this is a national shame.” Joseph Bankman promises that FTX will solve this problem.
In magazine profiles and television interviews, SBF presents himself as modest. He wears worn-out sneakers, lives with roommates, drives a Toyota Corolla, and donates all his savings to charity. In early 2022, SBF told a Bloomberg reporter, “You can’t find a truly effective way to make yourself happier by spending money. I don’t want a yacht.”
In fact, SBF and his inner circle have enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, as described by the staff of the Super Bowl ad, with the office feeling like the Emerald City in “The Wizard of Oz”. The company has purchased luxury real estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including a $30 million penthouse at the most luxurious resort in the Bahamas, where SBF and his partners reside. They have rented private jets for themselves, and since the Amazon website does not always deliver to the island, they have also rented online packages. And, as indicated by the bankruptcy application, they have even purchased a 52-foot yacht. It was purchased by Alameda for the former co-CEO of the company, Sam Trabucco.
SBF’s parents also seem to share in the “spoils”. They travel in first class, sometimes on private jets. After arriving in the Bahamas, they often stay in a $16 million beachfront apartment. FTX spent around $250 million to purchase the residence and over 30 other properties on the island. SBF’s parents have stated through their spokesperson that they consider this house to be company property, not their own.
SBF expressed similar views during an interview at The New York Times conference. “I know it’s not their long-term property,” he said. “I don’t know how that got written.”
According to a sales agreement obtained through a public records request in the Bahamas, SBF’s parents signed as joint owners of the apartment on April 7, 2022, with a Bahamian notary as a witness. The document does not mention FTX and refers to the property as a “vacation home”. “Joseph Bankman used this house as temporary housing while working in the Bahamas,” the couple’s spokesperson said in a statement. “External lawyers have confirmed to Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried that FTX will have all beneficial ownership of the property and have agreed to record this in writing.”
Around the same time, Joseph Bankman received a $10 million gift from his son. The bankruptcy trustee, Ray, filed a lawsuit claiming that SBF obtained this money by borrowing from an account that held client funds. According to the lawsuit, he did so after consulting with his father, who was then serving as personal and professional legal counsel. The lawsuit alleges that this loan was never formalized – there were no loan agreements, promissory notes, “or any other indication that SBF took this money from Alameda for the benefit of his family.” His father transferred nearly $7 million into a personal bank account, with the rest being held in FTX.
Given the continuously rising prices of digital currencies at the time, it seemed like a logical decision for Joseph Bankman to leave some of his savings in FTX, not to mention an opportunity to practice the values he had recently adopted. But within a few months, a market-wide sell-off resulted in a loss of $1 million for him and ultimately threatened FTX itself. As the company faced bankruptcy, SBF publicly claimed that everything was fine while seeking help from his father to minimize the losses. “FTX’s assets are more than sufficient to cover all customer assets,” he wrote on Twitter (now known as X social media platform) (later deleted), “we don’t invest (misappropriate) customer assets.”
Behind the scenes, his father conveyed a very different but ultimately more honest message: FTX was in trouble and needed cash. A source said that on November 7th, the day after SBF released false information, he and his father went into hiding with other executives, attempting to deal with the alleged run on the company. Joseph Bankman relayed the same information to investors, including Trump White House Press Secretary and financier Anthony Scaramucci, who said he first heard about FTX’s trouble on November 7th.
Scaramucci said Joseph Bankman described a “liquidity mismatch” of about $1 billion in a phone call that morning. But in a second conference call later that day, Joseph Bankman said the actual number was $4.5 billion. Finally, Scaramucci learned from another FTX employee that the actual amount was $7 billion. “I think Joseph Bankman wanted to think the absolute best of his son, but he got caught up in what was happening,” Scaramucci said. “You want to think the absolute best of your child.”
SBF and his mother
In the following days, Bankman appeared in emails sent to the Bahamian Attorney General and the country’s top securities regulator, who had received information about possible misappropriation of funds and sent increasingly frantic messages, essentially asking what was going on. SBF was copied on these emails, trying to delay their trip. He mentioned a “liquidity gap” and promised the company was doing everything possible to find investors. In a subsequent email, his father also copied on this email, proposed repaying Bahamian investors ahead of others—a move the federal prosecutor characterized as essentially attempting to “buy” influence in the country.
Just before filing for bankruptcy, Bankman urged regulators and creditors to avoid making hasty judgments. A source said his initial stance was that FTX’s managers were just wayward children. He explained they would repay the money and everyone could go on with their lives.
However, SBF’s parents did not attempt to return the cash. They did not explain why, but a lawsuit filed by Ray on behalf of FTX creditors suggested one reason: they needed the money to fund their son’s criminal defense.
SBF was arrested in mid-December last year and subsequently extradited to the United States, where he was granted bail. The $250 million bail was provided by two colleagues of his parents at Stanford University, as well as the deed to their house as collateral. During the wait for trial, SBF was required to stay at home. This sudden turn of events shocked friends and faculty at Stanford University, who had just gotten used to seeing the kid they knew at Joe and Barb’s as a crypto-billionaire. Now, he was one of the masterminds behind one of the largest fraud cases in American history. As SBF made his way home, security barriers went up, blocking the road home. Students and media gathered to watch; SBF’s parents told friends they had bought a German Shepherd because they were worried for their safety.
“All of this is a pathological conspiracy,” said Tim Rosenberger, who graduated from law school earlier this year. “Are they hiring a new professor? Who will teach tax law?”
In the group chat of former FTX employees, there was a heated debate about whether their parents were aware of the alleged crimes. Meanwhile, friends of the couple have struggled to understand how two individuals known for their morality could make such serious ethical mistakes. In August, prosecutors charged SBF with leaking destructive information about a former employee in an attempt to intimidate witnesses. His lawyer denied the allegations, but he was sent to the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center.
When her son was detained, Barbara Fried tried to approach him in tears from the audience. “That’s my son!” she exclaimed when a US marshal stopped her. She watched as SBF followed the standard procedure, taking off his jacket, loosening his tie, and bending down to untie his dress shoes. As his mother sobbed, his father put his arm around her shoulder.
Friends say they are very worried about the couple. Since SBF’s arrest, neither of the parents have taught any classes. Joseph Bankman canceled his courses, and Barbara Fried retired from the school two months before FTX shut down and resigned from her political nonprofit organization. “For something like this to happen to a family that is full of wisdom and dedicated to public service,” said John Donohue III, a professor at Stanford University and a longtime family friend, “it’s devastating.”
“It’s hard to think, ‘How could they not know?'” said another friend who wished to remain anonymous. “The most reasonable explanation I can come up with is blind faith. They didn’t have the full picture.”
This is certainly understandable. If the prosecutor’s account is accurate, SBF’s fraudulent behavior is antisocial – deceiving not only investors but also business partners and even his own employees. It is not an exaggeration to say that he may have used his parents – and their illustrious academic careers – to build an exploitative enterprise. SBF has claimed to be a billionaire multiple times. Why didn’t he buy his parents a nice house? Why couldn’t his father join Larry David at the Super Bowl shoot?
But critics say that even if they were unaware of the alleged misappropriation of funds, the parents should bear some responsibility. Barbara Fried’s moral compass can explain how her son could overlook glaring ethical flaws in service of what he believed to be a greater good. Following this line of thinking: if the end result is billions of dollars going to charitable organizations saving the world, what’s a little bit of misappropriation?
Meanwhile, Joseph Bankman was involved in providing legal advice, but now it seems at least somewhat unreasonable. He was involved in multiple decisions, including the launch of FTX, the creation of FTT, the company’s attempts to please politicians, and dealings with the Bahamian regulatory authorities, all of which have been criticized by regulatory agencies and prosecutors as potentially illegal. Joseph Bankman was also involved in the hiring of FTX’s general counsel, Friedberg, who has been accused of enabling fraudulent behavior and attempting to cover up efforts to expose the fraud, including bribing potential whistleblowers. These allegations were made in a lawsuit filed on behalf of FTX creditors, which included a statement from Joseph Bankman to his son urging him to rely on Friedberg, “so that we only have one person responsible for everything.” Friedberg denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crimes, but critics argue that his background is enough to give pause – including working at a Canadian online poker site that was accused of defrauding players during his tenure.
Then there is Stanford University itself. Just a month before SBF’s arrest, Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison for fraud at medical device company Theranos Inc. She founded the company on campus during her student days and recruited renowned instructors to serve as employees and directors. The Holmes case, coupled with the resignation of Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne amid allegations of manipulated data in several academic papers, has led some professors and students to question why the school did not uncover the misconduct cases sooner.
Defenders of Stanford University, including Donoho, point out that Stanford University is not the reason for SBF’s alleged criminal activities; it is at most their background. But background matters. Coming from a place like Stanford, with accomplished parents, changes the world’s perception of your flaws. Some behaviors that might be seen as unserious, such as playing video games during meetings, become apparent evidence of talent.
Over the past 10 months, SBF has been trying to shift blame onto former employees, lawyers, and corporate competitors, insisting that his mistakes were due to carelessness, not malice. “I messed up” is his exact words in his congressional testimony before his arrest. He seems to be saying that he was just a kid way beyond his abilities.
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