FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be subject of ‘high-octane’ book by Michael Lewis

theguardian.com:

Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of The Big Short and Flash Boys, will tell the story of the cryptocurrency exchange founder and alleged fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried in his next book.

Going Infinite: the Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis will be published on 3 October, and is described by its publisher Penguin Press as a “high-octane story of the enigmatic figure at the heart of one of the 21st century’s most spectacular financial collapses”.

Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, became the world’s youngest billionaire before the age of 30, having founded the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. At one point he considered paying off the entire national debt of the Bahamas so he could take his business there.

Then his net worth suddenly evaporated in 2022, and shortly afterwardshe was arrested in the Bahamas and was subsequently extradited to the US on charges including wire fraud and money laundering. Bankman-Fried could be sentenced to up to 115 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Author and financial journalist Michael Lewis was there when it happened, having got to know Bankman-Fried during his rise to wealth. “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 told the Guardian. “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 $23bn, 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.’”

Lewis agreed, Bankman-Fried visited him at home and the pair went on a hike together. “At the end of the hike I turned to him and