- Charles Hoskinson said people in elite circles are trying to get Sam Bankman-Fried a public exoneration.
- The Cardano co-founder said Michael Lewis’s book and the New York Times report painted Bankman-Fried in a sympathetic way.
- Hoskinson said the empathetic portrayal of Bankman-Fried shows “how profoundly corrupt things have become.”
Amidst the ongoing Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) trial, Charles Hoskinson, Cardano network co-founder, said in a recent post on X (formerly Twitter) that influential people with connections to Bankman-Fried may be trying to help him avoid conviction.
According to Hoskinson, the recent book by Michael Lewis is more of an apology tour than a truthful portrayal of Bankman-Fried. He noted that the New York Times took a similar approach when reporting on the FTX founder.
The biography by Michael Lewis, titled “Go Infinite,” detailed the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried. However, the author has been accused of painting a sympathetic image of Sam Bankman-Fried as a “genius weirdo” whom nobody properly understood. Likewise, recent reports raised an alarm that the book falls short in its portrayal of Web3 and crypto technologies.
To Hoskinson, however, these are all plans to get Bankman-Fried off the hooks. “There seems to be a group of people in the elite circles who desperately want to somehow get a public exoneration for SBF,” he tweeted. He continued that the “free pass by the media” is surprising, given the allegations Bankman-Fried is facing in court, whom he likened to Bernie Madoff.
According to Hoskinson, the sympathetic portrayal of Bankman-Fried shows “how profoundly corrupt things have become, especially if you have the right friends.” Sam Bankman-Fried, who once led the defunct crypto exchange FTX, is facing trial for mismanagement of customer funds, fraud, and conspiracy to launder money, amongst other criminal charges.
Meanwhile, a recent filing revealed prosecutors have moved to block Bankman-Fried’s lawyers from introducing evidence that FTX planned to pay customers back using its investment in Anthropic. Reacting to the report, crypto expert Adams Cochran tweeted, “The lawyers are arguing it is ok for him to steal your money and make investments without your knowledge because it might break even.”
Last Thursday, FTX co-founder Gary Wang took the stand against former classmate and confidant Bankman-Fried. He testified that financial crimes were carried out at the exchange by the founder and two other key executives – Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison.
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