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SBF Biography Author: SBF Once Considered Spending $5 Billion to Make Trump Drop Out, FTX is Not a Ponzi Scheme

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SBF Biography Author: SBF Once Considered Spending $5 Billion to Make Trump Drop Out, FTX is Not a Ponzi Scheme

The biography of SBF by Michael Lewis, the original author of the movie "The Big Short," is about to be released. On October 1st, he was interviewed by CBS, where he provided insights and disclosures about his new book. Lewis' responses during the interview also sparked controversy.

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Author of "The Big Short" to release a detailed account of SBF in October, documenting the rise and fall of FTX

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Apple acquires the rights to Michael Lewis' new book for five million dollars. Will SBF make it to the big screen?

SBF Once Considered Spending $5 Billion to Make Trump Quit

Michael Lewis pointed out that SBF's ultimate investment portfolio, the two things he intended to spend money to improve, are:

  1. Preventing Epidemics

  2. Protecting American Democracy

The second point is because he believes that almost all issues critical to survival require intervention by the US government, and if American democracy is undermined, the US will no longer have a democratic system, and major issues will remain unresolved.

He saw Trump's intention to undermine democracy, so he included Trump in his personally set risk list.

SBF tried various ways, including donating to political action committees to fund Republican candidates who were against Trump, and even considered paying Trump directly to withdraw from the presidential election.

Michael Lewis stated that the figure discussed by SBF and related parties was a staggering $5 billion, and SBF himself was not sure if this price was what Trump demanded.

Michael Lewis pointed out the reason why this did not happen in the end:

When FTX got into trouble, these discussions were ongoing, why didn't it happen? Because SBF no longer had $5 billion.

SBF's Poor Management Skills, FTX Lacks HR, CFO, Compliance Department

To write a biography, Michael Lewis met with SBF more than a hundred times over two years, talking for countless hours.

During SBF's tenure in making major decisions, it seems he often sought Lewis's advice due to a lack of direction, he revealed:

For example, SBF would ask, should I buy Twitter with Musk? Should we do this or that? Most of my answers are "no," and he would laugh that I am a boring adult.

Lewis bluntly stated that SBF is not suitable as a manager, describing SBF's thoughts on management:

If you ask him, SBF believes that people should not need to be managed, so SBF continues to act, essentially with zero management.

Jon Wertheim then asked Lewis if there were any checks and balances for FTX's poor management?

Lewis replied that FTX lacks compliance, HR department, and CFO, and when he asked who was on SBF's board of directors, SBF's response was:

We really don't have a board of directors, the board has been changed, and there are two more people, but I don't even know their names, their job is to sign documents.

Michael Lewis: FTX is Not a Ponzi Scheme

Michael Lewis used the infamous Ponzi scheme suspect Bernard Madoff as an example, pointing out that his securities business did not involve real transactions, but operated entirely on a robbing Peter to pay Paul basis.

He said:

In contrast, FTX actually has a great and legitimate business, if no one slanders the company, if there is no subsequent user run, FTX will still make a lot of money steadily.

This response from Lewis has been circulating in the crypto community, with most people criticizing Lewis's answer.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao CZ also noticed and retweeted the video, believing that the absurd content of the new book is not worth discussing.