The Parent Trap
The New Yorker|October 02, 2023
Inside Sam Bankman-Fried's family bubble.
By Sheelah Kolhatkar
The Parent Trap

"Sam will never speak an untruth", Barbara Fried said. "It's just not him."

The Magistrates Court of the Bahamas, in Nassau, is situated in an imposing pink-and-white building edged with palm trees. On December 13, 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former C.E.O. of the now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, arrived there to ask for release on bail after being indicted on eight criminal charges. Bankman-Fried typically wears T-shirts and shorts, no matter the occasion; on this day, he wore, like armor, an ill-fitting navy-blue suit. He’d spent the previous night in jail, where he hadn’t been given the medication he normally took for his depression. But of greater concern was the indictment, unsealed that morning in the United States, which accused him of fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and other crimes that could lead to more than a hundred years in prison.

The evening before, he and a colleague had been working on their laptops in the oceanfront penthouse of a resort where he lived when his parents, who were visiting, called him into a bedroom. Minutes later, according to the colleague, a group of Bahamian law-enforcement officers, accompanied by members of the resort’s staff, strode into the apartment. One officer had a warrant for Bankman-Fried’s arrest.

When the officers entered the bedroom, Bankman-Fried asked for a drink of water and seemed to gird himself for what was ahead. “I can give you my passport,” he told a broad-shouldered officer, who in turn suggested that he might want to bring a jacket with him. Passing his phone, wallet, and college class ring to the colleague, whom he’d asked to try to keep his parents calm, Bankman-Fried raised his wrists to be cuffed.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 02, 2023 من The New Yorker.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 02, 2023 من The New Yorker.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من THE NEW YORKER مشاهدة الكل
INSIDE JOB-"Hit Man"
The New Yorker

INSIDE JOB-"Hit Man"

Years before Hannah Arendt coined, in the pages of this magazine, the phrase \"the banality of evil,\" popular films and fiction were embodying that idea in the character of the hit man. In classic crime movies such as \"This Gun for Hire\" (1942) and \"Murder by Contract\" (1958), hit men figure much as Nazis do in political movies, as symbols of abstract evil.

time-read
6 mins  |
June 10, 2024
WHATEVER YOU SAY
The New Yorker

WHATEVER YOU SAY

Rereading Jenny Holzer, at the Guggenheim.

time-read
6 mins  |
June 10, 2024
SUBCONSCIOUSLY YOURS
The New Yorker

SUBCONSCIOUSLY YOURS

Does every generation get the Freud it deserves?

time-read
9 mins  |
June 10, 2024
BY A WHISKER
The New Yorker

BY A WHISKER

Louis Wain and the reinvention of the cat.

time-read
10+ mins  |
June 10, 2024
Beyond Imagining
The New Yorker

Beyond Imagining

Bessie, Lotte, Ruth, Farah, and Bridget, who had been lunching together for half a century, joined in later years by Ilka, Hope, and, occasionally, Lucinella, had agreed without the need for discussion that they were not going to pass, pass away, and under no circumstances on.

time-read
10+ mins  |
June 10, 2024
STATES OF PLAY
The New Yorker

STATES OF PLAY

Can advocates use state supreme courts to preserve-and perhaps expand-constitutional rights?

time-read
10+ mins  |
June 10, 2024
THE LONG RIDE
The New Yorker

THE LONG RIDE

The surf legend Jock Sutherland's unlikely life.

time-read
10+ mins  |
June 10, 2024
ARE WE DOOMED?
The New Yorker

ARE WE DOOMED?

A course at the University of Chicago thinks it through.

time-read
10+ mins  |
June 10, 2024
GOD EXPLAINS THE RULES OF HIS NEW BOARD GAME
The New Yorker

GOD EXPLAINS THE RULES OF HIS NEW BOARD GAME

Guys, want to play this new board game? It’s called Life. No, it’s not “one of God’s impossible-to-understand games that take three hours to learn.” It’ll be fun, I promise!

time-read
3 mins  |
June 10, 2024
RED LINE
The New Yorker

RED LINE

With the election approaching, the U.S. and Mexico wrangle over border policy.

time-read
10+ mins  |
June 10, 2024