For a writer who built a career making convoluted financial fraud dead simple to miss something so fundamental is bizarre, to say the least. Whether or not FTX brought in revenue is not being litigated, and bringing it up is to — again — miss the gigantic fraud-shaped hole in FTX’s books (and it’s an SBF talking point). It’s enough for a CoinDesk editor ask me, maybe rhetorically, whether Bankman-Fried “has something” on Lewis. There doesn’t have to be an embarrassing photo of Lewis, like, kissing a goat at a Bahamian rave, for this to be a question worth asking.
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It’s one thing to present opinion as fact — like saying FTX would be a going concern if Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao didn’t trigger a panic run, or that SBF was simply making SO MUCH MONEY he didn’t notice an $8 billion hole in the balance sheet (afterall, Bankman-Fried at least privately admitted his hedge fund Alameda Research was unprofitable and illiquid). It’s another to want to see the best in people (or believe people could be good). “There is still a Sam-Bankman-Fried-shaped hole in the world that now needs filling,” Lewis said, referring to someone willing to take risks principally to benefit the world.
Source: Is Michael Lewis Trashing His Reputation to Defend Sam Bankman-Fried?
