SBF’s dream of being US president and other weird anecdotes from FTX trial

Enlarge / Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried arrives for a bail hearing at US District Court on August 11, 2023, in New York City. (credit: Getty Images | Michael Santiago )

Over three days of testimony in Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial, Caroline Ellison provided revealing glimpses from the years in which she was SBF’s on-and-off girlfriend and one of his top executives.

Ellison’s testimony described Bankman-Fried’s belief that he could become US president, and his belief that his hair “was an important part of FTX’s narrative and image.” She offered details on a failed attempt to use prostitutes’ identities to unlock funds frozen by the Chinese government, and on Bankman-Fried’s habit of describing hypothetical coin flips in which everything—even the fate of the whole world—would be put at risk.

She also described how Bankman-Fried had a “utilitarian” philosophy in which rules like “don’t lie” and “don’t steal” did not fit into his moral framework.