True crime lovers, rejoice. AppleTV+ and A24 are set to bring us the (true) story of one of the most notorious fraudsters in recent history, and they’ve hired none other than Lena Dunham to do it.
The Girls creator is signed on to adapt Michael Lewis’s 2023 novel, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, which tells the unbelievable true story Sam Bankman-Fried. For those unfamiliar, Bankman-Fried founded the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and, at the peak of his success, was the 41st-richest American. But all that went awry late last year, when Bankman-Fried was convicted to 25 years in jail for fraud and other crimes.
So how did it all come crashing down? As we wait eagerly for the film re-telling, we’re bringing you the true story of the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, below.
Who is Sam Bankman-Fried?
Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014, where he studied physics. He then began his career as a trader at Jane Street Capital, where he worked for three years in arbitrage trading strategies. Without going into too much detail, per Forbes, an arbitrage trade involves purchasing an asset in one market, and immediately reselling it for a higher price elsewhere.
During this time, cryptocurrency began to boom, with bitcoin gaining substantial traction in the world of mainstream finance. Noticing this trend, SBF also observed significant opportunity for crypto trading infrastructure – in particular, in his own area of arbitrage trading strategies. Soon after, he began implementing an arbitrage trade strategy, buying bitcoin in America and re-selling it in Japan, and profiting around 10% of the cost.
He used this money to set up Alameda Research in late 2017, a quantitative trading firm. Two years later, SBF established a cryptocurrency exchange called FTX. Seemingly overnight, SBF became one of the richest people in America, and was largely considered the world’s youngest billionaire.
So, where did it all go wrong?
In 2022, billions of dollars were discovered to be missing from FTX when cryptocurrency rates crashed, and thousands of customers attempted to withdraw their money at the same time. In November that year, SBF stepped down as CEO of the company, and FTX filed for bankruptcy. Shortly after, SBF was accused of transferring customers’ funds to his other company, Alameda, and losing billions in the process.
In 2022, SBF was arrested from his home in the Bahamas, and extradited to the United States to face trial. He was found guilty of several charges related to fraud and money laundering and, during his sentencing, was described as “a calculating math genius who sought power and influence while knowingly committing wrongdoing”.
What else do we know about the project?
Little more is known about the film itself, including whether it will go by the same name as the source novel. For hints, however, we can look to films The Big Short and Moneyball, both of which were also adapted from books by Michael Lewis. Of course, this project will also have some of Dunham's signature humour thrown in, too.
Love true crime? While we wait for this project to hit screens, why not brush up on the chilling true story behind Netflix's Woman Of The Hour.
Feature image via Instagram
