Lunch with Shaquille O'Neal, dinner with the Kardashians, a chat with Hillary Clinton and a meeting with the CEO of Goldman Sachs. It was a typical week in the life of Sam Bankman Freed (SBF). In the year As of early 2022, he is the world's youngest billionaire and many believe he has a good chance of becoming the world's first billionaire.
In less than nine months, his firm collapsed and he was accused of misappropriating and wasting nearly $8 billion of his clients' money.
The trial in New York over the past three weeks has been a veritable media circus. The crowded room was full. The queue of citizens started at four o'clock in the morning every day. Michael Lewis's recently published biography of SBF ( Unlimited: The Rise and Fall of the New Entrepreneur ) was being read by patrons in galleries and courthouses. Lewis, the bestseller of Moneyball and The Big Short , also stopped by to see some of the action.
He was sentenced this month and now faces up to 110 years in prison.
SBF made the fortune on the wave of interest in cryptocurrencies fueled by Covid. Cryptocurrency is a digital currency created by complex computer calculations and then traded on a shared database called blockchain. Local missionaries preached it as a get-rich-quick alternative to paper money; It was a boring, government controlled currency.
During the California Gold Rush in the 19th century, quite a few prospectors became rich when they found gold. century, but those who sold knives made a huge profit. Read the SBF paper. In the year In May 2019, he launched his own cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, and became the most trusted "shovel trader" in the world. He was right. If you own a racetrack, you shouldn't bet on horses. His wealth reached 26 billion dollars.
SBF soon began transferring client funds from FTX to another company, Alameda Research. Alameda was a regular cryptocurrency exchange fund that bought and sold cryptocurrencies for profit. Owning a racetrack was not enough. SBF also wanted to bet on horses.
"The rise and fall of this young billionaire gives us a lot to think about. The potential for abuse. The misuse of skills. Greed destroys its victims. His story was an expression of unlimited brilliance. It became a warning of pure moral ambition."
According to his biographer, he was trying to earn money to help people. As a young college graduate, he joined a movement known as effective altruism (EA), which strives to do good based on evidence-based research and mathematical modeling.
Already in 2018, alarm bells were raised about his ethical standards, which caused internal disagreements in the EA community. Ea is forced to choose between his questionable morals and his money. He was the most famous donor. Don't ask questions. Moral cracks were showing, but the numbers were getting closer and closer. SBF in 2010 In 2022, he gave about 160 million dollars to the EA cause. Now it is clear that this is not his donation money.
Through it all, Bankman-Fried has remained committed to improving his contract. From girlfriends to investments, every decision is based on chance. When asked about morality, they commented that people should be treated according to the distribution of behavior in the future. People are neither good nor bad, we should treat them according to their potential value.
For him, the world is neither moral nor ethical. It is unethical. As long as the numbers add up, the end always justifies the means. As one journalist put it, SBF is a calculator, not a detector. Transferring money to improve his wealth and ability to help people was the right thing to do.
Your logic is inconsistent. Or maybe he is surprisingly honest about the modern fabric. Sociologist George Ritzer says that our world depends on improving efficiency, predictability, accountability, and control to improve the quality of life for all. On the other hand, the philosopher Ayn Rand said that the sole purpose of morality is the happiness of the individual.
The history of SBF shows that in a world full of immorality, the difference between selfishness and altruism becomes blurred. Can live with Rand or Ritzer. When we write our morals, we go back inside. Self-interest destroys both altruism and individualism. The consequences are harmful. People are getting hurt. Human dignity has been damaged. We will limit ourselves to talking about probability calculations, which we need to understand for our benefit.
It should be noted that three former SBF employees (no doubt the subjects of many of his accounts) testified against him in court. Perhaps they figured that reaching a plea deal with prosecutors would improve their future.
The rise and fall of this young billionaire gives us a lot to think about. Able to abuse. Incorrect capacity. Greed destroys its victims. His story was an expression of unbridled brilliance. It became a warning of pure moral ambition. It will be a good movie. But it raises deep questions for all of us. If the end justifies, who justifies the end? He's definitely not a super rich guy who's at odds with a lot of celebrities.
Max Jeganathan served as a political and social policy adviser in the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments. He is a member of the Center for Public Christianity and is working on his doctorate in the ethics of human dignity.
Featured Image : Sam Bankman Fried testifies before the House Committee on Financial Services in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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