Michael Lewis's New Book on Sam Bankman-Fried Faces Waves of Criticism

Michael Lewis's latest book on Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced CEO of FTX and Alameda Capital, has been subject to intense criticism after Lewis said in an interview on 60 Minutes that FTX was a "great real business."

"This isn't a Ponzi scheme," Lewis said in the interview. "In this case, they actually had-- a great real business. If no one had ever cast aspersions on the business, if there hadn't been a run on customer deposits, they'd still be sitting there making tons of money."

Lewis, critics argue, fails to present an accurate account of Bankman-Fried and his business. Lewis is the acclaimed financial journalist and author known for his bestsellers inlcuding "Liar's Poker" and "The Big Short." His book on SBF has been highly anticipated.

Bankman-Fried was charged with conspiracy to defraud customers, lenders, and investors of FTX and Alameda Research. He was accused of misappropriating billions of dollars of customer funds, concealing his misuse of funds, and making questionable political contributions to federal candidates.

"Michael Lewis is a great storyteller but he delivers narratives rather than true understanding," wrote investor Ram Ahluwalia on X. "FTX was a money losing business. That led to fraud. FTX was getting arbed by their own clients. An exchange can withstand any run on the bank because deposits are never rehypothecated."

"It's disheartening to witness Michael Lewis, whose work I greatly appreciated during my college years when I aspired to become a trader, portraying Sam Bankman-Fried as a victim in the downfall of FTX, rather than acknowledging him as the one responsible for the mismanagement," tweeted a trader who goes by the X account @TheFlowHorse.

Vance Spencer, of venture capital firm Framework Ventures, tweeted simply, "Michael Lewis is completely full of shit."

This post was written with help from AI.