Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing plea stunt

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Sam Bankman-Fried, cofounder of FTX. Victor J. Blue—Bloomberg/Getty Photos

If you’re a 31-year-old who’s charged with main crimes, the conventional plan of action is to take a plea deal to be able to cut back the sentence, after which hope for the very best earlier than the choose. You’ll in all probability additionally resign your self to spending a long time in jail. Except you might be wealthy and linked, in fact. Then chances are you’ll strive a distinct technique.

Take Sam Bankman-Fried. Despite the fact that he confronted a mountain of proof exhibiting he dedicated one of many largest frauds in U.S. historical past, he selected to roll the cube on a three-week trial. For his bother, Bankman-Fried received rung up by a jury in lower than 4 hours. And now that he faces a most sentence of 100 years or extra when he goes earlier than a choose subsequent month, he’s doing one thing else solely rich and entitled individuals can do. He’s making an attempt to spin his approach out of the entire mess.

Because the New York Occasions reported on Tuesday night time, Bankman-Fried has employed “a brand new lawyer identified for courtroom showmanship” and one other high-flying lawyer to work on a long-shot enchantment. He additionally has his regulation professor mother and father—the Bay Space energy couple often called “Barb and Joe” to fellow denizens of Stanford’s campus—engaged on authorized points, and arranging a sympathy marketing campaign to indicate why everyone seems to be mistaken concerning the poor lad.

All of this can be a “long-shot technique orchestrated by Mr. Bankman-Fried’s household and pals to reverse his conviction and engineer a public reappraisal of his management at FTX.” The Occasions doesn’t acknowledge it’s a automobile for this technique—as evidenced by Bankman-Fried’s crew ready for its sympathetic article to drop earlier than filing a trove of letters and arguments in court docket to amplify their place. And nor does its article increase the awkward query of how the Bankman-Fried clan is paying for these gold-plated legal professionals and a PR agency whose month-to-month retainers begin at $50,000.

The possible reply is that Bankman-Fried’s mother and father are footing the payments with the assistance of $10 million they pressed him to pay his father for authorized work—cash that got here from the treasuries of the crypto firms that collapsed beneath a mountain of fraud. That is dangerous sufficient however much more obnoxious if you learn issues like this: “His legal professionals mentioned Bankman-Fried wasn’t motivated by greed however by a need to higher the world by means of philanthropic giving. Materials gadgets and extravagance did nothing for him, they mentioned.”

Actually? Recall this is identical man who lived in a luxurious villa and appreciated to jet world wide, rubbing shoulders at lavish occasions with the likes of Tom Brady or Katy Perry. Nothing materials or extravagant about that. And let’s not overlook Bankman-Fried’s mother and father are being sued by the FTX property not just for the return of the $10 million (within the case of his father) however for a $16.4 million mansion within the Bahamas that’s of their title.

All of this makes the mother and father’ present try and “engineer a public reappraisal” of their Sam so galling. They remind us in any respect turns how Sam shouldn’t be punished for robbing his clients as a result of he’s on the spectrum or as a result of he has been the sufferer of merciless media caricatures. And so forth. What they gained’t say is that Sam is a 31-year-old man who grew up with each privilege on the planet, and has proven each indication of being a liar and a sociopath.

You’ll be able to’t fault Barb and Joe for doing all they’ll to guard their youngster. Any dad or mum would do the identical. But when they actually wished to indicate their love and assist their son, they may—simply as soon as—cease telling Sam how particular he’s.

Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts

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