Author Michael Lewis, whose best-selling book The Big Short was adapted into a Hollywood blockbuster, has reportedly faced embarrassment. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried at his California home where he has been lately held for trial.
Lewis, 62, met with Bankman-Fried for several hours on Friday at his parents’ $4 million home, both Stanford University law professors, who were accused of cryptocurrency scams. New York Post reported by citing the source.
According to the Post, barricades outside the home, run by private security guards, block off the residential street to keep curious onlookers away, an arrangement that cost Bankman-Fried’s parents about $10,000 a week.
Lewis has reportedly been working on a book about Bankman-Fried for months.
Before Bankman-Fried was arrested on federal charges, Lewis reportedly spent six months tracking down the 30-year-old CEO, traveling with him and interviewing him extensively.
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, left Federal Court in New York on Thursday after he was released on $250 million bail and ordered to be detained at his family’s home in California.
A team of security guards and Stanford police guard a closed street barricade near Sam Bankman-Fried’s residence on Monday and block access to Fried’s home on Monday.
Michael Lewis, the Hollywood blockbuster adaptation of his best-selling book The Big Short, reportedly met with Bankman-Fried at his home on Friday.
Ankler first reported literary agent Michael Snyder informed his contacts that Lewis had six months’ worth of material on his mentor, Bankman-Fried, who had a spectacular rivalry with Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Zhao, the head of the world’s largest bitcoin and crypto exchange, initially announced plans to bail out Bankman-Fried’s company, FTX, but later backed out, saying FTX was not stable.
Lewis compared the duo to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
“Michael hasn’t written anything yet, but the story is now too big for us to wait,’ said the agent in his email, ankle.
Lewis’ previous books, The Big Short, Moneyball, and The Blind Side, have been turned into Hollywood blockbusters.
It’s unclear whether Bankman-Fried’s forthcoming book about Lewis himself would benefit financially if it were made into a movie.
Typically, studios don’t have to pay to get the living rights to well-known figures, especially if they opt for a non-fiction work for adaptation.
Bankman-Fried’s parents, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, are Stanford University law professors. They were seen upstairs on their way out of court last week
The family reportedly pays $10,000 a week for private security patrols that block the street where they live and keep bystanders at bay.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the infamous FTX, will remain under house arrest in this five-bedroom home in the Bay Area after he was released on a $250 million bond Thursday.
However, even some convicted criminals received payments from studios seeking to avoid lawsuits. In one case, scammer Anna Sorkin received $320,000 from Netflix for the rights to adapt her life story, but the funds reportedly went to pay compensation and fines.
Bankman-Fried was not convicted of any crimes, but is on bail of $250 million as he awaits trial on federal charges including electronic fraud, commodity fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance law violations.
In August, Lewis discussed his forthcoming book on Bankman-Fried in broad terms in an interview with Financial News.
“I don’t want to explain exactly what I’m writing about,” he said.
But I found a character I could write about – oddly enough, it links the Flash Boys, The Big Short, and Liar’s Poker.
“I think it’s possible that it’s framed as a crypto book, but it won’t be a crypto book.”
It will be about really unusual character. You will learn all about crypto and how awful the market structure in the United States is etc.
Sam Bankman-Fried was portrayed in court on Thursday, where he was released on $250 million bail.
FTX had a one-time valuation of $32 billion before it went bankrupt last month amid allegations that billions of client funds were being pulled to support Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund Alameda Research.
Arrested two weeks ago in the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried was brought to the US last week to face charges of defrauding FTX investors and looting customer deposits.
He was released on $250 million personal bail to live with his family in Palo Alto, California, after he was fitted with an electronic tracking bracelet so authorities could track his whereabouts.
On Tuesday, the case was returned to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan after the originally appointed judge withdrew her because her husband once worked at a law firm that did business with FTX.
Having held senior status in Manhattan federal court for over a decade, Kaplan, 78, was nominated to the stand by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and gained a reputation as a no-nonsense lawyer.
He oversaw numerous high-profile cases and is currently presiding over two federal civil lawsuits filed by former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll against former President Donald Trump.
Carroll said Trump raped her in the dressing room of a Manhattan luxury department store in 1995 or 1996. Trump denied the accusations. A hearing is scheduled for April.
The story judge also presided over an American woman’s sexual misconduct allegations against Prince Andrew before the two sides agreed earlier this year, and Andrew said he never wanted to disparage her character and that the woman had agreed to donate to charity. Prior to the settlement, Kaplan had denied Andrew’s request to drop the lawsuit.
Most recently, Kaplan presided over Kevin Spacey’s civil suit after an actor friend accused him of trying to harass him at his home after a party when Kevin Spacey was 14 and Spacey 26.
A jury sided with Spacey, realizing that actor Anthony Rapp did not run his case against him.
