According to Barbara Fried, it's all just a witch hunt.

Mama's Boy

As former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's trial draws nearer, the disgraced Forbes cover star's mother, Stanford law professor Barbara Fried, is holding the line that her son is completely innocent, thanks very much!

Bankman-Fried, whose impended criminal trial is due to start on Oct 3, has been accused by both the corpse of FTX and the US government of defrauding millions of FTX investors and misappropriating customer funds. The allegations are gravely serious, and if SBF loses his case, he could face up to life in prison.

But as The New Yorker reports, his mom — as is probably to be expected — doesn't seem to be buying the allegations.

In an email to the magazine, Fried decried the prosecution and bankruptcy court's behavior as "McCarthyite" — a term referring to the tactics of former US Senator Joseph McCarthy, who in the 1950s used propaganda and other fear-stoking tactics to lead witch hunts against perceived Communists — and a "relentless pursuit of total destruction" enabled by "a credulous public that will believe anything they say."

"It takes a lifetime to build up a reputation as honorable people," Fried continued, according to the New Yorker. "It takes five minutes to destroy it, which they now have done."

Company Line

Of course, on the one hand, it's not exactly shocking to see Fried take the denial path. Family is family.

But that said, it's worth noting that Fried and Bankman's role in the FTX fallout is a bit more complicated than that of doting parents. Both figures appear to have been fairly involved in the company, and last week, the couple was sued by FTX on grounds that Bankman and Fried "either knew" about or "ignored bright red flags" regarding their son's crimes, meanwhile profiting immensely off the once-lucrative company. (Speaking to the New Yorker, Fried condemned these accusations as well, claiming the new lawsuit is simply aimed to "enflame the jury pool on the eve of Sam's trial by portraying all of us as a pack of thieves.")

Again, though, parents are parents, and no mom wants to believe that their kid committed a massive fraud. Nor do they probably want to believe that they might have enabled or turned a blind eye to their child's alleged crimes. Even so, SBF often finds a way to make himself sound awfully guilty, and though there is a chance that the jury decides to acquit the former crypto wunderkind, the Bankman-Fried family appears to be on somewhat of an island in the fight to prove SBF's innocence.

Anyway. How soon until Bankman and Fried launch their own Substacks?

More on Bankman, Fried, and Bankman-Fried: Sam Bankman-Fried, Bored on House Arrest, Starts a Substack


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