--- title: "In High School, SBF Reportedly Printed $100 Bills With His Face on Them Called “Bankmans”" description: "In the court of public opinion, SBF is certainly not beating the allegations — though the most recent scoop about him deepens his myserious vibe." date: "2022-12-14" modified: "2022-12-14" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/sbf-100-bills-bankmans" categories: - "Blockchain" - "Future Society" tags: - "effective altruism" - "ftx" - "sbf" - "the digest" --- # In High School, SBF Reportedly Printed $100 Bills With His Face on Them Called “Bankmans” ![In the court of public opinion, SBF is certainly not beating the allegations — though the most recent scoop about him deepens his myserious vibe.]() *\Image: Tom Williams via Getty / Futurism\* ## Bankman Notes It sounds like former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried — now [in custody]() and facing US criminal charges — has a long history with self-minted money. According to a source that [spoke with *Puck*](), Bankman-Fried was the literal face of his tony private school's senior prank. Per the source, SBF's classmates at the Crystal Springs Uplands prep school in the Bay Area put his face on fake $100 bills as their senior prank — and called the counterfeit bills "Bankmans." At Crystal Springs, the unnamed insider says SBF was a well-known nerd and the president of the uber-dorky "Puzzle Hunt club," which seems to be in reference to the [Great Puzzle Hunt](), described on the game's website as "like a scavenger hunt adventure with puzzles." Bankman-Fried's younger brother Gabe was described as the more outgoing of the two. ## Lawyer Up The tea doesn't stop there, either. SBF's parents Barbara Fried and Joe Bankman, both Stanford Law professors, were reportedly quite into "effective altruism" — a branch of philanthropic thinking that aims to leverage targeted charitable giving to do the greatest good — and would discuss it around the dinner table with their sons. That detail, notably, corroborates [*New York Times* reporting]() this week about the family's relationship to effective altruism. "To what extent is consequentialism or effective altruism looming in the background here because the ends justify the means?" queried one *Puck* source who knows the parents personally. "All one can speculate is that SBF had first-class brains at home thinking about moral philosophy." Beyond [simple rubbernecking]() about a now-infamous figure, the fake $100 bills anecdote is extraordinary background for a figure accused, among other things, of creating his own digital currency and insisting it held immense value. Adding to the fascination, SBF has demonstrated a deep propensity for [over-tweeting]() and [spouting off at the mouth](). Like every other aspect of this saga, we still don't know which way is up or down — which is perhaps why we're still so into it. **More on FTX:** [*SBF and Caroline Ellison Allegedly Had a Secret Groupchat Called "Wirefraud"*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()