Michael Lewis isn’t the slightest bit upset at the criticism that’s come his way, in light of his sympathetic portrait, expressed both in his book and in interviews, of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. “I know what it does, it sells the book,” said Lewis on Wednesday, speaking in London to promote “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon.”
“I sold in the first week, 100,000 copies of the book. I’ve never done that before,” the prolific author said at an event hosted by the Financial Times. “That sounds mercenary, but it also means you’re going to have 100,000 readers. It’s not going to be choked off, it will have its place in the world.” Lewis said comparisons made of Bankman-Fried to Ponzi scheme operators like Bernie Madoff were off base. “It rhymes with [barred financier Michael] Milken in some ways, it rhymes with Long-Term Capital Management, there’s a bit of Bernie Madoff,” before saying FTX itself — without the Alameda hedge fund — was a gold mine. Granted, it was Alameda’s ability to withdraw unlimited customer funds from FTX, and invest them elsewhere, that caused the problems, and possible jail time, for Ban …
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