A courtroom sketch supposedly drawn of Sam Bankman-Fried made rounds on Twitter this week, giving the alleged cryptocurrency fraudster and self-professed “math nerd” the Hollywood treatment.
With his razor-sharp jawline, high cheekbones and artfully messy hair, SBF could have been plucked straight out of a high-end perfume campaign. There was just one problem: the sketch is a phony. Similar to Donald Trump’s very fake – and incredibly bizarre – courtroom sketch featuring the former president next to Jesus, it didn’t come from inside the courtroom and appears to be fan art. But for many people following the trial, the real portraits are engrossing enough – just not nearly as flattering.
the courtroom sketch artist was definitely paid off by SBF pic.twitter.com/OTzfOy05f8
— litquidity (@litcapital) October 30, 2023
In one portrait from 11 October, the artist Jane Rosenberg rendered SBF’s face as a slapdash bricolage with absurd proportions: gigantic ears and protruding forehead paired with tiny little shoulders.
But he looks like the Vitruvian Man next to sketches of Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s ex and the former CEO of Alameda Research. While testifying, Ellison dropped bombshells such as the claim that SBF aspired to be president of the United States. But even the juiciest bits were overshadowed by her appearance in Rosenberg’s image. Droopy, unsettling: comparisons to Edvard Munch’s The Scream are inevitable, from her eyes down to the brushstroke.
Do these portraits resemble their disgraced subjects? Maybe not, but at least they’re entertaining: surrealist, a little face-melty and kind of mean. Some online wondered if the artist harbored any grudges against FTX, or lost money in the supposed pump-and-dump scheme.
For the record: no. A working courtroom sketch artist for over 40 years, Rosenberg painted the faces of numerous characters at some of their lowest moments, from Donald Trump to Ghislaine Maxwell. She may have seen nearly everything, but Rosenberg says she finds Bankman-Fried’s face “unusual”.
“I do better [painting him] in a front view rather than from the side,” she said. “It’s taken me a while to understand what he looks like. I study his anatomy, and keep trying over and over, figuring out why it doesn’t look like him, or why it does.”
Rosenberg says she has nothing against SBF or Ellison – it’s her job to paint them as she sees them. “The photo of Ellison that went viral or whatever, I had 10 minutes to draw her,” she said. “The more you do, the easier it gets.”
That may be why many of the SBF court portraits are shape-shifters. Bankman-Fried rarely looks the same in any two images. On 16 October, the vibe was buff and hulking, with his eyes staring defiantly off to the side.
A few weeks later, on 31 October, Bankman-Fried looked meek and small. This matched the subdued tone of his cross-examination, much of which he answered with one-word responses.
While the fake, beefcake courtroom sketch might have suggested a cushy relationship between SBF and his courtroom artists, the real ones tell the opposite story. Just as sketches depict the former CEO in different ways, his public figure has long been elusive – a mystery that his trial might finally crack open.
