If you've seen a cop show, you know the phrase "You have a right to remain silent. Everything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." That famous warning, enshrined as a constitutional right in the Supreme Court's 1966 Miranda decision, isn't one to take lightly. If you are in trouble with the law, the first thing to do is easy: Shut. Up.
Sam Bankman-Fried, despite being the child of two prominent law professors, didn't heed that advice. Instead, after finding himself in deep legal trouble, he blabbed to anyone who would listen. He blabbed to a Bloomberg reporter. He blabbed to Michael Lewis. He blabbed by text to younger female journalists. For good measure, he also blabbed to the New York Times at an event livestreamed around the world.
And wouldn't you know it, all that blabbing is being used against him in a court of law. My colleague Leo has been attending the Manhattan courtroom where Bankman-Fried is being tried for fraud, and his latest dispatch highlights how his many media interviews became so many gift-wrapped pieces of evidence for prosecutors:
"To prove Bankman-Fried’s awareness of an activity, she frequently pointed to statements he had made to reporters during his infamous media tour in December 2022, right after the collapse of FTX. These included interviews conducted with outlets including Bloomberg and The Financial Times. Even as Bankman-Fried asserted that he didn’t remember the specifics of the interviews, they provided Sassoon with a wealth of evidence to show his exact comments—many of them damning."
What did he think was going to happen? Did he think he would be able to use his charm and intellect to spin away his reckless words as he had once done if anyone asked about the integrity of FTX's business? That's not how it works. Instead his moronic media tour is likely to become a source of amusement for Bankman-Fried's future cell mates who will marvel over how anyone could have been that stupid.
I have no idea why Bankman-Fried undertook that media tour—the answer must involve psychological factors that are above my pay grade. But let's hope he enjoyed it. His next big media tour will be 20 years from now—if he's lucky.
Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts
