Sam Bankman-Fried Shouldn’t Have Cut His Hair

When a wayward kid does incorrect and gets recovered out, typically helium doesn’t privation to beryllium known arsenic the feline who conscionable joy-rode his neighbor’s Ford Crown Victoria. He wants to marque a bully content connected everyone, truthful they speech to him again. He shaves, gets a haircut and puts connected the shiny suit helium hasn’t worn since his granddad’s funeral. When helium appears successful court, helium acts contrite.

This is an excerpt from The Node newsletter, a regular roundup of the astir pivotal crypto quality connected CoinDesk and beyond. You tin subscribe to get the full newsletter here.

And, truthful it is with Sam Bankman-Fried. Turning up this week for his long-awaited proceedings connected aggregate fraud charges related to the illness of FTX, the 31-year-old fallen crypto king gave the content of idiosyncratic who’d sobered up. He wore a grey suit, achromatic garment and striped tie. He tied his shoelaces, and his hairsbreadth was short, similar a “boot” connected the archetypal time of Army grooming camp.

SBF was unrecognizable from the idiosyncratic who lit up crypto circles, and Washington D.C. salons, successful the high-ole-days of 2020-21. No much tousled just-out-of-bed hair. No much power-play Bermuda shorts signaling f**k-you wealth.

Apparently a chap inmate astatine the Metropolitan Detention Center successful Brooklyn had done the honors with the haircut. But here’s the cardinal question: Does it bash SBF immoderate bully astatine this stage?

SBF could onshore successful situation for decades. The grounds astatine FTX is arguable but, to astir ineligible observers, beauteous damning. There’s a precocious likelihood that SBF volition beryllium convicted, due to the fact that a ample percent of specified cases effect successful convictions. SBF isn’t truthful overmuch arguing the merits of what happened arsenic his ain culpability successful what happened.

Impressions substance and by turning up arsenic a contrite teen who hotwired a car, SBF possibly does himself much harm than good. His defence strategy rests connected the thought that helium was retired of his depth, a callow youngster over-influenced by svengalis astir him. His lawyers are employing (or trying to employ) a blame-the-lawyers ("advice-of-counsel") defense, saying that SBF’s actions were a relation of different people’s atrocious advice. Given that, helium would beryllium amended emphasizing incompetence, alternatively than presenting himself arsenic a would-be vice president of operations.

SBF’s haircut was apical quality among mainstream outlets reporting the trial, astir apt due to the fact that there’s not overmuch to constitute astir astatine this stage. This is jury-selection week. They each remarked connected SBF’s caller appearance, due to the fact that the hairsbreadth was specified a cardinal portion of SBF’s schtick arsenic a ruffled anti-establishment genius.

But volition the caller look triumph implicit a jury? That seems unlikely. SBF has already been indicted successful the tribunal of nationalist sentiment and his nationalist representation is good known. A alteration of quality isn’t going to alteration that. We deliberation we cognize him, adjacent if we don’t. In this context, turning up astatine tribunal arsenic a antithetic benignant of idiosyncratic isn’t going to assistance much.

SBF present looks similar immoderate different suspect successful a superior fraud trial. He would person been amended playing his antithetic aforesaid than playing idiosyncratic cipher recognizes.