How to get away with FTX collapse: Sam Bankman-Fried 12-point playbook

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Sam Bankman-Fried 12-point playbook

Why Sam is in prison

In 2023, a jury found Bankman-Fried guilty on seven criminal counts, including fraud, conspiracy, and misappropriation of customer funds. The collapse of FTX became one of the largest financial scandals in crypto history. Billions of dollars in customer deposits were funneled into risky bets by Alameda Research, a trading firm closely tied to FTX.

The court determined this was not merely a management failure or an unfortunate market coincidence, but a systematic deception of customers. In March 2024, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Yet back in January 2023, shortly after his arrest, he drafted a document that now reads like a blueprint for reputational escape.

The Google doc that explains everything

On January 15, 2023, Bankman-Fried created a Google document labeled “These are all random, probably bad ideas.” Initially confidential, the document later became part of court filings and entered the public record.

It contains 12 (and in fact more) points that can be reduced to one goal: to create an alternative reality in which he is not a fraudster, but a victim of circumstances and incompetent lawyers.Among the proposals was an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show, where he would “come out as a Republican.” He suggested publicly opposing the “woke agenda” and attacking the lawyers overseeing the bankruptcy process, describing them as a “cartel” that was “destroying value” and “throwing entrepreneurs under the bus.”

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He considered giving an interview to Michael Lewis on ABC, going head-to-head with financial journalists on podcasts, and pushing the narrative that FTX collapsed due to a “tail risk crash,” an improbable market event, rather than fraud.

One item proposed “radical honesty on X,” laying out “exactly what happened,” including what he described as post-collapse legal missteps.

In his notes, he also floated taking a hard anti-Binance stance against Changpeng Zhao, promoting the message that he had funding ready to repay customers “if only the Chapter 11 team would allow it,” and positioning himself as staunchly pro-crypto and pro-freedom.

Those messages now sound familiar because they are precisely what he has been echoing from prison. Placing his January 2023 document alongside his current public statements reveals something unmistakable: this is not improvisation, but the execution of a pre-written script.

Appeal or pardon?

His latest move has been a political repositioning. Through intermediaries with internet access, Bankman-Fried has begun publicly backing Donald Trump and criticizing the Biden administration. “Biden bungled crypto.” “Donald Trump is right on crypto.” Messages like these have surfaced under his name.

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For many observers, the calculation is obvious, especially given that Trump has already granted pardons to several high-profile figures connected to the crypto industry.

YouTuber Atrioc bluntly described the strategy as transparent self-interest, suggesting that after two years in the same Brooklyn jail as other notorious inmates, Bankman-Fried has realized he must use even his limited weekly internet access to shape public perception. Few other options remain.

Formally, he retains the right to appeal and to seek a retrial, including filing motions pro se, representing himself. But legal experts widely view his chances as extremely low.

Realistically, one path remains: a presidential pardon. And if one reads his January 2023 notes carefully, it becomes clear that this was the strategy all along. Shift the debate from the legal arena to the political one, rebrand himself from “crypto fraudster” to “victim of the system,” and position himself as useful to a particular political camp.

Perhaps the most striking element of this entire saga, however, is the absence of genuine remorse.

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