Cardano’s Hoskinson Says Sam Bankman-Fried Is Modern-Day Bernie Madoff, Slams Michael Lewis And New York Times

Cardona founder Charles Hoskinson says Sam Bankman-Fried is the modern-day equivalent of Bernie Madoff, the man behind the world’s biggest ever Ponzi scheme.

“It’s extraordinary to me that the Bernie Madoff of my generation is getting a free pass from the media,’’ said Hoskinson in a tweet on X. “It does show you how profoundly corrupt things have become, especially if you have the right friends.”

Hoskinson also lashed out at the New York Times for ”the kids gloves treatment” he says it gave Bankman-Fried in recent articles, and author Michael Lewis, who he slammed for writing a book on Bankman-Fried that he said is an ”apology tour.”

“Looking at Michael Lewis’s dumpster fire of a book, there seems to be a group of people in the elite circles who desperately want to somehow get a public exoneration for SBF,” he said, referring to Bankman-Fried by his initials.

Looking at Michael Lewis's dumpster fire of a book, there seems to be a group of people in the elite circles who desperately want to somehow get a public exoneration for SBF. We saw this with the kid gloves treatment by the New York times and now a book that's basically an…

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) October 9, 2023

Lewis Defended Bankman-Fried, Said FTX Wasn’t A Ponzi Scheme

In his book about Bankman-Fried, ”Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon,” Lewis defended FTX, saying it wasn’t a Ponzi scheme and that if “no one had ever cast aspersions on the business, if there hadn’t been a run-on customer deposits, they’d still be sitting there making tons of money.”

Legendary short seller Jim Chanos, who predicted the collapse of Enron in 2001, said Lewis’s defence was “nonsense, as both FTX and Enron were both massively insolvent, not illiquid.”

Madoff was the infamous mastermind behind a $65 billion Ponzi scheme with famous including actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, actor Kevin Bacon and film producer Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation.

FTX founder Bankman-Fried is currently on trial in New York for fraud and conspiracy in connection with the cryptocurrency exchange’s bankruptcy.

Related News

• FTX Jets Worth Almost $30 Million May Be Seized
• Former Blackrock Director Sees Spot Bitcoin ETF Approvals As Early As January, Bringing Up To $200 Billion In Assets
• FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried On Trial: The Big Three Witnesses Expected To Testify Against Him