The Ankler reports that Apple has paid US$5 million for the rights to Michael Lewis’s forthcoming book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon about Sam Bankman-Fried (also known as SBF).
The article, quoting two unnamed sources, says Lewis declined to provide Apple executives or any potential screenwriters access to his notes or a peek at an early draft of his book, even with several other competing scripted projects about the FTX implosion in the works.
The Ankler has also learned that Documentarian Nanette Burstein and Propagate are working on a new doc about Bankman-Fried featuring exclusive inside access. In total, there are at least eight reported Hollywood projects in the works so far on Bankman-Fried and it’s creating a mad rush to get to market first.
SBF is the 31-year-old cryptocurrency mogul who’s currently in jail over the collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX. he now bankrupt company was one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. It enabled customers to trade digital currencies for other digital currencies or traditional money; it also had a native cryptocurrency known as FTT. The company, based in the Bahamas, built its business on risky trading options that are not legal in the United States.
FTX’s collapse kicked off investigations by the Justice Department and the S.E.C. focused on whether FTX improperly used customer funds to prop up Alameda Research, a crypto trading platform that Bankman-Fried had helped start. In December, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas for lying to investors and committing fraud and was extradited to the U.S.
Since Bankman-Fried’s extradition, several charges have been added to and later dropped from his indictment. Prosecutors have also removed a charge that he violated campaign finance rules. He is now set to face seven charges at his trial in October, including accusations that he defrauded customers and lenders of FTX.
