The latest from the Crypto Boy camp

Alleged crypto mega-swindler Sam Bankman-Fried doesn't have a blog. But as long as the New York Times is publishing, he doesn't need one.

Today that paper continues its practice of presenting SBF's case for him. The latest story airs the grievances that Crypto Boy and his parents have against Sullivan & Cromwell, the big bucks New York law firm that represented the FTX crypto exchange before it imploded. These days that firm is also profiting handsomely off FTX's bankruptcy while seemingly ratting the Bankman clan out to prosecutors at every turn.

Part of Bankman-Fried's defense in his criminal trial may be that the law firm told him that what he was doing was okay. Somebody on his defense team has leaked to the Times a legal memo that his parents' fellow law prof and good buddy, William Simon, wrote, concluding that the law firm may have done wrong. The Times is happy to print part of that, just as it has been gleefully printing SBF's unpublished blog tweets, the dirt he wanted to dish on his ex-girlfreind, and seemingly anything else he wants to feed them, directly or indirectly, from his jail cell.

Now, don't get me wrong, I have no use for Sullivan & Cromwell generally, or the part it played in this scandal particularly. And SBF isn't the only one ticked off at that firm over its dubious roles; plenty of swindled investors and depositors are mightily unhappy with them as well. But the way the Times acts as Crypto Boy's mouthpiece, as thinly disguised as it is, is depressing. Trying one's case in the media is always a dirty practice. Being the news organization that plays along for clicks isn't the high road, either.

Meanwhile, this week the creditors of the cypto exchange have started coming after Crypto Mom and Dad, Bankman and Fried, demanding that they pay back tens of millions in cash and goodies on which they were feasting before the crypto dupes caught on to the scam. If the creditors' efforts are fruitful, the old folks will have to live off their law professor pensions and Social Security. Their sweet trips to the Bahamas are over – if they're lucky, they'll get the occasional afternoon enjoying an ice cream cone on the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Oh well, it beats where their boy is going.

And golly: Some of the customers' stolen money was "donated" to Stanford University. Why am I not surprised? But hey, now that they've been caught, the Stanford suits are giving it back. That place is a real model of ethics, I tell ya.

What a sorry disgrace all around. I still can't believe I sang to Sam at his parents' house in the faculty ghetto when he was in diapers. I should have taken a picture for posterity.