When Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of fraud last week, the only surprise was how quickly the jury reached their verdict. John Lanchester joins Tom to discuss how the former crypto billionaire ended up facing a life sentence, from his early career in finance and embrace of Effective Altruism to the simple but audacious nature of his crime, and why he found himself in a US court, even though US citizens were banned from using his trading company, FTX.
Read John Lanchester on Sam Bankman-Fried here
And at the end of the episode, Rosemary Hill chooses one of her favourite pieces from the LRB archive, in the first of a new series of short conversations with contributors:
