Sam Bankman-Fried's Trim May Undercut His Defense

When a wayward kid does wrong and gets found out, typically he doesn’t want to be known as the guy who just joy-rode his neighbor’s Ford Crown Victoria. He wants to make a good impression on everyone, so they talk to him again. He shaves, gets a haircut and puts on the shiny suit he hasn’t worn since his granddad’s funeral. When he appears in court, he acts contrite.

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And, so it is with Sam Bankman-Fried. Turning up this week for his long-awaited trial on multiple fraud charges related to the collapse of FTX, the 31-year-old fallen crypto king gave the impression of someone who’d sobered up. He wore a gray suit, white shirt and striped tie. He tied his shoelaces, and his hair was short, like a “boot” on the first day of Army training camp.

SBF was unrecognizable from the person who lit up crypto circles, and Washington D.C. salons, in the high-ole-days of 2020-21. No more tousled just-out-of-bed hair. No more power-play Bermuda shorts signaling f**k-you wealth.

Apparently a fellow inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn had done the honors with the haircut. But here’s the key question: Does it do SBF any good at this stage?

SBF could land in prison for decades. The record at FTX is arguable but, to most legal observers, pretty damning. There’s a high likelihood that SBF will be convicted, because a large percentage of such cases result in convictions. SBF isn’t so much arguing the merits of what happened as his own culpability in what happened.

See also: Sam Bankman-Fried Blames Everyone but Himself for FTX's Collapse | Opinion

Impressions matter and by turning up as a contrite teen who hotwired a car, SBF perhaps does himself more harm than good. His defense strategy rests on the idea that he was out of his depth, a callow youngster over-influenced by svengalis around him. His lawyers are employing (or trying to employ) a blame-the-lawyers ("advice-of-counsel") defense, saying that SBF’s actions were a function of other people’s bad advice. Given that, he would be better emphasizing incompetence, rather than presenting himself as a would-be vice president of operations.

SBF’s haircut was top news among mainstream outlets reporting the trial, probably because there’s not much to write about at this stage. This is jury-selection week. They all remarked on SBF’s new appearance, because the hair was such a central part of SBF’s schtick as a ruffled anti-establishment genius.

But will the new look win over a jury? That seems unlikely. SBF has already been indicted in the court of public opinion and his public image is well known. A change of appearance isn’t going to change that. We think we know him, even if we don’t. In this context, turning up at court as a different type of person isn’t going to help much.

See also: Could Sam Bankman-Fried's Saga Happen Without Crypto? | Opinion

SBF now looks like any other defendant in a serious fraud trial. He would have been better playing his unusual self than playing someone nobody recognizes.