The 6 wildest details about Sam Bankman-Fried that Michael Lewis revealed in a tell-all interview

• Michael Lewis gave a peek into details from his new book on Sam Bankman-Fried in a tell-all interview.
• "The Big Short" author said he had over 100 meetings with Bankman-Fried.
• Lewis said SBF was friends with Tom Brady and once considered paying Donald Trump not to run in 2024.

"The Big Short" author Michael Lewis shared some of the wildest details from his forthcoming book on disgraced FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried during a tell-all interview with "60 Minutes" on Sunday.

Lewis said he met with Bankman-Fried more than 100 times over the course of two years — and had a front row seat to FTX's historic collapse. Lewis's book, "Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of. New Tycoon," hit shelves today — the same day Bankman-Fried's criminal trial will kick off in New York.

Here are six of the wildest stories from Lewis' interview:

SBF wanted to pay Donald Trump not to run for office

The biographer said Bankman-Fried, who at one point was worth $26 billion on paper, looked into how much it would cost to pay the former president not to run in the 2024 presidential election.

"There was a number that was kicking around," Lewis said during the "60 Minutes" interview. "The number that was kicking around when I was talking to Sam about this was $5 billion."

The author added that Bankman-Fried wasn't sure whether the figure had come directly from Trump, and a spokesperson for Trump told Insider's Lloyd Lee that SBF has been "outed as a fraudster and someone that can't be trusted."

Lewis said Bankman-Fried viewed Trump as an "existential threat" because of Trump's efforts to undermine the 2020 election.

Tom Brady once 'adored' Bankman-Fried

The former NFL player and SBF had an authentic relationship, according to Lewis.

"Tom Brady, I think, adored him," Lewis said. "Tom Brady thought he was a really interesting person. I think he liked to hear what he had to say."

The author added that Bankman-Fried also "really liked" Brady.

"And Sam wasn't a big sports person," Lewis said. "So it was funny to watch that interaction. It was like, 'These two people actually get along.' It's like the class nerd and the quarterback."

SBF paid Brady $55 million to help promote his crypto exchange platform for 20 hours a year over the course of three years, Lewis said, adding that the ex-quarterback was "crushed" when FTX collapsed.

"I think as time has gone by — and he's ceased to get a really good explanation about what's happened — I think he's just like, 'He tricked me. I'm angry. I don't want to have anything to do with it anymore,'" Lewis said of Brady's reaction.

A representative for Brady did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

FTX also shelled out millions for Larry David and Steph Curry's commercials

FTX paid Larry David $10 million for his role in FTX's Super Bowl commercial, while Steph Curry got $35 million for a similar deal to Brady's, Lewis said.

The author said Bankman-Fried's heavy spending — including spending over $100 million for the naming rights to the Miami Heat's arena — made him popular among some of the biggest names in Hollywood and sports.

Vogue's Anna Wintour even reached out to SBF to attempt to get him to sponsor the Met Gala, but the former FTX CEO had no idea who she was, Lewis told "60 Minutes." The author added that he found it strange that a style icon like Wintour wanted to work with Bankman-Fried — who he dubbed "the worst-dressed person in America."

"It was a social experiment: The person who has nothing all of a sudden has seemingly infinite dollars, will give it away, is unbelievably open-handed about it, and doesn't ask a whole lot of questions," Lewis said. "Who shows up when this person exists? Everybody, everybody comes to the trough. Everybody wants to be his best friend."

However, since FTX's collapse and the fraud charges that followed, Lewis said SBF has "no friends."

Spokespeople for David, Curry, and Wintour did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SBF played a video game during his first live TV interview

Lewis said Bankman was pretty nonchalant about his first interview on live television. According to the author, SBF wore cargo shorts and had his signature ruffled hair.

"If you watch the clip you can see his eyes going back and forth, back and forth," Lewis said. "It's because he's trying to win his video game at the same time he's on the air."

The FTX cofounder is known to be an avid gamer and reportedly played "League of Legends" during a pitch meeting with Sequoia Capital investors.

SBF 'may go mad' without internet access

Bankman-Fried doesn't stop at at video games. He also needs a "constant stream of information," Lewis said.

"Now that sounds crazy, but I do think that if he had the internet, he could survive jail forever," Lewis said. "Without having a constant stream of information to react to — I think he may go mad."

SBF's greatest fear when it comes to the prospect of going to prison over his fraud charges is that he might lose access to the internet, the author said.

"If you gave Sam Bankman-Fried a choice — this is quite serious — of living in a $39 million penthouse in the Bahamas without the internet, or the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn with the internet, there's no question in my mind he'd take the jail," Lewis said.

Lewis said he believes SBF 'had a great business'

"They actually had a great, real business," Lewis told "60 Minutes." "If no one had 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."

The author said he didn't feel it was accurate to compare Bankman-Fried to the likes of other famous scammers like Bernie Madoff or Elizabeth Holmes.

"It's a little different than supplying phony medical information to people that might kill them," Lewis said when the interviewer compared SBF to the disgraced Theranos founder. "In this case what you're doing is possibly losing some money that belonged to crypto speculators in the Bahamas. On the other hand, this is not to excuse. He shouldn't have done that."

Bankman-Fried has been accused of fleecing customers and investors of billions of dollars.

Prosecutors in the criminal trial against SBF allege FTX borrowed money from customer accounts to fund bets through Alameda Research, its affiliated hedge fund. He directed employees to develop programming code that allowed unlimited funds to move between the companies quickly and quietly, prosecutors said in their indictment.

Lewis said he had developed a close relationship with the FTX cofounder and added that Bankman-Fried would even come to him for advice.

The author pointed to Bankman-Fried's maxim that he wanted to do the most possible good — also known as effective altruism.

"There is still a Sam Bankman-Fried-shaped hole in the world that now needs filling. Like that character would be very useful — with what he wanted to do with the resources," Lewis said.

That said, Lewis also acknowledged that Bankman-Fried was a "horrible manager."

"If I were a better person, I would have been deeply distressed by all of this. It took about a nanosecond before I thought 'oh my god, this is an incredible story,'" Lewis said.

Representatives for Lewis did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A representative for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.