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- "Going Infinite" author Michael Lewis said being around SBF was a lifestyle "downgrade."
- Lewis met Sam Bankman-Fried more than 100 times and also interviewed his FTX colleagues for the book.
- Bankman-Fried, who was worth $16 billion in early November, reportedly had a spartan lifestyle.
Author Michael Lewis met Sam Bankman-Fried over a hundred times in two years while writing the former crypto mogul's biography — but it didn't seem like a cushy ride-along.
"My private life is more comfortable and materialistic than his. So I always felt it was a downgrade moving into his world," Lewis told Emily Donaldson in a Wednesday report in The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper.
"The food was worse. The company was worse," the author said.
Bankman-Fried, 31, is best known — on the lifestyle front — for his messy head of curls and cargo-shorts-and-t-shirt getup.
The FTX cofounder and former CEO, who was worth $16 billion in early November, was also reportedly spartan on a personal level. He drove a Toyota Corolla and ate vegan food — his favorite food was french fries with salt Insider reported in December 2021.
Even so, the disgraced persona did splurge on a few things. Bankman-Fried reportedly bunked with several FTX colleagues in a $35 million penthouse in the Bahamas, where the exchange was based after it moved from Hong Kong. FTX and its executives also spent freely on Bahamas luxury real estate, luxury hotel stays, and even on private jet services for their Amazon packages, Insider reported in May.
Lewis, who is 62, also interviewed former FTX employees for the book. He admitted he had trouble fitting in.
"What was hard was getting into the heads of these 25-year-old computer people. I would have had as much trouble with this crowd when I was 25," Lewis told Donaldson. "It took a while before I got comfortable with them, and they got comfortable with me."
Lewis' book, "Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon," was released on Tuesday — the same day Bankman-Fried's criminal fraud trial started.
The author has already faced backlash for comments made while promoting his book, including criticism of his defense of FTX. Lewis had told CBS's "60 Minutes" that the crypto exchange would still be making "tons of money" if there hadn't been a run on customer deposits.
Bankman-Fried faces seven charges, including fraud and conspiracy relating to FTX's collapse. He has pleaded not guilty.
Crypto exchange FTX — which was worth $32 billion in early 2022 — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 11 of the same year after a week-long liquidity crisis.
A representative for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.