Media: Apple buys rights to adapt Michael Lewis’s book about the former FTX chief

Apple has paid $5 million for the rights to adapt Michael Lewis’s book about the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried. The Ankler reports.

According to the publication, the book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon will be released on October 3 — the day the trial against Bankman-Fried in New York begins.

Michael Lewis is an American writer and financial journalist, best known for the bestsellers Liar’s Poker and The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.

The latter was adapted into a film in 2015. Starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt. The film grossed over $133 million worldwide on a budget of $28 million.

In 2022 Netflix released a documentary film “Don’t Trust Anyone: The Hunt for the Crypto King” about the death of the founder and CEO of the bankrupt Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, Gerald Cotten.

In the same year the streaming service announced a series about those accused of laundering assets stolen from the Bitfinex trading platform, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan.

In November 2022 FTX filed for bankruptcy. In December Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States, where released him on $250 million bail. The court later overturned his release and kept the former exchange chief in custody until the next hearing.

Bankman-Fried was charged with 13 criminal charges. Later prosecutors dropped the charges of financing certain politicians as part of a deal with the defense. FTX founder pleaded not guilty to any of the counts, including bribing a Chinese official.

In September, the former head of the Bahamian division of the exchange, Ryan Salame pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the platform’s collapse.