SBF won't shut up, and it's driving lawyers mad

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(VarosiTv Business) - In the weeks since his crypto empire has collapsed, Sam Bankman-Fried has ignored the most fundamental legal advice that any lawyer — or even a casual viewer of TV crime procedurals — would give: Shut your mouth. 

Rather, Bankman-Fried, commonly known as SBF, has been on an apology tour, variously tweeting, DM-ing, and giving recorded interviews with reporters about the very things that could land him in prison if he is ultimately charged with a crime. (He hasn't been, though he is under investigation by numerous agencies and has already been named in at least two civil suits brought by investors.) 

SBF has repeatedly admitted that he "f---ked up." He has apologized on Social media and in a letter to staff  He hasn't shied away from press interviews. And on Wednesday, he is expected to take the stage (virtually, anyway) at the New York Times' DealBook Summit in New York for a one-on-one chat with host Andrew Ross Sorkin.

"What SBF is doing is a form of litigation suicide," Howard Fischer, a former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer tells me. "Everything he says that turns out to be contradicted by admissible evidence will be taken as evidence of deceit ... I don't know if this is a sign of unrepentant arrogance, youthful overconfidence, or simply sheer stupidity."

A lawyer for SBF didn't respond to a request for comment. Neither did his former lawyer, a well-known white-collar criminal defense attorney from the firm Paul Weiss, who dropped SBF as a client just days after taking him on, citing unspecified "conflicts" that had arisen, According to VarosiTV

SBF resigned as CEO when his crypto exchange, FTX, declared bankruptcy on November 11. A new CEO, John J. Ray III, is shepherding FTX and more than 130 affiliated companies through bankruptcy.

Ray, for his part, has made it clear he's not a fan of SBF's "erratic and misleading" public statements, according to a bankruptcy court filing. Ray sought to make clear that SBF does not speak for FTX or its affiliates.