Caroline Ellison, a authorities witness and the previous chief govt of Alameda Analysis (the buying and selling arm of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s empire) and Mr. Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend, testified in court docket that “he mentioned he thought his hair had been very helpful.” Ever since an early job on the Wall Avenue agency Jane Avenue, Ms. Ellison testified, “he thought he had gotten increased bonuses due to his hair and that it was an vital a part of FTX’s narrative and picture.”
(It’s potential to see Ms. Ellison because the Delilah of this explicit story. Not simply due to her private relationship with Mr. Bankman-Fried, however as a result of, in her testimony, she might not have lower his locks herself, however she actually lower him all the way down to dimension.)
Different FTX workers apparently thought his hair was vital sufficient to him, Mr. Lewis writes, that after they had been working with the architects employed to design the brand new headquarters within the Bahamas and imagining what he would need, certainly one of solely three issues they got here up with was that the aspect of the constructing “evoke his unruly hair.”
Mr. Lewis additionally writes that Mr. Bankman-Fried admitted having “basic disdain” for the significance of “bodily attractiveness.” When he landed on the Forbes billionaires checklist, that disdain seemed like power: It meant he was centered on his massive concepts. Later, after all, it seemed like a warning signal: If he was that careless along with his personal look, possibly he was that careless along with your cash. However both means, the interpretation was within the eye of the beholder.
Is it his fault we had been foolish sufficient to fall for the look and the windfall we thought it promised? After Elizabeth Holmes and her black turtleneck, we must always have identified higher. But, as Anthony Scaramucci, who purchased Mr. Bankman-Fried a swimsuit when he took him on a fund-raising journey to the Center East weeks earlier than FTX’s implosion, informed Business Insider, he thought Mr. Bankman-Fried “was the Mark Zuckerberg of crypto.” And Mr. Scaramucci thought that, Insider wrote, as a result of “the Meta C.E.O. walked round Davos in a hoodie and T-shirt,” and Mr. Bankman-Fried walked round on a regular basis in wrinkled cargo shorts and a T-shirt.
However then got here the comeuppance after which got here the haircut.
Shearing hair has lengthy been a way of punishment for women and men. Hair, and all of the methods we manipulate it, is so related to identification — to sexual attract, well being and self-expression — that it’s unlawful to discriminate on the idea of hair in 23 states. Exactly due to that, its chopping can symbolize dehumanization, because it did throughout World Struggle II when the French shaved the heads of collaborators, and because it does, partly, within the jail system. In lots of religions, the sacrifice of hair can sign penitence.
