Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

During Chapter 8, Lewis himself enters the narrative, traveling to the Bahamas to meet with and observe Sam. Upon arriving at Sam's makeshift office, housed in one of the many “jungle huts” (169) in the company's temporary headquarters, Lewis notes FTX’s completely lax security. He comments that Sam is someone who would be easy to steal from and easy to kidnap—and that kidnapping is a real possibility in the high-stakes world of crypto.

Lewis describes a short meeting between Sam, Ramnik, and Nishad, in which Sam consulted the other two men on whether he should contribute funds to Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. Ramnik and Nishad cautioned Sam against investing; they believed that he should say no, or only contribute a small amount. At the same time, they understood that Sam might not take their advice at all. Indeed, Sam later messaged Musk’s team to say he would be willing to contribute $5 billion if Twitter was moved onto a blockchain.

It was not uncommon for Sam to invest large sums of money after little to no deliberation. He invested in hundreds of ventures, mostly using money from Alameda Research.