Anthony Boyle Corresponded with Bankman-Fried in Prison for Role

Anthony Boyle, the Irish actor portraying Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the bankrupt exchange FTX, in the new Netflix series "The Altruists," has corresponded with him via email while he is in prison to prepare for the role. Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison and, according to Boyle, has answered most of his questions. In an interview, Boyle stated that his goal for this correspondence was to understand Bankman-Fried's personal motivations and mentioned that he has no interest in money or finance. The trailer for the series, released by Netflix on October 8, focuses on the relationship between Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried has been found guilty on seven criminal charges for misusing customer funds from FTX and has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. Ellison also spent over a year in prison after cooperating with U.S. authorities and was released in January. The portrayal of FTX executives in this series has faced criticism. Constance Wang, the former COO of the exchange, described watching the trailer as distressing and believes that Bankman-Fried was more clumsy in reality than what Boyle depicted. The collapse of FTX was previously examined in the book "Going Infinite" and the documentary "Everyone is Lying to You for Money."