$55M IN TOM’S QB POCKET
Pay for 1 week by SBF
Tom Brady was paid $55 million for doing just a week’s worth of work by mogul Sam BankmanFried, says the author of a new book on the collapse of cryptocurrency firm FTX.
Michael Lewis, who wrote “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon,” told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that the former head of FTX, whose federal trial on fraud and money-laundering charges is set to begin in Manhattan on Tuesday, splurged on endorsements from Brady, Stephen Curry and Larry David.
Bankman-Fried, who has pleaded not guilty, oversaw a $32 billion empire that collapsed after his firm allegedly used customer deposits to cover risky bets by his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Celebrity windfalls
“He paid Tom Brady $55 million for 20 hours a year for three years,” Lewis said.
The author also said that Brady initially reacted with “sadness” after learning of Bankman-Fried’s fall from grace.
Brady “really liked him, and he really liked the hope that he brought,” Lewis said, adding that the Super Bowl winner was “crushed.”
“As time has gone by and he’s ceased to get a really good explanation about what’s happened, I think [Brady] is just like, ‘He tricked me. I’m angry. I don’t want to have anything to do with it anymore,’ ” according to Lewis.
Curry, the NBA Golden State Warriors’ superstar point guard, was paid $35 million for doing the same amount of work, Lewis told “60 Minutes.”
Bankman-Fried paid actor-comedian Larry David $10 million to appear in a Super Bowl commercial for FTX, on top of the $25 milNBA
lion sum that it cost to produce the ad, according to the author.
David, Brady and his supermodel ex-wife Gisele Bündchen, Curry, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence and legend Shaquille O’Neal are among the celebrity endorsers who have been named in class-action lawsuits filed by investors seeking repayment.
Unlikely friendship
Lewis said that Brady genuinely “adored” Bankman-Fried.
“I think Tom Brady thought he was a really interesting person,” he remarked. “[Brady] liked to hear what he had to say.
“And [Bankman-Fried] really liked Tom Brady,” Lewis said, adding that Bankman-Fried “wasn’t like a really big sports person.”
“It was funny to watch that interaction,” Lewis said of the relationship between Brady and Bankman-Fried.
“These two people actually get along,” Lewis said.
“It’s like the class nerd and the quarterback.”