Sam Bankman-Fried’s Mangy Hair Was Part of Carefully Cultivated Effort to Look ‘Smart and Eccentric,’ Ex-Girlfriend Testifies

Disgraced cryptocurrency trader Sam Bankman-Fried put effort into cultivating his appearance as a disheveled tech CEO — and even bragged that he once got higher bonuses because of his signature unkempt hairdo, testimony at his fraud trial revealed Wednesday.

Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend and the ex-CEO of his hedge fund Alameda Research, made the assertion about his appearance while responding to questioning on the witness stand from Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon.

“He was trying to cultivate an image of himself as a smart, competent, somewhat eccentric founder,” Ellison said of Bankman-Fried’s look when he controlled the multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

"He looked like he didn’t put a lot of effort into his personal appearance," she added.

Bankman-Fried, 31, often appeared in photographs in the media wearing shorts, casual shirts and a mop of scruffy, curly black hair during his time as CEO of FTX — despite doling out hundreds of millions of dollars to charities, political causes, and even the naming rights to the home of the Miami Heat.

He considered his hairdo “very valuable” and said it had earned him rewards, starting with his first job at trading firm Jane Street Capital, Ellison testified.

“Ever since Jane Street he had gotten higher bonuses because of his hair,” Ellison testified Bankman-Fried told her.

However, before the trial, he got a haircut and has appeared in court sporting a shorter hairstyle.

Ellison added he took further steps to appear like a common person while running the FTX exchange that was headquartered in the Bahamas.

Ellison said both she and Bankman-Fried were assigned “luxury company cars” in the Bahamas, but exchanged them for a Toyota Corolla and a Honda Civic.

“He said he thought it was better for his image to be driving a Toyota Corolla,” she said.

She added that Bankman-Fried also made statements in the press about sleeping in a bean bag in his office to further his image as an eccentric crypto whiz kid.

In fact, she said, he usually slept at an apartment in the Bahamas, but did on occasion sleep in the company’s office.

Ellison is testifying as the key witness for federal prosecutors in Manhattan who allege Bankman-Fried committed an $8 billion fraud by opening a secret line of credit from FTX to Alameda, a cryptocurrency hedge fund he owned and Ellison ran as CEO.

Both companies collapsed after a balance sheet from Alameda leaked in November 2022 and customers of FTX withdrew their investments from the company in droves.

Ellison pleaded guilty to seven felonies in a bid for leniency for her role in the alleged fraud that caused the collapse of the two companies.

On Tuesday, she testified that she and Bankman-Fried started a romantic relationship by at first sleeping together in 2018 and then dating sporadically up until soon before the FTX collapse in 2022.

Ellison’s testimony is expected to run into Thursday with cross-examination by Bankman-Fried’s attorneys.

Bankman-Fried has been in a federal jail in Brooklyn since Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked his bail in August after he shared private writings of Ellison’s with the media.

He faces more than 100 years in prison if convicted.