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Stealing The Future: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elite Fraud, and the Cult of Techno-Utopia
When does a philosophy become a conspiracy?
In 2024, Sam Bankman-Fried — once hailed as the future of finance and one of the richest men in America — was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing $11 billion and collapsing over a hundred companies. Stealing the Future is the inside story of that unraveling, told by a member of the CoinDesk team that first broke the case.
But this is more than a true crime story.
It’s a journey into the tangled web of tech-utopianism, libertarian idealism, and the seductive ideologies of Silicon Valley — from Effective Altruism to transhumanism — that helped cloak one of the biggest financial frauds of the 21st century.
As these philosophies increasingly fuel the global far right, Stealing the Future what happens when abstract theories gain real power — and who’s really paying the price?
In 2024, Sam Bankman-Fried — once hailed as the future of finance and one of the richest men in America — was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing $11 billion and collapsing over a hundred companies. Stealing the Future is the inside story of that unraveling, told by a member of the CoinDesk team that first broke the case.
But this is more than a true crime story.
It’s a journey into the tangled web of tech-utopianism, libertarian idealism, and the seductive ideologies of Silicon Valley — from Effective Altruism to transhumanism — that helped cloak one of the biggest financial frauds of the 21st century.
As these philosophies increasingly fuel the global far right, Stealing the Future what happens when abstract theories gain real power — and who’s really paying the price?
439 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 11, 2025
8 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
David Morris
287 books7 followersDavid Morris, author of Tactical Firearms Training Secrets, is a specialist in practical firearms training and survival techniques. His book, published in 2012, focuses on teaching tactical skills that can be practiced at home using methods like dry firing and airsoft. It emphasizes cost-effective ways to develop advanced shooting skills without extensive range time. Morris is also known for offering advice on broader preparedness topics in other works, including urban survival.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 21, 2025
Disappointing
I was really looking forward to this book, but it was a disappointing read. That may have more to do with the nature of SBF’s crime than the author. At the end of the day, SBF just stole money from his customers. And he didn’t do it very well. The cover up was poorly executed. The fraud is easy to understand. Because the crime was so simple minded, David Morris tries to drive the narrative by hammering away at SBF’s motivation as a member of the Effective Altruist cult. This just gets repetitive and boring. In the end, the story just lacks the energy of other infamous financial frauds like the Enron and Madoff scandals.
I was really looking forward to this book, but it was a disappointing read. That may have more to do with the nature of SBF’s crime than the author. At the end of the day, SBF just stole money from his customers. And he didn’t do it very well. The cover up was poorly executed. The fraud is easy to understand. Because the crime was so simple minded, David Morris tries to drive the narrative by hammering away at SBF’s motivation as a member of the Effective Altruist cult. This just gets repetitive and boring. In the end, the story just lacks the energy of other infamous financial frauds like the Enron and Madoff scandals.
January 19, 2026
Stealing the Future: Sam Bankman-Fried, Elite Fraud, and the Cult of Techno-Utopia by David Morris is a tightly argued, deeply researched takedown of one of the most mythologized figures in modern finance. Morris goes to great lengths to document the mechanics of the fraud, carefully laying out how customer funds were stolen, how internal controls were ignored, and how an entire ecosystem enabled deception through blind faith in tech exceptionalism.
A major strength of the book is how it dismantles the flattering narratives promoted by figures like Michael Lewis, who once praised Bankman-Fried as a singular, altruistic genius. Morris presents a far bleaker reality: a lazy, intellectually incurious operator, narrowly focused on math and personal interests, with little concern for ethics, responsibility, or truth. Particularly compelling is Morris’s treatment of Bankman-Fried’s repeated declarations of innocence, which come across not as a search for truth but as the self-justifying logic of a sociopath who fully believes his own invented narrative.
Unflinching and precise, Stealing the Future is an essential corrective to techno-utopian mythmaking and a powerful account of elite fraud carried out in plain sight.
A major strength of the book is how it dismantles the flattering narratives promoted by figures like Michael Lewis, who once praised Bankman-Fried as a singular, altruistic genius. Morris presents a far bleaker reality: a lazy, intellectually incurious operator, narrowly focused on math and personal interests, with little concern for ethics, responsibility, or truth. Particularly compelling is Morris’s treatment of Bankman-Fried’s repeated declarations of innocence, which come across not as a search for truth but as the self-justifying logic of a sociopath who fully believes his own invented narrative.
Unflinching and precise, Stealing the Future is an essential corrective to techno-utopian mythmaking and a powerful account of elite fraud carried out in plain sight.
November 11, 2025
An over-ambitious book. Perhaps if the author had narrowed his research to one small topic, he may have been able to contribute something valuable. Instead, the book attempts to sweep a broad range of ideologies, people, and companies into one grand conspiracy, and in doing so, sacrifices some much-needed depth of argument.
I also found the frequently derisive tone unnecessary and quite off-putting, particularly given the author's acknowledgement that the main subject of his derision is neurologically unable to ever experience happiness.
I also found the frequently derisive tone unnecessary and quite off-putting, particularly given the author's acknowledgement that the main subject of his derision is neurologically unable to ever experience happiness.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews