| At Stanford Law School, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried specialized in ethics and social fairness. Now that their son stands accused of one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history, they’re scrambling for legal escape routes.  Illustration by Keith Negley; Source photograph from Getty One of the central questions in the downfall and bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its C.E.O., Sam Bankman-Fried, is the role that his parents have played in the saga. Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried are, according to their colleagues and friends, deeply rigorous law professors leading modest, utilitarian lives, who have dedicated their careers to the study of ethics and financial justice. Or, as is alleged in a recent lawsuit filed against the couple by FTX’s bankruptcy estate, they were intimately involved in what amounted to a “family business” and the recipients of millions of dollars of misappropriated funds. In remarkable new reporting, Sheelah Kolhatkar goes inside the family bubble, observing the lives of Sam Bankman-Fried and his parents as they prepared for his defense in a case currently being brought by the U.S. government alleging fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and other crimes that could lead to more than a hundred years in prison. “I don’t care what is said about me, Joe doesn’t care what is said about him,” Barbara Fried insists at one point. “Saving Sam is the major project of our lives.” Yet, as Kolhatkar reports, Fried’s insistence on her son’s innocence seems almost a matter of faith. “I asked whether she had ever felt compelled to ask her son if he’d done any of the things he’d been charged with,” Kolhatar writes. “She replied no—she didn’t need to ask. Her son was incapable of dishonesty or stealing, she said. ‘Sam will never speak an untruth,’ she went on. ‘It’s just not in him.’ ” Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » | 
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