Exclusive Interview with Former FTX Executive: Netflix's New Drama Centering on SBF's Love Story Is Utterly Absurd

This article is from: NYTimes, original author Vivi Lin

Compiled by Odaily (@OdailyChina); translator | jk

In 2022, the cryptocurrency exchange FTX collapsed spectacularly, costing investors billions of dollars and permanently altering public perceptions of digital currency.

It was soon discovered that FTX CEO and Effective Altruism adherent Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) had illegally misappropriated billions of dollars in exchange funds to prop up his affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research. The fund was nominally managed by his ex-girlfriend and colleague, Caroline Ellison.

Now, the saga has been adapted by Netflix into a new series, "The Altruists," billed as "a toxic love story inspired by real events of fraud." Yet this adaptation has left those who lived through the FTX collapse shocked and unable to accept it.

The new Netflix series

Former FTX COO Constance Wang said that attempting to frame the crisis as a love story is simply absurd.

"SBF's entire goal was to change the world, create impact, do good. Love, romantic relationships, and family all seemed secondary to him."

"As for that 'you and me against the world' romantic narrative? No fucking way," Wang said in her first exclusive interview with the New York Post about the FTX collapse.

Constance is portrayed in the series by actress Madison Hu. However, when a friend showed her the trailer over breakfast, she couldn't even finish watching it.

"I watched about 40 seconds and I literally physically threw up because it made me so极度 uncomfortable," she said.

She also bluntly stated that the love-centric plot premise is ridiculous.

"For a long time at the company, we had no idea they were dating—we didn't even know Sam was capable of being in a relationship, because he was always working," Wang said.

"I had a group chat with a few employees I was close to. I was so shocked that I asked them: 'Did you know about this?' They replied: 'No, we thought you knew.'"

Constance during her FTX days

"The Altruists" tells the story of SBF, Ellison, and their followers attempting to remake the financial system according to the ideals of Effective Altruism—only to ultimately fail. They claimed they wanted to use their wealth and intelligence to make the world a better place.

Instead, SBF bought a $35 million party mansion in the Bahamas and diverted $8 billion of FTX investor funds to Alameda Research, ultimately causing the entire project to collapse. Since U.S. federal law does not offer leniency simply because someone claims they will do good in the future, SBF is now serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and money laundering.

Constance said she attended several gatherings hosted by SBF and the Effective Altruism circle, but found she didn't fit into that group. The Effective Altruism movement is also closely connected to AI company Anthropic and other tech giants.

"They're genuinely very smart—they talk about math, physics, biology, things like that. If it's a Friday or Saturday night dinner, I'd prefer lighter topics. But for them, those are the light topics."

"Hanging out once or twice occasionally is fine, but over time it becomes hard to fit in."

The FTX core team numbered about 10 people, living together with SBF and Ellison in the Bahamas. According to previous CoinDesk reporting, at one point these individuals were "all in romantic relationships with each other."

Ellison, who was also prosecuted by U.S. federal authorities after the FTX collapse, admitted in a since-deleted 2020 Tumblr post that she had experienced polyamory.

She wrote at the time: "When I first started trying polyamory, I thought it was a complete break from my past traditional views. But honestly, now I think the only acceptable model of polyamory would be something akin to an 'ancient Chinese emperor's harem.'"

However, Constance said she never personally witnessed any such steamy scenes.

"Honestly, before I saw the word 'orgy' in news reports, I didn't even know what it meant," she said. "I actually went and Googled it."

Instead, she described the company as "just a bunch of nerds," and most of the gatherings she attended involved chess and board games.

It remains unclear which type of gathering scene Netflix ultimately used in the series. Netflix did not respond to requests for comment. However, Constance believes that based on what has been publicly revealed, the producers have clearly taken considerable artistic license.

She pointed out that the real SBF could barely maintain eye contact with others, while the SBF portrayed by Anthony Boyle in the trailer is a confident, socially adept entrepreneur—a stark contrast.

"When I first met Sam in Singapore in 2018, he couldn't look people in the eye when talking to them," she recalled. "He would stare at the floor while constantly shaking his leg."

Ellison, portrayed by Julia Garner, appears quite assertive—even somewhat aggressive—in the trailer. But Constance said the real Ellison was actually "gentle" and "soft-spoken."

"She would never come across as forceful. If you asked her a question, she would pause for a moment, think about it, and then start answering."

Former FTX marketing manager Quinn Li, who also moved to the Bahamas and worked with SBF, likewise thought the trailer was "very, very bad."

"It adds so much romance and emotional drama, but in reality there was nothing like that. In fact, everyone was very rational," Li told the New York Post.

"In the trailer, I can't see at all how smart Sam and Caroline actually were. They just look like two silly cats in love."

Constance then recalled the decisive night of FTX's collapse in November 2022.

At the time, Binance founder CZ announced he would dump his holdings of FTX platform token FTT, triggering market panic. Over the following 72 hours, customers withdrew approximately $6 billion from FTX.

Constance was then in charge of the VIP team serving the exchange's largest trading clients. She said the message from company leadership to employees was always to stay calm.

"The internal instruction we received from Sam was: 'Let them withdraw, we're fine,'" she said.

Some loyal clients even chose to re-deposit funds into FTX.

"No one, including myself, doubted what Sam told us, because we had very, very deep trust in him," Constance said.

However, when customer withdrawals began failing to arrive, the company's explanation was still technical issues.

"We were told: 'Oh, it's because of some system issue. Please tell customers to be patient, we're fine.'"

It wasn't until around 3 a.m. that SBF finally admitted the real reason withdrawals were stuck.

"He said: 'We don't have enough money to meet all the withdrawal requests on the exchange.'"

Constance recalled: "I bolted up from bed. I was absolutely shocked, my whole body was shaking."

SBF then invited Constance to the company's "war room." There, she met SBF, Ellison, co-founder Gary Wang, and engineering head Nishad Singh.

"That was the first time I saw a spreadsheet listing exactly how big FTX's funding gap was. I remember it was about $8 billion."

"I was completely stunned. I was thinking: 'How could this happen? How did this happen?'"

The FTX collapse also exacted a heavy toll on the entire team.

Constance recalled that in her last conversation with SBF in the Bahamas, she asked him whether he truly understood what employees were going through: they were facing public blame for something they knew nothing about, had lost their life savings, and had lost the fruits of years of hard work.

"His reaction was quite flat," she said. "I remember being unsure whether he truly grasped the severity of it all, and I couldn't help but wonder whether, when weighing his decisions, he had ever considered the cost those decisions imposed on people."

Li added: "Sam's mistake was that he overestimated his own intelligence."

"He is genuinely very smart and able to spot many opportunities in the market. But honestly, other market participants weren't as easy to deceive as he imagined."

Ellison pleaded guilty after the FTX collapse and testified against SBF at trial. She was released in January this year after serving about 14 months. She now works under the alias "Carol" at a San Francisco charity called Manifund.

The FTX collapse left an estimated 9 million customers and investors facing billions of dollars in losses.

Since then, the FTX bankruptcy liquidation team has recovered approximately $16.5 billion to repay customers at least 118% of their account balances.

But the problem is that those balances were calculated based on asset prices in November 2022. At that time, Bitcoin was worth about $16,000, while today its price has exceeded $80,000.

Constance has never been accused of any wrongdoing, but she is also aware that a question has always lingered: as FTX's COO, how could she have been completely unaware of all this?

In response, she said: "If someone wants to hide something from you, they will make sure to hide it thoroughly."

Constance previously oversaw FTX's global growth business, driving the company's expansion into Japan, Singapore, and Dubai. She also emphasized that she had invested substantial personal funds into FTX and its related tokens.

Although her holdings at their peak reached ten figures—at least $1 billion—she ultimately returned to Hong Kong with only $80,000 to her name.

Constance revealed that the U.S. Department of Justice also conducted an investigation into her lasting about a year, but ultimately did not bring charges against her, nor did they require her to testify at SBF's trial.

"I don't possess any substantive information that could help prosecutors build a case," she said. "That basically reflects just how little I knew at the time."

Nevertheless, the entire trial process was still extremely painful for her.

She recalled constantly reading trial coverage, searching for whether her name was mentioned. During that period, she felt that "everything inside me, from the inside out, had shattered—everything except my physical body."

She fell into depression and even had suicidal thoughts. It was only when some old friends reappeared by her side and offered their support that she was finally able to pull herself out of that low point.

Afterward, she returned to the entrepreneurial world, and in 2025 co-founded the crypto trading platform Pacifica.

According to DefiLlama data, the platform's trading volume has reached $10 billion over the past month.

"I'm very grateful that I not only still have my freedom, but also the opportunity to start another company," she said.

However, what surprised Constance greatly was that Netflix never contacted her to learn about her personal experiences before creating a character based on her—they didn't even attempt to reach out.

"I specifically searched my email and found nothing from Netflix. And of course, I received no information about the plot or script."

"I don't know how they will portray my character. Honestly, I'm a little nervous about it."

Nevertheless, Constance said she doesn't resent those who built FTX and worked alongside her.

"I don't hate Sam, and I don't hate any of them."

"I just feel sadness and disappointment."