Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried paid Tom Brady $55 MILLION for doing a week’s worth of work over a three-year period, Moneyball author claims

• The former crypto tycoon paid NFL star Brady $55 million across three years in exchange for a total of around 60 hours of work, it is claimed
• Brady was an ambassador for FTX, the crypto firm started by Bankman-Fried
• Author Michael Lewis, who was shadowing Bankman-Fried in the months leading up to FTX’s collapse, said Brady ‘really liked’ the disgraced tech mogul

Sam Bankman-Fried paid Tom Brady $55million for the equivalent of a week’s work promoting his failed cryptocurrency platform FTX, the author of Moneyball has claimed.

Bankman-Fried recruited the ex-NFL star to be an ambassador for FTX and he did about ’20 hours [of work] a year for three years’, according to author Michael Lewis.

Lewis, who shadowed Bankman-Fried, said Brady was paid $55million in the deal and the pair struck up an unlikely friendship in the process.

Brady was left ‘crushed’ when FTX collapsed – owing customers billions of dollars – and Bankman-Fried was charged with fraud offenses.

He denies the charges and a trial will start in New York City Tuesday. Lewis told CBS’ 60 Minutes: ‘[Brady] really liked him and he really liked the hope that he brought.

‘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’.’

Brady was one of several A-list celebrities who were paid tens of millions of dollars by FTX and Bankman-Fried. Lewis said NBA star Steph Curry was paid $10 million and Larry David got $10 million to front a superbowl commercial for the platform.

Brady’s ex-wife Gisele Bundchen was also an ambassador, along with NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal.

Lewis said that it was ‘funny’ to watch Brady and Bankman-Fried interact, adding: ‘It’s like the class nerd and the quarterback.

‘The quarterback somehow likes him, and he somehow likes the quarterback.

‘Even the nerds don’t hang out with this nerd, he’s such a nerd.’

The development as Bankman-Fried’s trial is about to begin comes after a former software engineer who worked at FTX‘s sister trading firm poured cold water on rumors about sex orgies at Sam Bankman-Fried’s luxury Bahamas penthouse. 

Ex Alameda Research employee Aditya Baradwaj, who previously gave the inside story on the disgraced company’s collapse last year, has now said he is ‘confident’ there were no polyamorous relationships in the Albany Marina pad. 

Stories about top execs at the bankrupt crypto giant owned by Bankman-Fried, 31, being in a ‘polycule’ of 10 people were sparked by the ceo’s ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, 28, after she wrote about her ‘foray into poly’ online. 

But rumors surrounding the clique of crypto nerds having orgies at the Nassau island penthouse are far from the truth, according to Baradwaj, who lived next door and said they were more likely to have been playing board games. 

‘If there were orgies, I lived right next door,’ Baradwaj told the New York Post. ‘I would have heard it from my balcony.’

‘If you gave them some alcohol and left them alone in a room, they would end up playing board games,’ he added. ‘I’m very confident that there was no polycule.’

DailyMail.com contacted lawyers for Bankman-Fried and Ellison, who did not immediately comment. 

Baradwaj previously said he realized FTX was about to go bust when a company credit card used to order takeout was declined – after years of workers being showered with extravagant perks. 

Ellison, who Bankman-Fried blamed for the failed FTX crypto exchange, wrote on her Tumblr account in February 2020 that she made a ‘foray into poly,’ referring to the practice of having multiple partners.

The bespectacled Stanford graduate also said that in a polyamorous relationship everyone should have a ‘ranking of their partners’ and ‘vicious power struggles for higher ranks.’

Ellison also wrote that characteristics of ‘cute’ boyfriends included ‘controlling most major world governments’ and ‘sufficient strength to physically overpower you.’

In another March post, she wrote: ‘I didn’t get into this as a crypto true believer. It’s mostly scams and memes when you get down to it.’

Ellison is said to have dated Bankman-Fried while they and eight others involved in their companies lived in a house in the Bahamas.

According to a report on Coindesk, all 10 of them were ‘paired up’ with each other in romantic relationships, although it’s not clear if they were monogamous or not. 

She is now set to testify against him as a key witness in the bombshell lawsuit starting next week. 

Bankman-Fried – whose net worth peaked at an astonishing $26bn – was charged with defrauding investors after allegedly stealing billions of dollars and spending tens of millions on political donations.

Once viewed as an ethical pioneer of crypto currencies, the 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all charges as he awaits his trial this month from jail. 

The next chapter in his fall from riches is set to begin on Tuesday as personal details about his life will be picked apart in a New York City court. 

Jurors will be selected on October 3, and the trial is expected to last around six weeks.