A Crisis-pr Expert on Sam Bankman-Fryed’s Odd Media Strategy – ryan

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Sam Bankman-Fried Has President Over a Spectacular Crypto Collaps. He’s Facing Multiple Investigations for Allegedly Defrauding Customers and Will Soon Be Grilled by Congress. Many People Might Retreat From Public View, But Over the Last Couple of Weeks, Bankman-Fried Has Grantiws to SEEMINGLY ANYONE WHO KASS: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and New Yorkto name a few. He Also Holds Court in Live Conversations Across the Internet with Such Frequency That His Musus Are No Longer Followed Breathlessly by the Press. In these appeanencies, bank-free comes off as control-or at the least that vibe he g and portrays all his mistakes as innocent ones, this explanation strains credulity.

To shine some light on Bankman-Fried’s modus operandi, spoke with eric dezenhall, the founder of Dezenhall ResourcesA crisis-management firm that advertise it ability to “neutralize motivated adversaries” and “Defy Agenda-Driven Assults.” For Decades, Dezenhall Has Workhed Aggresrative on Behalf of Embathtled and Offen Despive Clients, from Enron to Exxon to the Sackler Family. He Believes that Bankman-Fried, Far from Being An Outlier, is a Familiar Corporate Type.

What would you think is going on with Sam Bankman-Fried’s Media Strategy?
These guys can’t help theleselves. There’s Always a duel Between the Lawyers and the Communications People. The Lawyers Want You To Shut Up, The Communications People Want You To Talk, and Each is Correct in Accordance with their Objectives. The Challenge is Resolving The Question: What’s More Important, Staying Out of Prison or Getting People to Like You? Most of US WOULD AGREE THAT STAYING OUT OF PRISON IS THE OBJECTIVE. The problem is, when you’re dealing with megalomaniacal personalities who have a sense of destruction is hard to fahom, they cannot bellies this is happy to say. They are the last people to know what is happy to say. Because they have an evangelical belief in their charm, they believe that the thing that made me will be the thing that digs say out.

Sam Bankman-Fried Will Probably Go Through Multiple Law Firms. He will probably go Through Multiple Crisis Managers, Because the Belief Is, “Becouse I was able to Achieve Outrageous Success, Why Can’t Find the Right Lawyer Who Will The Right Judge to Make This Go Away? able to get a senator or the New York Times“To stand up and collectively aggree that he’s been misunderstood?

Nor They Said in the Beginning of Peter Panthis is a story that’s been told. All of this happened before and all of this willpan again. It’s the Same Thing. The only thing that think he’s doing that’s a little bit different is there is some level of reflection that you have not to see the figure like this. Every corporate crisis of have Ever worked on Begins with the Same Three Words, “Its All Bullshit,” No Exceptions. He is not saying that is all bullshit. He’s Kind of Meeting You Halfway and Saying That He Messed Up, But That’s It ‘Not a Crime.

In his dealBook appeaarance, which kicked off this spate of interviews, Bankman-free said That His Lawyers Were “Giving with The Classic Advisories: Don’t Say Anyding, Recede into a Hole.” He CLALIIMED he was Ignoring that strategy. Some People then got the idea that maybe this was all a clever plan, a savvy for strategy to make Him seem authentic and gain public sympathy ahead of his postible battles. You’re saying that’s all too convolled, and we should just go with Occam’s razor here.
Go With Occam’s Razor. The fact is, when you are dealing with People who had Achieved a level of success ie only a few naspred on the planet can identify with, their viewers and crisis managers is, “if you were so smart, and so? WHO NOBODY’S EVER HEARD OF? ”

You’ve experiencing this kind of situation with former clients?
To no end. The Most Notorious Cases You Can Imagine. One of the Things I know at 60 that i didn’t know at 25 is the limits of the law and crisis management. In popular culture, a layer or a crisis manager is like a spy or a cop. They can do anything. That’s just what reality will Dictate. Bankman-Fried is MAKING A GAMBLE THAT IT RIGHT AND THE OTHERS ARE WRONG, AND THE ODDS OF THAT WORKING OUT WELL FOR HIM ARE LIMITED, BUT THE ODDS OF HIM BEING WHO HAS BEEN WERE LIMITED IN THE FIRST PLACE, SO? He’s Not Wrong in Believing that is Capable of Incredible Feats of Persuion. Its just that we’re now dealing with a different thing.

In a substack article you published about this, you wrote, “the fact that nobody knows what he’s talking is part of the hustle, Because at some level we ‘all secretly afraid that we’re stupid, and iSier to nod along in a complicated riebu Hand. ” What Struck with Also About His Recent Interviews is that the way he explains his mistakes is also quite complicated. People thin an interview is going in for the kill, and then it on bank-free drone on for 45 minutes. You think, Well, it does sound like he knows what he’s talking about here.
Enron was the Same Thing. But when you’re dealing with trying cases, the complicated case, juries think on intuition. If you asced me, “Eric, did you steal my laptop?” And i said, “There are many many great quests in life, existential, mathematical, Theological, and wen the Sun on the solar system,” You’re Thinking, “Oh my God, this guy thinks he’s smarter than me, and he’i’s lying.” Complexity is not your friend in court. It is really isn’t, Becausea wen the People are gioven Loads of data, it doesn’t make me belies you more. It make mes that you’re trying to fool say. What May Have Workhed With Venture Capitalists and Presidents is Likely to Work in that Area.

What Wold You Be Telling Bankman-Fried to Do Right Now If You Were Working for Him?
There’s a lot we don’t know right now. We don’t know where he’s commerted a crime or whether or not this was a business that failed. Somewhere on that continuum is where we are. We don’t know for sura Now, Because it all hasn’t ben investigated and pressure-tested. Iferynding we’re hearing is workg, he will be able to explain that, but that will a while. The problem that he and a lot of clients that have faced have been desire for drive-through Redemption-they want the life that they know before Back, and they want it.

There is a better chance of long-term Redemption than there is Short-Term, Because the News Cycle of the Short-Ter has no interest in redeeming Him. The Vortex Wants to Hurt Him. IT DOESN’T WANT TO VINDICATE HIM. Look, It”s entirele postible that we’re going to find out some of the Things we learned in round one not going to have true in round seven. A lot of what i will know that i didn’t do decadees ago is look further out.

You cannot help an individual client like this, Because the individual client wants the Redemption Now. You can help a corplate client, Because they have a longer time horizon. They have the money to defend themselves. Whhenever i get a call that there is a product recall at ben Hart industries, i’m asked, “can the company survive?” Well, sura. These Big Companies will survive, Because they have diversified products. They have a long time horizon. They have the resources. They’re probably going to survive. But for an individual to defy something like this is Very hard no matter how rich he is. He wans his life back from the day before this blew up, and that just not going to openly anytime soon. IT May Happen Over a Period of Years. The short Advice is, alter your time horizon.

This interview han been edited for Length and Clarity.