I mean, he gave his rationale why it wasn't public. He was a calculating, manipulative dude who was super PR-savvy and knew how to cultivate press and hype. His entire unruly hair, driving a 2010 Corolla and gaming-while-pitching-VCs thing were all components of the neurodivergent genius savant branding.
Look at some of own statements:
> Kelsey Piper: so the ethics stuff - mostly a front? people will like you if you win and hate you if you lose and that's how it all really works?
> Sam Bankman-Fried: yeah
> SBF: I mean that's not all of it
> SBF: but it's a lot
> KP: you were really good at talking about ethics, for someone who kind of saw it all as a game with winners and losers
> SBF: ya
> SBF: hehe
> SBF: I had to be
> SBF: it's what reputations are made of, to some extent
> SBF: I feel bad for those who get f*** by it
> SBF: by this dumb game we woke westerners play where we say all the right shiboleths [sic] and so everyone likes us
Sure. But he’s also a pathological liar. It’s convenient that when GOP donations become useful to him, he made a bunch of them secretly. (Which would also put every campaign he gave to in violation of campaign-finance law.)
Put simply, I’m calling bullshit. He didn’t do this and then lied about it. I’m calling it a “hidden, poorly internally labled ‘fiat@’ account.”