Sam Bankman-Fried’s psychiatrist became a confidant at the doomed crypto exchange

Disgraced FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried had brought his psychiatrist on board the ailing company to coach the stressed-out employees.

The 30-year-old had his psychiatrist, Dr. George Lerner, hired to come on board the cryptocurrency exchange early last year and announced his hiring at a company-wide meeting.

Lerner, 46, had told them to consult with him about any workplace issues. He soon began to see nearly a third of the company’s staff in his capacity as trainers, and 20 attended his private practice.

He has described the culture at the doomed crypto exchange as “undersex” as he denied employees were all taking amphetamines to work long, grueling hours.

Lerner has not been charged with any wrongdoing and is now trying to rebuild his private practice to distance himself from the scandalous company.

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried had Dr. George Lerner recruited to join the team as in-house coach

Lerner received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in 2004 and completed his residency at the University of California San Francisco – a world-class psychiatric program.

From there, he ran his own psychiatric practice in Union Square, San Francisco, treating patients in the fields of technology, crypto, and venture capital. He specialized in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

One of his clients was Bankman-Fried, who saw him in 2019 and remains a patient of Dr. Lerner is being treated for ADHD and depression, a spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.

Lerner has said Bankman-Fried – who has spoken openly about experimenting with concentration-enhancing drugs – had some nervous habits, like fast foot tapping, that he would try to calm down with video games.

He said he also provided Bankman-Fried with a fidget spinner.

Lerner relocated to the Bahamas in June to serve as FTX’s in-house coach and offered his coaching services to millennial FTX employees 32 hours a week, the New York Times previously reported, while also maintaining a small practice on the side.

At the Bahamas-based crypto exchange, he saw about 100 of the company’s 300 employees for coaching, including 20 to 40 he saw regularly, he told The Wall Street Journal.

Separately, he saw about 20 FTX employees as patients in his private practice.

He said his main goal at the crypto exchange is to create “a more sustainable work environment.”

“They were amazing people — ambitious, brilliant, who wanted to make a positive impact on the world,” Lerner told the Journal.

However, he noted that “conflict resolution has been the most difficult since most of my work in the past has involved individuals.”

Lerner said the company was “tame” with employees working late at its Bahamas office

Lerner joined the Bahamas firm in June after serving as Sam Bankman-Fried’s psychiatrist since 2019

Rumors circulated that employees were taking amphetamines to keep them working late

Many former employees praised Lerner’s hiring as a sign of the company’s progressive attitude to mental health.

But others said they were worried about Dr. Lerner’s closeness to SBF, so much so that they refrained from revealing too much in their coaching sessions.

However, Lerner insists he keeps his coaching interactions strictly confidential and has been careful to separate his medical practice from his role as FTX coach.

For example, any staff who saw him were asked to sign a form stating that he was their coach and not their psychiatrist.

And former employees who Dr. Seeking learners for coaching said he made it clear he couldn’t get them drugs like Adderall to treat ADHD or Xanax to treat anxiety.

He then treated his San Francisco-based patients on trips back to California.

According to the Bahamas Medical Database, Lerner is not a registered doctor in the Bahamas. But the California Medical Association says it allows doctors to treat patients via telemedicine “from anywhere in the world,” as long as the patient is in California.

Lerner said he tried setting up mixers with the employees and those at other companies in the Bahamas, but they were too busy

Lerner has previously described the culture at FTX as “tame” and told the New York Times that employees spend a majority of their days in the office.

He said he’s worried about their social life and is focused on helping staff go on dates.

“I was very concerned that the lack of dating opportunities outside of a big city would affect people’s happiness or that they would feel compelled to leave the company because of it,” Lerner told the Journal.

He said he has tried organizing mixers with other companies in the Bahamas but people are too busy to attend.

The psychiatrist said that the atmosphere on the crypto exchange became more tense during the spring and summer as the crypto market plummeted, attributing this to the fact that many employees had their own crypto investments that were declining in value and they were worried about the company’s financial health.

Around the same time, FTX, unbeknownst to them, began using client funds to repay loans taken out by Alameda Research.

But Lerner said he didn’t see any indication that anything was wrong, explaining: “The things that we talked about were mostly like, ‘Are the staff happy? How do we keep them happy? How can the organization be organized most effectively and efficiently?”

“I never looked into the product, and he never spoke to me about the product,” Lerner said of the 30-year-old former billionaire.

Lerner has said Bankman-Fried – who has spoken openly about experimenting with concentration-enhancing drugs – had some nervous habits, like fast foot tapping, that he would try to calm down with video games

The disgraced former billionaire faces eight counts of fraud and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty to misusing FTX clients’ funds

After the crypto exchange collapsed in November, Lerner stayed on to advise those who remained, including senior executives who were struggling to keep FTX afloat.

When some distressed employees appeared suicidal, Lerner organized efforts to care for them, encouraging them to get back outside or asking others to keep a close eye on them.

He also helped some employees arrange trips to leave the Bahamas and receive psychological treatment at home.

“People were devastated,” he said. “They had lost their FTX family.”

He told the Journal he’s now focused on rebuilding his San Francisco practice, but his website has been slimmed down and now only offers some contact information.

Meanwhile, late last month, FTX’s new management asked a judge to grant subpoenas for a full assessment of internal communications, including those between SBF and Lerner in their attempts to recover FTX assets.

He said in an email to the Journal that he wasn’t a lawyer, noting that the request was “probably pretty normal for a bankruptcy case.”

He is accused of defrauding investors and diverting billions of dollars in FTX client funds into his hedge fund, which he then used as a piggy bank to fund his lavish lifestyle, personal investments and political donations

Bankman-Fried faces eight counts of fraud and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty to misusing FTX clients’ funds.

FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11 after struggling to raise enough funds to avert the collapse. The crash revealed an $8 billion hole in FTX’s accounts.

Investors — including footballer Tom Brady and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci — have had to scramble to get their funds back.

Bankman-Fried was sensationally arrested by US prosecutors in the Bahamas in December and extradited to the United States.

He is accused of defrauding investors and diverting billions of dollars in FTX client funds into his hedge fund, which he then used as a piggy bank to fund his lavish lifestyle, personal investments and political donations.

If found guilty on all charges, he could be sentenced to life imprisonment.