Michael Lewis was captivated by Sam Bankman-Fried from their very first meeting—and on the evidence of Lewis’s new book, Going Infinite, his affection has not wavered in the two years since. Which is surprising, because Bankman-Fried is no longer a lauded cryptocurrency billionaire but an alleged con man, on trial for seven counts of fraud and money laundering. (He has pleaded not guilty.) Lewis was introduced to Bankman-Fried by an unnamed friend, who was poised to invest in the latter’s crypto exchange, FTX. The deal “would bind their fates, through an exchange of shares in each other’s companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” and so, naturally, the friend wanted Lewis to check out this scatterbrained prodigy who had gotten rich from trading virtual money. SBF duly turned up on Lewis’s porch in Berkeley, California, wearing cargo shorts and “ratty New Balance sneakers.” The pair took a walk together, talked about finance and philanthropy, and the older man came away impressed: “I called my friend and said something like: Go for it! Swap shares with …