Sam Bankman-Fried's psychiatrist became confidante at doomed crypto exchange trends now
Disgraced FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried had brought his psychiatrist on board the failing company to serve as a coach for the stressed-out employees in the months leading up to the crypto exchange's downfall.
The 30-year-old had hired his psychiatrist, Dr. George Lerner, 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. Soon he started seeing nearly one-third of the company's workforce in his capacity as a coach, with 20 attending his private practice.
He has described the culture at the doomed crypto exchange as being 'undersexed' as he denied that the employees all did amphetamines to work long, strenuous hours.
Lerner is not accused of any wrongdoing, and is now trying to rebuild his private practice as he seeks to distance himself from the scandalous company.
Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried had recruited Dr. George Lerner to join the team as an in-house coach
Lerner earned his medical degree in 2004 from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and completed his residency at the University of California San Francisco — a top-rated psychiatry program.
From there, he went on to run his own psychiatry practice in San Francisco's Union Square, seeing patients in the tech, crypto and venture capital fields. He specialized in treating depression, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
One of his clients was Bankman-Fried, who started seeing him in 2019 and continues to be a patient of Dr. Lerner's to this day, receiving treatment for ADHD and depression, a spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.
Lerner has said Bankman-Fried — who has spoken openly about experimenting with focus-enhancing drugs, had some nervous habits, like rapidly tapping his feet that he would try to calm down with video games.
He said he also provided Bankman-Fried with a fidget spinner.
Lerner moved to the Bahamas to serve as FTX's in=house coach in June, offering his coaching services to the millennial FTX employees 32 hours a week, the New York Times previously reported, while also keeping 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 on a semi-regular basis, 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 was to create 'a more sustainable work environment.
'They were amazing people — driven, brilliant, wanting to make a positive impact on the world,' Lerner told the Journal.
He noted, though, 'conflict resolution was the toughest, as most of my work has historically been with individuals.'
Lerner has said the company was 'tame' with employees working late into the night at their office in the Bahamas
Lerner joined the Bahamas firm in June, after serving as Sam Bankman-Fried's psychiatrist since 2019
Rumors have circulated that employees took amphetamines to keep working into the night
Many former employees praised Lerner's hiring as a sign of the company's progressive attitude toward mental health.
But others said they worried about Dr. Lerner's closeness to SBF, so much so that they held back from revealing too much in their coaching sessions.
Lerner, though, insists he kept his coaching interactions in strict confidence, and was careful to separate his medical practice from his role as an FTX coach.
Any employees that saw him, for example, were asked to sign a form stating he was their coach not their psychiatrist.
And former employees who saw Dr. Lerner for coaching have said he made it clear that he could not get them medications such as Adderall to treat ADHD or Xanax to treat anxiety.
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