Prison ain't what it used to be

In the common imagination, in prison, there are tough guys, gang members, murderers and torturers. But lately, the big criminals have been wearing white collars. They're still rascals and scoundrels, but they're more like rascals than murderers. They're no longer armed with revolvers or switchblades, but with degrees from the most prestigious universities.

MIT, Stanford, Harvard... who would have thought that the corridors of these famous American faculties would one day be home to the most prominent swindlers of recent years? After Elizabeth Holmes (founder of Theranos) and Sam Bankman-Fried (founder of FTX), it's now the turn of Do Kwon (founder of Terraform Labs) to join the ranks of the inmates.

It's a safe bet that SBF's comparses (Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, despite showing good will in court) and its erudite parents (Allan Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, professors emeritus who benefited greatly from the crypto platform's generosity) will also probably spend some time behind bars.

Well-educated people, my grandmother would say. She wouldn't be entirely wrong. And there have always been scoundrels in suits, you might say. You're right too. Bernard Madoff was very elegant.

But all the same, I wonder about the ability of these swindlers to fit into a penitentiary yard. Do they put their accounting skills at the service of gangsters who have spent less time in school? Do they run book clubs on the financiers who inspired them? Do they get nostalgic tattoos of their fallen companies' share prices? Or exchange memories of galas with former dictators? 

Drawing by Amandine Victor