Early last year,
Sam Bankman-Fried
told an FTX all-hands meeting about an addition to the company’s staff.
It wasn’t a head of accounting. It wasn’t a risk manager. Instead, it was a psychiatrist who would serve as coach for stressed-out employees at the fast-growing crypto exchange. Dr.
George Lerner
introduced himself on the video meeting and encouraged workers to consult with him, meeting attendees recalled.
FTX collapsed in November, brought down by revelations that it had misused billions of dollars of customer funds. Mr. Bankman-Fried is now under house arrest after pleading not guilty to fraud charges. FTX is in bankruptcy proceedings.
Late last month, FTX’s new management asked a judge to approve subpoenas to obtain a broad assortment of internal communications, including those between Mr. Bankman-Fried and Dr. Lerner, as part of its efforts to recover FTX assets.
Dr. Lerner isn’t accused of wrongdoing. A spokesman for Mr. Bankman-Fried declined to comment on the subpoena request. In an email, Dr. Lerner noted he wasn’t an attorney and said the request was “probably pretty standard for a bankruptcy case.”
Dr. Lerner relocated in June to the Bahamas, where FTX was based. The staff of FTX and its sister trading firm, Alameda Research, put in long, intense hours, and work and life were often blurred. Many of the employees, in their 20s and far from home, lived together in high-end company housing, and romantic relationships between executives were common.
The lines between the two companies, FTX and Alameda, were also indistinct. Mr. Bankman-Fried told investors that the two operated separately, a safeguard that should have protected customer money. But the two companies shared office space, employees and technology. Regulators say that Mr. Bankman-Fried treated FTX customer funds as a piggy bank. Mr. Bankman-Fried, who was chief executive officer of FTX and owned 90% of Alameda, has denied that any funds were stolen.
Dr. Lerner, who is 46 years old, said FTX hired him as a coach, not a psychiatrist. He said that after moving to the Bahamas, he worked 32 hours a week for the company. He saw about 100 of the company’s 300 employees for coaching, including 20 to 40 on a semiregular basis, he said.
Separately, Dr. Lerner said, about 20 FTX employees were patients in his private practice.
As a psychiatrist, Dr. Lerner is a medical doctor who can diagnose mental-health disorders and prescribe medicine. As a coach, he could offer advice and counseling.
Dr. Lerner said his main goal at FTX was creating “a more sustainable work environment.”
“They were amazing people—driven, brilliant, wanting to make a positive impact on the world,” Dr. Lerner said. “Conflict resolution was the toughest as most of my work has historically been with individuals.”
A construction site in Nassau, the Bahamas, in July for the crypto exchange FTX, which collapsed later last year.
Photo:
ROBYN DAMIANOS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Wall Street Journal spoke to former FTX employees about Dr. Lerner. Some welcomed his hire as a sign of the company’s progressive attitude to mental health. They said he skillfully cared for employees who became despondent when FTX was failing in November.
Dr. Lerner earned an M.D. in 2004 from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and completed his residency at the University of California, San Francisco, a top-ranked psychiatry program.
Before joining FTX, Dr. Lerner ran a psychiatry practice near San Francisco’s Union Square, where patients included executives from tech, crypto and venture capital, he said. He specialized in treating depression, anxiety and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to an old version of his website.
Dr. Lerner ended up at FTX, he said, because he had been treating some early employees of FTX and Alameda at his private practice.
One of his patients was Mr. Bankman-Fried, who started seeing Dr. Lerner in early 2019 and continues to be his patient today, receiving treatment for ADHD and depression, according to the spokesman for the former FTX CEO.
In draft testimony for a congressional hearing in December, Mr. Bankman-Fried said he had a decadelong prescription to the antidepressant Emsam. “I am, and for most of my adult life have been, sad,” he said. Mr. Bankman-Fried didn’t testify at the hearing because he was arrested the day before it took place.
At FTX, some employees worried about what they saw as Dr. Lerner’s closeness to Mr. Bankman-Fried, so much so that they said they held back from revealing too much in coaching sessions. Dr. Lerner said he kept coaching interactions in strict confidence.
Dr. Lerner also said he was careful to separate his medical practice from his FTX coaching. For example, employees who saw him for coaching were asked to sign a form stating that he was their coach and not their psychiatrist, he said.
For the employees who were patients in Dr. Lerner’s private practice, he would treat them during their trips back to California, he said. He treated about 10 for depression or anxiety and 10 for ADHD, he said.
Dr. Lerner isn’t registered as a physician in the Bahamas, according to the Bahamas Medical Council database. California’s medical board said it allows its doctors to treat patients via telehealth “from anywhere in the world,” as long as the patient is in California.
Some former employees who saw Dr. Lerner for coaching said he made it clear that he could help them get medications such as Adderall, used to treat ADHD, or Xanax, used to treat anxiety. Dr. Lerner said he didn’t offer such services to people he saw for coaching and prescribed medicine to patients only when medically necessary.
Danielle Cloud,
a former employee in FTX marketing, described on Twitter several coaching sessions with Dr. Lerner. “After an initial ‘consultation,’ he informs me he can help with my underdiagnosed ADHD bc that’s his specialty,” she wrote.
Ms. Cloud declined to comment. Other former employees said Dr. Lerner took a measured approach to prescription medications.
Dr. Lerner said one of his goals at FTX was helping employees go out on dates.
“I was very concerned that people’s happiness would be reduced by lack of dating opportunities outside of a big city or that they would feel compelled to leave the company due to this,” he said.
Dr. Lerner said he tried to organize social mixers with other companies in the Bahamas but that people were too busy.
When FTX imploded in November, Dr. Lerner stuck around even as dozens of employees quit. He counseled those who remained, including senior employees struggling to keep FTX afloat, people familiar with the matter said.
When some distressed employees appeared to be at risk of suicide, Dr. Lerner organized efforts to care for them, encouraging them to get outside or urging others to keep an eye on them, these people said. He also helped some employees make travel arrangements to leave the Bahamas and get psychological care at home, the people said.
“People were devastated,” Dr. Lerner said. “They had lost their FTX family.”
Dr. Lerner said he is focused on rebuilding his private practice. His website has been stripped down, offering only some contact information.
Write to Alexander Osipovich at alexo@wsj.com, Hannah Miao at hannah.miao@wsj.com and Caitlin Ostroff at caitlin.ostroff@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Early last year,
Sam Bankman-Fried
told an FTX all-hands meeting about an addition to the company’s staff.
It wasn’t a head of accounting. It wasn’t a risk manager. Instead, it was a psychiatrist who would serve as coach for stressed-out employees at the fast-growing crypto exchange. Dr.
George Lerner
introduced himself on the video meeting and encouraged workers to consult with him, meeting attendees recalled.
FTX collapsed in November, brought down by revelations that it had misused billions of dollars of customer funds. Mr. Bankman-Fried is now under house arrest after pleading not guilty to fraud charges. FTX is in bankruptcy proceedings.
Late last month, FTX’s new management asked a judge to approve subpoenas to obtain a broad assortment of internal communications, including those between Mr. Bankman-Fried and Dr. Lerner, as part of its efforts to recover FTX assets.
Dr. Lerner isn’t accused of wrongdoing. A spokesman for Mr. Bankman-Fried declined to comment on the subpoena request. In an email, Dr. Lerner noted he wasn’t an attorney and said the request was “probably pretty standard for a bankruptcy case.”
Dr. Lerner relocated in June to the Bahamas, where FTX was based. The staff of FTX and its sister trading firm, Alameda Research, put in long, intense hours, and work and life were often blurred. Many of the employees, in their 20s and far from home, lived together in high-end company housing, and romantic relationships between executives were common.
The lines between the two companies, FTX and Alameda, were also indistinct. Mr. Bankman-Fried told investors that the two operated separately, a safeguard that should have protected customer money. But the two companies shared office space, employees and technology. Regulators say that Mr. Bankman-Fried treated FTX customer funds as a piggy bank. Mr. Bankman-Fried, who was chief executive officer of FTX and owned 90% of Alameda, has denied that any funds were stolen.
Dr. Lerner, who is 46 years old, said FTX hired him as a coach, not a psychiatrist. He said that after moving to the Bahamas, he worked 32 hours a week for the company. He saw about 100 of the company’s 300 employees for coaching, including 20 to 40 on a semiregular basis, he said.
Separately, Dr. Lerner said, about 20 FTX employees were patients in his private practice.
As a psychiatrist, Dr. Lerner is a medical doctor who can diagnose mental-health disorders and prescribe medicine. As a coach, he could offer advice and counseling.
Dr. Lerner said his main goal at FTX was creating “a more sustainable work environment.”
“They were amazing people—driven, brilliant, wanting to make a positive impact on the world,” Dr. Lerner said. “Conflict resolution was the toughest as most of my work has historically been with individuals.”
A construction site in Nassau, the Bahamas, in July for the crypto exchange FTX, which collapsed later last year.
Photo:
ROBYN DAMIANOS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Wall Street Journal spoke to former FTX employees about Dr. Lerner. Some welcomed his hire as a sign of the company’s progressive attitude to mental health. They said he skillfully cared for employees who became despondent when FTX was failing in November.
Dr. Lerner earned an M.D. in 2004 from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and completed his residency at the University of California, San Francisco, a top-ranked psychiatry program.
Before joining FTX, Dr. Lerner ran a psychiatry practice near San Francisco’s Union Square, where patients included executives from tech, crypto and venture capital, he said. He specialized in treating depression, anxiety and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to an old version of his website.
Dr. Lerner ended up at FTX, he said, because he had been treating some early employees of FTX and Alameda at his private practice.
One of his patients was Mr. Bankman-Fried, who started seeing Dr. Lerner in early 2019 and continues to be his patient today, receiving treatment for ADHD and depression, according to the spokesman for the former FTX CEO.
In draft testimony for a congressional hearing in December, Mr. Bankman-Fried said he had a decadelong prescription to the antidepressant Emsam. “I am, and for most of my adult life have been, sad,” he said. Mr. Bankman-Fried didn’t testify at the hearing because he was arrested the day before it took place.
At FTX, some employees worried about what they saw as Dr. Lerner’s closeness to Mr. Bankman-Fried, so much so that they said they held back from revealing too much in coaching sessions. Dr. Lerner said he kept coaching interactions in strict confidence.
Dr. Lerner also said he was careful to separate his medical practice from his FTX coaching. For example, employees who saw him for coaching were asked to sign a form stating that he was their coach and not their psychiatrist, he said.
For the employees who were patients in Dr. Lerner’s private practice, he would treat them during their trips back to California, he said. He treated about 10 for depression or anxiety and 10 for ADHD, he said.
Dr. Lerner isn’t registered as a physician in the Bahamas, according to the Bahamas Medical Council database. California’s medical board said it allows its doctors to treat patients via telehealth “from anywhere in the world,” as long as the patient is in California.
Some former employees who saw Dr. Lerner for coaching said he made it clear that he could help them get medications such as Adderall, used to treat ADHD, or Xanax, used to treat anxiety. Dr. Lerner said he didn’t offer such services to people he saw for coaching and prescribed medicine to patients only when medically necessary.
Danielle Cloud,
a former employee in FTX marketing, described on Twitter several coaching sessions with Dr. Lerner. “After an initial ‘consultation,’ he informs me he can help with my underdiagnosed ADHD bc that’s his specialty,” she wrote.
Ms. Cloud declined to comment. Other former employees said Dr. Lerner took a measured approach to prescription medications.
Dr. Lerner said one of his goals at FTX was helping employees go out on dates.
“I was very concerned that people’s happiness would be reduced by lack of dating opportunities outside of a big city or that they would feel compelled to leave the company due to this,” he said.
Dr. Lerner said he tried to organize social mixers with other companies in the Bahamas but that people were too busy.
When FTX imploded in November, Dr. Lerner stuck around even as dozens of employees quit. He counseled those who remained, including senior employees struggling to keep FTX afloat, people familiar with the matter said.
When some distressed employees appeared to be at risk of suicide, Dr. Lerner organized efforts to care for them, encouraging them to get outside or urging others to keep an eye on them, these people said. He also helped some employees make travel arrangements to leave the Bahamas and get psychological care at home, the people said.
“People were devastated,” Dr. Lerner said. “They had lost their FTX family.”
Dr. Lerner said he is focused on rebuilding his private practice. His website has been stripped down, offering only some contact information.
Write to Alexander Osipovich at alexo@wsj.com, Hannah Miao at hannah.miao@wsj.com and Caitlin Ostroff at caitlin.ostroff@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8