'Netflix decided to make it a love story': FTX's former operations chief says the trailer for The Altruists made her sick

One of the people who ran FTX day to day says Netflix has the story wrong. Constance Wang, who joined the exchange as chief operating officer in early 2019 and stayed until it collapsed in November 2022, wrote on X on Friday that watching the trailer for The Altruists made her physically ill, The Block and Cryptopolitan reported.

Her complaint is about what the show chooses to dramatize. The two-minute trailer leans on the relationship between founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, the former chief executive of Alameda Research. Wang wrote that most employees learned the two were dating only after the bankruptcy, and that she never saw Ellison act aggressively, describing her as quiet and mild.

She also pushed back on the picture of the workplace. FTX had fewer than 200 employees, many of them working 16 to 18 hours a day, she wrote, and she lost everything she had invested in the company. She added that she has no interest in defending the people who caused the collapse.

"FTX's collapse ruined so many people's lives, including ours, and Netflix decided to make it a love story," she wrote.

Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven counts in November 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Ellison pleaded guilty, testified against him and received a two-year sentence.

The eight-episode series premieres on November 19, with Anthony Boyle as Bankman-Fried and Julia Garner as Ellison.

What to watch: whether Netflix or the show's makers respond before the premiere.