Live data from Hacker News

FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows

cnbc.com

161–170 of 451 posts

Re: FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows

#161
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here it is! https://d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net/production/7ab64a3b-6c...

"Poorly labeled account"? Like, he claims he forgot some liabilities existed? With about the same size as their customers' founds?

Not only that, but these liabilities are likely only a chunk of the customer’s funds (hence “fiat”). A lot more data is missing.

Indeed, from John J. Ray III’s declaration[0]:

> The Dotcom Silo Debtors may have significant liabilities to customers through the FTX.com platform. However, such liabilities are not reflected in the financial statements prepared by these companies while they were under the control of Mr. Bankman-Fried

And from SBF[1]:

> it looks like people wired $8b to Alameda and oh god we basically forgot about the stub accounts that corresponded to that and so it was never delivered to FTX

[0]: https://pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/33/188450/042020648...

[1]: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23462333/sam-bankman-frie...

Re: FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows

#162
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Nah. They have already siphoned enough money through shell companies to buy many houses. Is there any evidence of this? Sure, maybe wearing a t-shirt and flip-flops, driving a Corolla, and sleeping on beanbags is some sort of act to divert attention, but the simpler explanation is that he just fucked up. Not everything has to be a heist.

I mean, page 9 of the bankruptcy filing says Alameda Research loaned SBF $1,000,000,000 [1], and a couple billion in loans to other owners or companies owned by the owners. Maybe he just fucked up. But when the music stops and instead of having your customers' money, you have a bunch of loans to the owners of the company... I'm not sure if "he just fucked up" is the simpler explanation, or the more credulous one. [1]…

> I mean, page 9 of the bankruptcy filing says Alameda Research loaned SBF $1,000,000,000 [1], and a couple billion in loans to other owners or companies owned by the owners.

oof, okay that's pretty bad.

Re: FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows

#164

how did ftx successfully raise so much vc money recently? do these top vc firms do no due diligence?

Between this, Theranos, Elon getting co-investment and loans in his project to set 44 billion on fire and recent investor letter to Google to cut staff and damage their main engine of innovation

You can only conclude that there is a lot of dimb money out there. Some people made big money despite being idiots. Which means I have a chance as well!

Re: FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows

#165
post #114

In a separate article Ray also said: “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” And this is the same man who oversaw the liquidation of Enron. "Ray said he had found at FTX international, FTX US and Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research trading company “compromised systems integrity”, “faulty regulatory o…

The guy who says regulations are dumb has no idea what he spent his money on or even how many employees he has. This guy is almost worse than Elizabeth Holmes.

Re: FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows

#166

how did ftx successfully raise so much vc money recently? do these top vc firms do no due diligence?

> how did ftx successfully raise so much vc money recently?

Maybe they got to join the FTX polycule if they invested enough. Who wouldn't want to get in on that.

Re: FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows

#168
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tether prints tokens in exchange for money. Them disappearing means they took the money and abandoned their magic bean IOUs.

Do they actually exchange them for money or are they just creating them? There has never been a reputable audit of Tether.

Tether's 'market cap' is like 60 billion or whatever, I think most of that was just created out of thin air, but I think some of it was exchanged for real dollars, like a few percent, maybe a couple of billion dollars. In which case, when the fraud comes crashing down, they will have stolen hundreds of millions, to maybe a couple of billion dollars.

Imagine if somebody stole a piece of art worth hundreds of millions of dollars...

Re: FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would it? FTX wasn’t playing by existing US regulations anyway. Even the most basic regulations would have squashed FTX’s entire fraud from the start. They weren’t bothering to play by any rules because they knew they could get away with it.

Regulations didn't stop Enron.

Yes, which is why the US Congress added a whole bunch of new regulations (Sarbanes-Oxley) to prevent future Enrons.

Re: FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows

#170

how did ftx successfully raise so much vc money recently? do these top vc firms do no due diligence?

Dead simple: Many VC's aren't very smart and/or ethical. How many major Silicon Valley scandals are VCs involved in? 100%. And for the most part they get a pass. This end of the era of easy money is going to reveal that many of the "geniuses of our time" are nothing of the like.

The stuff that Sequoia said about him is almost unreal. They talked like he was going to be the greatest entrepreneur in human history. All because he exploited a momentary arbitrage in Japanese Bitcoin exchanges. Then they gave him shitloads of money and acceded to not getting board seats. I honestly wonder if they were that trusting or they just wanted to maintain deniability.
Post reply on HN