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

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281–290 of 451 posts

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

#281
"Finally, and critically, the Debtors have made clear to employees and the public that Mr. Bankman-Fried is not employed by the Debtors and does not speak for them. Mr. Bankman-Fried, currently in the Bahamas, continues to make erratic and misleading public statements. Mr. Bankman-Fried, whose connections and financial holdings in the Bahamas remain unclear to me, recently stated to a reporter on Twitter: “F** regulators they make everything worse” and suggested the next step for him was to “win a jurisdictional battle vs. Delaware”."

hah!

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

#282
post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were paying out guaranteed 15% returns "with no risk" to investors. Basically a textbook Ponzi scheme pitch and yet again it worked. https://www.theblock.co/post/186187/alameda-promised-high-re...

Again, that's the Alameda arm, I'm talking about the exchange.

They were all connected at the hip. You can't talk about only one because it's all one big fraud spit across a bunch of domains to dazzle investors.

There is some evidence that they "passed" the audits by moving all of the money around the companies while auditing them one at a time using a hidden money transfer function written by SBF.

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

#283
post #74

Those are some candid remarks by the new CEO. "I have over 40 years of legal and restructuring experience. [...] 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. From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of in…

> I am really looking forward to the next Matt Levine column going through this filing! Got u fam: https://archive.ph/VaSw8

[deleted]

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

#284
post #206

Once again I need to poin tout the shocking truth that FTX had no CFO [1]. The CFO's experience and reputation is waht gives investors and regulators confidence that the financial statements that the CFO literally signs off on are valid. Listed companies on the NASDAQ and NYSE have lots of requirements here (eg internal and external audits). Obviously these don't apply to FTX but the truly shocking thing here is the…

> He either doesn't have lawyers...

His parents are both lawyers! And law professors! Specializing in compliance and ethics!

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

#285

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.

Everyone can, vicariously, when the leaked SBF-CE tape drops tomorrow. Personally, I plan on staying off the internet all day so I don't accidentally see it.

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

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious prison time for the executives involved would probably be more effective.

>> Serious prison time for the executives involved would probably be more effective. Top executives, especially well-connected ones never get prison time. Instead, you usually have Indian/Chinese scapegoats or someone equally disliked. The entire flash crash was blamed on a lone indian man living with his parents: https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-51265169 Nevermind Citadel, 2Sigma, Jane Street, Goldman Sachs The 2…

For reference:

Navinder Sarao - Sentenced to a year of home detention

Kareem Serageldin - Sentenced to 30 months in prison

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

#287
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one theory. Of course, given the depth of financial depravity on display here and the incredible thinness of the financial defense, one must also entertain the theory that they did do the due diligence, they were aware of how dangerous this was, and they invested anyhow for other reasons. And that those reasons are probably not good. There have been many cases where companies go to great lengths to do accounti…

> FTX’s list of investors spans powerful and well-known investment firms: NEA, IVP, Iconiq Capital, Third Point Ventures, Tiger Global, Altimeter Capital Management, Lux Capital, Mayfield, Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ribbit Capital, Temasek Holdings, BlackRock and Thoma Bravo. - https://archive.ph/1tjP5 This is an extraordinary number of high-profile companies which eithe…

There's a third option: FOMO. They didn't want to look stupid later for failing to invest in case FTX turned out to be the next big thing, so they took a gamble.

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

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Serious prison time for the executives involved would probably be more effective. Top executives, especially well-connected ones never get prison time. Instead, you usually have Indian/Chinese scapegoats or someone equally disliked. The entire flash crash was blamed on a lone indian man living with his parents: https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-51265169 Nevermind Citadel, 2Sigma, Jane Street, Goldman Sachs The 2…

Bernie Madoff was a top executive, with great connections.

most of big beneficiaries of the Madoff scam e.g. Picower (found dead the the bottom of his pool) and including Madoff's children, were dead within a couple years after the collapse.

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

#289
post #226
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> All because he exploited a momentary arbitrage in Japanese Bitcoin exchanges. Originally the story was korean exchanges; he changed to saying Japanese, presumably after too many people pointed out the korean story was impossible. (The Japanese story was also more or less impossible, they could have made a bit of money maybe even millions but not the $10+bn he claimed)

They made ~$10-30m from the Japan arb from what I've read, mostly blew it, but it still got Alameda off the ground. The Korean arb was the initial goal but proved too difficult.

Both of these arbs were glaringly obvious and talked about constantly, but difficult to pull off due to banking hurdles in both countries.

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

#290

To be honest: I'm just happy I get to experience another Enron, but this time I can watch it in real time on Twitter!

Yeah, I feel bad for admitting this because people I know were significantly harmed, but the entertainment value of this is off the charts.
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