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The United States of America vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried Indictment [pdf]

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Re: The United States of America vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried Indictment [pdf]

#551

Post by anon7725 »

jacquesm wrote: post #527
Animats wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, it's worse than that. There will at least be civil suits. Possibly criminal prosecution.[1] NYT: "Mr. Bankman was deeply involved in FTX. In its early days, he helped the company recruit its first lawyers. Last year, he joined FTX staff in meetings on Capitol Hill and advised his son as Mr. Bankman-Fried prepared to testify to the House Financial Services Committee, a person familiar with the matter said. FTX emp…

It appears that his goose is fried, not cooked. As a lawyer he really should have known better.

That’s what gets me about this whole thing: two law professor parents. A gaggle of young, incredibly wealthy people who all had their tickets pre-punched with prestige schools, A-list jobs like Jane Street, etc. I have to admit, this story has pissed me off more than most of these corporate frauds.

Re: The United States of America vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried Indictment [pdf]

#552

Post by bitL »

joeblubaugh wrote: post #455

Is there going to be any reckoning for the VCs who poured money into this ridiculous business? I don’t see how you respect Sequoia’s judgement after this.

Sequoia's main driving factor was paranoia of missing the next big thing. Why would that change with one of their assets tanking? They went through similar (albeit at a smaller scale) many times. Most investments flop, this one very publicly. Still, just one of many investments they have, some of them equally foolish. Many "foolish" investments made them rich before.

Re: The United States of America vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried Indictment [pdf]

#553

Post by flylib »

justinzollars wrote: post #507
joeblubaugh wrote: post #455

Is there going to be any reckoning for the VCs who poured money into this ridiculous business? I don’t see how you respect Sequoia’s judgement after this.

There was. They marked their entire investments to zero. A total loss.

SBF invested 200 million back into Sequoia funds as an LP, wasn't that big of a loss as they invested 214 million into FTX

Re: The United States of America vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried Indictment [pdf]

#555

Post by coffeebeqn »

politician wrote: post #322

It's interesting that the US gets priority on prosecution here when the losses internationally are far in excess of those of US creditors.

It’s the biggest economy and the strongest “rule of law” out of all the large countries in the world. And it has the most soft power in the world. I’m not too surprised

Re: The United States of America vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried Indictment [pdf]

#556

Post by svnt »

Loughla wrote: post #78
likpok wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being extraordinarily connected did not help Madoff much: he was sentenced to 150 years in prison and died there last year.

The cynic in me says that it really does matter who you defraud. Where Madoff went wrong was ripping off other rich people. So, if SBF defrauded more upper- than middle- or working-class folks, then he's screwed.

You don’t think Sequoia is among those pushing for prosecution?

Re: The United States of America vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried Indictment [pdf]

#557

Post by vkou »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #461
massysett wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is opportunity cost. People invested in Madoff to grow their money. So if I invest $100 in Madoff and ten years later they say “we recovered $90, congrats,” yeah that’s better than nothing. But if I had put that into a legitimate investment, maybe I’d have $180. Other folks got money out of Madoff during his scam years, and the trustee says “I’m taking that money back to pay back others.” So much of crypt…

> Other folks got money out of Madoff during his scam years, and the trustee says “I’m taking that money back to pay back others.” What’s the limit on that? Dollars or time? I would be beyond furious if I was expected to help make someone else whole.

> I would be beyond furious if I was expected to help make someone else whole.

Such are the wages of being a beneficiary of a ponzi scheme. It would be a good incentive to do better research.

Re: The United States of America vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried Indictment [pdf]

#558

Post by lmm »

bogwog wrote: post #493
sam345 wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just enjoying their humiliation and reputation hit. Enjoying only so much as it is the correct free market result of betting big without [edited] due diligence. Some of it is result of fed priming the economy with free money. With so much money being dropped from the helicopter there's no time for due diligence. You win some you lose some so in that sense it was a rational bet I guess but not an intelligent one.

On the one hand, sure, but on the other hand, this was literally a case of fraud. A fraudulent business is going to go out of its way to hide the fact that it's committing fraud.

There's a level of wilful ignorance here. If you "invest" in a business because line goes up and you don't ask why or how, and it turns out the why and how was crime, well, maybe you were just a rube, but maybe you figured out that it wasn't in your interest to ask too many questions. When we're talking about a sophisticated top VC fund...

Re: The United States of America vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried Indictment [pdf]

#559

Post by wereallterrrist »

blueyes wrote: post #295
noelsusman wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His donations to Democrats accounted for 0.025% of all the money Democrats spent on the midterm election last month. Anyone who genuinely believed that can buy you a get out of jail free card for billions of dollars in fraud should seriously re-evaluate how they think the world works.

Can all the people who claimed SBF would never be arrested because of the corruption of media, establishment and Democrats please ask themselves how many other false things they believe because of their tribe's ideology?

Surely a meager bit of attention paid to fear/disgust-based politics [now don't project here folks ;)], would dissuade you from that notion. There's always a deeper conspiracy to double down with. Or outright lies. Gish galloping, etc.

Re: The United States of America vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried Indictment [pdf]

#560

Post by vkou »

panarky wrote: post #447
this_user wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have already looked into this, and the claims on FTX' debt were valued at 5c on the dollar. Alameda has burned through billions, and most of what was left were illiquid shitcoins and other worthless junk. Madoff, at least, was dealing with real assets.

> burned through billions If Alameda lost the billions, then who won the billions? Who was on the other side of those trades?

> Who was on the other side of those trades?

Unrelated funds, and random morons from crypto's equivalent of r/wallstreetbets.

It's very easy to lose a lot of money, really quickly in the markets.

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