But that 10% is a non-recoverable fee, right? It seems insane they would have agreed to pay a third party $25M as a non-recoverable fee.
They will likely not being using a bondsman. They are probably paying the bond (ostensibly) themselves. They are taking a $250m loan using their house as collateral. If SBF does not make it to court on the agreed date, his parents will lose their house and be on the hook for the rest of the loan. If he does, his parents get the $250 million back and can pay off the loan. Until then, they are likely just making intere…
They are making interest payments on 250 million USD? Wow! How much do these people earn?
Bail doesn't work that way at this scale. His parents put up the deed to their house, and a couple of really rich friends showed that they have $250 million in assets and agreed to let the government seize them if SBF doesn't show up. No cash really changes hands.
This system just seems insane. Why allow people to temporarily buy their way out of jail? How is this not grossly unfair to the poor?
Innocent until proven guilty, presumption of innocence and so on. The system is insane, but not for the reasons you seem to think. It is unfair to the poor.
It's so wrong that rich folks can just skip jail. I'm just reading Harari's Sapiens, and one of his points is that it's crazy that today it's accepted that poorer people are discriminated against. That many people think that being poor is a not something that happens by chance, but by people being lazy or dumb.
I am not defending the bail system but is it not set to be "much" given the crime and your wealth?
Bail doesn't work that way at this scale. His parents put up the deed to their house, and a couple of really rich friends showed that they have $250 million in assets and agreed to let the government seize them if SBF doesn't show up. No cash really changes hands.
This system just seems insane. Why allow people to temporarily buy their way out of jail? How is this not grossly unfair to the poor?
In my experience, pretty much everyone without a record, or has always shown up for court gets ROR’d (released on own recognizance) for non violent crimes. The people that get screwed are the ones that skip court dates and then get caught again. If someone gets caught shoplifting and the cops find a gram of heroin in their pocket, it is common to be ROR’d after 24 hours in the tank if there are no outstanding warrants for skipping court. If they skip court and get caught again, the bond will be like $5000. If they are poor, they will spend a week in county jail, dry out, get on Suboxone, get assigned a parol officer, and hopefully be on a better path. Bail is meant to encourage people to show up for court and is needed for people who have a history of not doing that. It is less of a rich/poor thing, but rather a history of skipping court vs not skipping.
The Democrats' Senate Majority PAC is planning to return $1M contributed by SBF and $2M from Nishad Singh; the House Majority PAC got $6M from SBF and "will send funds in question wherever authorities instruct us". Source (and more details): https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/20/ftx-democrats-senate-majorit... My understanding is that SBF also made similar contributions to Republicans and conservative PACs etc, but general…
Is there any evidence at all of him giving “similar” money to republicans, other than his own word (which is garbage)?
> Is there any evidence at all of him giving “similar” money to republicans, other than his own word (which is garbage)?
The indictment (which required providing evidence to a grand jury for each count to establish probable cause) includes charges of illegal concealed-identity political donations. While it doesn't specify the recipients, this is consistent with his description of how he donated to Republicans to avoid criticism for such donations.
Why should anyone who isn't a danger to the community be held in jail pre-trail?
In this context; someone who can't afford bail makes someone a danger to the community?
It’s usually more about flight risk. “Have nothing to lose” is the phrase that’d be associated with people who can’t afford bail.
It’s a tough situation because optimally no one who’s not a flight risk or dangerous should be in jail. They’re all innocent, after all, until they have trial. A financial hostage is just the easiest to implement.
The Democrats' Senate Majority PAC is planning to return $1M contributed by SBF and $2M from Nishad Singh; the House Majority PAC got $6M from SBF and "will send funds in question wherever authorities instruct us". Source (and more details): https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/20/ftx-democrats-senate-majorit... My understanding is that SBF also made similar contributions to Republicans and conservative PACs etc, but general…
Is there any evidence at all of him giving “similar” money to republicans, other than his own word (which is garbage)?
Ryan Salame donated multi-millions to republicans, and was given 55m loan from FTX/Alameda.