Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be released on $250M bail

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 500 posts

Re: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be released on $250M bail

#321

Post by dragonwriter »

alistairSH wrote: post #318
jjtheblunt wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His parents' home isn't worth anything like that. Does that mean only a fraction of the bond value needs to be the security? If so, is that not bullshit?

Normally, the accused pays a bail bondsman ~10% of the bail amount and bondsman puts up the full amount at the courthouse. The 10% is a fee to the bondsman, the accused doesn’t get it back. The bondsman gets back their full amount back when the accused shows up for trial. If the accused flees, the bondsman sends bounty hunters and/or calls in their insurance policy. Not sure how it works for amounts this large, but t…

> The bondsman gets back their full amount when the accused shows up for trial.

Usually, registered bail agents sign as sureties, they don't actually pay the bail up front and get it back.

Re: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be released on $250M bail

#322

Post by joshmn »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #252
happyopossum wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> secured only on his parents’ home in Palo Alto, This part is incorrect - his parents and 2 other individuals with ‘significant assets’ signed on his bond.

Normally when you post bail you have 2 options: 1. Pledge the full amount of the bail yourself. You get this back if the accused shows up in court, you lose it of they flee. 2. Pay some percentage (usually X%) to a bail bondsman. You never get that money back, and if the accused flees, the bail bondsman will try to get the money from whomever signed the bond (as the bail bondsman is on the hook). The bail bondsman ma…

Note: Even though the Federal Bail Reform Act of 1984 allows Federal courts to require financial conditions such as a cash or property bond, the majority of districts no longer use bail bonds, and very few bondsmen will work with federal cases.

Re: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be released on $250M bail

#323

Post by robocat »

ggreer wrote: post #312
ravi-delia wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A cursory google suggests that 50% of murders go unsolved. Obviously people out on bail are far more likely to be investigated than those who aren't (especially considering that the intersection of "criminals who haven't gotten caught" and "people out on bail" is empty, so we're looking at the finer category of people who have been caught once ), but lets pretend that the opposite is true, and that every single unsol…

There are many more crimes than murders, and the chances of getting caught are much lower. For example: in San Francisco, the clearance rate for reported larcenies is 2.9%.[1] So a thief can expect to steal another 23 times before having a 50% chance of being caught. SF's 6.4% clearance rate for vehicle theft means that a car thief can expect to steal another 10 cars before getting caught. 1. https://www.sanfrancisco…

I presume the actual distribution is highly skewed, so “expect to steal another 10 cars” is likely better said as something like “expect to steal twice as many cars than they have already stolen” plus a clearance rate for a first time offender. Obviously difficult to get reliable information on the true distribution - but perhaps can be predicted by the outlier fat tail?

More simply put: much more than 50% of people that have stolen 1 car will get caught before they have stolen their tenth car, and if someone has stolen a hundred cars then their chances of getting caught before stealing 110 are much less than 50%. Edit: note that my figures don’t match your numbers - they are only examples.

Re: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be released on $250M bail

#324

Post by usrusr »

jasonhansel wrote: post #138
low_tech_love wrote: post #125

I wonder if this whole thing counts as “effective altruism”? Maybe he is effective at scaring other crypto “adventurers” (i.e. people who like to play with other people’s money as if they were in the wild west) and the number and size of scams diminishes in the future? That’d be a good badge to have on his boy-scout t-shirt (or whatever boy-scouts use).

If he runs, he can always spin it as a $250 million donation to the government.

More like a 25 million donation - flanked by an inexplicable (in hindsight) expectation that somehow, from somewhere, 225 more would eventually materialize.

Re: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be released on $250M bail

#326

Post by dragonwriter »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #186
pavlov wrote: post #115

David Gerard has the best summary: ‘He was released on bail for a $250 million bond — “the largest ever pretrial bond,” apparently — secured only on his parents’ home in Palo Alto, where he will be living. ’SBF will surrender his passport and remain in home confinement with electronic monitoring — he’ll wear a bracelet. He will also be required to undergo regular mental health evaluation and treatment. No financial t…

His parents' home isn't worth anything like that. Does that mean only a fraction of the bond value needs to be the security? If so, is that not bullshit?

> His parents' home isn't worth anything like that.

Correct.

> Does that mean only a fraction of the bond value needs to be the security?

Correct.

> If so, is that not bullshit?

It seems to mean “lots of people’s mental model of what ‘$X bail’ means is wrong.” But that ignorance doesn’t make the actual system bullshit.

Re: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be released on $250M bail

#328

Post by dragonwriter »

ravi-delia wrote: post #225
jjtheblunt wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His parents' home isn't worth anything like that. Does that mean only a fraction of the bond value needs to be the security? If so, is that not bullshit?

I mean, it's up to the bond company no? Besides, the ankle bracelet is doing most of the work

> I mean, it's up to the bond company no?

No, its up to the court. There is no “bond company” involved here.

Re: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be released on $250M bail

#329

Post by jjtheblunt »

dragonwriter wrote: post #326
jjtheblunt wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His parents' home isn't worth anything like that. Does that mean only a fraction of the bond value needs to be the security? If so, is that not bullshit?

> His parents' home isn't worth anything like that. Correct. > Does that mean only a fraction of the bond value needs to be the security? Correct. > If so, is that not bullshit? It seems to mean “lots of people’s mental model of what ‘$X bail’ means is wrong.” But that ignorance doesn’t make the actual system bullshit.

thanks. who pays if he and the parents skip the US to somewhere from which they're not retrievable, and their house sells for a very presumptive 4 million?

Re: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to be released on $250M bail

#330

Post by bodangly »

sethd wrote: post #282
annexrichmond wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like he moved into his parents’ attic? They don’t have basements in California :P

Weird. I’ve heard this same phrase about every state I’ve lived in (always from a native) and it’s always turned out to be false. Perhaps such a state does exist? Sibling comment seems to indicate California might not be one of them.

Not sure about the rest of the state but definitely no basements here in South Florida. I haven’t even seen any houses w a crawl space when I was moving here. Pretty much just concrete block construction on slab. Can’t really dig far on a swamp…
Post reply on HN