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Annotated: Sam Bankman-Fried's “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview”

mollywhite.net

71–80 of 150 posts

Re: Annotated: Sam Bankman-Fried's “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview”

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The crypto grift isn't limited to FTX, it's nearly everywhere in crypto. My great-uncle (who's constantly trying to find the one big break that'll make him rich) was working on starting a crypto token before everything collapsed. He is in his seventies and knows nothing about tech or finance, but he knew crypto was the place for people who want to make quick cash. The whole industry has become a haven for grifters. T…

The government made this thing called "accredited investor" which is just code for not one of the poors. I wish it wasn't necessary for the poors to use crypto to moonshot on various grifts.

Considered from an alternate perspective, the thing that has allowed crypto to become the massive grift that is has is the ability for anyone and everyone to speculate on it without any kind of oversight, regulation, insider trading protection, or guard rails of any kind.

I won't speak specifically to the current reglatory definition of "accredited investor" which is certainly worthy of some criticism, but the "investments" that being one opens you up to are—on the whole—significantly worse than just parking your money in a whole-market index fund. The few opportunities that are actually worth investing in are rare and generally require being on a first-name basis with the right people. Not to mention, of course, knowing a priori who those right people are.

Merely having a bunch of dollars in the bank and wanting outsized returns puts you squarely in the realm of suckers who will be soon parted from their money by both hucksters and well-meaning idiots. Having almost no dollars in the bank puts you at an even worse disadvantage.

Re: Annotated: Sam Bankman-Fried's “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview”

#72
Just a reminder RE:Making investors whole.

If you defraud investors, but magically a trillion dollars appears in your bank account and you distribute it equally to all investors you defrauded and they somehow walk home with 2X what they invested, YOU HAVE STILL COMMITTED A CRIME. The crime is not owing money to investors, the crime is taking their money and using it as the company's money. It doesn't matter if your bonkers ideas of ownership allows to you make each and every investor a trillion dollars.

Re: Annotated: Sam Bankman-Fried's “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview”

#74
post #5

Sam Bankman-Fried is something else. He seems to be incapable of stopping talking, both before and after this saga. He also seems just purely delusional. He's co-conspirators have readily plead guilty. He has a tough hill to climb. Regarding Sam Trabucco, why do we not hear anything about him in these proceedings? How is it possible that he wasn't involved given he just up and left in just August 2022? Why hasn't he…

"At no point was my client aware that FTX was insolvent, and I have 100s of emails and public statements for you to read if you don't believe me." - what a lawyer would hypothetically say.

Apparently he told CZ it was insolvent in a phone call: https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2022/11/16/binance-...

Re: Annotated: Sam Bankman-Fried's “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview”

#75
post #25

Here's some constructive feedback to make this more trustworthy: - Include a "View source" link to the source code for this document. Everyone makes mistakes and new information comes to light. You should provide a link to the GitHub source file used to generate this page, so that your readers can see the version history and all changes for the lifetime of the article since publication. - Include the actual sources.…

Thanks for the suggestions! I've implemented both, and I also reached out to the Forbes writer to let him know his link was broken.

Re: Annotated: Sam Bankman-Fried's “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview”

#76
post #70
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed! And I should mention that Molly has a Substack: https://substack.com/profile/6775195-molly-white I pay her money because I am glad to have her pushing back against the tide of cash funding crypto promotion. The other two have Patreons that I also support: https://www.patreon.com/davidgerard/ https://www.patreon.com/amycastor/

Hold on there. If you're getting coverage like this, where someone comes and takes flattering photos of you, that's the kind of thing you get when you or your supports can fund a PR team to wrangle major journalists into covering you. I think she's fine on support. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/29/molly-w... https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/07/11/business/meet-molly-w... https://www.protocol.com/f…

lol, I don't have a PR team. None of those articles were solicited by me.

Re: Annotated: Sam Bankman-Fried's “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview”

#77
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government made this thing called "accredited investor" which is just code for not one of the poors. I wish it wasn't necessary for the poors to use crypto to moonshot on various grifts.

Considered from an alternate perspective, the thing that has allowed crypto to become the massive grift that is has is the ability for anyone and everyone to speculate on it without any kind of oversight, regulation, insider trading protection, or guard rails of any kind. I won't speak specifically to the current reglatory definition of "accredited investor" which is certainly worthy of some criticism, but the "inves…

Yes I believe the poors ought to be able to drop bands on a well meaning idiot just as easily as the truck stop stripper.

Re: Annotated: Sam Bankman-Fried's “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview”

#78
post #19

> Judge Dorsey ultimately overruled objections to their retention by two individual FTX creditors. I think Molly White defaults to too much credibility in judges and lawyers. SBF's main argument is that Sullivan & Cromwell misled him into going the Chapter 11 route, which he later learned was more motivated by its ability to make hundreds of millions rather than helping his customers. He made a mistake in trusting th…

It might be true that FTX customers would be better off with FTX still running with or without SBF. But that does not negate the fact that lending customer money to Almeda is capital F fraud.

Re: Annotated: Sam Bankman-Fried's “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview”

#80
post #31
post #19

> Judge Dorsey ultimately overruled objections to their retention by two individual FTX creditors. I think Molly White defaults to too much credibility in judges and lawyers. SBF's main argument is that Sullivan & Cromwell misled him into going the Chapter 11 route, which he later learned was more motivated by its ability to make hundreds of millions rather than helping his customers. He made a mistake in trusting th…

SBF's main mistake wasn't trusting Sullivan & Cromwell. That is the lie that SBF is trying to tell. While that may have been a "mistake" to declare bankruptcy, it was because it reduced FTX's ability to try to hide the fraud it had been perpetuating. FTX was already incredibly insolvent at that point because FTX gave Alameda an unlimited line of credit and then used that credit to take loans from Alameda to line thei…

>>then used that credit to take loans from Alameda to line their own pockets with what was effectively FTX's customer deposits.

that's small fraction. most were spent and lost betting the crypto market

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