Live data from Hacker News

Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

nytimes.com

61–70 of 1001 posts

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#61

Well... this is justice. Sadly, we don't get to see justice very often. This is life in prison, correct? I know he hasn't been sentenced but all counts is easily several life sentences at the federal level. When do the parents go on trial? I can't see how they make it out of this without at least having all their ill-begotten assets stripped.

That’s not how sentencing works. You can’t just add up the counts and get a number. Federal sentencing involves a Byzantine process, starting with the federal sentencing guidelines. I am not even going to attempt to wade into that since it makes even federal criminal lawyers get twitchy. That said, Ken White (a.k.a. Popehat) has suggested the time in prison would be substantial. So if/when he gets out, he’ll be elderly.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#64

Well... this is justice. Sadly, we don't get to see justice very often. This is life in prison, correct? I know he hasn't been sentenced but all counts is easily several life sentences at the federal level. When do the parents go on trial? I can't see how they make it out of this without at least having all their ill-begotten assets stripped.

Have all of the people scammed been brought whole? That would be justice. Someone sitting in jail isn't justice. It is punishment for his actions. I've never understood how someone being incarcerated has become considered justice.

Prior to justice-by-committee a lot of societies didn't have jails. Either what you did was so bad we need to end your life or you need to find a way to repay it even if you have to work for free as a slave to earn the money.

I don't think that would work today, but what we have today doesn't work either.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#65

Like many of his strategies at FTX, his high risk approach to this trial for a high value payout (taking no plea deal and getting out with no charges) hasn’t worked out. I wonder if he himself is accepting of the outcome and isn’t already scheming or relying on another all-in gamble.

He can console himself with the pseudofact that there's a universe in which he won.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#66

I'm not too familiar with the American system, could someone please explain how after the verdict does the sentencing work? The judge is the one who will now decide the sentence? And how long does that decision take, so when will we know what the consequences of the guilty verdict actually are? (For example, how many years in prison, or not).

As others said, the judge will decide. One of the reasons for the delay is the preparation of the Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) that a parole officer will prepare. There's also time to argue about mitigating and exacerbating factors by the lawyers on both sides.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#67

Remember: this is not a cryptocurrency problem, it's a banking problem. This guy created a literal bank. People deposited funds in it. Instead of simply being a custodian, he took the money and "invested" it. And lost it all. I wish this sort of thing would happen every time bankers screwed things up. Instead the government bails them out.

Banks invest the money too. Usually without the quotes.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#69
post #58

Remember: this is not a cryptocurrency problem, it's a banking problem. This guy created a literal bank. People deposited funds in it. Instead of simply being a custodian, he took the money and "invested" it. And lost it all. I wish this sort of thing would happen every time bankers screwed things up. Instead the government bails them out.

It's just stealing. You could steal from any type of company and end up in the same place.

I agree. However, he used a bank to steal from people. It's not like he exploited vulnerabilities in smart contracts or whatever. He literally exploited people's propensity to keep their money at the bank where it's "safe". Not a single person who kept their coins in their own wallets was affected by this.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#70

Remember: this is not a cryptocurrency problem, it's a banking problem. This guy created a literal bank. People deposited funds in it. Instead of simply being a custodian, he took the money and "invested" it. And lost it all. I wish this sort of thing would happen every time bankers screwed things up. Instead the government bails them out.

Pretty sure banks get audited to prevent this exact scenario from happening.

is that why the banks collapsed in 2008?
Post reply on HN