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Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

nytimes.com

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Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#321

Post by austhrow743 »

blindriver wrote: post #311
opportune wrote: post #259

I really don’t think they should have let the rest of the executive team walk, especially Ellison. They knew what they were doing too, and I’m sure they could have built a strong enough case to convince SBF and the others through plea deals and such

SBF is going to be pardoned by the Dems. Guaranteed. He donated far too much money for him not to be pardoned. Not just to reward SBF, but to signal to anyone else that the Dems have their back if they donate enough. The same goes for the Republicans as well. Trump pardoned Levandowski as one of his final acts as president.

Can you provide precedent?

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#322

Post by davidham »

blindriver wrote: post #311
opportune wrote: post #259

I really don’t think they should have let the rest of the executive team walk, especially Ellison. They knew what they were doing too, and I’m sure they could have built a strong enough case to convince SBF and the others through plea deals and such

SBF is going to be pardoned by the Dems. Guaranteed. He donated far too much money for him not to be pardoned. Not just to reward SBF, but to signal to anyone else that the Dems have their back if they donate enough. The same goes for the Republicans as well. Trump pardoned Levandowski as one of his final acts as president.

I’ll bet you $1,000 USD he does not get pardoned by Biden.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#323

Post by az226 »

randycupertino wrote: post #320

I liked the article detailing how poorly he did on the stand: https://www.thefp.com/p/humiliating-cross-examination-sam-ba... “Did you say in private, ‘Fuck regulators?’ ” “Did you call some customers ‘dumb motherfuckers?’ ” “Did you fly to the Super Bowl in a private plane?” “Most FTX customers did not have a line of credit, correct?” “Do you deny that Alameda had a $65 billion line of credit?” And on, and on, and o…

I guess he didn't have the money to pay for a good defense team, or didn't listen. Pretty amateur hour what he did. Made it very easy and quick for the jurors.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#325

Post by az226 »

HWR_14 wrote: post #315
StressedDev wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was fast because the US Government did a fantastic job of prosecuting him, and his defense team had an awful client. Basically, it was obvious he was guilty, and there was almost no chance his lawyers could show there was a reasonable doubt that he had not committed the crimes he was accused of.

Also because he broke the terms of his pretrial release, and so was forced to await the trial in jail. That made the idea of delaying the start of the trial for as long as possible less appealing.

Even he was like he had to use a VPN to watch the Super Bowl, but this year it was streaming for free, no VPN needed. Just a liar throughout.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#326

Post by phire »

choppaface wrote: post #159

Impressively fast response. Would Travis Kalanick be found guilty for Greyballing and more had Uber had a "run on the bank"? Would Adam Neumann be found guilty for fraud if WeWork's current Chapter 11 was more than just a real estate lease re-negotiation? If the FTX recovery rate gets up to 80-90%, SBF's net fraud might be reduced in scale. In which case, why aren't others like TK going to jail?

No. Both Uber and WeWork were "gambling" investor money, which is totally allowed and it's what those investors were expecting the companies to do with that money. There was never a chance of a "run on the bank" because investors aren't really allowed to demand their money back, short of a shareholder vote to liquidate.

(Though, Newmann potentially committed fraud with some of the ways that investor money left WeWork and somehow ended up in his own pocket, but that's unrelated)

Sam massively broke the law because FTX customers had given FTX those funds on the condition that FTX not touch them. The agreement was that all those funds would sit in a bank account or crypto wallet until it was time to withdraw.

But Sam and friends stole the customer funds and gambled them away. Nobody would have ever known if the gamble succeeded before a "bank run", but it was still highly illegal.

And investors get a share of the profits if the gamble pays off. That's why they are investing. If Sam's gamble had paid off, the profits would have gone to Alameda, not the customers.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#327

Post by opportune »

StressedDev wrote: post #306
opportune wrote: post #259

I really don’t think they should have let the rest of the executive team walk, especially Ellison. They knew what they were doing too, and I’m sure they could have built a strong enough case to convince SBF and the others through plea deals and such

None of them "walked". They all pled guilty and have not been sentenced.

Man, I'm low on sleep and making mistakes. I misunderstood the cooperation agreement[0] to mean she would only be prosecuted for criminal tax violations. I see now she has plead guilty to fraud though [1].

[0] https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23495436/crypto-coope...

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/12/21/caroline-...

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#328

Post by opportune »

jraines wrote: post #288
opportune wrote: post #259

I really don’t think they should have let the rest of the executive team walk, especially Ellison. They knew what they were doing too, and I’m sure they could have built a strong enough case to convince SBF and the others through plea deals and such

Not sure about the others but I don’t think Ellison is walking. Her reward for cooperation was just a letter to the sentencing judge noting her cooperation.

Not true. The prosecution agreed to only pursue criminal tax violations. See my other comment.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#330

Post by JackFr »

randycupertino wrote: post #320

I liked the article detailing how poorly he did on the stand: https://www.thefp.com/p/humiliating-cross-examination-sam-ba... “Did you say in private, ‘Fuck regulators?’ ” “Did you call some customers ‘dumb motherfuckers?’ ” “Did you fly to the Super Bowl in a private plane?” “Most FTX customers did not have a line of credit, correct?” “Do you deny that Alameda had a $65 billion line of credit?” And on, and on, and o…

With or without testifying he cut a remarkably unlikeable figure. Smug, aloof, arrogant and condescending, honestly much more so than a typical white collar defendant. I suppose his fatal flaw, though was not having anyone else to blame.
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