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Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

nytimes.com

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Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#461

Post by rendaw »

FFP999 wrote: post #393

> You’d think this MIT graduate would wise up, but he never did. The MIT campus has a major public road running through the middle of it, one of the busiest surface streets in the area. You don't have to stand there very long to see a crowd of students almost get hit by a car because they didn't look before they crossed the street. Point is, the old cliche is true, there really is such a thing as a person with a lot…

I saw this when visiting Washington University in St. Louis too! Street, plenty of cars, light turns red, students continue to walk into the crossing directly in front of an oncoming car which brakes and honks.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#462

Post by StressedDev »

tptacek wrote: post #362
constantly wrote: post #244

For anyone curious, Ken White has a good and entertaining article breaking down maximum sentences in print (here, 110 years) and what people actually serve. It's worth a read: https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc... A takeaway: "1. Maximum sentences have very little relation to actual sentences in federal law. When the government quotes the maximum sentence, they are trying to scare you. When…

The opposite thing is going to happen in this case, and I'm sure you'll hear Ken on Serious Trouble saying the same thing next week (you can get Andrew McCarthy, another former AUSA, saying the same thing in the National Review today if you want that with a dash of anti-woke conservative racial politics). In basic economic crimes, sentences scale primarily with dollar losses, and FTX lost billions. He's going to do s…

Elizabth Holmes committed fraud, endangered lives, and harassed whistle blowers (one spent over $400,000 in legal fees fighting with Theranos). She only got 11 years and 3 months. I would not be surprised if Sam Bankman-Fried also got a fairly short sentence.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#463

Post by compiler-guy »

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.

The plea deal also includes the prosecution electing to charge her with much lesser crimes than they otherwise could.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#465

Post by throw_m239339 »

StressedDev wrote: post #427
Gustomaximus wrote: post #389

I'm curious how the sentencing goes, not only for SBF but those around him that took deals. In my limited view of US cases, it often seems prosecutors let off lightly anyone that will testify in return for their whale. Sometimes feels it's more symbolic justice that way than real.

Prosecutors don't decide sentences in the United States. Judges decide sentences and in US Federal Government cases, the US Government issues sentencing guidelines. These guidelines are usually used to determine how long a person goes to prison for. What prosecutors can do is recommend a sentence and let the judge know that a criminal cooperated. Cooperating typically reduces a criminal's sentance. Ultimately, Federa…

> What prosecutors can do is recommend a sentence and let the judge know that a criminal cooperated. Cooperating typically reduces a criminal's sentance. Ultimately, Federal sentences are decided by three things:

The prosecution does decide charges to bring forward, so the prosecution can decide to only charge defendants with lesser charges if they cooperate to catch bigger fishes.

If Judges stopped going along with prosecutor's deals, then nobody would be making deals ever again. Usually, judges do honor deals made with the defendant.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#466

Post by reaperman »

infogulch wrote: post #455

> These charges carry a maximum sentence of 110 years. Didn't HN recently conclude that calculating the 'maximum sentence' as the sum of sentences of the individual convictions is journalistic malpractice? Do better, NYT (they won't). Given that there were 7 charges and assuming all charges can be served in parallel that's a minimum sentence of ~15 years (why is left as an exercise to the reader).

Usually the judge has discretion whether to make them serve consecutively or in parallel.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#467

Post by retsibsi »

infogulch wrote: post #455

> These charges carry a maximum sentence of 110 years. Didn't HN recently conclude that calculating the 'maximum sentence' as the sum of sentences of the individual convictions is journalistic malpractice? Do better, NYT (they won't). Given that there were 7 charges and assuming all charges can be served in parallel that's a minimum sentence of ~15 years (why is left as an exercise to the reader).

> Given that there were 7 charges and assuming all charges can be served in parallel that's a minimum sentence of ~15 years (why is left as an exercise to the reader).

Looks like your logic is 110/7 = ~15, therefore there must be at least one charge with a maximum sentence of at least ~15 years. But why does that imply a minimum sentence of ~15 years? He could get less than the maximum sentence for some or all of the charges.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#468

Post by bmitc »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #400

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/statement-us-attorney-d... "This case is also a warning to every fraudster who thinks they're untouchable, that their crimes are too complex for us to catch, that they are too powerful to prosecute, or that they are clever enough to talk their way out of it if caught."

What's interesting about that to me is quite a few things. For one, where are the charges against all the other fraudsters? Bankman-Fried's parents were both in on it and helped orchestrate parts of it. As far as I know, they both even still hold their positions as law professors at Stanford! What an embarrassment to the world Stanford is. Sam Trabucco was co-CEO of Alameda Research up until August 2022, which means that he was certainly part of all the fraud happening. He is known for his extravagant spending. Just because he left a few months before the crash, he gets away scot-free? And then there's other employees, the investors, partners, etc.

Lastly, these messages always fall a little flat to me. The justice departments always go after and nail these fraudsters that have little actual power and then make a big stink about it. Sam Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes, Billy McFarland, etc. are all nailed to the cross. Yes, they committed clear and damaging actions of fraud and other crimes. But higher level fraudsters, like those in industries that are much more protected and in positions of actual power and influence, do not get touched. For example, Steve Cohen gets to own the New York Mets yet he clearly committed insider trading for years, if not decades (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1szayJV505M). Several of his high-level employees were convicted, but he remains untouched. There's other examples of people like this that are actually intelligent (unlike Bankman-Fried, Holmes, etc.) but still sociopathic, and they are able to weasel themselves into tight nets of power such that the justice department doesn't or can't touch them.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#469

Post by [deleted] »

infogulch wrote: post #455

> These charges carry a maximum sentence of 110 years. Didn't HN recently conclude that calculating the 'maximum sentence' as the sum of sentences of the individual convictions is journalistic malpractice? Do better, NYT (they won't). Given that there were 7 charges and assuming all charges can be served in parallel that's a minimum sentence of ~15 years (why is left as an exercise to the reader).

[deleted]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#470

Post by [deleted] »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #389

I'm curious how the sentencing goes, not only for SBF but those around him that took deals. In my limited view of US cases, it often seems prosecutors let off lightly anyone that will testify in return for their whale. Sometimes feels it's more symbolic justice that way than real.

[deleted]
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