Live data from Hacker News

Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

nytimes.com

631–640 of 1001 posts

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, seemed quick for all the reasons sibling posts mention. appeals aside, it's not over... We've had first trial, yes, but what about second trial? Four charges had been separated out into a second trial for March 11 of next year. Same judge, different jury? May have been due to logistical reasons or discussions with the Bahamanian government around extradition. It sounds like the government has the option of dropp…

Why does the sentencing happen so long after the verdict?

Depends on the jurisdiction and sentencing guidelines, but my layman’s understanding is so that both parties have time to construct and file arguments over the severity of the sentence.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#632

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.

Not only have creditors not been made whole, no attempt has been made by prosecutors or debtors to seize tens of millions of dollars of customer funds that were paid to SBF's close relatives for "consulting" or the ten million dollars he gave to his father.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#633
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…

That's been my impression of SBF since FTX collapsed. Quite book smart, but zero experience in building a major service that custodies billions in other peoples' money. Raw intelligence is not enough in that context. Ideally you want to have apprenticed for at least a few years at a real exchange or custodial service. Somewhere you learn all the engineering details about how to architect it with proper financial cont…

[deleted]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#634
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…

It's quite insane that your society puts the onus on the pedestrians not to get hit, and even makes it illegal to cross the road. It should be the licensed drivers' responsibility to not hit someone. And in the middle of a campus cars should of course yield to pedestrians. Such a car-centric world.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#635
post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell a naive young guy more. What are the red flags?

I'm studying for my CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) and can shed some light on this. As others mentioned, unexplainable business models or money coming out of nowhere are major red flags. A few others to look out for if you are applying for a job: 1. Few or no internal controls. A medium-size or larger company not having a CFO is particularly questionable. 2. People in high positions, including the CEO, lack qualifica…

Well now, you just described a lot of SF startup.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#636

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…

[flagged]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#637
post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell a naive young guy more. What are the red flags?

I'm studying for my CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) and can shed some light on this. As others mentioned, unexplainable business models or money coming out of nowhere are major red flags. A few others to look out for if you are applying for a job: 1. Few or no internal controls. A medium-size or larger company not having a CFO is particularly questionable. 2. People in high positions, including the CEO, lack qualifica…

You can watch a good example of this in the Netflix mini-series on Madoff.

Really shows how he did it using the steps detailed above.

https://www.netflix.com/title/81466159?preventIntent=true

The Wolf of wall street film also shows the same pattern.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#638
post #533

Reminds me of working for MCI-Worldcom. When you think you’re working for crooks, you probably are. Run away.

Worked in crypto and I got that vibe so left. Regret it. For every SBF there are hundreds who get away with it. Tons of talentless crypto millionaires still roaming free. Look at the Axie Infinite guys plundering a whole country. Token could collapse, but there’ll be no justice and they’re sitting on at least 8 figures individually

Lots of comments below criticising this post for "regretting not being a fraud" or some such. Be charitable... the sentence parses just fine as "I regret having worked in crypto".

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#640

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there really is such a thing as a person with a lot of book-learning but less common sense than a sea slug I don't even think SBF had the book-learning, just intellectual arrogance. "I don’t want to say no book is ever worth reading, but I actually do believe something pretty close to that. I think, if you wrote a book, you f---ed up, and it should have been a six-paragraph blog post."

The craziest thing to me is that when he was saying things like that noone in the mainstream media was questioning him. The FT had a very flattering lunch interview with him shortly before his demise. It was embarrassing how they were portraying him.

[flagged]
Post reply on HN