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Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

nytimes.com

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Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#901

Post by verulito »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #536
hintymad wrote: post #243

I was reading the trial report by Inner City Press. The AUSAs were incredibly thorough and strategic. The evidences were air-tight, the cross-examination was masterfully controlled with precision and incisiveness, and of course the closing argument was forceful. It was a great joy to read the report, as if I was watching an extended episode of The Good Fight. On the other hand, the defense was really weak, quite hand…

> They were company expenditures to build a business, not for personal gains I’d guess that the defence team knew they’d loose and this was in some way the start of their sentencing reduction plan: “the money was stolen to cover mostly business losses and to keep FTX going rather than for personal gain”.

So he never planned on gaining if the company was successful? What a dumb argument

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#902

Post by riversflow »

evan_ wrote: post #732
knorker wrote: post #627

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, the old "growing a business by buying your parents a mansion" investment.

I can be so much more effective at my job if I don’t have to worry about my parents living situation!

This would actually be convincing if SBF did have ready wealthy parents, lol.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#904

Post by jahnu »

MacsHeadroom wrote: post #898
TheRealHB wrote: post #853

Does that changes the scene in any way? Is Bankman-Fried's Guilty Verdict a Crypto's "Madoff" Moment? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38128260

Crypto is rallying. Bitcoin is higher than it has been in over a year. It's been trending up for a while though.

I would love to know why. I don’t see any new great thing it can do. Who are these people pouring in billions in a world with real interest rates. Criminals moving money?

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#905

Post by [deleted] »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #720
hintymad wrote: post #243

I was reading the trial report by Inner City Press. The AUSAs were incredibly thorough and strategic. The evidences were air-tight, the cross-examination was masterfully controlled with precision and incisiveness, and of course the closing argument was forceful. It was a great joy to read the report, as if I was watching an extended episode of The Good Fight. On the other hand, the defense was really weak, quite hand…

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the AUSA's performance here was not particularly impressive. Yes, they constructed an airtight case, but to do that, they handed out immunity deals like candy to all of SBF's co-conspirators. Sure, they got their guy, but it almost looks like they wanted to craft a narrative that puts all of the blame on him. Because of that, several other huge fraudsters here (eg Carol…

[deleted]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#907

Post by [deleted] »

biasedestimate wrote: post #737

I am as happy as anyone about arrogant half-smart crypto bros being called out as the frauds they are. It is still sad that a young person's life is taken away today. I don't think any type of nonviolent crime should get anyone a life sentence, especially not in a prison system as inhumane as in the US.

[deleted]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#908

Post by siskiyou »

boppo1 wrote: post #510
siskiyou wrote: post #324

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

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

Worldcom acquired the company I worked for. I saw their culture featured all manner of players, hustlers, empire builders, untouchable princes, etc. battling for turf. Lords and serfs. The stock was supposed to always go up. "Genius" businessmen somehow figured out how to print money where others had not. The company had a mutual fund that only held Worldcom stock in the 401(k) retirement plan. That was a huge red flag for me and it resulted in many of my colleagues losing their retirement savings. I was far from the levers of power but I had a really bad feeling about the leadership and left before the crash. Since then I have always instantly liquidated all options and stock grants and put them in safer investments. That can be a hard decision to make when you see many people getting rich (perhaps temporarily, perhaps not) betting on the equity to keep improving. But I kept expenses low, saved a lot, and still retired at 49 so I'm happy with how it turned out even if I passed on some big gains.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#910

Post by creer »

zztop44 wrote: post #750
lubesGordi wrote: post #739

Sequoia invested $200M in this guy. Has anyone looked at whether SBF could've done as much damage without that investment? Has anyone looked at if Sequoia did their due diligence? Seems like Sequoia could've seen red flags just from knowing Alameda existed. The potential abuse there was completely obvious.

The whole Sequoia thing is so interesting. Here is an excerpt from their (now taken down) profile of SBF, highlighting the moment he convinced them to invest: > That’s when SBF told Sequoia about the so-called super-app: “I want FTX to be a place where you can do anything you want with your next dollar. You can buy bitcoin. You can send money in whatever currency to any friend anywhere in the world. You can buy a ban…

Wow wow wow. He's talking about inserting a business in the normal person's payment path. It's certainly ambitious and could be profitable if you could get on that trajectory. The question would be whether there is a credible path from crypto futures exchange to that, technical, financial or marketing-wise - but that's a different question.
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