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Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

nytimes.com

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Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#991

Post by ksherlock »

jacquesm wrote: post #147

That happened fast! I expected it to drag on for much longer. Wonder if he'll appeal.

Of course he'll appeal. I mean, this is an ass clown that would YOLO it all on a coin flip. Offhand, the Judge ruled he couldn't ~~lie~~ testify about lawyers approving fraud and I think there were some defense witnesses that weren't allowed. Anytime a lawyer objects and the judge has to make a decision, that's a potential grounds for an appeal. In 4 weeks of trial I bet there were a lot of objections! Plus there are a lot of decisions before the trial (excluding/including witnesses, testimony, evidence, etc)

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#994

Post by dang »

atoav wrote: post #566
_adzo wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

So you regret not being successful at fraud. Would you put this into an application letter at your next job?

"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#995

Post by [deleted] »

hagbarth wrote: post #562
_adzo wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wait. Do you regret leaving? Because the fraud works out for some?

[deleted]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#996

Post by FFP999 »

local_crmdgeon wrote: post #860
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…

Should probably close that street then. Killing college kids isn't worth saving 14 seconds to get to your house in the suburbs.

As much as this appeals to me, it doesn't seem feasible: the problem is that this road ends at the Harvard Bridge (so called because it isn't near Harvard, because Boston), which crosses the river into Boston. Close this off, and traffic on the two adjacent river crossings, the Longfellow and BU Bridges, goes from "terrible" to "you should have walked".

Aha! you say, there is a perfectly good subway right there! Why don't people take that? Because the MBTA, our transit agency, is a notorious disaster. I won't load you down with examples here, but you can google e.g. "MBTA dumpster fire" or "what is wrong with the MBTA" and soon you'll know all you need to know.

I am a little bit hopeful that Philip Eng, the former head of LIRR and new GM of the MBTA, will be able to turn it around. He really seems to mean business, and he's an actual engineer with experience running a railroad. The old GM, Steve Poftak, was mainly qualified by having an MBA, having the right ideological positions, and knowing the old governor. I don't think anyone is going to miss him.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#997

Post by [deleted] »

andrepd wrote: post #932
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…

>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. Getting offtopic, but isn't this more an indictment of America's insane car-centric culture? It's ridiculous that you see a major thoroughfare going t…

[deleted]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#999

Post by par »

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…

Sequoia had some stuff up on their website absolutely fellating this guy before it all went to hell. It was so cringe.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted

#1000

Post by Breza »

meaningjoj wrote: post #716
bmitc wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The defense really had no option. Several of Bankman-Fried's previous defense teams quit on him due to his behavior. Even in this trial, during a session with just the judge, the defense made an objection to a question, the judge sustained it, but Bankman-Fried answered anyways. His own defense team asked him where had he been this entire trial because the objection was sustained, you didn't have to answer that. Bank…

This says something of culture of hubris that is so easily elevated to leadership positions in America's tech culture. It's nice to see one of these fail-bros get taken down. But two points remain. 1. Had they been able to sustain this Ponzi scheme to IPO, he would be celebrated as a tech-god, as opposed to facing hard time. 2. The VCs aren't required to disclose their sales of crypto. My guess is they made money of…

It's wild to think of what would have happened if Alameda had gotten out of crypto and instead put all the stolen customer money in an index fund. The CFTC complaint says they started misusing customer funds in 2019. Stocks have increased a lot since then. FTX would have been able to meet any customer request for withdrawal, Alameda would have presented staggeringly large returns (trading profit / legally invested money), and SBF would still live like a king.
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