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Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

cnn.com

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Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#71

Post by swyx »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #34
PokedBear wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone isn't a violent threat to society, there isn't much social benefit to keeping folks locked up longer then 20-ish years. 20-25 (assuming he gets the 15% off for good behavior the feds allow) is plenty.

I think ruining thousands of lives through fraud without remorse constitutes a threat to society. He should never see the light of day again.

not to be too unsympathetic but if those people he defrauded (which yes is a very bad thing) were all crypto degens gambling on things they knew they shouldnt be gambling on, does that change the calculus at all

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#72

Post by tithe »

PokedBear wrote: post #24
tithe wrote: post #2

Seems low for what prosecutors consider "one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history." https://www.reuters.com/technology/sam-bankman-fried-be-sent...

If someone isn't a violent threat to society, there isn't much social benefit to keeping folks locked up longer then 20-ish years. 20-25 (assuming he gets the 15% off for good behavior the feds allow) is plenty.

In this case, could he be considered a violent economic threat to society? His defense did try to argue that he was not a "ruthless financial serial killer".

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#73

Post by esotericimpl »

malermeister wrote: post #56
chongli wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Low? That's high! He didn't kill anyone. A sentence of 25 years completely destroys his life. He's been made an example of.

He's completely destroyed thousands of lives through his actions.

[dead]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#74

Post by dragonwriter »

jimberlage wrote: post #37
jimberlage wrote: post #22

If he’s eligible for parole at 1/3 of a 25 year sentence, he will spend anywhere from between 8 years, 4 months in prison or 25 years. That would make him somewhere between 40 and 57 when he gets out.

Sourced from https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/united-s... .

That's from 1984, federal parole was abolished in 1987 (though people sentenced before 1987, IIRC, remain eligible according to the rules in place at the time.)

SBF was sentenced somewhat after 1987, so those rules don't apply to him.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#75

Post by davidwritesbugs »

chongli wrote: post #41
tithe wrote: post #2

Seems low for what prosecutors consider "one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history." https://www.reuters.com/technology/sam-bankman-fried-be-sent...

Low? That's high! He didn't kill anyone. A sentence of 25 years completely destroys his life. He's been made an example of.

Yes. He's been made an example of. That's kind of the point: "Tempted to commit fraud on a huge scale and wreck thousands of lives? Consider what we did to this guy."

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#76

Post by kemayo »

arrowsmith wrote: post #40
PokedBear wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone isn't a violent threat to society, there isn't much social benefit to keeping folks locked up longer then 20-ish years. 20-25 (assuming he gets the 15% off for good behavior the feds allow) is plenty.

> there isn't much social benefit to keeping folks locked up Deterrent

In terms of "ruins your life", anything past a few years does that.

Speaking purely for myself, I don't feel much difference in the deterrent effect from the punishment being 5 years or 25 years. Either one would utterly wreck everything about my life, and although the latter is worse it's not enough so to change my decisions.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#78

Post by rsynnott »

swader999 wrote: post #7
misiti3780 wrote: post #3

A year ago, HN didnt think he was going to jail: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33908850

Yes, I was one of those doubters.

Why, as a matter of interest? These _really_ big, blatant frauds usually do; see Madoff, Holmes, et al. Like, it's hard to see how he'd avoid prison, certainly in the US.

Other noted fraud-y bitcoin exchange guy Mark Karpelès avoided prison after conviction, but the evidence was much weaker there and they only found him guilty on fraudulently inflating MtGox's holdings (a la Donald Trump); also, that was Japan.

(Fun fact; after the collapse of MtGox, Karpelès went into business with Andrew Lee, the guy who broke freenode and claims to be the Crown Prince of Korea. The world of weird internet grifters is small and incestuous.)

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#79

Post by nemo44x »

sgt101 wrote: post #38
nemo44x wrote: post #16

He will have to serve 21 years before early release. There is no parole in federal prison. I heard 5 years are concurrent making it 20 actual years. If that’s the case he can get out in 17 years. He wasted a good part of his life.

Is this fedral? I thought it was Manhattan DA?

Nope, it's Federal. He has appeals coming up though. I have no idea what the outcome could be but there's an opportunity for the sentence to be reduced on appeal. Honestly, this sentence doesn't appear egregious or "being made an example of" so IMO he doesn't get a reduction. But, sometimes you get a sympathetic judge?

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#80

Post by kosievdmerwe »

n2d4 wrote: post #64
chongli wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Low? That's high! He didn't kill anyone. A sentence of 25 years completely destroys his life. He's been made an example of.

Maybe he didn't kill anyone directly, but I can assure you that plenty of people committed suicide solely as a consequence of his actions

One of the victims at the sentencing mentioned that there were at least 3 suicides.
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