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Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

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

#221

To put this into its proper perspective, see table 7 here: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-pu... In 2022, the average murderer in the Federal Southern District of New York (N = 58) was sentenced to a median of 231 months, which comes out to 19 years and change. No crime of any type had an mean or median sentence higher than 25 years; most were far less than half. So it should be really hard…

I found the variance in sentencing data on the last couple of pages interesting. Notably there’s no variances in murder sentencing listed there. Does anyone know why that is? Are judges/juries not allowed to set sentences outside the guidelines for murder trials?

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

#222
post #88

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.

Lying is a form of violence and so is stealing. Not physical violence mind you, but violence nonetheless.

Extending words in one's public vocabulary to include things one doesn't like is a form of misleading, and thus lying, and thus violence.

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

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the goal of the punishment? If it is to harm him and make the rest of the world satisfied with it 25 years behind bars seems enough to me, I don’t care if it is 25, 35 or 155. In five years I will have forgotten about this. If it is stopping others, same thing, I don’t think that if someone is determined to do something similar would care about 25 or more years.

It’s to stop him first - he won’t be running financial fraud schemes for 20-25 years Then it’s to stop other bright minds from attempting anything like this - they’ll remember SBF. His crime has a price now: 20-25 years

It will also give the enablers of criminality pause. If the mastermind gets 20-25, they'll realize they are risking 2-5 year sentences with zero upside just for "following orders" or negligently turning a blind eye to malfeasance.

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

#224

It's wild that 99% of the "point" of crypto and a Bahamas-based exchange was to avoid all the laws around securities trading, banking, money transferring (anti-money laundering, taxes, etc), etc and yet when things go south, people still expect the government to come in and enforce a tiny subset of the financial laws they've otherwise been operating outside of. This is a weird form of "privatize the profits, socializ…

> people still expect the government to come in and enforce a tiny subset of the financial laws they've otherwise been operating outside of.

I don't see how people ever expected the government not to enforce these financial laws on electronic currencies.

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

#225

I recall people very confidently saying he would never be prosecuted for his political ties.

...and enough people pointing that out, and making it clear that they are outraged by the possibility of that happening, makes it harder to get away with him avoiding prosecution because of his political ties.

This is likely an example of free speech and free press working to overcome corruption to achieve justice.

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

#226
post #61

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 have to ask: does 20 years provide more social benefit than 10? 5? Surely there's diminishing returns on imprisonment. As a deterrent and as a punitive, I get it, but even life sentences don't seem to deter crimes that can yield those punishments.

> I have to ask: does 20 years provide more social benefit than 10? 5? Surely there's diminishing returns on imprisonment.

Arguably, the social benefit is to deter more major crimes.

If all crimes were X year sentences, then once you comitted one crime you may as well continue, since the punishment is the same either way.

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

#227

To put this into its proper perspective, see table 7 here: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-pu... In 2022, the average murderer in the Federal Southern District of New York (N = 58) was sentenced to a median of 231 months, which comes out to 19 years and change. No crime of any type had an mean or median sentence higher than 25 years; most were far less than half. So it should be really hard…

There is nothing "median" or "average" about this crime. This is one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.

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

#228

SBF is 32 years old - 25 years isn't a death sentence for him Parole is available after 1/3 of term, realistically he won't serve 100% There's still a chance for him to get something out of his life post jail

There’s no parole in federal cases

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

#229

How much did Jordan Belfort get? Elizabeth Holmes? Mt.Gox guy? 25 years is an exageration to be honest, there was never criminal intent, if anything there was too much belief in their creature, less like Madoff and more like the Long Term Capital Management guys. I don't remember them serving a single day in jail. It goes to show that judges and prosecutors are just trophy hunters for media attention these days, as p…

Belfort cooperated with the FBI and got 4 years.

Holmes got 11 years.

The Mt. Gox guy was prosecuted in Japan.

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

#230

It's wild that 99% of the "point" of crypto and a Bahamas-based exchange was to avoid all the laws around securities trading, banking, money transferring (anti-money laundering, taxes, etc), etc and yet when things go south, people still expect the government to come in and enforce a tiny subset of the financial laws they've otherwise been operating outside of. This is a weird form of "privatize the profits, socializ…

The government must preserve the population even against themselfes.

Depending how south things go, you can get assasinated inside an embassy or killed in plain day light with the whole world knowing who did it.

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