Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison • Hacker News Board

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

#261

Post by dragontamer » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:40 PM UTC

loeg wrote: post #243

bodiekane wrote: post #181

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…

Can you elaborate on how FTX's losses were socialized here?

Its the US Government courts who are handling FTX's bankruptcy. So at a minimum, they are expecting the USA Government to figure out how to split the money / clawback what they can and untangle the mess of the balance sheets (rumor has it: a completely non-existent set of documentation in the case of FTX).

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

#262

Post by 9front » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:40 PM UTC

SBF was a top political donor in Washington. I expect a pardon by the end of this year.

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

#263

Post by vuln » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:40 PM UTC

laidoffamazon wrote: post #95

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

You ain’t seen nothing yet. Those ties are what’s going to get his sentence commuted by Biden.

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

#264

Post by ceejayoz » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:40 PM UTC

petertodd wrote: post #225

laidoffamazon wrote: post #95

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.

So, any result would've been evidence of corruption?

("This is good news for Bitcoin.")

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

#265

Post by loeg » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:41 PM UTC

JKCalhoun wrote: post #52

segasaturn wrote: post #31

For those wondering, prosecutors asked for 50 years in prison, defense asked for 5 years. So this sentence is right down the middle. 50 years in prison would have been way too long IMO.

Well, 27.5 would be right down the middle. As others have suggested, likely he won't even serve the 25 though.

> As others have suggested, likely he won't even serve the 25 though.

Because instead he'll serve 21.25?

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

#266

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:41 PM UTC

marcus_holmes wrote: post #244

I love HN, it's one of the few places you can get reasoned conversation online. But this is one of those subjects where it gets weird. SBF was directly responsible for millions, if not billions, of direct monetary loss to identified individuals. Yet the top comments on HN are all discussing whether incarceration is retribution, spite, deterrence, or rehabilition. The USA incarcerates people for tiny financial damages…

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

#267

Post by HPsquared » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:42 PM UTC

bodiekane wrote: post #181

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…

I'm not aware if any cryptobros advocating to decriminalize fraud. Fraud is always going to be illegal. This isn't some regulatory compliance thing.

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

#268

Post by vuln » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:42 PM UTC

mzs wrote: post #238

zemariagp wrote: post #174

Good time to reflect on Ross Ulbright’s 2xLife sentence

One life sentence and that was based largely on him paying to have five people murdered.

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

#269

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:42 PM UTC

bodiekane wrote: post #181

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…

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

#270

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:42 PM UTC

WhatIsDukkha wrote: post #259

setgree wrote: post #176

An uncle once commented about a cousin of ours that he demonstrated how it's possible to screw things up so badly that you can't possibly recover. I think that's true for Sam. I hope it's not true for the people in his orbit; I hope they can get out from under this and try to find meaning, ideally from repairing the harm they've done. As Rick Heicklen writes, "We are not ever going to be Sam. But we could be Caroline…

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