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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

#281

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

rgbrenner wrote: post #255
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…

If you conduct criminal activity while employed, you conducted criminal activity. You can't just walk into work at 8am, kill someone at 9am, and go home at 5. You still did the crime, and can be prosecuted for it. So let me rephrase your question: can a US citizen file some papers internationally that would permit them to conduct criminal activities in the US against other US citizens. The answer should not be surpri…

That's not at all how I interpreted the comment you are responding to.

That is, FTX's customers knew, or most definitely should have known, that FTX (and crypto at large - that is essentially the primary selling point of crypto) was "outside the regulatory financial framework". Yet when things blew up and all these FTX customers lost all their money, there was very little reflection of "Hey, perhaps these financial regulations really do have some purpose.", it was more "I want the government to now enforce the banking laws that I was essentially trying to evade in the first place."

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

#282

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

setgree wrote: post #216
rootusrootus wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Parole is available after 1/3 of term IIRC it's 85%. Federal prison does not have parole, but they do give some credit for good behavior, up to 15%.

I do not expect SBF to express remorse, be a model prisoner, etc. I expect him to royally misunderstand the rules of the game, which he routinely does in formal settings. This is the same man who leaked his ex's diaries while she was testifying against him, which led to his bail being revoked https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/technology/sam-bankman-fr...

> I expect him to royally misunderstand the rules of the game

What a weird take on his behavior. His parents are law professors, he had an army of lawyers working for him at the time, yet he just didn't care and did what he felt like, knowing full well the damage it would do, because that was the whole point. There is no misunderstanding, it was just indifference.

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

#283

Post by moralestapia »

carabiner wrote: post #257
maxclark wrote: post #195

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

He'll be out around 2040: https://x.com/wagieeacc/status/1768798879959400776?s=46&t=N5... Shkreli far and away has been providing the most informed analysis of this case. He trashed the letters to the judge from SBF's parents, then Judge Kaplan went on to raise the exact points Shkreli said he would.

Shkreli is a smart guy that also went through that, so yeah, I was also happily following his commentary of this.

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

#284

Post by colechristensen »

mikeryan wrote: post #145
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...

Best teacher I had in high school taught economics. First day of class his lesson was "If you're going to become a criminal follow these 10 rules". I can't remember all the rules but the two I do: 1. Don't do anything for less than $1M. Risk isn't worth the reward. 2. Don't use a weapon. It adds years to your sentence. It was mostly about how white-collar crime has a much safer risk/reward ratio.

How you commit crime is make it complicated enough that a prosecutor will think twice about their ability to teach a jury about how what you did worked and that any of the steps were even wrong in the first place. This is why so much financial crime goes unpunished.

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

#285

Post by danpalmer »

9front wrote: post #262

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

I think that would be a hugely unpopular move, for essentially no benefit (he doesn't have any more money to donate), and would be one hell of an unforced error on the part of the democratic campaign.

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

#286

Post by flutas »

petertodd wrote: post #212
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #159

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…

> If anything, it's excessive if you consider the nature of the crime relative to the nature of murder or kidnapping. The value of a single human life is not infinite. In engineering and public policy, a value like $10 million / life is typically used to make trade-offs. SBF stole funds far in excess of that. Secondly, when funds of this scale are stolen, inevitably people wind up dying early from things like stress,…

> Secondly, when funds of this scale are stolen, inevitably people wind up dying early from things like stress, and suicides.

Yep, it was mentioned in sentencing today by one of the victims.

At least 3 have already committed suicide after the shit hit the fan.

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

#288

Post by FireBeyond »

maxclark wrote: post #195

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

> 25 years isn't a death sentence for him Parole is available after 1/3 of term, realistically he won't serve 100%

Federal prison does not have parole. Only good behavior options. But that could reduce it to 12.5, if he hits all behavior targets.

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

#289

Post by FabHK »

zug_zug wrote: post #164
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.

Feels low to me too. I think the distinction between "violent" is completely irrelevant. I think taking money from people does just as much harm as physically injuring them -- many people would rather have several bones broken than lose their pension. The benefit is the deterrent. It's especially important for wealthy people who we may wonder if they greased wheels behind the scenes. If you want somebody to cry about…

> I think the distinction between "violent" is completely irrelevant.

In particular since several people with crypto losses committed suicide, or worse, murder-suicide (killing their family and kids first).

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

#290

Post by compiler-guy »

rootusrootus wrote: post #206
maxclark wrote: post #195

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

> Parole is available after 1/3 of term IIRC it's 85%. Federal prison does not have parole, but they do give some credit for good behavior, up to 15%.

This was true for a long time, but the "First Step" act, passed I think in 2021, increased the good behavior credit maximum to 50%.

Realistically then, SBF is looking at 11.5 years if he can stay out of trouble, which is relatively easy for white-collar criminals in relatively low security prisons.

Federal rules still don't have parole.

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