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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

#511

Post by runako »

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…

> So it should be really hard to argue that this is a "light" sentence.

The well-considered federal sentencing guidelines put the sentence for this crime at over 100 years. That is, for an anonymous defendant at remove, our legal system believes that 100+ years is a fair sentence for this set of offenses.

So another way of looking at this is because of who the specific defendant is here, the court shaved 80 years off the "fair" sentence. I would consider that a light sentence.

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

#512

Post by thsksbd »

tombert wrote: post #344
bambax wrote: post #62

I think that's about fair and reasonable. It's been said in Europe he would not have gotten more than years and it's probably true. 25 years is a really long time and even if he does only 20, still super long. Here's a live tweeting of the sentencing hearing; some of Judge Kaplan's remarks are really interesting. https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/177334004374401064...

If I broke into a person's house and stole $1000, even if I didn't directly hurt that person, I could expect to get several years in prison, basically regardless of the state. Lets say three years to be conservative on this? Sam Bankman Fried stole billions of dollars [1], probably often around $1000 at a time from tens of thousands of people. If going with my logic, he should be getting a lot longer than 25 years, u…

"If I broke into a person's house and stole"

The owners, the police, the prosecutor and the jury would be far more interested in the breaking and entry charge than the $1000.

In fact, in every state of the Union, if you're facing me whilst committing the act of trespassing inside my home, I can legally punch a hole through your torso with a 9mm.

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

#513

Post by tracedddd »

tdudhhu wrote: post #503

The difference between opinions in this thread is interesting. I think it's mainly because some see a punishment as revenge and others as correction. But, as user publius_0xf3 is showing, revenge does not work. The victims don't get their money back. If this sentence is used as correction I also think it does not work. Would such a correction really take 25 years? His life is over. I don't see how such a long time is…

What do you think about it being a preventative measure against future SBFs?

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

#514

Post by rustcleaner »

s3r3nity wrote: post #357
rustcleaner wrote: post #347

10 years is a life sentence, anything more is satisfying bloodlust in voters to keep the magick trick of civilization afloat. This human impulse is why aliens don't visit. We're too barbaric to ourselves! xD

Actions have consequences. Billions of dollars of fraud that took years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyer fees to prove should have a sentence that is a strong deterrent to future crime probabilities.

The next SBF will not think about SBF even if he knows about SBF. Deterrence Theory is back-justification to make yourself feel good about the crime that is going to happen to SBF for a quarter century just like millions of others today. This isn't living in a Motel 6 like apartment working at an Amazon warehouse for 25 years never making enough to save a dime despite putting in 50+ hours on average, with no economic hope of escape (a hell by most people's standards here); this is locking him up like an animal in abysmal conditions that would never pass public scrutiny if we designed zoo enclosures as such!

If we continue to run prisons the way we do in America, all sentencing needs to go through a strong base log function, and be strictly concurrent.

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

#515

Post by khazhoux »

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…

> 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.

Enough SBF talk. Let’s hear some cousin stories!

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

#516

Post by anon291 »

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…

Violent crime is ultimately more than just monetary damages.

Like realistically, sbf can just be kept in a fenced compound. He's shown no great violent urge. House arrest would probably serve the same purpose of removing him from the population for X years.

Someone breaking into a building is a lot different. They need more security and cause more chaos.

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

#517

Post by chollida1 »

liendolucas wrote: post #440
tombert wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I broke into a person's house and stole $1000, even if I didn't directly hurt that person, I could expect to get several years in prison, basically regardless of the state. Lets say three years to be conservative on this? Sam Bankman Fried stole billions of dollars [1], probably often around $1000 at a time from tens of thousands of people. If going with my logic, he should be getting a lot longer than 25 years, u…

> Sam Bankman Fried stole billions of dollars [1], probably often around $1000 at a time from tens of thousands of people. If going with my logic, he should be getting a lot longer than 25 years, upwards of hundreds or thousands of years. Apparently that logic applied to Bernie Madoff. He got 150 years. How are these cases so similar and yet got radically different sentences?

> How are these cases so similar and yet got radically different sentences?

Partially in that SBF's victims will get "100%" back, based on the USD value of their holdings at the time.

Madoff victims, especially the wealthily got a large haircut on their holdings and clawbacks on money they had taken out as far as 5 years back from sentencing.

Also Maddoff's fraud went on for 15+ years, SBF's was maybe a year to 18 months at the most?

These two cases are so widely different that you can't really compare them except at a superficial level, ie they were both fraud, and that's about where the similarities end.

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

#518

Post by Red_Leaves_Flyy »

lijok wrote: post #398
tombert wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I broke into a person's house and stole $1000, even if I didn't directly hurt that person, I could expect to get several years in prison, basically regardless of the state. Lets say three years to be conservative on this? Sam Bankman Fried stole billions of dollars [1], probably often around $1000 at a time from tens of thousands of people. If going with my logic, he should be getting a lot longer than 25 years, u…

Why do you think SBF requires 20-25 years to rehabilitate?

You think he can be rehabilitated? By American prisons? Seriously? Look around; that didn’t happen.

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

#519

Post by anonu »

publius_0xf3 wrote: post #449

It's funny. I lost tens of thousands of dollars thanks to this individual, yet his sentence brings me no joy or arouses any emotion at all. I'm utterly indifferent to his fate for some reason and I don't know why. Yet if he had been a mugger who stole a much smaller amount of money from me on the street, I think I would've been far more vengeful. Should I feel vindictive? Or is it healthy to forget about it and move…

Are you expecting to recover any money from this? I understood everyone would be made whole at some point.

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

#520

Post by freedomben »

__loam wrote: post #509
publius_0xf3 wrote: post #449

It's funny. I lost tens of thousands of dollars thanks to this individual, yet his sentence brings me no joy or arouses any emotion at all. I'm utterly indifferent to his fate for some reason and I don't know why. Yet if he had been a mugger who stole a much smaller amount of money from me on the street, I think I would've been far more vengeful. Should I feel vindictive? Or is it healthy to forget about it and move…

I didn't lose a penny and I'm giddy about it. Justice has been done.

> I didn't lose a penny and I'm giddy about it. Justice has been done.

How can you be giddy about a human being locked in a cage for 25 years? Would you be giddy if he were being flogged, or hanged? As long as there has been recording, flogging and hangings were common punishments and usually defended as "justice has been done." Incarceration really isn't far from medieval punishments.

I'm by no means suggesting that nothing should be done, and maybe 25 years in prison is a just sentence (that's debatable, but for moving forward let's assume it is), but it still leaves me with a sick feeling. I just can't relate whatsoever with feeling "giddy" over it.

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