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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

#811

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…

As someone who lost a little bit through this whole debacle I think it is because we willingly gave our money to FTX. We wanted to believe in this story that was too good to be true. We got fooled and we are slightly ashamed. When you get mugged you have no choice on what is happening. The actions are being forced physically on you. With FTX We chose to go that way so it somehow feels like we are as much to blame as…

I deposited some money with FTX and expected them not to steal it in the same way you expect a bank not to steal your deposits. I didn't gift to them or expect anything too good to be true. If a bank manager steals customer deposits to pay his gambling debts I put the blame 100% on the manager 0% on the customers.

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

#812

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…

You think a 25 year sentence is impossible to recover from? I think he can still leave a meaningful life coming out in his mid 50s.

Highly unlikely after spending most of his adult life in federal prison.

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

#814

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…

I think you mean to say, "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 get away with it."

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

#815

Lol. "My useful life is over," he says. As if there was anything useful about setting up a fraudulent exchange to steal billions of dollars so he could go play animal house with Caroline in his penthouse.

Regardless of fraud, he donated a lot of money, some to noble causes. This is useful, even of it was not his money.

I'd be upset if my bank used my checking account to fund Alzheimer's research.

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

#816

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…

which one would make you more angry: 1) being mugged in full daylight in an area with low crime rate (maybe near where you live) 2) being mugged walking in a dark alley somewhere in the "bad" part of the town?

How about if you chose going to 2) knowing very well that muggings are a real possibility and you should probably not go there?

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

#817

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I misinterpreting this, or was your rabbi recommending that you deceive people?

This is how I read it as well. If the rest of Judaism is like this I might consider converting to it.

no need. just join YC

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

#818

Is the US similar to the UK where he will very unlikely serve anything like 25 years in prison?

It's hard to say. Historically federal convictions were very strict, requiring you to serve at least 85% of your sentence. The First Step Act passed in 2018 significantly relaxed that down to 50% for non-violent crimes[1]. I don't know if there is enough data yet to determine how common or easy it will be for convicts get their sentenced reduced by that much.

[1]Specifically for crimes not included in this long list: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3632#d_4_D

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

#819
Sam is a crook, no doubt, but even now I find him a funny figure. His trial defence was awful. He sincerely believes he was trying to do the right thing, so spent his time on the stand defending his actions at length, instead of keeping his mouth shut except to express contrition. This probably cost him years of freedom.

It's strange to say but there's an... authenticity to this that I find endearing.

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

#820
post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great opportunity to remind everyone to think of Ross today. https://freeross.org/ He just tuned 40 yesterday.

Didn’t he try to order hits?

IIRC that was according to a fbi agent that ended up serving time due to pocketing a large sum of bitcoin.
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