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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

#831

Post by freedomben »

amelius wrote: post #660
freedomben wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Purely speculation on my part, but I tend to feel similarly, and I think the reason is that the mugger includes a physical threat of violence. Evolutionarily, the emergence of an economy with capital at modern-day scales are so new that we haven't had time to really adjust emotionally. It kind of reminds me of the various birds on previously untouched-by-humanity islands that had no fear of humans and would just sit…

I think humans also feel no anger towards deadly diseases. Maybe it is more comparable to that. However, I do know that people can feel very ashamed from scams like phishing attacks and caller scams.

After thinking about it, I think some humans do feel anger towards deadly diseases. If not anger, certainly fear. My aunt died of cancer, and most of our family was pretty mad at "cancer." I remember seeing a Twitter thing going around that was basically a lot of people tweeting things like "fuck cancer" and encouraging others to donate to the cause.

Maybe that's not really "anger," but it kind of feels and seems like it

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

#832

Post by cdchn »

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 think there is a lot of feeling of "I gambled with funny money and lost. Thats the game."

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

#833

Post by Aeolun »

gizmo wrote: post #406
FabHK wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I didn't find Lewis's book as bad (or amoral) as it's often made out to be. Yes, he didn't put his judgement in every paragraph, but his description of SBF was: a) absolutely damning! SBF's lack of empathy, his notion that (given that everyone else is stupid) he knew best and should basically ignore the advice of everyone else (particularly his elders), his naive utilitarianism without any deontological/virtue…

I very much agree. "Number go up" by Faux is the better book in many respects, but Lewis's book contains much background info not reported elsewhere. Lewis's book is damning about SBF as you said. About how unapologetic and manipulative he is. About his willingness to gamble with other people's money. About his complete lack of ethical boundaries. About the casual way SBF ignored all laws he didn't like. About SBF's…

> About how unapologetic and manipulative he is. About his willingness to gamble with other people's money.

This describes most bankers? They’re generally smarter in that they work for an organization that dillutes responsibility for their crimes.

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

#834

Post by nostromo »

amanj41 wrote: post #797
rgbrenner wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FTX was one of the biggest frauds in history.. and you're showing us averages. Madoff received a 150 year sentence, and that was with leniency for pleading guilty.

Wasn't Madoff's plan the whole time to pocket investor money for himself, whereas Sam's was to arrogantly (and illegally) gamble it with the thought being he could return the principal from Alameda back to FTX in future? Genuine question, I'm not super informed on these.

No, SBF did directly steal from FTX users. He used an intermediary (Alameda) to do so. The end result is the same: he stole from customers to enrich himself, his family and his friends.

I'm sure both SBF and Madoff originally thought they would be able to make enough money to cover up the theft.

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

#835

Post by rgbrenner »

amanj41 wrote: post #797
rgbrenner wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FTX was one of the biggest frauds in history.. and you're showing us averages. Madoff received a 150 year sentence, and that was with leniency for pleading guilty.

Wasn't Madoff's plan the whole time to pocket investor money for himself, whereas Sam's was to arrogantly (and illegally) gamble it with the thought being he could return the principal from Alameda back to FTX in future? Genuine question, I'm not super informed on these.

Sam paid and loaned to himself $2.2B (and another $1B to top execs) out of the $8B that was lost. That doesn't include the Bahamas real estate; trabuccos yacht; celebrity endorsements; stadium naming; or the private planes to deliver amazon packages to the bahamas.

The idea that Sam was just a risky investor is the story Sam wants to tell. But he already told that story in court, and it was rejected.. because the evidence doesn't support it.

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

#836

Post by karaterobot »

polygamous_bat wrote: post #611
jallen_dot_dev wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> kid He's a 32 year old man.

No no, he is rich so of course he is just a kid, lost in the sauce, accidentally squandering a few billion. Now, 16 year old male from a low income household, those are men, and should know the consequence of their actions better. /s This infantilizing is disgusting propaganda in and of itself.

I think your criticism is unfair. I didn't know how biological age, and I thought he was probably in his early-mid 20s. Not because he's rich and white, but because he acts, dresses, and cuts his hair like an emotionally immature boy genius right out of college.

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

#837

Post by tim333 »

olalonde wrote: post #760
efitz wrote: post #756

The article is followed at this moment with an article titled “SBF’s Parents are Heartbroken” with a picture of his parents where both are unhappy, outside in the rain under umbrellas. I wonder if they considered their role? I haven’t seen anyone accuse SBF of being a psychopath; given that, how does a person become so ethically bankrupt? A: His parents failed to do their job of ensuring that he developed a conscienc…

Not only that but his parents were actively involved in FTX and profited greatly from it[0]. [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/09/24/sam-b...

Yeah:

>The suit says that SBF’s father directed where company payments would go, picked out charities to benefit from his son’s largesse, entered into and terminated contracts, hand-picked the company’s outside counsel, made hiring recommendations, and authorized expenses.

>SBF’s mother, used ill-gotten funds from her son’s businesses as a piggy bank for her political action committee.

>The suit says that Bankman, SBF’s father, was at one point drawing a $200,000 annual salary from FTX but that he thought he was “supposed to” be getting a nice, round $1 million. He emailed his son, according to the suit, “Gee, Sam I don’t know what to say here. This is the first [I] have heard of the 200K a year salary! Putting Barbara on this,” he added, calling in the boss’s mother. The suit says that shortly thereafter, Bankman-Fried made a $10 million gift to his parents out of funds from Alameda Research (FTX’s sister hedge fund), then had the couple put on the deed to a $16.4 million Bahamas property with funds “ultimately provided” by FTX.

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

#838

Post by Zpalmtree »

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…

No you shouldn't feel vindictive because ultimately you lost funds by your own bad decisions, not Sam's

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

#840

Post by [deleted] »

throwawayyyyy10 wrote: post #568

Many of the comments here about the utility of punishment is very utilitarian, which is ironically fitting since we're talking of SBF. What I never see acknowledged (or believed) by more lenient people is the fact that adequate punishment (sometimes harsh is adequate) serves to send a message not only to other offenders, but maybe most importantly to non-offenders, that the justice system is worth something. "Crime d…

[deleted]
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