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SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

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Re: SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

#151

Post by fallingknife »

TotoHorner wrote: post #88
stouset wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could be right. But if this interview spree is a calculated move to avoid jail time, he's doing a truly awful job of it. But this wouldn't be the first time he did an awful job of something due to misjudging his own competence.

> But if this interview spree is a calculated move to avoid jail time, he's doing a truly awful job of it. But this wouldn't be the first time he did an awful job of something due to misjudging his own competence. Yep, I think that's exactly it. In his mind, it's either - do not do any interviews. The outcome is a 90% probability of life in prision - do the interviews and try to shift public opinion to it being an ac…

Past donations only give you influence when they serve as evidence you will make future donations. SBF won't be making any big donations anytime soon so they will buy him absolutely nothing now.

Re: SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

#152

Post by rubyist5eva »

vitaflo wrote: post #115
rubyist5eva wrote: post #82

The fact that this guy has not been arrested just goes to show how completely f*cked America is.

It took the feds 3 years to indict Kenneth Lay for Enron. You’re going to be waiting a while. Feds get one shot at a case and they don’t tend to lose for a reason. By arresting him now he can force a speedy trial. Feds are going to gather every single ounce of evidence they can before they go after him.

That seems optimistic but I hope so.

Re: SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

#153

Post by ricktdotorg »

bogomipz wrote: post #106
stouset wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having also followed this unfolding drama, I can say this is sadly a reasonably accurate take. I'll add my own opinion which is that he seems to—at least on some level—legitimately believe that all of this is extremely complicated and impossible to understand unless you're someone of his intellectual caliber. It's so complicated, in fact, that even he struggles to keep it all in his head at once. I say this because I…

>"I'll add my own opinion which is that he seems to—at least on some level—legitimately believe that all of this is extremely complicated and impossible to understand unless you're someone of his intellectual caliber." Yes and I think that was an image he actively sought to cultivate. This is the whole "cult of the genius" trope that the VC's want us to believe in. This is where you hear people regurgitating things l…

> the crypto prodigy convinced the firm to invest some $200 million during a Zoom meeting—while playing League of Legends the whole time

VC's deserve to be crushed for acts such as this. imagine giving $200 million to a 30 yr old who is playing games on critical investment calls!!!

inconceivable -- from all angles.

Re: SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

#154

Post by quesera »

H8crilA wrote: post #63
quesera wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the saying goes... If you forget to hire an accountant, make sure you listen to your lawyer.

They did not "forget to hire an accountant". They took customer funds and did whatever they wanted with it. Just look at that hilarious "balance sheet" that was leaked, it's not even on the same planet as a balance sheet of an exchange. It worked until the funds ran out. In a sense this is worse than a pyramid scheme because in a pyramid scheme at least a good portion of the "profits" is actually paid out. Here the f…

Did I really need air quotes around "forget"?

Re: SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

#155

Post by whimsicalism »

chollida1 wrote: post #149
whimsicalism wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude literally paid a substantial proportion of Bahamas GDP to the Bahamas government, my guess is they got some sort of deal in exchange for this.

> Dude literally paid a substantial proportion of Jamaican GDP to the Jamaican government, my guess is they got some sort of deal in exchange for this. Do you mean Bahamas? If so they you are very wrong about their GDP :)

Yes, oops!

They transferred $500 million to Bahamas govt, which is ~5% of GDP. I would say that is a substantial portion.

Re: SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

#156

Post by ESTheComposer »

time_to_smile wrote: post #47
ESTheComposer wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not even remotely. FTX is a centralized exchange, and is the opposite of what crypto’s original philosophy is

That still makes it ironic no? If the outcome of events at one of the largest crypto exchanges is "the opposite of what crypto’s original philosophy is" that's a textbook example of irony . Back in the very early, more promising, days of crypto the standard critique of crypto was the common mantra "you can't use technology to solve social problems". I think we've had that objectively demonstrated multiple times now (…

Pretty sure it originally had FTX and crypto flipped, which is why my reply made sense. At the moment, yes it’s ironic that this happens in crypto even though crypto’s main (and maybe only) strength is that it isn’t beholden to a centralized authority.

Re: SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

#157

Post by whimsicalism »

zeven7 wrote: post #148
whimsicalism wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't expect too many tough questions. Wanna bet? He's super unpopular across the aisle and politicians are quick to turn on donors if they are dead in the water.

I'm not so sure he's dead in the water as a future donor. There is $8 billion missing. I think it's likely most of it is gone in the sense of irrecoverable by SBF, but with the amount he was moving around it wouldn't be hard to drop $100 million here, $40 million there. That's not to mention the $300 million he cashed out in the last FTX funding round and the $1 billion personal loan he took from FTX, neither of whic…

He's not going to be donating $100 million here or there to these politicians. They would not accept his donations, he is politically the kiss of death.

He likely does not even have the $8 billion.

Re: SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

#158

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

TotoHorner wrote: post #85
stouset wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having also followed this unfolding drama, I can say this is sadly a reasonably accurate take. I'll add my own opinion which is that he seems to—at least on some level—legitimately believe that all of this is extremely complicated and impossible to understand unless you're someone of his intellectual caliber. It's so complicated, in fact, that even he struggles to keep it all in his head at once. I say this because I…

> he seems to—at least on some level—legitimately believe that all of this is extremely complicated and impossible to understand unless you're someone of his intellectual caliber. It's so complicated, in fact, that even he struggles to keep it all in his head at once Yeah, I strongly disagree here. He's just a pathological liar and he's currently on an interview spree where he's lying out of his mouth to try and avoi…

That is likely true, but it does not disprove parent's point of:

Interview with various fraudsters over the years seem to suggest it is not that uncommon for the individual to create a story around the event that got them in hot water and it is also not uncommon to have them repeat it ( and seemingly even believe it ). It is a basic psychological defense. And, as a bonus, unless the individual is an actual psychopath, in which case it likely does not matter, you get to sell your story without seeming like you are lying ( and most people suck at lying, while they know they are lying ).

Still, it is just an opinion and it is not mutually exclusive with what you wrote.

Re: SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

#159

Post by sharadov »

stouset wrote: post #87
TotoHorner wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he seems to—at least on some level—legitimately believe that all of this is extremely complicated and impossible to understand unless you're someone of his intellectual caliber. It's so complicated, in fact, that even he struggles to keep it all in his head at once Yeah, I strongly disagree here. He's just a pathological liar and he's currently on an interview spree where he's lying out of his mouth to try and avoi…

You could be right. But if this interview spree is a calculated move to avoid jail time, he's doing a truly awful job of it. But this wouldn't be the first time he did an awful job of something due to misjudging his own competence.

But the media has been surprisingly lenient so far.

Re: SBF scheduled to testify tomorrow at US House hearing on FTX collapse

#160

Post by etothepii »

vgel wrote: post #121
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did they write anything up?

tl;dw: It's hard to get SBF to admit to fraud involving Alameda because he can fall back on the excuse that he wasn't the CEO and didn't know what was happening (even though there's every chance he actually did). So the youtuber hit him with a more targeted question: if FTX guarantees deposits are not traded, why were deposits not able to be withdrawn -- where did they go? He gets SBF to admit that they were commingl…

CoffeeZilla has done a really great job of following up with this line of questioning but on a technical point I am not sure that this gets him where he thinks it does.

From what I have seen I do not think that FTX held itself out to formally be a "segregated accounts company" and the example CoffeeZilla uses of a bank is a bad example because that is exactly how banks operate. i.e. the problem with FTX was that they informally held themselves out to be a segregated accounts company but formally operated like a bank on a first-come-first-served basis.

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