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FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

nytimes.com

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Re: FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

#171

Post by harry8 »

samtho wrote: post #91
kyrra wrote: post #55

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-team-amon... FTX and it's executives donated $70 million to politicians as well (in the last 18 months). SBF donated $40MM to Democrats, and a different executive donated $23MM to Republicans. They were trying to buy all kinds of influence.

Not discounting any of the stuff that FTX has done or will come to light, but this practice of supporting “both sides” is a very common, by-the-book strategy for any special interest group or organization looking to buy influence and is flushed with money.

Well depending on how you define both sides.

They are buying the regulation for themselves and against the people and yes this is very common and the people hate it.

Re: FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

#172

Post by PTcartelsLOL »

pr0zac wrote: post #61

> The chairman of FBH is Jean Chalopin, who, along with being a co-creator of cartoon cop Inspector Gadget in the 1980s, is the chairman of Deltec Bank wat

So what? I also know one of the producers of Inspector gadget. He lives close to me. It was 1985. Too far gone.

Re: FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

#173

Post by bloomingeek »

watwut wrote: post #160
dgfitz wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the “honest and honerable” politicians stop accepting donations they know are evil. Ah never mind, we all know they can’t help it.

Money matter in campaign. Politicians accepting these have massive advantage over those who don't- so they end up more winning.

In my opinion, this is the voters fault. Read up on the candidates, talk to other voters, if the candidate's ad is all fluff and no substance, don't vote for them. STOP believing non-journalistic cable TV channels who only profit from eyeballs and not the facts.

Re: FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

#174

Post by alvah »

kyrra wrote: post #55

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-team-amon... FTX and it's executives donated $70 million to politicians as well (in the last 18 months). SBF donated $40MM to Democrats, and a different executive donated $23MM to Republicans. They were trying to buy all kinds of influence.

“and a different executive donated $23MM to Republicans”

The different executive donated to his girlfriend, who is a Democrat but was running as a Republican. Make of that what you will.

Re: FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

#175

Post by joe_the_user »

greesil wrote: post #117
skrebbel wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m still baffled that this kind of corruption isn’t frowned upon more. People are buying influence. How is that supposed to be OK or normal?

Unavoidable now because of the Citizens United court decision. Of course it's bad, but what are you gonna do?

Yes, Citizens United articulated a system where "money for access/attention" is the dominant paradigm of American democracy.

Re: FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

#176

Post by ls15 »

andy9999 wrote: post #8
sschueller wrote: post #2

My question is why the NY times is still running a summit where SBF is currently still scheduled to speak.

Why would other people agree to share a stage with a guy who has possibly/probably(?) committed a massive fraud?

Did you look at the list of speakers? I think that most of them are used to being around fraudsters.

Re: FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

#177

Post by TacticalCoder »

graeme wrote: post #95

I looked into this. They used to do business as Geniome Bank, and their job ads are for "crypto and marijuana". Almost no publicity, though they sponsored a few marijuana events. Chalopin usually shies away from press, so his personal involvement is odd. His son is also the chief digital officer of the company. Another curiosity is the old Farmington team is still there, including the presdient, and they still appear…

> "Geniome" is the trademark of a UK based company also owned by Deltec/Chalopin: IFSG. So, Chalopin has an unusal degree of personal involvement here.

And Deltec is a centerpiece behind the tether (USDT)/Bitfinex scam.

People who actually described the Alameda/FTX ponzi scam for what it was since day one have always said it: Alameda/FTX is just a front set up by tether/Bitfinex, made to precisely hide more market manipulation.

The links are becoming clearer: the top lawyers at respectively both Bitfinex and FTX used to be colleagues who... Worked at a firm convicted of fraud for they stole $50 million out of players in an online poker scam (the operator could see the players' cards and would play against them). FTX was, conveniently, a few streets away from Deltec in the Bahamas.

Everything checks out: countless "little" companies to try to funnel the money out of the US (including small banks which, as is now a fact, shared/exchanged between tether and FTX), the Bahamas, the lawyers...

It's a little gang who all know each other very well.

Now I don't think they thought FTX would fall but they had the setup made so that should it fall, it'd act as a fuse shielding tether/Deltec.

Re: FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

#178

Post by [deleted] »

partiallypro wrote: post #110
abzolv wrote: post #86

From the article: “The chairman of FBH is Jean Chalopin, who, along with being a co-creator of cartoon cop Inspector Gadget in the 1980s, is the chairman of Deltec Bank, which, like FTX, is based in the Bahamas. Deltec’s best-known client is Tether, a crypto company with $65 billion in assets offering a stablecoin that is pegged to the dollar.” That tells you everything you need to know.

Tether is the biggest scam in all of crypto, so this tracks.

[deleted]

Re: FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

#179

Post by ben_w »

erik_seaberg wrote: post #159
trompetenaccoun wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Band together with other citizens and demand an end of this! Also since we're at it corporations aren't persons. The founders of the US were very vocal about giving power to the people, the laws were never intended to grant personhood to legal entities for the purpose of enabling unlimited political lobbying by their wealthy owners.

What kind of organization should citizens be allowed to create to promote a political position, if not a corporation?

A political party, surely.

(Also, despite that I am not much of a fan of the UK political system, I do like that it has extremely low limits on election spending).

Re: FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

#180

Post by zepearl »

abzolv wrote: post #86

From the article: “The chairman of FBH is Jean Chalopin, who, along with being a co-creator of cartoon cop Inspector Gadget in the 1980s, is the chairman of Deltec Bank, which, like FTX, is based in the Bahamas. Deltec’s best-known client is Tether, a crypto company with $65 billion in assets offering a stablecoin that is pegged to the dollar.” That tells you everything you need to know.

Ah, come on: a bank with 3 employees + The Inspector Gadget (+ all other weirdness about FTX), who knows what else will come up => I now feel the need to know more, this is just too interesting&weird&funny => I'll wait with trepidation Matt Levine's post about this stuff, maybe with extras. This is almost better than any fiction books/movies.
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