321–330 of 489 posts
Earlier today, I talked to people who are reformed criminals who have been thrown in Jail by the SEC and know its inner workings fairly well. He'll likely get a slap on the wrist with some fines. Doesn't look like anybody is going to jail. We shall see how things shake out. Would get intriguing if the jaws of FINCEN suddenly opened up.
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> that doesn't mean crypto companies should have free reign to do whatever they want for the sake of "innovation." As a company, you're allowed to do anything that is not illegal. Law is not a whitelist of what you're allowed to do, it's a blacklist of what you're not allowed to do. And while it makes sense to create laws that protect consumers, it doesn't make sense to create laws that blanket ban experimentation wi…
> > So just because Binance is committing fraud and breaking the law doesn't mean that in general we should be blocking the ability of companies from experimenting with new technology, whether or not you personally believe a particular technology will amount to anything. This is not new technology, it's moving the money around under the guise of new technology. And all the same crypto-bros are very proud of the valua…
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> I guess the CEO’s were hired to be thrown under the bus when it is the time. It's ironic that they are now the ones feeding SEC with inside information. It seems like the plan backfired?
Any sane person who realizes that their job is to be thrown under the bus has two options: Either go along with it and be a conspirator, secure your means of getting away, or start talking to the law enforcement to cover your ass. The people running Binance should have realized that the first option did not happen and they should have prepared for the second option. Although it is good that this didn’t happen, SEC no…
That was hard enough for me to realize as a low-level worker. It has to be a fair bit harder if you've got a fancy title and a fancy salary. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
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My theory is that Binance execs were having these chats in an encrypted medium (e.g. WA or Signal) but didn't secure themselves against a defector. I think someone on the inside took screenshots and went to the feds (or started cooperating under legal pressure). There's even a leading candidate [0]. What's funny about this is it's a fine metaphor for what ails crypto as a whole. The technology is cryptographically se…
> but didn't secure themselves against a defector Still a surprisingly amateur move. Once worked for the Federal Government where literally everything you write is potentially subject to a FOIA request. The message all new hires were told was, very clearly: "Never put anything into writing you wouldn't be happy to be see published on the front page of the Washington Post" Anything that was even vaguely close to faili…
I was recently talking with a friend who recently left government. They mentioned that they has a special slack emoji, "JK FOIA", so they could clearly mark things as "just kidding" to future FOIA readers.
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> but didn't secure themselves against a defector Still a surprisingly amateur move. Once worked for the Federal Government where literally everything you write is potentially subject to a FOIA request. The message all new hires were told was, very clearly: "Never put anything into writing you wouldn't be happy to be see published on the front page of the Washington Post" Anything that was even vaguely close to faili…
> The message all new hires were told was, very clearly: "Never put anything into writing you wouldn't be happy to be see published on the front page of the Washington Post" > And this was for an org that was doing nothing sneaky or underhanded in the slightest I disagree. That culture is one of routinely doing sneaky and underhanded things. If it wasn’t, the rule would be “don’t do anything you wouldn't be happy to…
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> I guess the CEO’s were hired to be thrown under the bus when it is the time. It's ironic that they are now the ones feeding SEC with inside information. It seems like the plan backfired?
Any sane person who realizes that their job is to be thrown under the bus has two options: Either go along with it and be a conspirator, secure your means of getting away, or start talking to the law enforcement to cover your ass. The people running Binance should have realized that the first option did not happen and they should have prepared for the second option. Although it is good that this didn’t happen, SEC no…
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Very interesting… I guess the CEO’s were hired to be thrown under the bus when it is the time. Their job was to PLEASE: Provide legal exculpation and sign everything. (hey HIMYM fans!)
> I guess the CEO’s were hired to be thrown under the bus when it is the time. It's ironic that they are now the ones feeding SEC with inside information. It seems like the plan backfired?
But it's unwise in finance. The SEC's whistleblower program is well known.
> In one instance, the Binance chief compliance officer messaged a colleague that, “[w]e are operating as a fking unlicensed securities exchange in the USA bro.” Source: https://twitter.com/JohnReedStark/status/1665748594421297152 This is a legendary quote from the filing.
what's stupid is that quotes like this, not actual substance of what their business practices are, are the only way the SEC can establish what is and isn't a "security." there is no real truth or objective test and the SEC has offered no meaningful guidance. so they just determine this based on subjective emails the CEO sent once.
[1] https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/secs-gensler-warns-crypto-in...
[2] https://www.sec.gov/oiea/investor-alerts-and-bulletins/inves...
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> these were amateurs who didnt know that in Anglosaxon common law, you have to avoid being honest about anything and even deny any wrongdoing even if you get caught the act of murdering someone Ignoring the "Anglosaxon" buzzword here, none of this is unique conceptually to US law, or foreign conceptually to anyone who's told a lie when younger. It's instinctual for many when they know they've done something wrong. T…
> Ignoring the "Anglosaxon" buzzword The 'Anglosaxon' term is a long-standing political science, history and diplomacy term. Its not something that can be ignored, especially because... > none of this is unique conceptually to US law ... it is. The common law derives from the medieval !Anglosaxon! feudal law, which is based on contracts, agreements, negotiations and precedents. It can be 'interpreted' by the judge, w…
I don't think I've seen an authoritative source elsewhere use it, because it would be like pretending the Norman conquest never had an effect on legal proceedings. As if there is some unbroken historical lineage.
This is why I labeled it a buzz word, it's a phrase with a specific (negative) connotation attached to it, used by specific media, as a catch-all for describing institutions in the US.
https://euvsdisinfo.eu/what-do-the-pro-kremlin-media-mean-by...
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Any sane person who realizes that their job is to be thrown under the bus has two options: Either go along with it and be a conspirator, secure your means of getting away, or start talking to the law enforcement to cover your ass. The people running Binance should have realized that the first option did not happen and they should have prepared for the second option. Although it is good that this didn’t happen, SEC no…
I suspect Binance is prepared and they will simply not comply. Nothing is physically in the US to be seized (except maybe the binance.us domain).