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SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

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Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#641

Post by hintymad »

dereg wrote: post #104
rjbwork wrote: post #4

Much sooner than I expected. Figured it'd be a couple of years before the AG was secure enough in their case to bring charges. This is MUCH faster than Madoff or Holmes. Then again, he's been much more out in the open about everything. He pretty much laid the prosecution's case out to the public for them.

It's clear Caroline Ellison has turned against him. Stephanie Avakian, former SEC enforcement chief, is representing her in NY. I'm guessing they wouldn't have been able to file charges this quickly without Caroline becoming a cooperating witness.

I remember there was a picture of her in a NYC Starbucks in the past week. Someone predicted she had made a deal with DA and SBF would be indicted soon. Now it appears the prediction was spot on.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#642

Post by phendrenad2 »

Since everyone is making predictions, here's mine: He'll get a slap on the wrist, do some community service, and be free to go on a lecture circuit at state colleges across the land, donating some of his second wealth to charities of his design and choosing, in an act of humble penance that will sway the hearts of the people.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#643

Post by user3939382 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #612
user3939382 wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> law enforcement In the US our corruption is out in the open, we enshrine our corruption into laws. Corporations have lobby groups that literally write the legislation Congress passes. If you think our system has integrity you’re just naive I’m sorry.

This nihilism is wrong, and exhausting. Yes, corruption exists. Yes, there are bad actors. But this idea that "everything is corrupt, all the laws are corrupt, the whole system is corrupt" is just lazy bullshit.

No it’s not lazy bullshit it’s the sad reality. It’s systemic, it perpetuates itself. Go read the Princeton study on the effect of our votes for starters.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#644

Post by bhk »

rjbwork wrote: post #4

Much sooner than I expected. Figured it'd be a couple of years before the AG was secure enough in their case to bring charges. This is MUCH faster than Madoff or Holmes. Then again, he's been much more out in the open about everything. He pretty much laid the prosecution's case out to the public for them.

False.

Madoff was arrested before the news broke.

And Madoff was more out in the open. He confessed everything to his sons, and the very next day he was arrested.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#645

Post by cuteboy19 »

woeirua wrote: post #262

This is good for Crypto. Seriously. Because SBF is probably going to help the US make their case against Binance and that will flush out all the bad actors. Many coins will go to zero. The entire ecosystem will wither and die, but if Crypto survives it will be because there is some fundamental value to it besides digital beanie babies.

In the absence of regulation, fraud is a comparative advantage. We can point to specific instances of fraud as moral failings. But fundamentally, if people are incentivized towards fraud, then there will only be fraud.

If you flush these particular bad actors, others will simply take their place

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#646

Post by dragonwriter »

Semaphor wrote: post #632
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I posted a Twitter thread about this in an early story that I can look up that was super informative with a lot of detail, but the short of it is that it was all a house of cards based on FTT. If Alameda died, it would have tanked the value of FTT, which would have in turn killed FTX, because they were assigning huge value to FTT on their balance sheet (which is, in and of itself, insane because FTT worked more like…

Sidebar > which is, in and of itself, insane because FTT worked more like a stock of FTX itself - a company doesn't put its own stock on the asset side of the balance sheet Thinking about it, it makes sense. But I never did before. So where does a company’s own stock normally end up at, balance-wise?

> But I never did before. So where does a company’s own stock normally end up at, balance-wise?

The company’s own stock is in the equity section (treasury stock – stock that the company has repurchased after it was issued is a contra equity account, since the act of purchasing reduces stockholder equity.)

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#647

Post by progrus »

rjbwork wrote: post #4

Much sooner than I expected. Figured it'd be a couple of years before the AG was secure enough in their case to bring charges. This is MUCH faster than Madoff or Holmes. Then again, he's been much more out in the open about everything. He pretty much laid the prosecution's case out to the public for them.

It’s the day before he’s supposed to testify before congress.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#648

Post by pushrax »

dheera wrote: post #428
adasdasdas wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FTX is a brokerage not a bank. Furthermore, banks have strict regulations on the kinds of loans they are allowed to give. Also, bank accounts are secured by FDIC.

OK sure so the FDIC can just insure FTX then. Other brokerages lend out their spare cash without your consent, too. It's not really any different other than that law has (rather arbitrarily) decided to protect one and not the other.

Proper brokerages will pay you to lend your securities, transparently disclose their programs, and require consent. For example:

- https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/pricing/stock-yield-en...

- https://www.fidelity.com/trading/fully-paid-lending

Some brokerages lend out spare cash (and pay a transparent interest rate, and are subject to strict reserve requirements) but the majority of assets controlled by a typical brokerage are securities. FTX assets were all subject to their leverage strategies, with no specific reserve.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#649

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #170

My only regret about this is that we won’t be treated to an absolutely bonkers House committee hearing with Sam this week.

I still think it will be pretty bonkers. Someone else posted FTX's restructuring CEO's opening statement for tomorrow morning, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33962193. With comments like the one below, I'm interested to see how many bombshells are dropped:

> Nearly all of these situations share common characteristics, ranging from gross mismanagement, excessive leverage, failures of internal controls, failures of external checks as a result of audit firm failures, or insufficient board governance. But never in my career have I seen such an utter failure of corporate controls at every level of an organization, from the lack of financial statements to a complete failure of any internal controls or governance whatsoever."\

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#650

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

acdha wrote: post #310
zadler wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a little bit innocent to think that SBF isn’t intelligent; he’s extremely adept at lying and manipulating. And on top of that, intelligent enough to create a large crypto exchange. It’s his morals and impulses that got him into trouble.

He’s the latest example of why many RPGs have separate stats for intelligence and wisdom. He’s clearly not stupid but his lawyers must be sitting at their desks sobbing “stop giving interviews!”

> He’s clearly not stupid but his lawyers must be sitting at their desks sobbing “stop giving interviews!”

TBH I don't think the interviews hurt him much, and I think more than likely they are a strategy trying to reduce his culpability. The common thread among all his interviews is "I'm really sorry for being such an idiot", basically trying to play stupid to make it difficult to prove intent.

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