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Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

theguardian.com

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Re: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

#71

Post by quanticle »

pearjuice wrote: post #59
klipt wrote: post #3

I wonder if something similar will eventually happen to the Tether people? To my understanding they're printing money (USDT) which they claim is backed 1:1 by USD but really isn't. These USDTs can then be spent to pump up various other crypto assets. Seems a very shady business.

If anything, the pressure on Sam might result in him turning on Tether/Binance/other-frauds with key insider evidence for reduced sentencing. The guy's a pvp gamer at heart so probably min-maxing with his lawyers what he can do as a criminal informant.

He's a PVP gamer who can't even get out of the bottom-most tier of League of Legends. [1] I very much doubt he's trying to game plan anything of this kind of sophistication.

[1]: https://www.ft.com/content/23ab2258-ce03-4fbb-a9b2-7d9ec6e3d...

Re: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

#72

Post by 323 »

klipt wrote: post #3

I wonder if something similar will eventually happen to the Tether people? To my understanding they're printing money (USDT) which they claim is backed 1:1 by USD but really isn't. These USDTs can then be spent to pump up various other crypto assets. Seems a very shady business.

> These USDTs can then be spent to pump up various other crypto assets

So why don't they do that now? Why are the crypto prices at two years low?

This is the age old ZeroHedge conspiracy recycled - if the stock market goes up, it's because of WOPRs (their name for HFT algos) and the Fed plunge-protection-team, but if it goes down it's because of healthy market forces which are calling the Feds bluff.

Re: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

#73

Post by rcxdude »

potatototoo99 wrote: post #28
klipt wrote: post #3

I wonder if something similar will eventually happen to the Tether people? To my understanding they're printing money (USDT) which they claim is backed 1:1 by USD but really isn't. These USDTs can then be spent to pump up various other crypto assets. Seems a very shady business.

They don't claim it's backed 1:1 by USD. They claim it's backed by more or less liquid alternatives: https://tether.to/en/transparency/#reports

Now they do (previously they claimed 1:1 with actual dollars in a bank account, but failed to demonstrate that). But that 80% "Commercial paper" is suspicious as hell, considering it would make up more than half the total market for said paper (so 'liquid' is already questionable), and no-one else in the market has heard of them.

Re: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

#74

Post by maria2 »

PeterisP wrote: post #49
maria2 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like they were ordered to give the plaintiffs the documents, but they weren’t ordered to publicly release them. NYAG also looked into them last year. They were fined but it doesn’t seem like anything else came of it. > The New York Attorney General’s probe into Tether’s reserves concluded in February 2021 with an $18.5 million settlement. I don’t hold any tether, and I wouldn’t recommend it to others. But th…

Well, FTX, as a stable business, should be a money printing machine - but that definitely wasn't an obstacle for its leaders to risk the business and jail time to speculate with customers' funds.

FTX might have been a money-printing machine, but the situation with Alameda is a lot less clear. Being a market maker is hard. If you make a mistake, you can lose a lot of money. It's probably easier to be a crook.

Re: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

#75

Post by roland35 »

ummonk wrote: post #67
klipt wrote: post #3

I wonder if something similar will eventually happen to the Tether people? To my understanding they're printing money (USDT) which they claim is backed 1:1 by USD but really isn't. These USDTs can then be spent to pump up various other crypto assets. Seems a very shady business.

My conspiracy theory is that USDT is actually well backed, but the Tether people intentionally make it look shady so they can buy the dip and arbitrage against panic selling. Some volatility would actually increase their ability to profit.

That's crazy. I'm thinking Hanlon's razor applies here, there is absolutely no evidence that tether is legit.

Re: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

#76

Post by baeaz »

neilv wrote: post #48
MarcelOlsz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Exactly. Every day I wake up and I have to hear about some next cunt I've never heard of before. "Richest before 30!". Some other trillionaire. Some other little kid son of ivy's who ran away with another billion. It's always some fucking scam. Every fucking day. What is the point anymore? I'm a regular cunt who wants to do regular cunt things but I have to wake up to news that Google is planning a 30B "tech par…

That one word doesn't translate well across countries. And in the US will come across as misogyny, which will affect how people interpret everything else you said.

That's not a problem as long as people exist outside the US.

Re: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

#77

Post by 323 »

roland35 wrote: post #75
ummonk wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My conspiracy theory is that USDT is actually well backed, but the Tether people intentionally make it look shady so they can buy the dip and arbitrage against panic selling. Some volatility would actually increase their ability to profit.

That's crazy. I'm thinking Hanlon's razor applies here, there is absolutely no evidence that tether is legit.

Where are all the Tether holders complaining that they can't convert it into dollars?

Re: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

#78

Post by neilv »

baeaz wrote: post #76
neilv wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That one word doesn't translate well across countries. And in the US will come across as misogyny, which will affect how people interpret everything else you said.

That's not a problem as long as people exist outside the US.

"Two peoples, divided by a common language."

Re: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

#79

Post by HWR_14 »

PeterisP wrote: post #49
maria2 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like they were ordered to give the plaintiffs the documents, but they weren’t ordered to publicly release them. NYAG also looked into them last year. They were fined but it doesn’t seem like anything else came of it. > The New York Attorney General’s probe into Tether’s reserves concluded in February 2021 with an $18.5 million settlement. I don’t hold any tether, and I wouldn’t recommend it to others. But th…

Well, FTX, as a stable business, should be a money printing machine - but that definitely wasn't an obstacle for its leaders to risk the business and jail time to speculate with customers' funds.

If Tether put all its money into low-yield short term US treasuries, the founders could pay every employee $10MM USD a year and still be paying themselves $1 billion USD a year.

That is a phenomenal amount of risk free income. That's putting the founders somewhere high, probably first 50 names high, on the Forbes 400 list.

That seems foolish to risk to commit crimes.

Re: Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, pleads guilty to seven offences

#80

Post by throw_m239339 »

baeaz wrote: post #70
berkle4455 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Maximum sentence of 110 years.

I have always wondered why "x" and "conspiracy to commit x" are different counts.

> I have always wondered why "x" and "conspiracy to commit x" are different counts.

Conspiracy requires at least 2 people.

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