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SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

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Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#701
post #49

For those saying "what took so long?", this is incredibly quick. It's still quicker than I thought it would be. But it is an open-and-shut case. As soon as you steal custodial assets (meaning customer assets that you'r eholding in trust), it's game over. Additionally, the US claims jurisdiction on pretty much anything that touches the US financial system. It's how the US can exert pressure on, say, European banks (eg…

> I honestly expect him to spend the rest of his life in prison Yeah a lot of people are saying this and citing Madoff for comparison. I guess we'll all wait 2 years and see, but I doubt he's getting this kind of time. How similar can he make his story look to Nick Leeson's? He'll say he just got in over his head, tried to trade his way out of it, used funds he shouldn't have and lost in his gambles. Leeson got 6 1/2…

Nick Leeson was prosecuted in Singapore though, very difficult to compare to that to the US. There's a good chance Nick Leeson would've gotten a harsher sentence was he charged by the Southern District of NY..

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#702

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully not for long. That should be sold off as part of the bankruptcy.

Is it owned by FTX?

If it was purchased with money that was obtained illegally then I don't think it will matter. We'll have to see how the charges pan out.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#703
post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It uses the same tone that SBF uses when characterizing the situation as a complicate mixup instead of what it really is, deliberate fraud using customer funds to increase leverage. If you want to compare tone, you can look up any NYT article on FB https://www.nytimes.com/topic/company/facebook-inc . If you want something specific to compare, just take a look at the headline/subtitle which about as far as most people…

> It uses the same tone that SBF uses when characterizing the situation as a complicate mixup instead of what it really is, deliberate fraud using customer funds to increase leverage. That's because describing it as "deliberate fraud" would require evidence of intent that they don't have. I agree that it's likely the case, but I wouldn't expect a journalist to state it as fact at this point.

Listen, people want their opinions validated. Mix that with a weak understanding of libel laws and certain people with potentially libelous opinions will feel like their voice isn’t heard in mainstream media.

It’s kind of how we got one of our recent presidents…

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#704
post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO what would determine whether or not he was extradited from one of those countries is not various treaties but how much cash he brought with him.

I think this is the best argument that SBF didn't intend to commit fraud, so much as fraudulent activity with the expectation that it'd all work out somehow. If the exchange contagion was quelled (partially by his actions backstopping other liquidity crises), and cryptocurrencies went generally up, and FTT was strengthened by FTX's appearance of strength, then all of these problems would have gone away. If he had sim…

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Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#706

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not the right-leaning newspapers? News flash (no pun intended): they’re all the same.

The right has been villainized for a very long time and for good reason. Left-leaning people discovering that their side is just as bad and untrustworthy when given enough power is, I believe, the reason people are pointing it out. The left were supposed to be the good guys. You don't begrudge the scorpion for stinging as much as the frog that promised would lead you to a more fair and just land, only to carry you to…

The left (or at least the fairly broad swath I'm acquainted with) has been mostly hostile to crypto and skeptical of "effective altruism" for years. I don't know anybody on the left who would have identified SBF as "one of the good guys" before this all came out; "yet another tech bro who thinks he knows how to save the world" is more like it.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#707
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe they don't need a cooprerating witness or special deals. Apparently the companies were really badly run, with lots of clear-cut violations, making it very easy to file charges. From The Verge article about the arrest of Bankman-Fried ( https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/12/23506483/sam-bankman-fri... ) : John J. Ray III, who has taken over for Bankman-Fried as CEO of FTX and whose credentials include supervising…

John J. Ray III is a star. The board did right to hire him for the clean-up. I am sure he is cooperating closely with US and Bahamian authorities for criminal evidence gathering. And, he is being paid ~2.6M USD annualised (1,300 USD per hour, 2,000+ hours per year). Seems cheap to clean-up that mess. It might take 5-10 years for full clean-up and wind-down. As the mess is so extensive, I wonder if some board members will also be under investigation. While board member normally have liability insurance, it won't help if crimes were committed.

Source on pay: FT.com -> https://www.ft.com/content/5d826ca9-389e-41ec-a38b-da43211da...

    FTX disclosed in court papers that Ray was billing his time at $1,300 an hour and had been paid a $200k retainer fee.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#708

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.

Why is Binance bad?

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#709

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.

Why is Binance bad?

They’re criminals. A rogue financial institution not regulated in any country. Don’t do proper KYC/AML.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#710
post #686

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.

It actually might be regulation that kills crypto because once you take out the high risk, you take out the high reward as well, and people are only in crypto for the high rewards

Well, unauthorized/illegal transactions will still be done using crypto, preferably one of the better designed ones like monero.
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