Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

761–770 of 886 posts

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#761

Post by soheil »

mistersquid wrote: post #234
soheil wrote: post #130

How does NYT feel about interviewing him literally not more than two weeks ago and trying to frame him as a super smart kid making a dumb mistake?

> How does NYT feel about interviewing him literally not more than two weeks ago and trying to frame him as a super smart kid making a dumb mistake? If you're referring to Andrew Ross Sorkin's interview of SBF, you're misreading the larger editorial framing of that interview. The editorial intent was to get SBF talking and present, in public, evidence of whatever he did or did not do. The motivation of that interview…

As a journalist you ask tough questions and demands answers.

Stop being a NYT apologist.

Sorkin threw softballs at SBF again and again, accepted answers given without an iota of concern about the bold lies spewed back, profusely thanked SBF for being so generous with his time over and over again as if it's the NYT that somehow stole billions and tried to lie and get away with it.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#762

Post by SilverBirch »

hackerlight wrote: post #658
kelnos wrote: post #338

I remember reading here (on a previous article about FTX) a comment that said SBF had friends in the Bahamian government, or something like that, so no way he'd get extradited to the US. I found that... pretty funny... at the time, and seems like I was right. Why would the Bahamian government risk their relations with the US over someone like SBF? Kinda absurd...

The conspiracy theorists and professional cynics have been out in force. The reality of the situation is, SBF is so widely despised by the voting public that an example of him must be made, and any supposed power that SBF had through his political giving and connections was not close to enough.

What is Crypto if it's not a business entirely driven by cynicism and conspiracy. It was literally born from the 2007-8 financial crisis. Everyone is viewing this in the context of no one facing any consequences for that.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#763

Post by boppo1 »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #728
dereg wrote: 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.

If the charges include manipulating the prices of TerraUSD and Luna earlier in the year - that ironically probably caused the FTX implosion, it's hard how to see Caroline Ellison as head of Alameda wasn't heavily involved in major criminal activities. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/07/business/ftx-sbf-crypto-m... Getting one of two culpable people to testify against the other and let them off the hook seems a dreadf…

I suspect she may be leveraging political connections.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#764

Post by boppo1 »

tempsy wrote: post #664
iudqnolq wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But DOJ would have needed someone who had the receipts (who could also explain it all) to be able to act this quickly. Citation needed? I'm not a lawyer, but it seems plausible to me that SBF's public admissions of crimes, plus the full records of his company, are sufficient.

I mean obviously receipts help. and SBF didn’t admit to any intentional wrongdoing publicly. I’m sure he was more truthful in private signal or telegram chats amongst executives

I dunno, this is pretty damning, despite the clickbait graphics.

https://youtu.be/4o_jPzBZSIo

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#765

Post by wmil »

throw_m239339 wrote: post #178
aliljet wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain what makes this so clear?

It's purely my opinion: She was staying completely silent since the moment FTX collapsed while he was spilling the beans everywhere. She obviously cut a deal while he was parading on social media for god knows what reason instead of shutting his mouth. SBF is a complete moron who didn't understand how the party was already over for him, I put it on his upbringing given the kind of ideology his scholar parents preach…

I think the cocktail of designer stimulants he took every day had some effect on it.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#766

Post by SilverBirch »

I see a lot of people saying that they think he'll get off or get a slap on the wrist. But I think that misunderstands what happened here. SBF perpetrated a massive fraud for years. In order to put him in jail prosecutors don't need to prove that. All they need to do is identify a small handful of actions that count as wire fraud and prove those cases. The saying is "Don't break the law while you're breaking the law"- there is simply no way that SBF was competent enough to actually carry all this business on without fucking up enough to incriminate himself, and now every single dollar that he transacted in this last 5 years will be under a fine tooth comb. To say SBF won't face jail isn't to say he's going to get away with his massive fraud, it's to say he'll also get away with every tiny fraud he committed along the way, and there's just no chance that's the case.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#767

Post by vgatherps »

mbreese wrote: post #640
iudqnolq wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But DOJ would have needed someone who had the receipts (who could also explain it all) to be able to act this quickly. Citation needed? I'm not a lawyer, but it seems plausible to me that SBF's public admissions of crimes, plus the full records of his company, are sufficient.

Where would they have gotten the full records? Or been able to know where to look in the records? Forensic accounting takes time (even if the records are as bad as alleged). To me, this suggests someone on the inside helping to build a case. Federal cases can take years to build because they are usually very thorough. Going from collapse of the company to extradition request in the course of weeks seems really fast t…

It appears that many FTX/Alameda employees were in the dark as well and had huge losses. There's probably no shortage of angry employees interested in sending him to jail (and probably ensuring SBF gets blamed and not them). Add SBF bloviating endlessly on the internet and admitting crimes and you have an easy case?

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#768

Post by vgatherps »

tru3_power wrote: post #585
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd take that bet 7 days a week and twice on Sundays. No way Ellison is getting off scot free. I'd expect her to get a huge reduction in her sentence, but would still be shocked if she got no jail time. It has been reported that there was a meeting that included SBF, Ellison and the other high ups at FTX where the decision was deliberately, explicitly made that Alameda would use customer funds to prop itself up. That…

Why were they so obsessed with keeping alameda afloat? Was it because if it died there would be no market maker big enough for FTX to run smoothly?

In addition to the FTT answers,

* FTX's success was helped a lot by the reputation of Sam and Alameda as the best of the best * Alameda bankruptcy proceedings would have unveiled some skeletons, like the unlimited borrowing of user funds (confirmed by court filing recently)

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#769

Post by 3327 »

yabatopia wrote: post #634
dereg wrote: 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…

No post body was provided.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#770

Post by 3327 »

aliljet wrote: post #131
dereg wrote: 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.

Can you explain what makes this so clear?

No post body was provided.
Post reply on HN