SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities • Hacker News Board

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#781

Post by shapefrog » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 11:19 AM UTC

jdhn wrote: post #477

dahdum wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven’t seen any evidence Alameda itself committed any crime, only that they were terrible traders and lost many billions on margin through FTX, who gave them special treatment for collateral. SBF then tried to bail them out with FTX customer funds since he owned both. I think Ellison will get off scot free since she only controlled Alameda, and not entirely. Her crimes are probably minor and worth forgiving for he…

>she only controlled Alameda, and not entirely This is most definitely a hot take.

Ellison joined Alameda Research in March 2018. She became co-CEO along with Sam Trabucco in October 2021. She became the sole CEO of Alameda Research in August 2022 after Trabucco stepped down.

Sam Trabucco - now there is a name you never hear ... yet he was CEO and left 2 months before they went bankrupt ...

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#782

Post by shapefrog » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 11:20 AM UTC

dereg wrote: post #207

glenngillen wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn’t she only CEO for the last couple of months? The previous CEO seems to have completely dodged any scrutiny in all of this.

Caroline and Sam Trabucco were co-CEOs. He too will face the full scrutiny of the DOJ.

Apparently the "citizen journalists" who have been ahead of hte story and breaking it minute by minute are not so worried about him.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#783

Post by shapefrog » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 11:23 AM UTC

notch656a wrote: post #636

alvah wrote: post #627

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an awful take. Holmes' (male) co-founder got a longer sentence than she did, just for a start.

Quoted post unavailable.

Before filing for bankrupcy, she was the Queen of Crypto - "Is Caroline Single - we would have the best Crypto babies". Turned quickly to "she is ugly" when she wasnt a billionaire CEO of the biggest crypto hedge fund in the world.

Crypto men can add speed running traditional finance gold digging to the list of accomplishments.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#784

Post by ratg13 » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 11:25 AM UTC

majani wrote: post #686

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.

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

Regulation will only kill crypto if governments can prevent people from buying drugs with it or using it for ransom payments.

Once you take the utility of a product away it becomes worthless.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#785

Post by shapefrog » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 11:27 AM UTC

wittycardio wrote: post #519

bogomipz wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know her parents would have been colleagues of SEC Chair Gary Gensler when he was still at MIT, that's a large faculty though. Is there evidence that they were more than just colleagues though?

There isn't. Loony conspiracies need to be banned here.

The theory of six degrees of separation states that everything and everyone are no more than six steps away from being introduced to anyone.

That may have been revised down to 3 from 6...

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#786

Post by ratg13 » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 11:29 AM UTC

HPMOR wrote: post #720

iancmceachern wrote: post #715

It's not even as if he was good at it, the scamming. It's like a three stooges, slapstick approach to financial fraud. He went to MIT for God's sake, he could have done something positive and meaningful with his life but instead chose this. So much opportunity cost lost here, we could have built a few bridges and rail lines, done real work with the money he burned.

Money is literally just a number, a fiction. What we must mourn is the expenditure of time of brilliant engineers and people, that wasted their productive years on this foray. However, humans waste tons of time... even the most intelligent among us. I would not say this is a tragedy of great sorts, and for a guy who was working at Jane Street, I don't think SBF would see this as an opportunity cost... it's more like…

This is just a repeat of financial scams that existed a hundred years ago, now it’s just being done with digital money.

Not learning from the mistakes the first time and allowing history to repeat itself for no reason is the tragedy, IMHO

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#787

Post by shapefrog » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 11:32 AM UTC

throwaway2037 wrote: post #707

yabatopia wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

FTX's Board of Directors actually consisted of just one person: the controlling shareholder, Mr. Bankman-Fried

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#788

Post by crmd » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 11:40 AM UTC

scarab92 wrote: post #774

throw_m239339 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 he wanted to portray himself as just a kid who investors recklessly gave money without due diligence, rather than a deliberate fraud.

The ‘I’m baby’ defense. We’ll see if it works here.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#789

Post by fredgrott » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 11:56 AM UTC

Given some of the details such as:

1.No accounting department or compliance staffs at both FTX and Alameda 2.$6billion spent and yet FTX and Alameda combined never made over $2billion in total revenue.

Someone obviously become an informant, probably CE given her 2018 comment about wire fraud.

Just think about this, all the influencers that got paid have to now give that $1billion back as it was proceeds of fraud conveyed. So those who lost money will get 1/8th of their money back eventually.

Re: SBF Arrested by Bahamian Authorities

#790

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 12:28 PM UTC

int0x2e wrote: post #771

TeMPOraL wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like others said, it's not about communication, but trust. If you stack the payoff matrix severely enough, there's nothing the prisoners can strategize, and you can literally keep the prisoners in the same room, and it will still work. Consider the payoff matrix in this example, somewhat analogous to the case we're describing: - Both defect -> both go to prison for life - One defects, one cooperates -> the cooperatin…

This is almost accurate. You can slightly increase your chances if you say "I will defect, but will take care of your family and give you half my income forever. If you also defect, we will both go to prison and you will be worse off", then don't actually defect - which means you both cooperate! It won't always work, but it did work flawlessly in a show called "Split or Steal", which basically made the prisoner's dil…

> It won't always work

That's the kicker though, and it's the lever the dilemma orchestrators (here, the Feds) have to force a result: smooth out any real-life considerations by making the payoff matrix more extreme. If the cost of failure is life in prison, "slightly increase" and "won't always work" isn't gonna cut it - they can practically guarantee the prisoners will make a specific choice.