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Much more surprising if it was
Sam Bankman-Fried might not be a late crypto criminal
Idk about you, Tim, but I’m starting to think this whole business of suspiciously wealthy 20somethings trying to sell us fake Internet nerd money might be a bit dodge.
But EVERYBODY got duped, apparently:
Everyone got duped by Sam Bankman-Fried’s big gamble – the BBC
The problem with Sam Bankman-Fried? We wanted to believe in him – the Guardian
Maybe it’s the same “everybody” who thought vax, mask and lockdowns were a great idea.
But Sam Bankman-Fried doesn’t pass the Steve test. No reasonable man would have looked at his big, ugly, autistic potato face and thought “yeah, I’m gonna trust this flabby little weirdo with my money”. At least Elizabeth Holmes has boobs.
Therefore Sam Bankman-Fried is Not Guilty, because he merely relieved the gullible of their excess wealth, which they were gonna waste on magic beans or Net Zero or something equally foolish.
PT Barnum defence, intit. Free Sam!
Inclined to agree with your last para, Steve. There’s little doubt the lost wealth will now be in better hands than it was.
@BiS
Unfortunately not, he donated hundreds of millions to the Democrats. It is most certainly not in better hands.
@Mohave Greenie
Yes indeed. And his mother set up an organisation to funnel funds to Democrat candidates.
Hell, I bet the big guy got 10% too! 😉
Also, the CEO was donating about the same amount to Republicans. Betting both ways – gotta buy off the Uniparty, see?
Only two things are infinite, the universe and suckers, and I’m not too sure about the universe. ~ ack Bert Einstein
Not the last, he’s way from being the first as well.
As far as I can see the losses incurred by FTX customers were nothing to do with Bitcoin per se. Prior to the collapse of FTX in early November 2022 Bitcoin was trading at c.£17k. In the aftermath of the collapse it dropped to $14k, but by Jan 2023 had regained its losses (and indeed has subsequently risen to $28k today). The losses suffered by FTX customers were because SBF stole their money (which was either in the form of cash or Bitcoin), or allowed others to steal it, and used it for all manner of other purposes, including ‘investments’ in his own digital currency, and spending it on himself and others. The fact his exchange dealt in Bitcoin is irrelevant – it could have been stocks and shares, or a pension fund, or stamps. His crime was not looking after the money and assets entrusted to him. Anyone who bought a bitcoin on the day of the FTX collapse (but not via FTX of course) would today be in significant profit, so you can hardly blame bitcoin for the FTX losses. It was theft, pure and simple.
@Jim
Clear combination of hubris, mendacity and incompetence
From Michael Lewis it is clear that the entire operation was set to fail from the start, virtually no-one knew what they were doing beyond the coding — they had no idea of the implications of what they were designing
Sam did though
And his former girlfriend at Alameda, who has managed to stay out of jail but is clearly complicit too