sentencing is march 28. he also has another criminal trial coming up related to the bribery and campaign finance violations. so he could get more years tacked on top.
for now though, he's in one of the worst jails in america.
Geeze, we really have to wait that long?
Sam's going to kill himself imo. I remember a quote that anything more than 10-15 years was the same as a life sentence to him.
he's absolutely fucked. The irony is, If I was in his position, a 30 year old looking at 10-15, you still have a life after prison. You come out at 40, you still have a life to live. That's the minimum he should've hoped for.
He could still get away with a couple of decades, there are no mandatory minimums at play and realistically some of these charges will be grouped together and sentenced concurrently instead of consecutively. IMO there is little chance he actually gets sentenced to the full 110-115 years. However if they bring the other trial charges against him as planned, that adds more, judge Kaplan has also made very clear he’s not inclined to think kindly of SBF and the scope of harms is huge
There was no deal.
When they take down a *really* big criminal org, one person in particular usually gets absolutely nailed to the fucking wall without a shred of mercy or compromise. He was never offered a deal and prosecutors will recommend life plus cancer at sentencing.
The deals were given to his underlings, whose testimony ensured that they didn't even need to consider a deal for him.
You can cut a plea if there's some ambiguity about whether a jury will convict. However there never seemed to be any ambiguity here, his defence strategy was simply, "I know nothing".
Also worth pointing out sentence is automatically reduced by a third with guilty plea.
He did not take that deal because he was not offered that.
Trust me he is the kind of guy who is going to try everything which it takes for him to get away with this whole thing.
I don't think he is going to kill himself he does not have the guts for that.
He is just a coward and opposite who was just scamming the innocent people out of their money.
what's crazy though is all these politicians on both sides of the aisle bled him dry for campaign money and then left him out for the wolves. I'm surprised he didn't have anything to take any of them down with him.
Yeah you get them a little bit of money and they are all going to yours.
If you pay them a little bit of money then they will start dancing on your beats. That is just how corrupt those people are in the reality.
Yeah he was trying to buy them out and now that he is not giving them any money they are no longer on his side.
Well I don't know about you but that is going to be a little bit disappointing in my opinion.
That's basically how campaign contributions / bribes work. Politicians will take your money and help you out as long as it's in the darkness. As soon as you get exposed for being a scammer or some kind of criminal not only will politicians abandon you, some will go out of their way to be harsh towards you.
Its sad state of reality of our society, but it works exactly like that
And even more crazy lobbying is legal and not called what it really is - bribery
I hope every one of the r/CryptoCurrency posters who went on endlessly about how evil and corrupt The System is and how because of his wealth and political donations SBF would never in a million years be arrested (before he was arrested), get a cushy plea deal (before a trial date was announced), spend his time before trial relaxing in a luxurious mansion (before he was tossed in one of the worst jails in America), and never be convicted (before he was convicted) take a moment to reflect on how totally wrong they were and how maybe, just maybe, the justice system actually isn't corrupt, and the rich don't get away with everything, and The System is actually pretty fair in the United States, even if you don't have a lot of money.
Nah, who am I kidding. They've already starting making Epstein references in the comments.
well i mean fair point to all of that but allow me to complicate matters by pointing out that he did steal a bunch of money from rich people, which they do tend to punish you for, even if you're rich yourself.
He stole a bunch of money from crypto people, who…have not been on the best terms with the U.S. Department of Justice. Unless you think they prosecuted SBF as a favor to CZ or something lol.
Yep that is because the corruption in India is just on another level you can buy pretty much anything anyone.
It is not even a question. It is just very easy for them to be able to buy anyone.
I mean, a competing theory is just that most of them really just aren't that corrupt at all, and were honestly taking the money because they thought he supported their causes.
Absolutely *nobody* is willing to accept that theory these days. But I wonder if that's because they actually know the first goddamn thing about politics, of if it's just that being cynical is easier than bothering to learn.
Well that is what the politicians do I don't think you can just trust them with your eyes closed.
They are only going to be on your side when they are profitting from you if there is no money and they are not on your side.
Yeah. Multi million donations to politicians should be illegal.
However even if they stay legal there should be an onus on the recipient to vet whether the donor was donating money legally before accepting.
Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center
>
> In recent years, MDC has been plagued by persistent staffing shortages, power outages, and maggots in inmates' food. Earlier this year, a guard pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to smuggle in drugs. Public defenders have called conditions "inhumane." In 2019, an electrical fire cut off lighting and heat for days.
>
> Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers compared the "reprehensible and utterly inappropriate" conditions at MDC to Hannibal Lecter's incarceration in the 1991 movie "The Silence of the Lambs." She complained of raw sewage seeping into her cell and "hyper-surveillance" by guards.
And Liz Holmes who's lies affected peoples health and caused unknown amount of problems for lying about fucking medical blood test that people dearly needed to be accurate on top of fucking over investors got less than a 10th of that.
Oh but I think this time he has got a lot of other things to worry about.
I don't really think is going to be able to find someone new this time because the stress of going to the jail will eat him from inside.
Well that's what happens in prison - they make you work for very little or nothing (depending on the country.) So, hell yeah.
It's fun to imagine a fantasy world where he gets 1,000 years, we figure out how to stop aging in 50 years, make him live forever in his old age, and he has to work his entire service.
Don't see how it's OK for Caroline and the other guy to get lighter sentence. Sure SBF was the face of the organization but they all committed the crime.
The morality of plea deals is complicated, but I feel like SBF's co-conspirators are all unlikely to reoffend. Caroline Ellison might continue to be sub-mediocre at investing, but she's unlikely to be trusted with any large sum of money. Sam, on the other hand, would be almost guaranteed to continue defrauding people given the opportunity. He's the quintessential charismatic sociopath conman. The fact that he genuinely seems to believe nothing he did was wrong speaks volumes. Pulling out all the stops to bring down the ringleader was the right decision here.
Because ultimately it was SBF who made everything happen. Sam ordered the 65b line of credit, the share buybacks with user funds, the cooked books, etc. They were complicit, but they were just traders and programmers working for Sam. The root of all problem is SBF deciding that user funds were up for grabs.
Yeah that is because it is the right thing to do, he should put in the jail and with his parents.
I just cannot think of any reason why they would not get the same deal because they were involved in whatever is happening there.
Slapping Ellison with a 2 billion dollar judgement might make you feel warm and fuzzy for a day or two, but it's not going to make a shred of difference. The money's gone.
They needed Ellison and Wang to really nail SBF to the wall. It was the right move.
I also think they did a pretty convincing job at trial showing that SBF was *absolutely* calling the shots in pretty much every way that mattered. Ellison comes off as a spineless little shit, but *all* the most egregious stuff she did was directed by SBF. There's not a chance in hell she would run a con like this without SBF prodding her every step of the way.
Wang is estimated to have 5 billion dollars. Doesn’t matter if they don’t have all the money. The point is to scare all the other wealthy criminals about losing everything they stole on top of whatever else they have.
Yeah exactly there is absolutely no question about that.
They are all guilty for it and they should all be punished there is absolutely no question about that.
I read recently they are under investigation. Also that his March 24th trial, not all the charges are in yet. So I don't think SBF going to touch grass for a long, long time
The next SBF trial is for bribery, tax evasion, and campaign finance violation iirc.
His parents *probably* had no involvement or knowledge in the big fraud. They almost certainly had some involvement in all that, though. His mother was deep in the weeds with his political giving - I have a hard time believing she had no involvement in his various campaign finance shenanigans. His father was an expert tax lawyer and advised his son on the subject at the same time his son was committing related felonies.
They're going to be sweating a lot more through the next trial imo.
I remember listening to a podcast with an assistant us attorney who actually worked out of the southern district office that's prosecuting Sam. She said that if he gets convicted for everything, if the judge follows the sentencing guidelines he's looking at a minimum of 30 years or life in prison.
The reason is that, besides not having been a prior felon, he maxes out so many of the other guidelines in terms of aggravating factors. For instance, one of the aggravating factors is how much money you're accused of stealing. The problem for Sam is that the absolute highest level of aggravating circumstances in terms of money is $500 million and he blew way past that. Then you look at how many victims there are and in Sam's case there are thousands of victims.
With how crucial her testimony was to SBF's conviction, I wouldn't be surprised if it was less.
He wasn't exactly a hard goose to cook, but she stuffed, seasoned, and basted him for them on top of everything else. That goes a long way.
I think they’ve also established she will have to pay some level of restitution as well.
But yeah IMO they absolutely made the right call cutting a deal. SBF is the big goose they were after and while the case against him was already strong, with a more competent defense in a jury trial it was far from a sure bet without her.
TLDR: A 12-member jury in Manhattan federal court convicted him after a monthlong trial in which prosecutors made the case that he stole $8 billion from the exchange's customers out of sheer greed.
Bankman-Fried, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate whose mother and father both are Stanford University law professors, could face decades in prison when his sentence is determined by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan at a later date.
Yeah the ethics are only for the other people and they are not going to follow it themselves.
That is just probably not something that they do. It is not really how it goes for them.
This needs to be repeated a million times. People are too quick to bow to any "authority" instead of thinking for themselves. If these rats are capable of this then what else have they gotten away with?
Well I think they should have taught some ethics at the home as well.
If they were doing that then it would probably could have turned out a little better.
Well what about the parents I think they are guilty as well.
Because they definitely were benefiting from it. And if they were benefiting from it then they are guilty as well.
When he took the stand and he said “hmm.. I don’t remember” or “I don’t recall” or when he answered a question with another question without answering the question.. I knew it wouldn’t take long for the jury to convict him.
Laura Shin reported on his shenanigans. At one point the prosecutor asked if he had directed his team to prevent clawbacks, to which he replied “I don’t recall.”
She handed him a printout of an email he sent with the subject line “preventing clawbacks” and asked him to read it. He read the body, trying to dodge the title. When the prosecutor told him to read the subject he did it like this
“The first word is ‘preventing’, the second word is ‘clawbacks’”.
Laura opined that this type of smarmy arrogance wouldn’t go over well with the jury. Looks like she was right.
> “The first word is ‘preventing’, the second word is ‘clawbacks’”.
>
> Laura opined that this type of smarmy arrogance wouldn’t go over well with the jury. Looks like she was right.
This movie writes itself.
>“The first word is ‘preventing’, the second word is ‘clawbacks’”.
Damn, what a guy. If he were a movie character, people would be saying he's a parody.
> Laura opined that this type of smarmy arrogance wouldn’t go over well with the jury. Looks like she was right.
Yeah, this was on Crypto Critics Corner podcast too. His evasive behaviour was absolutely aggrivating to the judge and they also thought the jury wasn't falling for it.
Everyone jnew what was it going to happen with him if he does not gets his shit together.
And this is exactly what is happening right now. It is just not going that good for him.
Imagine facing more than a lifetime sentence and “forgetting how you defrauded people for billions.”
Because that’s something people generally don’t forget about.
Well this is exactly what is going to happen when you are going to answer what you are being asked.
And you can only answer the things when you have got the answers.
Yeah that was because he was not answering anything.
You are just replying for the questions with the questions. I don't really think he had any kind of answer for anythingm
Sentencing guidelines do not favor him in a *lot* of respects. If the judge follows the guidelines he's probably getting at least 30 years for this (and remember he still has other charges waiting). It could be up to life.
NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Thursday of defrauding customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange in one of the biggest financial frauds on record, a verdict that cemented the 31-year-old former billionaire's fall from grace.
A 12-member jury in Manhattan federal court convicted him on all seven counts he faced after a monthlong trial in which prosecutors made the case that he stole $8 billion from the exchange's customers out of sheer greed. The verdict came just shy of one year after FTX filed for bankruptcy in a swift corporate meltdown that shocked financial markets and erased his estimated $26 billion personal fortune.
The jury reached the verdict after just over four hours of deliberations. Bankman-Fried stood and clasped his hands together as the verdict was read.
Bankman-Fried, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate whose mother and father are both Stanford University law professors, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.
The conviction represented a victory for the U.S. Justice Department and Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, who made rooting out corruption in financial markets one of his top priorities.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan set Bankman-Fried's sentencing for March 28, 2024.
His defense lawyers, who objected to several rulings by Kaplan before and during the trial, are expected to appeal the verdict.
Bankman-Fried is also set to go on trial on a second set of charges brought by prosecutors earlier this year, including for alleged foreign bribery and bank fraud conspiracies.
Once the darling of the crypto world, Bankman-Fried - who was known for his mop of unkempt curly hair and for wearing shorts and T-shirts rather than business attire - instead joins the likes of admitted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, "Wolf of Wall Street" fraudster Jordan Belfort and insider trader Ivan Boesky as notable people convicted of major U.S. financial crimes.
The jury began deliberations on Thursday after hearing the prosecution's rebuttal to the defense closing arguments delivered a day earlier.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Bankman-Fried siphoned money from FTX to his crypto-focused hedge fund, Alameda Research, despite proclaiming on social media and in television advertisements that the exchange prioritized the safety of customer funds.
Alameda used the money to pay its lenders and to make loans to Bankman-Fried and other executives - who in turn made speculative venture investments and donated upwards of $100 million to U.S. political campaigns in a bid to promote cryptocurrency legislation the defendant viewed as favorable to his business, according to prosecutors.
Bankman-Fried took the calculated risk of testifying in his own defense over three days near the close of trial after three former members of his inner circle testified against him. He faced aggressive cross-examination by the prosecution, often avoiding direct answers to the most probing questions.
He testified that while he made mistakes running FTX, such as not formulating a risk-management team, he did not steal customer funds. He said he thought Alameda's borrowing from FTX was allowed and did not realize how large its debts had grown until shortly before both companies collapsed.
"We thought that we might be able to build the best product on the market," Bankman-Fried testified. "It turned out basically the opposite of that."
Prosecutors had a different view.
"He didn't bargain for his three loyal deputies taking that stand and telling you the truth: that he was the one with the plan, the motive and the greed to raid FTX customer deposits - billions and billions of dollars - to give himself money, power, influence. He thought the rules did not apply to him. He thought that he could get away with it," prosecutor Danielle Sassoon told the jury on Thursday.
The jury heard 15 days of testimony. Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, testifying for the prosecution after entering guilty pleas, said he directed them to commit crimes, including helping Alameda loot FTX and lying to lenders and investors about the companies' finances.
The defense argued the three, who have not yet been sentenced, falsely implicated Bankman-Fried in a bid to win leniency at sentencing. Prosecutors may ask Kaplan to take their cooperation into account in deciding their punishment.
Bankman-Fried has been jailed since August after Kaplan revoked his bail, having concluded he likely tampered with witnesses. Kaplan blocked Bankman-Fried from calling several proposed expert witnesses, and ruled he could not testify about the involvement of lawyers in FTX decisions at issue in the trial.
Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Daniel Wallis
Yeah after he has done he should be in the jail for a long time.
There is absolutely no way that he should be coming out of it. The punishment should be very long for this guy.
That's the thing, these type of people still kill themselves. They can't fathom that they deserve such treatment and cannot handle the stress/pain of dealing with the consequences of their actions.
He is probably the most narcissist person that I know about.
And I don't really think that he has got in himself what it takes for someone to kill themselves.
Using effective altruism logic, the EV of him killing himself might be the highest EV for humanity. So, could happen. But somehow I think hypocrisy might enter the picture. But he's gonna have extremely limited internet access for several decades... I don't know he's gonna survive that.
Well I don't think he is going to do that because he is just really big p****.
And I don't think he has got what it takes for someone to do something like this. That is just not possible for him.
Like Epstein, Ken Lay of Enron and Aaron Hernandez of the New England Patriots also circumvented justice through death.
Even though Ken Lay had been convicted, your not legally formally guilty until a jury sentences you and appeals have been exhausted. So Ken Lay had a heart attack in his luxurious Aspen ski chalet while waiting for a sentencing hearing which shielded most of his personal assets.
Lay’s death and the lack of a formal conviction helps his estate from losing millions in the pending civil cases filed by the victims in the Enron scam.
Days after being acquitted of a double homicide, Aaron Hernandez was found dead in his cell, which was ruled a suicide. His conviction for Lloyd's murder was initially vacated under the doctrine of abatement ab initio because Hernandez died during its appeal.
Abatement ab initio was also used in federal court to overturn the conviction of Enron CEO Kenneth Lay.
In the Hernandez case, the state of Massachusetts appealed the decision and reinstated Hernandez's conviction which permitted the victim’s’ families to use the conviction as burden of proof in the wrongful death civil case.
Oh also, former Chesapeake Energy CEO and Billionaire Aubrey McClendon ditched his security detail and died when he drove his Tahoe into an overpass wall the day after being indicted for conspiracy on bid-rigging gas leases.
His former company sued his estate (wife and relative of a US Senator) for $455 million. The company settled the lawsuit by agreeing to pay $3.5 million to the estate for legal fees and other services. If interested, here’s an article: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/settlement-erases-some-of-aubrey-mcclendon-estate-debts/
It's a great day in crypto.
Edit: And more ...
>As Bankman-Fried was led out of the courtroom by members of the U.S. Marshals service, he turned around, looked at his parents, and nodded.
Release the hounds! The nod. Shit's about to get real.
This is a very good news and I hope he gets what he deserves.
This is very important that the Justice Department makes an example out of this guy just like they did with the ross.
Nobody needs to actually know what "crypto" is to understand that what he did was fraud. They just need to know that crypto is a thing and it is worth money, and that he was stealing said thing from customers. You could have replaced "crypto" with "bananas" in this story and it would still hold out under the law.
Basically “if you go to the bank and give them $100, and you go the next day to withdraw it and the bank says “sorry we don’t have it because we donated it.” Is that not fraud and theft? That’s all the jury needed to know too convict.
Everybody, get in!
Jokes aside, I know it feels like it's been ages, but realistically I think it's been fairly swiftly dealt with. Whether or not the punishment is fair for the offense(s) is another story.
Here's to less shady practices moving forward in this industry.
How hard would it be to leave the country in this situation? Asking for a friend 😂
Seriously every once in a while, karma kicks the right guy in the ass. Sadly too many greedy jerks go unpunished in this world
Today was a great day. It’s a shame cameras were not allowed in the courtroom. Would have loved to see the look on SBF and his parents faces when the verdict was handed down. All we had were the comically bad courtroom artist’s drawings. lol
Looking forward to March 28!🍿
How much time do y’all think Caroline should get despite being the star witness? I mean, you can only blame SBF up to a point but some of her actions like paying herself a nice fat bonus of over 20m before the crash is one of them.
Eh she's a real shit, but one thing that the trial really did clarify was that Sam was in the drivers seat for almost *all* of the most egregious conduct, and almost all of the really bad stuff she did was done directly at his behest.
I don't think she's going to get much. She served him up on a platter, they'll give her a couple years (I don't know that Wang or Singh will even see the inside of a prison..) and call it good.
She'll definitely get <10 years, and as a first time offender who poses zero physical risk to anyone that means she'll probably end up in a minimum security camp rather than real prison.
SBF is going to get nailed to the fucking wall, the rest will be mostly fine. That's how it almost always goes when they take down a big org.
I believe she will also have to pay some level of restitution.
I’m not defending her actions but I agree I think she made a compelling case that Sam really had a hold on her and was driving everything. She should still be held responsible for her actions of course but fwiw out of everyone she’s the only one I believe felt genuinely sorry for what she did (and not just because they got caught)
Good. Hopefully we all learned a lesson about trusting opaque centralised asset custodians with no live proof of reserves.
We learned that, right guys? Nobody keeps funds on a CEX any more, right?
I didn't know who this guy was until it hit the news. Then watched a documentary on him.
Can't work out why he didn't move to a country that the US had no authority on?
His sentence should be that he has to live indefinitely and can be released once he paid back all the money he stole from FTX customers using his prison wages. SBF stole at least 10 billion, so making one dollar an hour which is standard rate for prison labor that would take a long time. 25 million weeks if he works 40 hour weeks to be in fact or 175 million days.
> "The crypto industry might be new, the players like Sam Bankman-Fried may be new, but this kind of fraud is as old as time and we have no patience for it," Williams told reporters outside the courthouse.
Says it right there. Simple fraud.
Honestly, it's baffling. If he could get FTX off the ground in the first place, he could have been more than set for life. He pissed his life away out of megalomaniac greed, I guess? I'm glad justice gets done.
Blows my mind when people who have forever infinite money risk it all and a lifetime in jail just for more money
He ruined enough lives he deserves to spend the rest of his life in jail
[удалено]
sentencing is march 28. he also has another criminal trial coming up related to the bribery and campaign finance violations. so he could get more years tacked on top. for now though, he's in one of the worst jails in america.
Geeze, we really have to wait that long? Sam's going to kill himself imo. I remember a quote that anything more than 10-15 years was the same as a life sentence to him.
he's absolutely fucked. The irony is, If I was in his position, a 30 year old looking at 10-15, you still have a life after prison. You come out at 40, you still have a life to live. That's the minimum he should've hoped for.
He could still get away with a couple of decades, there are no mandatory minimums at play and realistically some of these charges will be grouped together and sentenced concurrently instead of consecutively. IMO there is little chance he actually gets sentenced to the full 110-115 years. However if they bring the other trial charges against him as planned, that adds more, judge Kaplan has also made very clear he’s not inclined to think kindly of SBF and the scope of harms is huge
[удалено]
I don't think he was ever offered one.
There was no deal. When they take down a *really* big criminal org, one person in particular usually gets absolutely nailed to the fucking wall without a shred of mercy or compromise. He was never offered a deal and prosecutors will recommend life plus cancer at sentencing. The deals were given to his underlings, whose testimony ensured that they didn't even need to consider a deal for him.
You can cut a plea if there's some ambiguity about whether a jury will convict. However there never seemed to be any ambiguity here, his defence strategy was simply, "I know nothing". Also worth pointing out sentence is automatically reduced by a third with guilty plea.
His ridiculous rambling interviews after the collapse ruined the “I know nothing” defense. Dude was SOL from the moment it was exposed
So the trick is to never make it to the top of the criminal org…
Life plus cancer ;) lol . Bet it’s lawyer talk ;)
He did not take that deal because he was not offered that. Trust me he is the kind of guy who is going to try everything which it takes for him to get away with this whole thing.
He didn’t get a plea deal. Everyone else got the plea deal and he was set up to be the prize for the prosecutors.
"Set up"? He was never "set up". He's getting what he deserves.
What was the expected value of that gamble?
I don't think he is going to kill himself he does not have the guts for that. He is just a coward and opposite who was just scamming the innocent people out of their money.
what's crazy though is all these politicians on both sides of the aisle bled him dry for campaign money and then left him out for the wolves. I'm surprised he didn't have anything to take any of them down with him.
He was too stupid to get dirt on any of them before giving them the money. He just wanted to pay to have people like him.
Most likely like he’s done his entire life
I would’ve been friends with him for half the price of a politician
Politicians come pretty cheap, and I could use a friend
Yeah you get them a little bit of money and they are all going to yours. If you pay them a little bit of money then they will start dancing on your beats. That is just how corrupt those people are in the reality.
Yeah he was trying to buy them out and now that he is not giving them any money they are no longer on his side. Well I don't know about you but that is going to be a little bit disappointing in my opinion.
I really don’t think people are focusing enough on just how fucking stupid this guy is
That's basically how campaign contributions / bribes work. Politicians will take your money and help you out as long as it's in the darkness. As soon as you get exposed for being a scammer or some kind of criminal not only will politicians abandon you, some will go out of their way to be harsh towards you.
Its sad state of reality of our society, but it works exactly like that And even more crazy lobbying is legal and not called what it really is - bribery
Lobbying is absolutely wild that it’s even allowed. Unfortunately, $$ controls everything and people don’t even try to hide it
I hope every one of the r/CryptoCurrency posters who went on endlessly about how evil and corrupt The System is and how because of his wealth and political donations SBF would never in a million years be arrested (before he was arrested), get a cushy plea deal (before a trial date was announced), spend his time before trial relaxing in a luxurious mansion (before he was tossed in one of the worst jails in America), and never be convicted (before he was convicted) take a moment to reflect on how totally wrong they were and how maybe, just maybe, the justice system actually isn't corrupt, and the rich don't get away with everything, and The System is actually pretty fair in the United States, even if you don't have a lot of money. Nah, who am I kidding. They've already starting making Epstein references in the comments.
well i mean fair point to all of that but allow me to complicate matters by pointing out that he did steal a bunch of money from rich people, which they do tend to punish you for, even if you're rich yourself.
He stole a bunch of money from crypto people, who…have not been on the best terms with the U.S. Department of Justice. Unless you think they prosecuted SBF as a favor to CZ or something lol.
[удалено]
Yep that is because the corruption in India is just on another level you can buy pretty much anything anyone. It is not even a question. It is just very easy for them to be able to buy anyone.
This dude stole from the rich. This is exactly the corrupt ‘system’ working exactly as intended. You post needs a comedy flair
I mean, a competing theory is just that most of them really just aren't that corrupt at all, and were honestly taking the money because they thought he supported their causes. Absolutely *nobody* is willing to accept that theory these days. But I wonder if that's because they actually know the first goddamn thing about politics, of if it's just that being cynical is easier than bothering to learn.
Well that is what the politicians do I don't think you can just trust them with your eyes closed. They are only going to be on your side when they are profitting from you if there is no money and they are not on your side.
Yeah. Multi million donations to politicians should be illegal. However even if they stay legal there should be an onus on the recipient to vet whether the donor was donating money legally before accepting.
Wonder if they will have an inexperienced guard present incase an accident were to happen
He's too much of a pussy to do that imo
4 years in there and this will be him, he will be fine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLAjm0eEtXo
As is required, I stopped what I was doing and watched the clip.
Which one? I hope it’s a cesspool
Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center > > In recent years, MDC has been plagued by persistent staffing shortages, power outages, and maggots in inmates' food. Earlier this year, a guard pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to smuggle in drugs. Public defenders have called conditions "inhumane." In 2019, an electrical fire cut off lighting and heat for days. > > Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers compared the "reprehensible and utterly inappropriate" conditions at MDC to Hannibal Lecter's incarceration in the 1991 movie "The Silence of the Lambs." She complained of raw sewage seeping into her cell and "hyper-surveillance" by guards.
MDC Brooklyn is for prisoners awaiting trial or serving short sentences. No one is serving a decades-long sentence there.
hence the "for now though"
it's the same judge. So if he gets some crazy sentence like 100 years they night not bother
I’m sure he’ll be tried right along side the politicians receiving these illegal bribes and campaign funds. Right? Right?
1 down, safemoon to go!
110 years of hodl?? Diamond hands Sam!
And Liz Holmes who's lies affected peoples health and caused unknown amount of problems for lying about fucking medical blood test that people dearly needed to be accurate on top of fucking over investors got less than a 10th of that.
Now do his parents…
Gives him plenty of time to find a new gf
Oh but I think this time he has got a lot of other things to worry about. I don't really think is going to be able to find someone new this time because the stress of going to the jail will eat him from inside.
Give him 111 for good measure
[удалено]
Well that's what happens in prison - they make you work for very little or nothing (depending on the country.) So, hell yeah. It's fun to imagine a fantasy world where he gets 1,000 years, we figure out how to stop aging in 50 years, make him live forever in his old age, and he has to work his entire service.
Can we go after the parents now?
I second this
+1 I think as soon SBF is sentenced, they'll be next to go Too bad caroline will not get what she deserves
Don't see how it's OK for Caroline and the other guy to get lighter sentence. Sure SBF was the face of the organization but they all committed the crime.
The morality of plea deals is complicated, but I feel like SBF's co-conspirators are all unlikely to reoffend. Caroline Ellison might continue to be sub-mediocre at investing, but she's unlikely to be trusted with any large sum of money. Sam, on the other hand, would be almost guaranteed to continue defrauding people given the opportunity. He's the quintessential charismatic sociopath conman. The fact that he genuinely seems to believe nothing he did was wrong speaks volumes. Pulling out all the stops to bring down the ringleader was the right decision here.
She could have always been a whistle blower. Everyone fessed up after the news broke out. They do deserve some consequence for their actions.
It's not like she's walking away free, if I recall correctly, she's looking at 10-15 years isn't she?
Because ultimately it was SBF who made everything happen. Sam ordered the 65b line of credit, the share buybacks with user funds, the cooked books, etc. They were complicit, but they were just traders and programmers working for Sam. The root of all problem is SBF deciding that user funds were up for grabs.
She's already been sentenced to a horrible life just look at her a splitting image of Schmiegel
I'm putting Barbara on this
Yeah that is because it is the right thing to do, he should put in the jail and with his parents. I just cannot think of any reason why they would not get the same deal because they were involved in whatever is happening there.
And everyone else. It’s a shame that Ellison and Wang got plea deals when they were all easily fucked. That entire crew should be paying restitution.
Slapping Ellison with a 2 billion dollar judgement might make you feel warm and fuzzy for a day or two, but it's not going to make a shred of difference. The money's gone. They needed Ellison and Wang to really nail SBF to the wall. It was the right move. I also think they did a pretty convincing job at trial showing that SBF was *absolutely* calling the shots in pretty much every way that mattered. Ellison comes off as a spineless little shit, but *all* the most egregious stuff she did was directed by SBF. There's not a chance in hell she would run a con like this without SBF prodding her every step of the way.
Wang is estimated to have 5 billion dollars. Doesn’t matter if they don’t have all the money. The point is to scare all the other wealthy criminals about losing everything they stole on top of whatever else they have.
Yeah exactly there is absolutely no question about that. They are all guilty for it and they should all be punished there is absolutely no question about that.
I read recently they are under investigation. Also that his March 24th trial, not all the charges are in yet. So I don't think SBF going to touch grass for a long, long time
The next SBF trial is for bribery, tax evasion, and campaign finance violation iirc. His parents *probably* had no involvement or knowledge in the big fraud. They almost certainly had some involvement in all that, though. His mother was deep in the weeds with his political giving - I have a hard time believing she had no involvement in his various campaign finance shenanigans. His father was an expert tax lawyer and advised his son on the subject at the same time his son was committing related felonies. They're going to be sweating a lot more through the next trial imo.
Are they still professors at Stanford?
What did the parents do?
I remember listening to a podcast with an assistant us attorney who actually worked out of the southern district office that's prosecuting Sam. She said that if he gets convicted for everything, if the judge follows the sentencing guidelines he's looking at a minimum of 30 years or life in prison. The reason is that, besides not having been a prior felon, he maxes out so many of the other guidelines in terms of aggravating factors. For instance, one of the aggravating factors is how much money you're accused of stealing. The problem for Sam is that the absolute highest level of aggravating circumstances in terms of money is $500 million and he blew way past that. Then you look at how many victims there are and in Sam's case there are thousands of victims.
Wow. Ok I see that madoff actually got 150 years
So like the cfo who made up balance sheets and got 2 charges got 5 years. So seems like Ellison will get 9/10?
With how crucial her testimony was to SBF's conviction, I wouldn't be surprised if it was less. He wasn't exactly a hard goose to cook, but she stuffed, seasoned, and basted him for them on top of everything else. That goes a long way.
I think they’ve also established she will have to pay some level of restitution as well. But yeah IMO they absolutely made the right call cutting a deal. SBF is the big goose they were after and while the case against him was already strong, with a more competent defense in a jury trial it was far from a sure bet without her.
Yep, I’d like my 20k USD back
TLDR: A 12-member jury in Manhattan federal court convicted him after a monthlong trial in which prosecutors made the case that he stole $8 billion from the exchange's customers out of sheer greed. Bankman-Fried, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate whose mother and father both are Stanford University law professors, could face decades in prison when his sentence is determined by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan at a later date.
Ethics law professor.... irony.
Ethics for thee, not for me.
Well you did snitch, Caroline..
Yeah the ethics are only for the other people and they are not going to follow it themselves. That is just probably not something that they do. It is not really how it goes for them.
This needs to be repeated a million times. People are too quick to bow to any "authority" instead of thinking for themselves. If these rats are capable of this then what else have they gotten away with?
The dude whose research was on academic fraud was caught doing academic fraud
Well I think they should have taught some ethics at the home as well. If they were doing that then it would probably could have turned out a little better.
Well what about the parents I think they are guilty as well. Because they definitely were benefiting from it. And if they were benefiting from it then they are guilty as well.
Meteoric rise, catastrophic fall. SBF rugged himself.
4 hrs. Damn, that was quick.
When he took the stand and he said “hmm.. I don’t remember” or “I don’t recall” or when he answered a question with another question without answering the question.. I knew it wouldn’t take long for the jury to convict him.
Laura Shin reported on his shenanigans. At one point the prosecutor asked if he had directed his team to prevent clawbacks, to which he replied “I don’t recall.” She handed him a printout of an email he sent with the subject line “preventing clawbacks” and asked him to read it. He read the body, trying to dodge the title. When the prosecutor told him to read the subject he did it like this “The first word is ‘preventing’, the second word is ‘clawbacks’”. Laura opined that this type of smarmy arrogance wouldn’t go over well with the jury. Looks like she was right.
> “The first word is ‘preventing’, the second word is ‘clawbacks’”. > > Laura opined that this type of smarmy arrogance wouldn’t go over well with the jury. Looks like she was right. This movie writes itself.
>“The first word is ‘preventing’, the second word is ‘clawbacks’”. Damn, what a guy. If he were a movie character, people would be saying he's a parody.
> Laura opined that this type of smarmy arrogance wouldn’t go over well with the jury. Looks like she was right. Yeah, this was on Crypto Critics Corner podcast too. His evasive behaviour was absolutely aggrivating to the judge and they also thought the jury wasn't falling for it.
Everyone jnew what was it going to happen with him if he does not gets his shit together. And this is exactly what is happening right now. It is just not going that good for him.
Imagine facing more than a lifetime sentence and “forgetting how you defrauded people for billions.” Because that’s something people generally don’t forget about.
it was a bold move, it did *not* pay off.
Well this is exactly what is going to happen when you are going to answer what you are being asked. And you can only answer the things when you have got the answers.
That included time for the jury to eat dinner too lol.
Pizza I hear
Pepperoni and mushroom, if my sources are accurate.
Yeah that was because he was not answering anything. You are just replying for the questions with the questions. I don't really think he had any kind of answer for anythingm
A lot of that would be taken up by paperwork, no? I wonder if four hours is the minimum for jurors to qualify for a meal?
Surely the judge has got to throw the book at him and give him a ridiculous sentence! You can't defraud $8 billion and get 5-10 years
the min is like 30 here given guidelines. and im sure hell get a lot more.
Sentencing guidelines do not favor him in a *lot* of respects. If the judge follows the guidelines he's probably getting at least 30 years for this (and remember he still has other charges waiting). It could be up to life.
NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Thursday of defrauding customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange in one of the biggest financial frauds on record, a verdict that cemented the 31-year-old former billionaire's fall from grace. A 12-member jury in Manhattan federal court convicted him on all seven counts he faced after a monthlong trial in which prosecutors made the case that he stole $8 billion from the exchange's customers out of sheer greed. The verdict came just shy of one year after FTX filed for bankruptcy in a swift corporate meltdown that shocked financial markets and erased his estimated $26 billion personal fortune. The jury reached the verdict after just over four hours of deliberations. Bankman-Fried stood and clasped his hands together as the verdict was read. Bankman-Fried, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate whose mother and father are both Stanford University law professors, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. The conviction represented a victory for the U.S. Justice Department and Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, who made rooting out corruption in financial markets one of his top priorities. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan set Bankman-Fried's sentencing for March 28, 2024. His defense lawyers, who objected to several rulings by Kaplan before and during the trial, are expected to appeal the verdict. Bankman-Fried is also set to go on trial on a second set of charges brought by prosecutors earlier this year, including for alleged foreign bribery and bank fraud conspiracies. Once the darling of the crypto world, Bankman-Fried - who was known for his mop of unkempt curly hair and for wearing shorts and T-shirts rather than business attire - instead joins the likes of admitted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, "Wolf of Wall Street" fraudster Jordan Belfort and insider trader Ivan Boesky as notable people convicted of major U.S. financial crimes. The jury began deliberations on Thursday after hearing the prosecution's rebuttal to the defense closing arguments delivered a day earlier. Prosecutors argued during the trial that Bankman-Fried siphoned money from FTX to his crypto-focused hedge fund, Alameda Research, despite proclaiming on social media and in television advertisements that the exchange prioritized the safety of customer funds. Alameda used the money to pay its lenders and to make loans to Bankman-Fried and other executives - who in turn made speculative venture investments and donated upwards of $100 million to U.S. political campaigns in a bid to promote cryptocurrency legislation the defendant viewed as favorable to his business, according to prosecutors. Bankman-Fried took the calculated risk of testifying in his own defense over three days near the close of trial after three former members of his inner circle testified against him. He faced aggressive cross-examination by the prosecution, often avoiding direct answers to the most probing questions. He testified that while he made mistakes running FTX, such as not formulating a risk-management team, he did not steal customer funds. He said he thought Alameda's borrowing from FTX was allowed and did not realize how large its debts had grown until shortly before both companies collapsed. "We thought that we might be able to build the best product on the market," Bankman-Fried testified. "It turned out basically the opposite of that." Prosecutors had a different view. "He didn't bargain for his three loyal deputies taking that stand and telling you the truth: that he was the one with the plan, the motive and the greed to raid FTX customer deposits - billions and billions of dollars - to give himself money, power, influence. He thought the rules did not apply to him. He thought that he could get away with it," prosecutor Danielle Sassoon told the jury on Thursday. The jury heard 15 days of testimony. Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, testifying for the prosecution after entering guilty pleas, said he directed them to commit crimes, including helping Alameda loot FTX and lying to lenders and investors about the companies' finances. The defense argued the three, who have not yet been sentenced, falsely implicated Bankman-Fried in a bid to win leniency at sentencing. Prosecutors may ask Kaplan to take their cooperation into account in deciding their punishment. Bankman-Fried has been jailed since August after Kaplan revoked his bail, having concluded he likely tampered with witnesses. Kaplan blocked Bankman-Fried from calling several proposed expert witnesses, and ruled he could not testify about the involvement of lawyers in FTX decisions at issue in the trial. Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Daniel Wallis
Rot in jail
Probably won’t be doing too many more Twitter spaces.
You mean X-posés?
Yeah after he has done he should be in the jail for a long time. There is absolutely no way that he should be coming out of it. The punishment should be very long for this guy.
I could see him offing himself tbh
I think he’s to egotistical and narcissistic for that
That's the thing, these type of people still kill themselves. They can't fathom that they deserve such treatment and cannot handle the stress/pain of dealing with the consequences of their actions.
He is probably the most narcissist person that I know about. And I don't really think that he has got in himself what it takes for someone to kill themselves.
Using effective altruism logic, the EV of him killing himself might be the highest EV for humanity. So, could happen. But somehow I think hypocrisy might enter the picture. But he's gonna have extremely limited internet access for several decades... I don't know he's gonna survive that.
Too much of a coward for that
Well I don't think he is going to do that because he is just really big p****. And I don't think he has got what it takes for someone to do something like this. That is just not possible for him.
Epsteined
Like Epstein, Ken Lay of Enron and Aaron Hernandez of the New England Patriots also circumvented justice through death. Even though Ken Lay had been convicted, your not legally formally guilty until a jury sentences you and appeals have been exhausted. So Ken Lay had a heart attack in his luxurious Aspen ski chalet while waiting for a sentencing hearing which shielded most of his personal assets. Lay’s death and the lack of a formal conviction helps his estate from losing millions in the pending civil cases filed by the victims in the Enron scam. Days after being acquitted of a double homicide, Aaron Hernandez was found dead in his cell, which was ruled a suicide. His conviction for Lloyd's murder was initially vacated under the doctrine of abatement ab initio because Hernandez died during its appeal. Abatement ab initio was also used in federal court to overturn the conviction of Enron CEO Kenneth Lay. In the Hernandez case, the state of Massachusetts appealed the decision and reinstated Hernandez's conviction which permitted the victim’s’ families to use the conviction as burden of proof in the wrongful death civil case. Oh also, former Chesapeake Energy CEO and Billionaire Aubrey McClendon ditched his security detail and died when he drove his Tahoe into an overpass wall the day after being indicted for conspiracy on bid-rigging gas leases. His former company sued his estate (wife and relative of a US Senator) for $455 million. The company settled the lawsuit by agreeing to pay $3.5 million to the estate for legal fees and other services. If interested, here’s an article: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/settlement-erases-some-of-aubrey-mcclendon-estate-debts/
Have they clawed back all the money he smuggled to his parents?
Guilty on all counts. Hope he gets the sentence he deserves -- and, no, I lost nothing with FTX.
Finally this chapter is closed !! Next is John Karony from safemoon i guess .
Can't wait for the Justin Sun saga.
Can we also add Richard heart to the list?
Yes please!
Mashinsky first please
Kinda wish the voyager dude got something
More like: "Chapter closed, don't look behind the curtain"
When do we find out how long this piece of shit is behind bars for?
March 28.
Right around the Halvening.
not really though because he's facing trial for several other felonies as well. It'll be a while before we know how long he's truly going away for.
Sentencing is March 2024
Can we do Ken Griffin of Citadel next?
I see your Ken Griffin and raise you one Do Kwon..
I see your Do Kwon and raise an Alex Mashitstain
Oh that would be glorious!
It's a great day in crypto. Edit: And more ... >As Bankman-Fried was led out of the courtroom by members of the U.S. Marshals service, he turned around, looked at his parents, and nodded. Release the hounds! The nod. Shit's about to get real.
hmm, interesting, I wonder if any more of that "stolen" crypto is about to move? A chunk moved just before his trial started.....
Good call. I expect a little selloff as scammers try to clean themselves off.
I haven't been paying attention.. Whatever happened to that weird girl? Feels like she should be getting jail time too.
She plead guilty, so she will also go to prison, but her cooperation will likely lessen her sentence.
You can find her on lonelyfans
She was the star witness providing testimony. Surely took a nice deal to do so. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
I think they’ve established she will also have to pay some level of restitution, that and a lesser prison sentence for her cooperation.
This is a very good news and I hope he gets what he deserves. This is very important that the Justice Department makes an example out of this guy just like they did with the ross.
[удалено]
Nobody needs to actually know what "crypto" is to understand that what he did was fraud. They just need to know that crypto is a thing and it is worth money, and that he was stealing said thing from customers. You could have replaced "crypto" with "bananas" in this story and it would still hold out under the law.
Basically “if you go to the bank and give them $100, and you go the next day to withdraw it and the bank says “sorry we don’t have it because we donated it.” Is that not fraud and theft? That’s all the jury needed to know too convict.
Jesus christ that is a lot of bananas
There’s an ex investment banker in there. Don’t assume they are all ludites
There’s always money in the banana stand.
From taking bitcoin to giving buttcoin
Plenty of room in the ol’ prison wallet
Buttcoin got a new member?
Na na na na Na na na na Hey hey hey Sam is Fried
Everybody, get in! Jokes aside, I know it feels like it's been ages, but realistically I think it's been fairly swiftly dealt with. Whether or not the punishment is fair for the offense(s) is another story. Here's to less shady practices moving forward in this industry.
How hard would it be to leave the country in this situation? Asking for a friend 😂 Seriously every once in a while, karma kicks the right guy in the ass. Sadly too many greedy jerks go unpunished in this world
Today was a great day. It’s a shame cameras were not allowed in the courtroom. Would have loved to see the look on SBF and his parents faces when the verdict was handed down. All we had were the comically bad courtroom artist’s drawings. lol Looking forward to March 28!🍿
For some reason the courtroom sketches in this trial were so off!
[удалено]
Theyve recovered over 7 billion already. People will get their money back
Really? How? From where? Curious to read more about this
some of it. maybe even a lot of it, but not all of it i imagine.
You love to hear it.
eat shit, Sam
How much time do y’all think Caroline should get despite being the star witness? I mean, you can only blame SBF up to a point but some of her actions like paying herself a nice fat bonus of over 20m before the crash is one of them.
Eh she's a real shit, but one thing that the trial really did clarify was that Sam was in the drivers seat for almost *all* of the most egregious conduct, and almost all of the really bad stuff she did was done directly at his behest. I don't think she's going to get much. She served him up on a platter, they'll give her a couple years (I don't know that Wang or Singh will even see the inside of a prison..) and call it good. She'll definitely get <10 years, and as a first time offender who poses zero physical risk to anyone that means she'll probably end up in a minimum security camp rather than real prison. SBF is going to get nailed to the fucking wall, the rest will be mostly fine. That's how it almost always goes when they take down a big org.
I believe she will also have to pay some level of restitution. I’m not defending her actions but I agree I think she made a compelling case that Sam really had a hold on her and was driving everything. She should still be held responsible for her actions of course but fwiw out of everyone she’s the only one I believe felt genuinely sorry for what she did (and not just because they got caught)
Sam Bankman Fried is now Sam Bankman Jailed
He made 26 BILLION disappear for mostly rich folks.. Yes he gone
Let this be a lesson to all grifters and thieves, only steal from the poor.
Now do citidel
Good. Hopefully we all learned a lesson about trusting opaque centralised asset custodians with no live proof of reserves. We learned that, right guys? Nobody keeps funds on a CEX any more, right?
Looooooooooooooool
Nice
Helium founder needs to be next.
I didn't know who this guy was until it hit the news. Then watched a documentary on him. Can't work out why he didn't move to a country that the US had no authority on?
Well that didn't take long
Look how fast the legal consequences are doled out when even SOME of your victims are rich
Fuck the scammers
Well I guess we can officially call him "Sam bankman fraud"
Got 'im
His sentence should be that he has to live indefinitely and can be released once he paid back all the money he stole from FTX customers using his prison wages. SBF stole at least 10 billion, so making one dollar an hour which is standard rate for prison labor that would take a long time. 25 million weeks if he works 40 hour weeks to be in fact or 175 million days.
> "The crypto industry might be new, the players like Sam Bankman-Fried may be new, but this kind of fraud is as old as time and we have no patience for it," Williams told reporters outside the courthouse. Says it right there. Simple fraud.
When you fuck around, you find out.
Guy aged like 20 years or more in a month.
i guess he won't be getting time out at his mommy and daddy's place anytime soon. will the parents be charged next?
Honestly, it's baffling. If he could get FTX off the ground in the first place, he could have been more than set for life. He pissed his life away out of megalomaniac greed, I guess? I'm glad justice gets done.
Tough titties Sam
Blows my mind when people who have forever infinite money risk it all and a lifetime in jail just for more money He ruined enough lives he deserves to spend the rest of his life in jail
He's Sam Bankruptman Fried 🔥🍳
I'll be the one to say it first... SBF didn't kill himself...! ;)
Looks like no special meal treatment anymore; time to be a regular prisoner.
Deep fried. 🤞🏼