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Comment by coffeebeqn | Hacker News Reader

Let’s not treat senior management and owners of a company that has gambled away billions of dollars of customers (and investors) money as kids. They should get jail time from what I’ve read so far.

They were either criminally stupid or did this on purpose. It really wasn’t that complex. This isn’t even close to 2008 complexity since this was all happening within one organization With the same owner SBF.

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"Never attribute to incompetence that which can be adequately explained by greed."

“Never assume malice by that which could be explained by incompetence.”

As a caveat, however, SBF did work at Jane Street and graduated Summa Cum Laude from MIT with a Physics degree, so maybe this quote does not apply.

Nitpick: There is no such thing as Summa Cum Laude at MIT. Rankings and GPAs are not published, so he just graduated with a physics degree, period.

Always gives me pause when I hear people say that someone graduated with honors at MIT, even when it's Tony Stark:

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/87387a75-dde7-44ec-bc87-66f4e20...

Or this guy from Why Him:

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/bbc047f6-7417-4eb3-b4fe-064f75d...

Right, which is exactly why I took that quote--which is overused by HN crowd--and changed it to fit the context. But you went and added it anyway.

I won't assume any malice on your part.

1: “Never attribute to incompetence that which can be adequately explained by greed."

2: “Never assume malice by that which could be explained by incompetence.”

1+2 = 3: “Never attribute malice to that which can be adequately by greed”

Greed can be a form of incompetence - the inability to set goals that are reachable without recklessness or imprudence.

I don't really care whether they're kids of not. I do think it's possible that they step by step ended up in a situation they didn't realize they were getting into. Doesn't mean I think they shouldn't be punished if such a treatment is required.

But again and again, supposedly smart finance folks end up blindsided by retrospectively obvious stuff. There's just too many complicated fabrications on top of one another.

I'm not particularly sanctimonious, I think the average vilain of the day is most of the time just an average person making dumb mistake.

You’re right, and I see where you’re coming from, but the reality is that this can end with a 50 year prison sentence for SBF. That’s what Wasendorf got for swiping a mere $200M (the largest fraud in history prior to this, according to Animats): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33564752

I think that reality hasn’t set in for most people yet. Especially SBF.

Yup, "accidentally criminal" is still criminal.

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