Why did he stay in the bahamas? Was he allowed to travel?
Madoff got 150 years in prison, and i dont see any reason why SBF would get any less.
He lost the locals' money too [1]. They weren't letting him go anywhere.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-12/bahamas-p...
I actually see one: SBF mostly mishandled unregulated magic beans on an unregulated exchange (FTX.com).
The unregulated magic beans on the regulated exchange FTX.US are still there, waiting for withdrawal, according to his tweets.
US customers weren’t even allowed to register on FTX.com, which was outside the US.
Anyway, he still kinda defrauded Sequoia and friends, who didn’t buy magic beans but actual shares of the FTX exchanges (not sure about whether .com, .us or both)! But maybe he still gets less than 150 years..
Even if they only sent magic beans, wire fraud covers any form of property - not just money.
All North and South American countries do. All Caribbean countries too. Even Cuba.
Parts of Africa and Asia look pretty safe. Madagascar is nice this time of year.
0. https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/71600.pdf
People like Ghosan are safe because they flee to countries that won't extradite their own nationals as a matter of long standing policy. They have no problem extraditing troublemakers from other nations, especially under international pressure.
See Vietnam's latest extradition for example [1], which doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US and they aren't even on the best of terms. The only way they could get away in Madagascar is if the authorities there didn't have the resources to capture them - a small promise of USAID from the State department would be enough to put extradition on the table.
[1] https://hanoitimes.vn/vietnam-us-cooperate-to-extradite-amer...
If he had simple fraudulent intent (i.e. personal enrichment at the expense of customers), he would have had a plan. One that included adequate cash socked away in appropriate locations. Something much more well-thought out than "a US-friendly island 2 hrs by plane from SDNY".
People aren’t cartoon villains, and the speculation about “what I’d do if I were Al Capone” or whatever are just silly fantasy.
This is bank fraud, not a heist, also much different than Madoff.
This is the prepper fallacy: stockpiling riches but not allies makes you a target, not safe. Maybe you can get away with it if you’re an incredibly charismatic cult leader but most people are going to be much better off with friends and family than a pile of Krugerrands and guns.
You're going to ask to see a cartel boss and tell him you have $10B in untraceable money, and you need a small army - you're willing to pay 1,000 men - $100,000 for the next 10 years ? They will most probably start to torture you to know where the money is, before you finish these words.
That's a fun mental exercise btw - imagine you have $1B now - let's say illegal money you need to keep. How do you proceed ?
If you committed a billion in fraud, you probably wouldn't be shitposting on Twitter or giving interviews that made a prosecuter's case easier, either.
Guess what, you're smarter than this dude.
Then again, realistically a disappearing act of this magnitude would likely require access to a lot of trusted people to pull it off. Plastic surgery, boat captains, someone to plant false leads, security, etc.
Bahamas will have absolutely not let him get out of their sight. They have so much egg on their face.
I can even see the titles if he left "Did he bribed Bahamas officials to look the other way?" ...
There was talk that he was followed around everywhere in Bahamas by the police.
Like I said, there are ways to keep someone on an island without arresting them. Especially in this case, what was he going to do, sue?
On a boat? Usually not. Most people island hopping in the Caribbean definitely aren't going through any kind of passport controls.
Unless the cops were following him everywhere he went, Bahamas would be one of the easier places to escape.
He answered this question at the beginning of this interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGNiYt1GN_4
"from my perspective, it's not about looking to go home.... this is were I've been running FTX from.... there are still things that need to get done."
FTX had a lot of customers in Hong Kong. So where do you go?