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Comment by masterof0 | Hacker News Reader

Knowing how connected the guy is, I'm guessing he'll only serve a few years at most. I sincerely hope I'm mistaken.

Being extraordinarily connected did not help Madoff much: he was sentenced to 150 years in prison and died there last year.

Being extraordinarily connected did help Epstein though: he only spent one month in jail.

Only when the deal flew under the radar. The prosecutors even kept his victims in the dark in order to get away with such a soft deal.

Once Epstein and his crimes were splashed all over the news he was looking at a much worse outcome.

GP was making a dark joke.

The cynic in me says that it really does matter who you defraud. Where Madoff went wrong was ripping off other rich people. So, if SBF defrauded more upper- than middle- or working-class folks, then he's screwed.

This is silly. You think the career DOJ prosecutors are looking at the list of victims and only deciding to prosecute if there is a rich person on the list?

A lot of the things that defraud non-wealthy people (multi-level marketing, all of those "supplements" you can buy in the medicine isle, false advertising) aren't illegal or practical to sue over.

Let's look at one particular example, the stop the steal scam. Thousands of people were tricked in to donating to the ringleaders of an impossible political cause based on false claims, and none of them are going to jail for that in particular. You could find dozens of similar examples just by keeping an eye on the news, but nobody thinks about it because a certain type of con with victims that professionals can't empathize with has become normalized.

Didn’t Bannon et al. get indicted for a very similar scheme for some impossible border wall project? Seems like these things require patience

Or BLM leaders taking millions in donations and using it to buy houses.

You don’t think Sequoia is among those pushing for prosecution?

Eh, it feels like he may have donated a lot, but he wasn't crazy popular. Plus, not like he's had a long track record of donations over many years. I am not sure anyone with much influence will stick their neck out for someone like him

I agree; politicians have a singular goal -- reelection. Supporting SBF at this point can only hurt. They will not be extending him any favors.

What do you expect politicians to do with respect to prosecution by the DOJ? Genuinely curious

How does political corruption work? We would need to visit a party in Washington DC to be able to describe it precisely, but it probably can be summarized as “one hand washes the other.”

Very imaginative, but a little short on evidence.

You think there is no evidence that corruption exists? Or maybe you think it’s just “a few bad apples” problem?

I think you haven’t provided any evidence that politically connected people routinely avoid prosecution.

Yep, once they realize more money won't be coming, past donations aren't worth much in the way of future favors.

And also the money's gone (Probably). It's not like he has tonnes of money hidden away like other rich people on trial, so even if he gets bailed out by being buddies with the right people, it's not like he will make billions in campaign donations again any time soon.

Connections purchased with money only last as long as the money does.

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