Living at your parent's house with an ankle bracelet, only out of jail on a $250 million bond is quite a different scenario than being in a Bahamian mansion.
The most baffling part of all of this is that he has never attempted to escape. Surely a Liberian or Somalian warlord or something will protect him in exchange for $1MM / annum and probably provide him a harem and a nice plot of desert.
They might let him waltz off onto a yacht, and sail just far enough to slap some charges for violating his bail terms, though.
SBF is either a criminal genius, or so self-deluded he might be borderline psychotic.
A criminal genius, knowing what they're doing is a crime, would have an exit strategy.
The fact there wasn't an exit strategy tells me that SBF really believed in what he was doing. That he really was the genius everyone has been telling him he was. So the conclusion I'm drawing is this just self-delusion on a grand scale.
I mean, there's really no other explanation for him running his mouth against his lawyers advice, talking about how everyone doesn't understand this will all work out he was about to close another $8B etc. He really believes he's the smartest guy in the room. If only we regular folk could understand him. He's not living in reality.
Usually the worst guys like this do is con their friends/family out of a $100k to start some wild ass venture that "can't go wrong". This guy talked his way into how many billions? I suppose the difference is attributable to how well connected he was.
If so, what a damning indictment on the rich, well connected, cultural elite in and around SBFs world. The right has been pointing out for a while that the cultural elite seem disconnected from reality. We'll, here's some hard evidence that supposition may in fact be correct. Call it an "elite" bubble, where they're so disconnected from reality that whatever they seem to believe works out, so they must all be geniuses. The people setting cultural policy in this country are untethered from any sort of day-to-day reality.
I mean, SBFs mother wrote that piece about not assigning blame when things go wrong. [1] Parents with this kind of thinking raise deluded kids like SBF. And his well connectedness got him the $Bs needed to create this disaster.
If my hypothesis is correct, then this guy is heading towards a huge mental breakdown. He's never been challenged by reality, and frankly won't know what to do with himself once the prosecution gets running and the blows start landing fast and furious. It was only two days ago the judge told him to stop accessing Alameda funds, at which point SBF became "animated". [2] This rich kid is in for a collosal wake up call.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-frieds-mom-wrote...
[2] https://twitter.com/molcranenewman/status/161036343874802073...
edit: edited to point out this is an indictment of the trusted people in and around SBFs world, not "wokes" or "elites" in general.
I also think the system all around him his whole life let his unhealthy behavior go unchecked. This kid needed some tough love. Instead his mom pens essays writing how "the philosophy of personal responsibility has ruined criminal justice and economic policy". [1]
Yeah, when your parents say personal responsibility has no place in economics or justice, of course you're going to double down on line-go-up.
He's been patted on the back his whole life. Now real average Joe's are out a LOT of collective money. Real people being hurt here.
This would never have happened at this scale had any sane adults been in the room. This is an indictment about the kind of people in the world that SBF spent his life living in.
[1] https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/barbara-fried-beyond-blam...
Why does this have to be a left/right thing for you?
There are grifters in all parts of society, and in all cultural groups. And there's no connection between wealth and intelligence, so there will always be a never-ending line of people with money who will fall prey to said grifters.
Political allegiance and cultural beliefs have nothing to do with it.
Ironically, people trying to argue Sam is a product of the "leftism" of his environment are expressing his mum's position on determinism, whilst the utilitarian moral and mathematical arguments Sam quoted to rationalise his enthusiasm for grand gambles is rooted in the exact opposite position...
I'm looking for answers. I agree that con artists come from all walks of life. But this isn't your average greedy person and an average con. That's why we're talking about this.
Normally when dealing with this kind of money there a lot of social checks and balances to prevent someone like this from ever having the ability to do this kind of damage. You just can't put untethered/unhinged people in positions of power. Money may help break down barriers, but you start with knowing who you can trust, and those you've vetted, and those they've vetted.
SBF was clearly vetted. By trusted people. Who were supposed to be wiser.
This isn't one persons failings, it's pretty clear that the people around SBF either encouraged or enabled him or both. They all looked the other way. How did that happen?
So that's the angle I'm interested in here. How in the heck did the kid get this far? Whatever caused this to happen should be identified and contained, lest we get a repeat performance elsewhere.
The only common denominator I see is that there is leftist thinking in and all around SBFs world. He's soaked in it.
His mom wrote an essay saying "the philosophy of personal responsibility has ruined criminal justice and economic policy". [1] This is very leftist thinking. This is one of the core people responsible for helping lay a moral foundation for this kid. Is it any wonder that SBF thinks this is all one big misunderstanding?
There's all the Ivy league connections, not known for being particularly conservative. For example there's this [2]. SBFs dad taught at Stanford.
His mother also started a Democratic super-PAC "Mind the Gap". [3] So clearly this family doesn't just lean left, but they feel it's their duty take their beliefs in the public sphere, to help push a leftist agenda in politics. These are True Believers if you will. I'm certain their circle of friends is also heavily left leaning. No one who starts a left leaning super-PAC has a lot of close right wing friends.
You can say those were just his parents views. But I say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Certainly explained why SBF talked a lot about Effective Altruism and donated politically. He believed in pushing his views on others and wielding that kind of power politically. This isn't your average crime -- I think this kid is seriously deluded, and thought he was changing the world for good. So yeah, his world view, however it leans, is worth examining close up. Because this kid isn't living in reality, and the belief system that put him there, and enabled him to do damage to others, deserves some scrutiny.
This kid was raised by leftists, in and around leftists, and their views have spilled over into his actions. The group of people around SBF created this monster. I'm not putting politics into this, I'm pointing out that he and those around him did. That's what I'm suggesting.
And so it seems to me this group of very left leaning people encouraged and connect SBF to people, thereby enabling him commit crime at this scale. And not one of them raised any red flags? Not one concern? I guess because on the outside he looked like one of them? I can tell you this, the right leaning people I know have been sounding alarms about the crypto space for a good long time.
Again, this isn't your average con. We're talking about massive systemic blind spots in the thinking of those trusted/vetted adults sitting in the room with SBF.
I'm not trying to make this a left/right thing. But there is a lingering smell of leftism all around it. And I do think that's worth bringing up, because I don't want a repeat performance. A lot of real average people got hurt here. This may be one big social experiment to the elites SBF runs with, but it's not to the little people that are losing money. The blind spots in thinking here need to be uncovered and examined up close.
[1] https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/barbara-fried-beyond-blam...
[2] https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/7/13/faculty-survey-...
[3] https://www.influencewatch.org/political-party/mind-the-gap/
You watch too many movies my friend.
She is protected by various Islamic groups in the Somalia/Kenya border region, it is believed and evades determined capture by the rich Anglosphere nations.
A rich western elite just buying protection from Islamic warlords in Africa sounds like a movie plot.
It isn't remotely the same thing as your example of someone who has 20+ years of connections to a religion and community disappearing into its criminal underworld.
Also "without remarkable connections"? The Wikipedia article that you linked says she was literally married to one of the 7/7 bombers and associated with other known terrorists, including one whose family is from Kenya.
Anyways this is more words than I even wanted to write about this.
If Sam was really, really smart, he'd have found his way into their den, so that Xi could use him as populist political treasure. I mean, Sam would be eating dumplings for the rest of his life, but hey, China is a big and interesting place!