Sam Bankman-Fried Launches a Substack | Hacker News Reader

Sam Bankman-Fried Launches a Substack

techcrunch.com

16 pointskuter14 comments

>I believe that, had FTX International been given a few weeks, it could likely have utilized its illiquid assets and equity to raise enough financing to make customers substantially whole.”

I haven't really been following this because I think crypto is one of the dumbest fucking ideas a human being has ever come up with, but isn't the above quote just describing a ponzi scheme without using the word ponzi?

Like, what do the people who cover the losses of the ponzi-schemed customers get, promises of more rounds of fundraising to cover THEIR inevitable future losses?

> ...isn't the above quote just describing a ponzi scheme without using the word ponzi?

It's definitely not a ponzi scheme. It's using money from new investors to pay existing customers vs. using money from new customers to pay existing ones. See? It's totally different! ;)

How does this guy have two parents who are law professors and do things like this? And his various interviews!

No lawyer would tell him that’s a good idea. Just shut up! Maybe he’s still in his rebellious-teenager, parents-are-always-wrong phase?

If on the other hand he knows there’s no way to avoid serious time he should just plead guilty and go for the best deal he can get!

This is so mystifying.

If someone told you you were worth 16 billion dollars so long as your company was successful, and then your hedge fund almost collapsed, you would probably probably be willing to do a lot to save it (such as moving customer money into your failing hedge fund). People who lived through 2008 act like they've never seen behavior like this and to me it doesn't seem that bad

Sure, that’s a fair description of how he probably got started in his criminal behavior. But that’s not the situation he’s in now! He needs to think (or should be thinking) about how to minimize his time in jail.

He’s in serious serious legal jeopardy and he keeps opening his mouth. That’s a very, very bad strategy.

I guess to answer my own question he probably has his head so far up his own … that he can’t imagine why he should take anyone’s advice about anything, including lawyers.

Literally stealing billions of dollars doesn't seem that bad to you? If my almost-worth-16-billion-dollars company was failing, I would do a lot to save it, but that would never, ever include stealing other people's money, nor defrauding anyone, nor lying about anything. Which, of course, is why I'm unlikely to ever have a company worth nearly that much.

What you're really saying is: "If you were a narcissistic compulsive liar who was defrauding thousands of people and your lies began to untangle, you would dig yourself in deeper and deeper with more and more unrealistic lies until the whole thing collapsed. It happens all the time." Yes, that seems to be what happens to compulsive liars, and prison is absolutely appropriate for these people (when it results in this level of damages). The same behavior in 2008 also should have resulted in prison time. It did for one person, and probably should have for a lot more.

He’s a serial liar at this point nothing he says means anything.

This guy is eating his own crap and still spitting it out. Be done, mate.

Hopefully he can find a way to keep it updated from prison.

Apology and pity stack - Bernie and Martha at least took the hit.

https://sambf.substack.com/

This attention seeking behavior is really bizarre. SBF clearly has some sort of personality disorder.

Shamelessness seems to get people ahead in an economy built around scarcity of attention.

My budget spreadsheets are so much more complex than his multi billion business spreadsheets it’s almost unfathomable.

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