Comment by rossdavidh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rossdavidh | Hacker News Reader

I don't think I've ever read any substantive analysis that thought he was too young to know he was committing fraud. Not saying it never happened, but none of the analysis I've seen is suggesting he shouldn't be tried as an adult.

However, I have seen (and agree with) quite a bit of analysis suggesting that a person in their mid-20's with limited experience in the world of finance should not have been given this much money to work (gamble) with. He didn't just make a lot of money on crypto; he was given a lot of money by VC investors, who should have known better. The emphasis on his youth is, I think, meant to suggest that the investors were not doing their job, which is after all to determine whether a person should be given money to invest, and if so how much. Someone who plays video games during a pitch, unless they are pitching their new video game, should not have been given other people's money.

It’s not that anyone is describing his youth in an effort to render him blameless. They are reinforcing this image of him as aloof and practically just out of college in a way that softens public opinion and could lead to lighter sentencing and post-trial public treatment.

Even describing him as “mid-20s” when he was 27 when he started FTX is a deliberate and slightly misleading word choice that reporters use to buttress the version of the story they think will drive clicks. I don’t think reporters are trying to let him off but I think they’re taking the bait on the version of the story his team thinks lands the softest with the general public.

On top of that, the author’s contrast of his treatment to how actually young people of color are treated by the police, legal system and media is totally valid.

This is the same thing I've seen in commentary of the situation. His youth is only really brought up in the context that he and many of the people he was working with were founding these companies and getting huge investment to make big bets with the prior experience of some junior roles at Jane Street.

This comment is peak HN. What a navel-gazing over-analytic way of looking at it. Throw in words like "substantive" to make it sound really thoughtful. I don't think one needs to read any "substantive analysis" to have this impression of the general coverage of SBF in the media.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com