My Very Important Take on Sam Bankman-Fried's Conviction
It's, like, really, really important.
James Fanelli and Corinne Ramey, “Sam Bankman-Fried Is Convicted of Fraud in FTX Collapse,” Wall Street Journal, November 2, 2023, 9:03 PM:
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers of the doomed crypto exchange, in what prosecutors called one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history….
For federal prosecutors, the verdict was an expected victory after putting forward what many observers saw as a powerful case that included 18 witnesses….
His closest former allies took the stand as government witnesses and testified that Bankman-Fried directed them to commit crimes, including secretly changing FTX’s code to allow Alameda to borrow virtually unlimited amounts from the exchange. Caroline Ellison, the government’s star witness and Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, told jurors that while she was the chief executive of Alameda, he instructed her to doctor balance sheets to fool the hedge fund’s lenders. The lying and stealing left her in “a constant state of dread,” she said….
Under cross-examination, Bankman-Fried floundered as a prosecutor contrasted his many public statements with his private ones in an attempt to show he was a liar. Bankman-Fried gave evasive answers and said he had little recollection of past comments prosecutors cited. During closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos told jurors that Bankman-Fried said he didn’t recall at least 140 times. “He approached every question like up was down and down was up,” Roos said.
The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World, at 9:04 PM:
Here’s a transcript:
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!
Because, I mean, come on. That it took the jury less than four hours to decide that Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was guilty on all seven counts suggests just how much of a slam dunk this case was — and how effectively the prosecution tried their case. One wonders what the jury deliberations looked like:
FOREMAN: So, let’s start with a straw poll.
OTHER JURORS [IN UNISON]: Guilty!
FOREMAN: Okay then! Should we at least order dinner and get one free meal before convicting this clown?
The staff has been following this case since before last year’s bankruptcy filing, which won a much-coveted 2022 Albie. After reading a fair amount of coverage from the trial — and, more importantly, SBF’s pre-trial idiocies — it was clear that this was a simple fraud case and that SBF was the fraudster. The smoking-gun evidence left the entire courtroom wafting in sulfur.
I have no wish to see Bankman-Fried suffer needlessly. But given the eroding faith in U.S, institutions it is gratifying that the criminal justice system worked effectively and efficiently in this case.
But not just this case!
California State Bar Court judge preliminarily found Trump attorney John Eastman “culpable” in the 11-count trial on moral and legal violations for allegedly conspiring to invalidate the 2020 presidential election.
Judge Yvette Roland after 32 days of testimony said she “makes a preliminary finding of culpability, and we’ll move forward with not only rebuttal testimony but aggravation.”
When I wrote earlier this week that Donald Trump faced a wide variance of possible outcomes in 2024, it was in no small part because his legal peril seems on par with SBF. Trump cannot feel comfortable seeing former billionaires receiving guilty verdicts.
I’m a fan of “the system worked” narratives, and in this case it really does seem like the system worked pretty damn well.
Further proof, as if more were needed, that people aren't as smart as they think they are.
SBF really and truly thought he could snow the prosecution and the jury playing the same high-falutin,' empty-of-content, word games that went over so well with the media and investors.
I continue to not understand why more people are not saying that the crypto industry is a Ponzi Scheme masquerading as a Ponzi scheme. There is nothing there except the chance to buy something and sell it for a higher price. As far as i can tell that is the entire story. There is no actual underlying value. Their only argument is that “the government currencies are no better.”