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Alright, well, now that that's done - let's go find all those people in the past threads who were saying things like SBF will never be arrested.
by johnfn 4y ago
Alright, well, now that that's done - let's go find all those people in the past threads who were saying things like SBF will never be arrested.
- chinathrow 4y agoNo, look forward and get Binance and the Tether guys.
- from 4y agoWhat did Binance do wrong again? I don’t consider having faulty blockchain analysis software at a time (2018) when most blockchain analysis software wasn’t very good a crime. And the Iranians they supposedly aided all used VPNs and hid the fact that they were Iranian. I think the best the government will get out of Binance is a DPA but that’s just me.
- bb88 4y agoThis seems to be a reasonable article describing the possible Binance prosecution from earlier today. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/12/us-doj-is-split-over-charging-binance-as-crypto-world-falters.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/12/us-doj-is-split-over-chargin... But as a counterpoint, if they couldn't create AML controls for their exchange, they shouldn't have existed -- at least not until they built it.
- wmf 4y agoBinance may "only" be guilty of market manipulation like BitMEX but we'll never know without opening the hood.
- klyrs 4y agoThey haven't been caught red-handed, but their reserve claims are highly suspect[1]. Predictions that Binance is next are pretty credible in my mind, and the DOJ is already looking[2] in that direction. [1] https://mishtalk.com/economics/binances-alleged-crypto-audit-failed-not-even-its-auditor-would-vouch-for-it https://mishtalk.com/economics/binances-alleged-crypto-audit... [2] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/12/doj-divided-over-charging-binance-for-alleged-crypto-crimes-report-says/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/12/doj-divided-over...
- boringg 4y agoAlso given that the big banks haven't been hit hard from this scandal DOJ might go harder at Binance since they probably didnt want to destabilize the economy unnecessarily with pursuing both at the same time (uncertainty around exposure to crypto in the wider market).
- jacquesm 4y agoThey'll be caught shuttling around money from account to account to inflate the apparent amount of reserves on the books by my reading of that Mazar's doc. (to elaborate: Look here, we have 2 billion in this account on Monday, 2 billion on that account on Tuesday and 2 billion over there on Wednesday, so that makes 6 billion total, right?).
- yourapostasy 4y agoDon't know details of Binance, Tether or others. But at this point, it would be prudent to pull all except your in-play trading chips off the table into self-custody no matter what exchange you are using, until this whole kerfluffle is sorted out. I wonder how crypto exchanges can guarantee non-hypothecation of customer funds in a DeFi trustless manner. The methods I've heard about still are tradfi-style centralized mechanisms that can still be subverted, and do not leverage crypto currency's strengths, though I'd sure like to be pointed to any exchange that has really figured this aspect out.
- chewz 4y agoBetter yet arrest everyone who had ever run crypto business of any kind. Release these who can prove innocent...
- lvass 4y agoDon't we all love some bank runs and stupid bagholders losing all their money? Specially if they had some magic beans we dislike. It's good for fiat. /s
- quesera 4y agoWhere "past" is about two hours ago.
- tenpies 4y ago
- fasthands9 4y agoYeah but that was a very shitty prediction. It appears the charges filed were by SDNY which if anything is known for being anti-Trump. Essentially a bunch of democrat appointed attorneys arrested him.
- function_seven 4y agoNot only shitty, but opposite of how you'd expect. When a high-profile donor does a high-profile crime—and when they're certainly not going to be a fundraiser in the future—the recipient of those donations has a lot of motivation to distance themselves from the fraudster, to be harsher in their actions, to respond to pressure and sever any perceived ties.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- giantrobot 4y agoThis is a cogent point. Sometimes people see political donations as a suicide pact and they most definitely are not. A politician's deference to a donor is a function of the probability of future donations from them. If that probably drops to zero their deference drops to zero. A donor is only as good as their next donation. This is true on all sides of the aisle. If SBF hadn't tried to speed run every crypto-scam he might have some political connections left. But he's not just persona non-grata, he's broke. He doesn't have much to offer politicians at this point except testifying against co-conspirators (should there be any).
- MisterMower 4y agoNot surprising, I’m sure they want to run the investigation to ensure they can run damage control and keep the most implicating evidence out of the public eye.
- soheil 4y agoHeh this thread is full of them https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33909017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33909017
- bandyaboot 4y agoThose people: “We shone a light on the corruption and forced their hand”. /s
- anonporridge 4y agoIs this related to the preparedness paradox? /s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preparedness_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preparedness_paradox
- tom_ 4y agoWhat do you think should be done to them once you've found them?
- LarryMullins 4y agoArrested is great progress. Now lets see him convicted and sentenced, and ideally not allowed to suicide his way out of the process.
- EFreethought 4y agoI wouldn't call suicide a winning move.
- LarryMullins 4y agoWinning? No. But I would call it a form of escaping justice.
- colejohnson66 4y agoThat’s moving the goalposts
- LarryMullins 4y agoWhat? Wherever you put your goalpost, my goalpost was always wanting to see this guy convicted and imprisoned. That's the goalpost that actually matters when you're talking about the prosecution of criminals.
- rootusrootus 4y agoSpeedy trial requirements at the federal level are strict, they would not file charges if they weren't pretty much ready to take it to court. I think you'll get your wish sooner than later. Recall that the feds have a nearly perfect conviction rate.
- Barrin92 4y agoWhat I found funny about that kind of attitude is less the conspiratorial mindset but more the weirdly gullible perception of the world of crime. People who are willing to be bribed generally tend to lack integrity and loyalty, so if you ever think that handing a corrupt person money is going to protect you once you turn from an asset into a liability with no leverage, stay out of that world. Which is probably what SBF thought too, which is why he was a really shoddy political operator and white collar fraudster with a very short lifespan.
- jasonhansel 4y agoI remember a lot of people strongly believed that SBF would never get in trouble because he was a Democratic donor, and that this was all part of some vast corruption scandal. It turns out not everything is a conspiracy.
- nightski 4y agoI do find it odd he was arrested the eve before his congressional testimony, something Maxine Waters tried to avoid in the first place.
- toss1 4y agoSaw that in the last few days he said something about not wanting to come to the US because he was 'scared of the paparazzi'. "Prosecutors" also begins with the letter "P, but...
- Udo_Schmitz 4y agoWell…: “SBF was the second-largest Democratic donor during the last election cycle, and he told Fong he gave about the same amount to Republicans. ” https://fortune.com/crypto/2022/11/29/sam-bankman-fried-political-donations-democrats-republicans-dark-money/ https://fortune.com/crypto/2022/11/29/sam-bankman-fried-poli...
- jasonhansel 4y agoThe HN commenters in question were universally saying that he made up the donations to Republicans to cover up his more extensive connections to Democrats.
- transcriptase 4y agoTo their credit there is no evidence to the contrary.
- jasonlotito 4y agoI'm sorry, but pretty sure they are public record.
- postalrat 4y agoWant to save the world? Figure out a way to make be accountable for the stuff they type online.
- Tycho 4y ago
- ransom1538 4y agoI confess. He must be out of (stashed) cash. That is totally insane.
- root_axis 4y ago"they only prosecuted him because they don't want to look guilty for taking his bribes".
- lloydatkinson 4y agoReminds me of the times other HN threads were full of people saying tick tock is perfectly safe and does not send all your data to their servers, hahaha.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sixothree 4y agoI wasn't one of those people, but they definitely had history on their side. Nothing seems to escape prosecution in the eyes of the public like financial crimes.
- cycrutchfield 4y agoBecause convicting somebody of financial crimes requires proving intent, which is time-consuming and really hard to do. It’s not that people who commit financial crimes are able to bribe their way out of conviction, it’s that proving what is in somebody’s head is a difficult challenge.