6 ms·
I 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 corr
by jasonhansel 4y ago
I 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.
- jimmydorry 4y agoI haven't been able to locate any public record of them. I think you may be confusing the donations that the #2 in charge made to republicans.
- tstrimple 4y agoThis is the problem with a 501(c). There is no public record. The bill which would have made those records public couldn't get passed in the Senate. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/senate-republicans-campaign-finance/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/senate-re...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- _-david-_ 4y agoA guy who quite likely stole billions of dollars can't prove he donated money to Republicans and we should just trust him?
- jasonlotito 4y agoThey are public record.
- nwienert 4y agoThe stats I saw showed far less to R, are there others?
- _-david-_ 4y agoPlease provide them. I haven't seen anything that shows equal donations.
- fineIllregister 4y agoSBF's claim is that the Republican donations were "dark", meaning is funneled through super PACs. These are famously not public record. He states he did this to hide them from the media.
- NhanH 4y agoPublic record showed that he is #2 individual donor to Democrats. He claimed that he also donated a similar amount to Repulicans via "dark channel" or something like that, so no record, let alone public.
- user3939382 4y agoIt’s not that everything’s a conspiracy, it’s that everything is corrupt. Our whole system is from top to bottom. The PR and public statements are almost never the private statements or full story. Even with all the corruption, sometimes the optics are a bridge too far, even for the connected.
- cactusplant7374 4y agoStrongly disagree. I think you can fairly say that about developing countries. I live in one now and it’s almost assumed politicians are on the take. But in the US many people are very principled. I also don’t see why complete transparency would be the goal of the justice department. Sam might think of moving to Dubai if he knows all their moves.
- MisterMower 4y agoLots of folks in the third world and in the US are very principled. They just aren’t holding the levers of power in government. The evidence of widespread corruption in the US government is everywhere if you open your eyes: legislators become vastly more wealthy after getting elected via insider trading, regulators invest in the very companies they oversee, prosecutors selectively prosecute crimes, sweetheart book deals and speaking gigs, positions on boards of think tanks and companies after their “public service” has ended, I could go on. It’s not about transparency, it’s about integrity. All the things I mentioned above are open secrets. The US is a third world country with cell phones.
- Tao3300 4y agoBy definition, the US is a First World country. It basically refers to NATO. The Second World was USSR and Communist states. The Third World was everyone else. > The US is a third world country with cell phones. This makes no sense.
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- PragmaticPulp 4y agoThe new conspiracy is that SBF was arrested to prevent him from spilling the beans on something during his PR tour. It doesn't make any sense, but the conspiracy people are experts at mental gymnastics.
- nwienert 4y agoThere was a lot of cover for him, some of it definitely bought, and there is some level of “not fucked up so bad” that that influence would’ve worked. It’s a conspiracy to think influence doesn’t peddle.
- jasonhansel 4y agoAh yes, because if there's anything we know about SBF, it's that he's trying to tell us the truth.
- dagmx 4y agoLargely I think it’s projection because their guy let off many of his coconspirators. So from that view, it’s easy to think others would do the same.
- ffggvv 4y agowell he has no more money to give, so of course they are happy to arrest him now. they just didnt bother investigating the fraud until after it collapsed for some reason..
- jahewson 4y ago> they just didnt bother investigating the fraud until after it collapsed Nope. The investigation was opened months before FTX collapsed. It’s not like they’re going to announce it in advance! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-21/us-prosecutors-opened-probe-of-ftx-months-before-its-collapse https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-21/us-prosec...
- ffggvv 4y agoyeah i’m sure, they just happened to wait till after the election and after he was out of money, and after it was early enough to prevent people from losing their life savings
- h11h 4y ago"SBF was a major Dem donor, so no investigation" https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1591822387267665921 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1591822387267665921
- EFreethought 4y agoSince Trump is not back on Twitter, it looks like Musk is the new "there's a tweet for everything" guy.
- HyperSane 4y ago"there's a very stupid tweet for everything" guy
- HyperSane 4y agoSince Trump refuses to come back to Twitter Musk has decided to impersonate him. And since SpaceX depends very heavily on the government it seems very foolish for Musk to be getting to political.
- NaturalPhallacy 4y ago
- jasonhansel 4y agoThe good thing about saying that something is "not inconceivable" is that then you don't have to provide any evidence for it.
- h11h 4y agoA few days before that tweet: A person familiar with the matter said that the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were examining FTX to determine whether any criminal activity or securities offenses were committed. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/10/ftx-cryptocurrency-collapse-investigation https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/10/ftx-crypt...
- Tao3300 4y agoFox et al trying to paint this as a Democratic conspiracy is how I know crypto's days are numbered.
- scythe 4y agoHe's only a useful donor if he's super-rich. He might have walked away with a couple million assuming no prosecution, but regardless of what the media/politicians might think, his name is mud on Wall Street. That means he can't bankroll campaigns anymore.