12 ms·

Living at your parent's house with an ankle bracelet, only out of jail on a $250 million bond is quite a different scenario than being in a Bahamian mansion.

notch656c 4y ago
Dude is staring down the barrel of the rest of his youthful years in jail, meanwhile he lives close enough to a coastline where he could board a yacht and be well into international waters god knows where in an anonymous fishing boat with hundreds of millions in crypto before sunrise. The most baffling part of all of this is that he has never attempted to escape. Surely a Liberian or Somalian warlord or something will protect him in exchange for $1MM / annum and probably provide him a harem and a nice plot of desert.
- vkou 4y ago
  I have doubts that the FBI are just going to let him waltz off onto a yacht and sail into the sunset. They might let him waltz off onto a yacht, and sail just far enough to slap some charges for violating his bail terms, though.
- lordfrito 4y ago
  > The most baffling part of all of this is that he has never attempted to escape. SBF is either a criminal genius, or so self-deluded he might be borderline psychotic. A criminal genius, knowing what they're doing is a crime, would have an exit strategy. The fact there wasn't an exit strategy tells me that SBF really believed in what he was doing. That he really was the genius everyone has been telling him he was. So the conclusion I'm drawing is this just self-delusion on a grand scale. I mean, there's really no other explanation for him running his mouth against his lawyers advice, talking about how everyone doesn't understand this will all work out he was about to close another $8B etc. He really believes he's the smartest guy in the room. If only we regular folk could understand him. He's not living in reality. Usually the worst guys like this do is con their friends/family out of a $100k to start some wild ass venture that "can't go wrong". This guy talked his way into how many billions? I suppose the difference is attributable to how well connected he was. If so, what a damning indictment on the rich, well connected, cultural elite in and around SBFs world. The right has been pointing out for a while that the cultural elite seem disconnected from reality. We'll, here's some hard evidence that supposition may in fact be correct. Call it an "elite" bubble, where they're so disconnected from reality that whatever they seem to believe works out, so they must all be geniuses. The people setting cultural policy in this country are untethered from any sort of day-to-day reality. I mean, SBFs mother wrote that piece about not assigning blame when things go wrong. [1] Parents with this kind of thinking raise deluded kids like SBF. And his well connectedness got him the $Bs needed to create this disaster. If my hypothesis is correct, then this guy is heading towards a huge mental breakdown. He's never been challenged by reality, and frankly won't know what to do with himself once the prosecution gets running and the blows start landing fast and furious. It was only two days ago the judge told him to stop accessing Alameda funds, at which point SBF became "animated". [2] This rich kid is in for a collosal wake up call. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-frieds-mom-wrote-essay-questioning-blame-problems-2022-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-frieds-mom-wrote... [2] https://twitter.com/molcranenewman/status/1610363438748020736 https://twitter.com/molcranenewman/status/161036343874802073... edit: edited to point out this is an indictment of the trusted people in and around SBFs world, not "wokes" or "elites" in general.
  - rib3ye 4y ago
    Don't you think it could be as simple as he's just a gambling addict with an ivy league Rolodex who just fell into this moment in cryto-gambling history?
    - lordfrito 4y ago
      Yes I do think that's exactly what this is. I also think the system all around him his whole life let his unhealthy behavior go unchecked. This kid needed some tough love. Instead his mom pens essays writing how "the philosophy of personal responsibility has ruined criminal justice and economic policy". [1] Yeah, when your parents say personal responsibility has no place in economics or justice, of course you're going to double down on line-go-up. He's been patted on the back his whole life. Now real average Joe's are out a LOT of collective money. Real people being hurt here. This would never have happened at this scale had any sane adults been in the room. This is an indictment about the kind of people in the world that SBF spent his life living in. [1] https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/barbara-fried-beyond-blame-moral-responsibility-philosophy-law/ https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/barbara-fried-beyond-blam...
      - archagon 4y ago
        Did you actually bother to read the article? Or is this just another knee-jerk reaction to a headline?
  - sbarre 4y ago
    > If so, what a damning indictment on the rich, well connected, "woke" cultural elite running this country. The right has been pointing out for a while that the cultural elite seem disconnected from reality. We'll, here's some hard evidence that supposition may in fact be correct. Call it an "elite" bubble, where they're so disconnected from reality that whatever they seem to believe works out, so they must all be geniuses. The people setting cultural policy in this country are untethered from any sort of day-to-day reality. Why does this have to be a left/right thing for you? There are grifters in all parts of society, and in all cultural groups. And there's no connection between wealth and intelligence, so there will always be a never-ending line of people with money who will fall prey to said grifters. Political allegiance and cultural beliefs have nothing to do with it.
- sbarre 4y ago
  > Surely a Liberian or Somalian warlord or something will protect him in exchange for $1MM / annum and probably provide him a harem and a nice plot of desert. You watch too many movies my friend.
  - notch656c 4y ago
    Happened to the "white widow" from England, who was a fairly boring white English girl without remarkable connections. She had far less money and was protected in Somalia. She also is far more wanted as she was an actual terrorist who helped kill people. She is protected by various Islamic groups in the Somalia/Kenya border region, it is believed and evades determined capture by the rich Anglosphere nations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Lewthwaite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Lewthwaite
    - sbarre 4y ago
      Yeah those are two completely different scenarios, don't you think? A rich western elite just buying protection from Islamic warlords in Africa sounds like a movie plot. It isn't remotely the same thing as your example of someone who has 20+ years of connections to a religion and community disappearing into its criminal underworld. Also "without remarkable connections"? The Wikipedia article that you linked says she was literally married to one of the 7/7 bombers and associated with other known terrorists, including one whose family is from Kenya. Anyways this is more words than I even wanted to write about this.
    - c7b 4y ago
      There's even a recent case with far more similarities. Incidentally, also related to a crypto scam, one of the FBI's most wanted criminals is believed to have escaped on a yacht in the Mediterranean and has managed to stay hidden for five years (and counting): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruja_Ignatova https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruja_Ignatova
    - boeingUH60 4y ago
      It’s not surprising that a terrorist sought shelter with people of similar ideology. Will you expect SBF to go squat with religious extremists or warlords in remote locations and constantly on the run from armed -to-the-teeth military personnel? I think American prison might be better..
- jasmer 4y ago
  The CIA will find Sam wherever he goes. Nobody will stand up to the US Government for any amount of money. Only Russia or China could protect him and I don't see why they would. If Sam was really, really smart, he'd have found his way into their den, so that Xi could use him as populist political treasure. I mean, Sam would be eating dumplings for the rest of his life, but hey, China is a big and interesting place!
  - coffeebeqn 4y ago
    He’s not politically valuable to them and he probably scammed thousands of citizens from Russia and China as well so it’s hardly a safe haven.

notch656c 4y ago

Dude is staring down the barrel of the rest of his youthful years in jail, meanwhile he lives close enough to a coastline where he could board a yacht and be well into international waters god knows where in an anonymous fishing boat with hundreds of millions in crypto before sunrise. The most baffling part of all of this is that he has never attempted to escape. Surely a Liberian or Somalian warlord or something will protect him in exchange for $1MM / annum and probably provide him a harem and a nice plot of desert.

vkou 4y ago
I have doubts that the FBI are just going to let him waltz off onto a yacht and sail into the sunset. They might let him waltz off onto a yacht, and sail just far enough to slap some charges for violating his bail terms, though.
lordfrito 4y ago
> The most baffling part of all of this is that he has never attempted to escape. SBF is either a criminal genius, or so self-deluded he might be borderline psychotic. A criminal genius, knowing what they're doing is a crime, would have an exit strategy. The fact there wasn't an exit strategy tells me that SBF really believed in what he was doing. That he really was the genius everyone has been telling him he was. So the conclusion I'm drawing is this just self-delusion on a grand scale. I mean, there's really no other explanation for him running his mouth against his lawyers advice, talking about how everyone doesn't understand this will all work out he was about to close another $8B etc. He really believes he's the smartest guy in the room. If only we regular folk could understand him. He's not living in reality. Usually the worst guys like this do is con their friends/family out of a $100k to start some wild ass venture that "can't go wrong". This guy talked his way into how many billions? I suppose the difference is attributable to how well connected he was. If so, what a damning indictment on the rich, well connected, cultural elite in and around SBFs world. The right has been pointing out for a while that the cultural elite seem disconnected from reality. We'll, here's some hard evidence that supposition may in fact be correct. Call it an "elite" bubble, where they're so disconnected from reality that whatever they seem to believe works out, so they must all be geniuses. The people setting cultural policy in this country are untethered from any sort of day-to-day reality. I mean, SBFs mother wrote that piece about not assigning blame when things go wrong. [1] Parents with this kind of thinking raise deluded kids like SBF. And his well connectedness got him the $Bs needed to create this disaster. If my hypothesis is correct, then this guy is heading towards a huge mental breakdown. He's never been challenged by reality, and frankly won't know what to do with himself once the prosecution gets running and the blows start landing fast and furious. It was only two days ago the judge told him to stop accessing Alameda funds, at which point SBF became "animated". [2] This rich kid is in for a collosal wake up call. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-frieds-mom-wrote-essay-questioning-blame-problems-2022-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-frieds-mom-wrote... [2] https://twitter.com/molcranenewman/status/1610363438748020736 https://twitter.com/molcranenewman/status/161036343874802073... edit: edited to point out this is an indictment of the trusted people in and around SBFs world, not "wokes" or "elites" in general.
- rib3ye 4y ago
  Don't you think it could be as simple as he's just a gambling addict with an ivy league Rolodex who just fell into this moment in cryto-gambling history?
  - lordfrito 4y ago
    Yes I do think that's exactly what this is. I also think the system all around him his whole life let his unhealthy behavior go unchecked. This kid needed some tough love. Instead his mom pens essays writing how "the philosophy of personal responsibility has ruined criminal justice and economic policy". [1] Yeah, when your parents say personal responsibility has no place in economics or justice, of course you're going to double down on line-go-up. He's been patted on the back his whole life. Now real average Joe's are out a LOT of collective money. Real people being hurt here. This would never have happened at this scale had any sane adults been in the room. This is an indictment about the kind of people in the world that SBF spent his life living in. [1] https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/barbara-fried-beyond-blame-moral-responsibility-philosophy-law/ https://www.bostonreview.net/forum/barbara-fried-beyond-blam...
    - archagon 4y ago
      Did you actually bother to read the article? Or is this just another knee-jerk reaction to a headline?
- sbarre 4y ago
  > If so, what a damning indictment on the rich, well connected, "woke" cultural elite running this country. The right has been pointing out for a while that the cultural elite seem disconnected from reality. We'll, here's some hard evidence that supposition may in fact be correct. Call it an "elite" bubble, where they're so disconnected from reality that whatever they seem to believe works out, so they must all be geniuses. The people setting cultural policy in this country are untethered from any sort of day-to-day reality. Why does this have to be a left/right thing for you? There are grifters in all parts of society, and in all cultural groups. And there's no connection between wealth and intelligence, so there will always be a never-ending line of people with money who will fall prey to said grifters. Political allegiance and cultural beliefs have nothing to do with it.
sbarre 4y ago
> Surely a Liberian or Somalian warlord or something will protect him in exchange for $1MM / annum and probably provide him a harem and a nice plot of desert. You watch too many movies my friend.
- notch656c 4y ago
  Happened to the "white widow" from England, who was a fairly boring white English girl without remarkable connections. She had far less money and was protected in Somalia. She also is far more wanted as she was an actual terrorist who helped kill people. She is protected by various Islamic groups in the Somalia/Kenya border region, it is believed and evades determined capture by the rich Anglosphere nations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Lewthwaite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Lewthwaite
  - sbarre 4y ago
    Yeah those are two completely different scenarios, don't you think? A rich western elite just buying protection from Islamic warlords in Africa sounds like a movie plot. It isn't remotely the same thing as your example of someone who has 20+ years of connections to a religion and community disappearing into its criminal underworld. Also "without remarkable connections"? The Wikipedia article that you linked says she was literally married to one of the 7/7 bombers and associated with other known terrorists, including one whose family is from Kenya. Anyways this is more words than I even wanted to write about this.
  - c7b 4y ago
    There's even a recent case with far more similarities. Incidentally, also related to a crypto scam, one of the FBI's most wanted criminals is believed to have escaped on a yacht in the Mediterranean and has managed to stay hidden for five years (and counting): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruja_Ignatova https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruja_Ignatova
  - boeingUH60 4y ago
    It’s not surprising that a terrorist sought shelter with people of similar ideology. Will you expect SBF to go squat with religious extremists or warlords in remote locations and constantly on the run from armed -to-the-teeth military personnel? I think American prison might be better..
jasmer 4y ago
The CIA will find Sam wherever he goes. Nobody will stand up to the US Government for any amount of money. Only Russia or China could protect him and I don't see why they would. If Sam was really, really smart, he'd have found his way into their den, so that Xi could use him as populist political treasure. I mean, Sam would be eating dumplings for the rest of his life, but hey, China is a big and interesting place!
- coffeebeqn 4y ago
  He’s not politically valuable to them and he probably scammed thousands of citizens from Russia and China as well so it’s hardly a safe haven.