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> A lot of people are making the assumption that gross incompetence reigned supreme with FTX, and that does seem like the likeliest explanation, but another pot
by shagie 4y ago
> A lot of people are making the assumption that gross incompetence reigned supreme with FTX, and that does seem like the likeliest explanation, but another potential explanation is deeply devious criminal activity.
Former FTX US President Reportedly Quit After ‘Protracted Disagreement’ With Bankman-Fried - https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/04/09/former-ftx-us-president-reportedly-quit-after-protracted-disagreement-with-bankman-fried/ https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/04/09/former-ftx-us-p...
> ...
> According to the report, another employee in the exchange’s legal department was “summarily terminated after expressing concerns about Alameda’s lack of corporate controls, capable leadership and risk management.”
> Alameda wasn’t even clear on what its own positions were, “let alone hedging or accounting for them,” Ray's document reads. A June 2022 portfolio summary, which was supposed to show Alameda’s makeup of crypto positions, was reportedly fabricated after employees were allegedly instructed by an unnamed higher-up to “come up with some numbers? Idk.”
> At one point, according to the report, Bankman-Fried told employees:
> “Alameda is unauditable. I don’t mean this in the sense of ‘a major accounting firm would have reservations about auditing it’; I mean this in the sense of ‘we are only able to ballpark what its balances are, let alone something like a comprehensive transaction history.’ We sometimes find $50m of assets lying around that we lost track of; such is life.”
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I'm not sure "devious" is the right word choice. Criminal activity - yes. I suspect they knew they were criminals to some degree but were grossly incompetent when it came to managing it.
It feels more like a constant stream of lies to support the ongoing fraud rather than devious.
- klibertp 4y ago> We sometimes find $50m of assets lying around that we lost track of; such is life. I want that life. No, seriously, let me find even just $5M laying around, just once. I mean, what do you need to have between your ears to even remotely consider losing, and then finding, 50 millions of someone else's money as normal? Such is life? Where? Other than in government agencies, of course.
- pcthrowaway 4y agoI've found a $100 bill I misplaced before, and to me that represents a higher percentage of my net wealth than $5M would to most billionaires And that might be equivalent to a penny to a significant chunk of the global population that doesn't have more than $2-4 to their name
- bagels 4y ago"such is life" = I refuse to take any action to improve this situation