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It seems Michael Lewis still maintains to this day that SBF's engagement with EA was sincere. Also his parents like to pretend they are do-gooders, advancing go
by bambax 3y ago
It seems Michael Lewis still maintains to this day that SBF's engagement with EA was sincere. Also his parents like to pretend they are do-gooders, advancing good political causes, helping the poor with taxes and whatnot.
But if any of this was true, the three of them could very easily have donated the millions they spent in his defense, and will probably keep on spending for an appeal. Not that it would have made much of a difference.
Yet in this soft family profile in The New Yorker[0] we find this:
> When I asked what his son’s defense would cost, Bankman said, “Substantially everything we have.” But, he added, sounding melancholic, “that’s what money is for.”
Really? Money is for trying to keep fraudsters out of jail? I thought money was for making the world a better place. My bad.
[0] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/02/inside-sam-bankman-frieds-family-bubble https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/02/inside-sam-ban...
- captn3m0 3y agoYou’re discounting the probability of SBF not going to jail and then making the world a better place. What’s the EV on that?
- bambax 3y agoTrue enough. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and all that. Does it work both ways though?
- psunavy03 3y ago> Really? Money is for trying to keep fraudsters out of jail? I thought money was for making the world a better place. My bad. I in no way support or even care about SBF, but back up a second and realize that it's pretty damned callous to expect a parent of means not to at least consider paying for their child's legal defense, barring them like shooting up a school or something.
- bambax 3y agoYou're right, but these two have apparently been spending their whole life with a holier than thou attitude. Conferences about morals are still online with either of them lecturing the world about the right thing do do. Yet when SBF was riding high they were happy to 1/ take his millions for their own enjoyment, 2/ advise him on how to dodge taxes and 3/ help him get around regulations about political donations. And when the whole thing collapsed they entirely supported him going to trial and pleading not guilty, even if it meant throwing under the bus everyone he ever knew or worked with, spending millions for a defense that didn't have anything to stand on (anything!) and wasting everybody's time for a sorry spectacle of greed and lies. They're hypocrites is what I'm trying to say.