7 ms·

I bet the recipients of his campaign donations are disappointed at this released-right-before-a-holiday news.

atlasunshrugged 3y ago
Yeah, I wouldn't consider myself much of a conspiracy person but this does not sit right. Even if there wasn't overt pressure to drop the cases the folks involved probably realized that in the course of litigating the case they would make a lot of important people angry (or at least irritable over being painted in a likely less than flattering light).
wongarsu 3y ago
They will be positively distraught that the charges for campaign finance violations and conspiracy to commit bribery won't come to trial. Sadly that trial just wasn't in the public interest.
keiferski 3y ago
I do find it odd that almost all of the negative coverage of crypto, SBF, FTX, etc. has avoided his political donations. Unless I'm misunderstanding what happened here (and please correct me if I'm wrong), but it very much seems like FTX stole money from regular people to use for lobbying and influencing elections. I can't think of anything more anti-democratic than that.
- ethanbond 3y ago
  Yeah it's just reliably the top 1 or 2 comments on anything related to SBF as well as being discussed in no fewer than 10 articles in a small publication called the New York Times.
  - keiferski 3y ago
    It's not so much that it's avoided entirely, just that the narrative has been about the corruption of the crypto industry and SBF himself and not what the money was used for and what that indicates about the political system as a whole.
    - kemotep 3y ago
      Campaign finance reform is a popular issue with voters, not so much policymakers. Same as voting and election reform. What it says is that industries can perform regulatory capture by funding the right people in office. Crypto just doesn’t have the same clout at oil and gas and other groups.
    - ethanbond 3y ago
      Yeah, I get that it can feel "off," but practically I'd actually much prefer that we focus the money theft conversation on money theft and the campaign reform conversation on campaign reform. I.e. the fraud isn't made worse by the fact it was turned into donations and, likewise, campaign donations of that sort aren't less troublesome when they're made with legitimately-earned money.
      - keiferski 3y ago
        I.e. the fraud isn't made worse by the fact it was turned into donations Not sure how that's true. If he scammed a bunch of people to buy a boat, that's one thing. If he scammed people and then directly influenced a very close election, that seems a little worse?
        ethanbond 3y ago
        I don't think it makes the scam worse. For example, imagine this was the test case that people wanted to push on campaign finance reform. Politicians finally give in and say "yeah you know you're right, this was really wrong. From now on, funding campaigns via dark money channels with stolen money is punishable by death." Is campaign finance fixed? Did we make any meaningful progress on any actually meaningful problem?
        keiferski 3y ago
        Fixing campaign finance is a separate issue from the particular scenario that played out. I don't see how that's controversial or confusing. As I said, this seems like a particularly relevant and influential example, considering that it affected a close election.
  - ethagknight 3y ago
    NYT ran stories making him out to being a victim, how his family was "caught on the middle," how FTX was simply a success story turned to bad luck. NYT effectively lead blocking PR
    - ethanbond 3y ago
      Can you produce links to and specific passages from the NYT articles that make him out to be a victim?
      - anonymousab 3y ago
        Here's a breakdown of one of them: https://gizmodo.com/nytimes-bizarre-softball-article-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-1849783646 https://gizmodo.com/nytimes-bizarre-softball-article-ftx-sam... It would be more accurate to say that the NYT has been far too eager to positively misrepresent and run interference for crypto in general, so of course the face of crypto got his fair share of that for a couple of years.
        ethanbond 3y ago
        This reads to me like run of the mill softball reporting on white collar crime. I don't get the impression that's what GP was alleging, but if it is, then yep, agreed. If Madoff were stupid enough to take a NYTimes interview shortly after implosion, I don't think it'd look much different. (Edit: Actually, quite a bit more glowing, and not even an interview: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/nyregion/13madoff.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/nyregion/13madoff.html)
  - vkou 3y ago
    Yeah, and it's not like his crimes were stealing money, with where the money went being largely incidental to the theft.
- anonymoushn 3y ago
  Don't worry, some of the politicians who received money stolen from regular people have verbally committed to donating the same amount of money to their own nonprofits.
grumpyprole 3y ago
He donated to both sides, the objective seems to have been to influence crypto policy and regulation.
- ethagknight 3y ago
  Technically true, but effectively irrelevant
  - baobabKoodaa 3y ago
    How is that irrelevant? Usually when someone is caught bribing politicians with billions of dollars of stolen money, it's considered kind of relevant where that money went?
    - ethagknight 3y ago
      Bribes to Democratic Party and related entities vastly outweighed those to republican. https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1741188908694864126?s=46&t=FFcsWGWkPLBEbH-7-wmiaQ https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1741188908694864126?s=46...
      - baobabKoodaa 3y ago
        Can you specify what exactly it is that you think is "irrelevant"? Because it sounds to me like you are contradicting yourself. First you say it's irrelevant where the money went, now you sound like it's relevant after all?
- runeofdoom 3y ago
  I'm fairly confident all of Bankman-Fraud's donations went to the wealthy and well-connected.
- somenameforme 3y ago
  The majority of his publicly known 'donations' went to the 'Protect Our Future PAC' [1] which is about "pandemic preparedness and planning." [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_Our_Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_Our_Future

Yeah, I wouldn't consider myself much of a conspiracy person but this does not sit right. Even if there wasn't overt pressure to drop the cases the folks involved probably realized that in the course of litigating the case they would make a lot of important people angry (or at least irritable over being painted in a likely less than flattering light).

wongarsu 3y ago

They will be positively distraught that the charges for campaign finance violations and conspiracy to commit bribery won't come to trial. Sadly that trial just wasn't in the public interest.

keiferski 3y ago

I do find it odd that almost all of the negative coverage of crypto, SBF, FTX, etc. has avoided his political donations. Unless I'm misunderstanding what happened here (and please correct me if I'm wrong), but it very much seems like FTX stole money from regular people to use for lobbying and influencing elections. I can't think of anything more anti-democratic than that.

ethanbond 3y ago
Yeah it's just reliably the top 1 or 2 comments on anything related to SBF as well as being discussed in no fewer than 10 articles in a small publication called the New York Times.
- keiferski 3y ago
  It's not so much that it's avoided entirely, just that the narrative has been about the corruption of the crypto industry and SBF himself and not what the money was used for and what that indicates about the political system as a whole.
  - kemotep 3y ago
    Campaign finance reform is a popular issue with voters, not so much policymakers. Same as voting and election reform. What it says is that industries can perform regulatory capture by funding the right people in office. Crypto just doesn’t have the same clout at oil and gas and other groups.
  - ethanbond 3y ago
    Yeah, I get that it can feel "off," but practically I'd actually much prefer that we focus the money theft conversation on money theft and the campaign reform conversation on campaign reform. I.e. the fraud isn't made worse by the fact it was turned into donations and, likewise, campaign donations of that sort aren't less troublesome when they're made with legitimately-earned money.
    - keiferski 3y ago
      I.e. the fraud isn't made worse by the fact it was turned into donations Not sure how that's true. If he scammed a bunch of people to buy a boat, that's one thing. If he scammed people and then directly influenced a very close election, that seems a little worse?
      - ethanbond 3y ago
        I don't think it makes the scam worse. For example, imagine this was the test case that people wanted to push on campaign finance reform. Politicians finally give in and say "yeah you know you're right, this was really wrong. From now on, funding campaigns via dark money channels with stolen money is punishable by death." Is campaign finance fixed? Did we make any meaningful progress on any actually meaningful problem?
        keiferski 3y ago
        Fixing campaign finance is a separate issue from the particular scenario that played out. I don't see how that's controversial or confusing. As I said, this seems like a particularly relevant and influential example, considering that it affected a close election.
- ethagknight 3y ago
  NYT ran stories making him out to being a victim, how his family was "caught on the middle," how FTX was simply a success story turned to bad luck. NYT effectively lead blocking PR
  - ethanbond 3y ago
    Can you produce links to and specific passages from the NYT articles that make him out to be a victim?
    - anonymousab 3y ago
      Here's a breakdown of one of them: https://gizmodo.com/nytimes-bizarre-softball-article-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-1849783646 https://gizmodo.com/nytimes-bizarre-softball-article-ftx-sam... It would be more accurate to say that the NYT has been far too eager to positively misrepresent and run interference for crypto in general, so of course the face of crypto got his fair share of that for a couple of years.
      - ethanbond 3y ago
        This reads to me like run of the mill softball reporting on white collar crime. I don't get the impression that's what GP was alleging, but if it is, then yep, agreed. If Madoff were stupid enough to take a NYTimes interview shortly after implosion, I don't think it'd look much different. (Edit: Actually, quite a bit more glowing, and not even an interview: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/nyregion/13madoff.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/nyregion/13madoff.html)
- vkou 3y ago
  Yeah, and it's not like his crimes were stealing money, with where the money went being largely incidental to the theft.
anonymoushn 3y ago
Don't worry, some of the politicians who received money stolen from regular people have verbally committed to donating the same amount of money to their own nonprofits.

grumpyprole 3y ago

He donated to both sides, the objective seems to have been to influence crypto policy and regulation.

ethagknight 3y ago
Technically true, but effectively irrelevant
- baobabKoodaa 3y ago
  How is that irrelevant? Usually when someone is caught bribing politicians with billions of dollars of stolen money, it's considered kind of relevant where that money went?
  - ethagknight 3y ago
    Bribes to Democratic Party and related entities vastly outweighed those to republican. https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1741188908694864126?s=46&t=FFcsWGWkPLBEbH-7-wmiaQ https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1741188908694864126?s=46...
    - baobabKoodaa 3y ago
      Can you specify what exactly it is that you think is "irrelevant"? Because it sounds to me like you are contradicting yourself. First you say it's irrelevant where the money went, now you sound like it's relevant after all?
runeofdoom 3y ago
I'm fairly confident all of Bankman-Fraud's donations went to the wealthy and well-connected.
somenameforme 3y ago
The majority of his publicly known 'donations' went to the 'Protect Our Future PAC' [1] which is about "pandemic preparedness and planning." [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_Our_Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_Our_Future