9 ms·
Seems low for what prosecutors consider "one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history." https://www.reuters.com/technology/sam-bankman-fried-be-sentence
by tithe 3y ago
Seems low for what prosecutors consider "one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history."
https://www.reuters.com/technology/sam-bankman-fried-be-sentenced-multi-billion-dollar-ftx-fraud-2024-03-28/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/sam-bankman-fried-be-sent...
- hluska 3y agoIt puts him in between Madoff and Holmes.
- misiti3780 3y ago25 years is a long time. Not saying he doesn't deserve more but his parents will probably be dead by the time he gets out, and he wont have a family. Also, he was addicted to the internet (supposedly), he wont have access to that either.
- gizajob 3y agoHis parents who are professors of legal ethics? His mother is getting a long-term lesson in the theories of consequentialism that she is a supporter of.
- yellow_postit 3y agoIt seems unlikely he will serve that full time though I don’t know the specific parole eligibility constraints for these charges.
- nemo44x 3y agoYou need to serve 85% of your sentence in federal prison. He will likely appeal for a reduction.
- werewrsdf 3y agoThere is no parole for federal crimes. https://www.justice.gov/doj/organization-mission-and-functions-manual-united-states-parole-commission https://www.justice.gov/doj/organization-mission-and-functio...
- yellow_postit 3y agoDidn’t realize that — thanks!
- SoftTalker 3y agoPossible that some future President would commute his sentence or grant a pardon. But unlikely.
- PokedBear 3y agoIf someone isn't a violent threat to society, there isn't much social benefit to keeping folks locked up longer then 20-ish years. 20-25 (assuming he gets the 15% off for good behavior the feds allow) is plenty.
- shiftpgdn 3y agoI think ruining thousands of lives through fraud without remorse constitutes a threat to society. He should never see the light of day again.
- esotericimpl 3y ago[dead]
- swyx 3y agonot to be too unsympathetic but if those people he defrauded (which yes is a very bad thing) were all crypto degens gambling on things they knew they shouldnt be gambling on, does that change the calculus at all
- COGlory 3y agoNo
- floor2 3y agoWhat lives did he ruin? The USA has an incredibly robust, tightly monitored and regulated financial market. The SEC, FDIC and associated regulators and auditors carefully control bank reserves, prosecute insider trading, prevent and insure against fraud. Some people decided to opt-out of that system and send their money to an unregulated entity in the Bahamas to buy imaginary money without government oversight. Honestly the government shouldn't have intervened here at all. The people who lost money should have been laughed at and told that's why you put your money in the regulated market. If you intentionally try to avoid taxes, anti-money laundering regulations, audits and securities law by buying crypto overseas, then taxpayer resources don't go bail you out.
- chongli 3y agoLow? That's high! He didn't kill anyone. A sentence of 25 years completely destroys his life. He's been made an example of.
- malermeister 3y agoHe's completely destroyed thousands of lives through his actions.
- esotericimpl 3y ago[dead]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- n2d4 3y agoMaybe he didn't kill anyone directly, but I can assure you that plenty of people committed suicide solely as a consequence of his actions
- kosievdmerwe 3y agoOne of the victims at the sentencing mentioned that there were at least 3 suicides.
- floor2 3y agoMaybe don't send your money to an unregulated startup in the Bahamas to gamble on cryptocurrencies if losing that money is going to cause you to commit suicide? The "victims" knew they were intentionally avoiding government oversight of securities law, banking regulators, etc. When they lost money we should have collectively shrugged our shoulders and said that's the risk they chose to take.
- infamouscow 3y agoIs there any limiting principle to your remarkably stupid* rationale where everyone assumes all risk of their decisions implicitly and explicitly? *: yes stupid, not an ad hominem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc
- klodolph 3y ago25 years is a damn long time. I don’t know how that can “seem low”.
- objektif 3y agoHow much Bernie madoff got?
- aeyes 3y ago150 years
- wut42 3y ago150 years.
- arrowsmith 3y ago150 years - of which he served 12 years before dying in prison.
- zarzavat 3y agoHe was already old so he was going to die in prison whatever happened.
- kosievdmerwe 3y agoMadoff spent ~12 years in prison before he died at 82. They gave him a 150 year sentence for a crime on par-ish with SBF's crimes, because at 70 there is little difference between 20 years and 100 years, so you may as well go for the shock value.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- SoftTalker 3y agoPart of it is that he took it to trial. He likely could have negotiated a deal for single-digit years if he had admitted guilt and cooperated.
- coldpie 3y agoI don't know. The appropriateness of the sentence is not something I feel super strongly about one way or the other, but 25 years is objectively a very long time. Think about what a typical person does in their first 25 years. That's long enough for a person to be born, go through early childhood, go through all of their basic schooling, attend college, get a job and work for 5 years, and have a kid of their own. Or, think about a 25 year old person, and put them next to a 50 year old person. Or a 50 year old person next to a 75 year old person. It's just a very long amount of time, no matter how you slice it.
- hammock 3y agoShall I pull up some comps? It’s not going to be pretty
- whywhywhywhy 3y agoShocked he’s going at all, was starting to feel like he’d get away with a slap on the wrist considering his contacts.
- mikeryan 3y agoBest teacher I had in high school taught economics. First day of class his lesson was "If you're going to become a criminal follow these 10 rules". I can't remember all the rules but the two I do: 1. Don't do anything for less than $1M. Risk isn't worth the reward. 2. Don't use a weapon. It adds years to your sentence. It was mostly about how white-collar crime has a much safer risk/reward ratio.
- colechristensen 3y agoHow you commit crime is make it complicated enough that a prosecutor will think twice about their ability to teach a jury about how what you did worked and that any of the steps were even wrong in the first place. This is why so much financial crime goes unpunished.
- AlchemistCamp 3y agoHe was playing fast and loose with clients' money (and ultimately made profitable investments). Elizabeth Holmes played fast and loose with medical testing and people's very lives. She got less than half this sentence.
- gosub100 3y agoI think intent matters. I don't like what he did but I am convinced he didn't think he was doing something deceitful. Whereas Madoff had a guilty conscience and precisely crafted something intended to deceive.
- santoshalper 3y agoSBF is 32 years old. If (and it's a big if) he serves the entire 25 years, he will be 57 when he is free again. They are taking the best years of his life, and one day when he dies, having been imprisoned will be the defining event of his life - not being rich or being a CEO. He may never marry, never have children, and will experience a very different (and far worse) life than most of the population. I have very little sympathy for the man, and I know draconian punishment is fashionable and cathartic, but I personally think this is a very suitable punishment for the very severe crime he committed.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dandanua 3y agoIt seems "the victimless crime" [1] became a normal line of defense when billionaires commit financial fraud. Insanity. [1] https://youtu.be/EDMinX6t1Zk?t=420 https://youtu.be/EDMinX6t1Zk?t=420