FTX's crypto villain Sam Bankman-Fried admits 'I made a lot of mistakes' The former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman Fried (SBF), has defied the advice of his lawyers and given an interview in which he admitted "I made a lot of mistakes" that led to the collapse of his company and left investors with little prospect of recovering billions of dollars. Speaking at the New York Times' …
FTX billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried funneled dark money to Republicans.
Quite the bet hedger. Looking at how a lot of the media has been portraying him, we're probably about to see how much a get out of jail free card costs: $235m to Republican candidates, $755m to Democrat candidates and $38.8m to interest groups. That's probably enough to buy both freedom and going back into the industry after some time in the quiet corner.
It really depends on how powerful the people who have lost money are. I'm concerned that he and those involved and those who were aware of all of this will walk away with little or no ramifications. I'm also cocnerned that, Sam Bankman Fried at least, will get Epstein'd. Neither is palatable.
Bugger, you're absolutely right. I read the 'nearly a billion' part (which refers to all donations, not just his) and got my units mixed up. I wonder if this means the get out of jail cards are 1000x cheaper or if he hasn't paid a sufficient amount.
Not just Republicans, but the Democrats as well.
The take from this is not to go tribal, but to look at the fact that he was buying your politicians. *That* is the issue here.
Perhaps follow the money and hold all of them to account, ask uncomfortable questions and drive the obviously corrupt officials - no matter the party - out of office.
I agree with the general sentiment; have a vote.
What I think is missing is where to point the finger. The starting point is to get the unlimited corporate funding out of American politics.
The funding issue (barriers to effective participation) is far from new in American politics. Initially it was a handful of oligarchs - basically landowners - controlling the wheels. Somewhat like the house of lords. Voters needed to own land. In some ways that was a good thing as people in large numbers can be idiots.
Politicians have evolved into showpieces over time, owing their re-election to campaign donations and showmanship/demagoguery. Term limits in some ways just exacerbates the problem.
Prior to the court decision that corporations are the same as living people except immortal and with limitless secret funds to influence politics is just the most recent phase in political corruption in American politics. Prior to that, it was understood that it was neither solely the politicians nor the corporations completely in control, but also the political operatives in backrooms that were never voted for that held much of the power. With the political precedent that is typically referred to as "citizens united" the balance of power has been dramatically shifted to corporations.
So yes, there are problems. Showboat and greedy politicians are one of the problems, but not all of it. As P. J. O'Rourke pointed out in his book: "Parliament of Whores", if our politicians are all whores, we the people are the whoremongers. And we are increasingly ill-informed whoremongers as we have moved into the new fact-free reality.
The biggest issues I see in American politics today are corporate funding and click-bait driven popularity contests that increasingly look like the most sordid of reality TV shows.
Ironic that the link that the Guardian created gives the impression that it was the Republicans that recieved the money when what actually happened was the opposite.
Here s the text fom the article
Quote :
But Bankman-Fried’s public donations went largely to Democrats. The FTX founder gave more than $990,000 to candidates in the last election cycle, according to OpenSecrets, and another $38.8m to outside groups. Only about $235,000 of his public political giving went toward Republican candidates.
Most people don't read past the headlines. He could have only given $1 to the GOP but they'd still spin it as a huge donation.
The likely truth is FTX was a huge money laundering operation and the extent of his democrat donations had already come out before the midterms. This is just a desperate attempts to shift some focus away from 'the good party'.
So BIG text is 'ZOMG HE DONATED TO THE GQP!!!!1" then in smaller text "he donated equally" and in the article:
"But Bankman-Fried’s public donations went largely to Democrats. The FTX founder gave more than $990,000 to candidates in the last election cycle, according to OpenSecrets, and another $38.8m to outside groups. Only about $235,000 of his public political giving went toward Republican candidates."
So, which is it? Did he funnel dark money purely to the GQP? Or was it equally between Dems and GQP or is the truth that it was mostly to the Dems in which case the headline and subheading are misleading?
Like I said, most people don't read past the headlines. And just like fact checkers who proclaim something 'mostly false', when you read the detail you find it says something different.
Maybe I can clarify for you. He's already known for donating to Democrats. That's a thing he's talked about and since this collapse started, people have been making lots of connections based on that one party. The news, reported in the headline and the article, is that it wasn't just Democrats. If it helps, the following headlines would also be correct and deliver the same information to someone who was keeping up with the news: "SBF didn't just donate to Democrats, also gave to Republicans", "SBF's political donations less one-sided than previously reported", "SBF donated to Republican candidates at similar order of magnitude as he did to Democrats, didn't much mention that though".
It's as if we discovered that there's a glacier ice cap covering Ireland and a headline only mentioned that one, but someone complained because the one in Greenland is bigger. Yes, but we knew about that one already. If you care about who he was donating to, and I don't care very much, the news about Republicans would add to the news you already read about Democrats, and if you hadn't read that you'd get a background summary in the article.
Bankman-Fried’s public donations went largely to Democrats. (bold emphasis mine - T.F.M.R.)
My parsing of the Grauniad's piece is: he "donated about the same amount to both parties,"[*] but took care to hide donations to GOP "because reporters freak the fuck out if you donate to Republicans"[*]. The quoted sentence is certainly in the article, but refers to the public part of the donations only.
[*] This is a direct quote - don't kill the messenger.
Yup. There's hardly any press left worth reading. I count the FT in English (and Al Jazeera for Middle East and African news), le Diplo in French, and the FAZ + SZ in German. Swiss radio is also worth listening, btw.
Even Reuters has gone to shit in the last few years.
And no, I don't read the press along ideological lines. I'm only after professional reporting.
The expression "A hand in the till" (US -- "cash register") seems to cover FTX. Sure, the product/promise was abstract and it was hyper trendy computer based stuff but ultimately the issue is that instead of taking a relatively modest (eerrmm) agreed salary the principals just took the cashflow and treated it as their pocket money.
The difference between these amateurs and pros is that the pros know when to stop for the most part, balancing maximum compensation against the need to keep the party going.
A good, if somewhat old, read is the book "The Best Way To Rob a Bank Is To Own One".
The difference between these amateurs and pros is that the pros know when to stop for the most part, balancing maximum compensation against the need to keep the party going.A good, if somewhat old, read is the book "The Best Way To Rob a Bank Is To Own One”. .... martinusher
SBF/FTX appear to have read and believed that good old read, "The Best Way To Rob a Bank Is To Own One” ....... https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2022/11/24/amazon_ftx_mini_series/#c_4574719 ..... and owned/bought into one, the Farmington State Bank.
And, martinusher, it may also be the sort of play which the UKGBNI Conservatives are desperate to prevent being outed as a means they have used/been using to stealthily transfer and lose ten/hundreds of millions of pounds sterling to special friends, who may even also be family, with their own version of the laundering service via the newly created British Business Bank ..... which they, Conservative and Unionist Party members of Government are apparently refusing to answer legitimate questions from Parliament about, regarding loans expedited recently during the long and lingering Covid scamdemic? ‽
Who’d have a thought it ...... a nest of vipers and right dodgy money exchangers hiding in plain sight and playing leading stately politician from right in the centre of the City and at the heart of Palace of Westminster? Revolutionary public uprisings and military coups d’état have resulted from the likes of less for can you imagine the leverage that can be brought to bear and/or the leverage that can bought not to bear on systems so compromised and catastrophically weakened and vulnerable to multiple novel vector private and pirate sector attacks/almighty skirmishes.
The pros tend to cover their tracks better. Quite apart from any actual fraud, the investigation showed that FTX was run like a kiddies piggy bank, with absolutely no corporate governance or financial management. A competent fraudster doesn't display their activities so blatantly.
Agreed.
When I saw the interview, the only thing I could think of is : this is a kid. He's got zero banking experience, zero CEO experience and the only reason he got the job is because venture capitalists are stupid and willing to give hundreds of millions to someone that just spouts the right bullshit.
If there is one thing that this crypto madness is demonstrating repeatedly, it's that you don't hand the responsability of money to someone who doesn't have more than a decade of experience handling money in a regulated environment.
There's a reason why the bank teller doesn't become head of branch in six months.
His biggest mistake seems to have chosen to run in a country which has signed an extradition treaty with the US.
== Bring us Dabbsy back ==
All cryptocoin are part of a Ponzi scheme. Other than criminal organisations that saw it as a way to launder money, it was always obviously so.
Finally, governments are waking up.
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/1130/1339266-bitcoin-heading-on-road-to-irrelevance-ecb/
Nobody is listening to him, his credibility (which wasn't that high to start with) is below 0.
Nobody cares (unless you drank his Kool-aid), and I would hope that anyone over the age of 35 saw all his companies as ...... 'debatable'.
What nobody should doubt is that he's (should be) looking at a long time in a boutique/bijou room where minimalism is the order of the day.
I'm sure the current cons will suddenly believe in recarnation when they see Screech at their soup kitchen.
This is such an interesting case from many perspectives. The most surprising fact is how little this is covered in main media. Somehow, SBF appears like a Robbin Hood who took from the rich and gave to the poor (which of course is not true). We like heists like in the movie "entrapment" or "bandits" or "the score". The funny thing is how unequal the judgement is applied. If somebody steals a pizza, they might end up in jail. Stealing 8 billion. No problem. It really seemed have worked to pay off all these political parties. For me, this is the most disgusting part of the story. It just illustrates how easily politics and politicians can be bought. But it also illustrates the classic Rostand quote about scale in crimes: "Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
The most surprising fact is how little this is covered in main media.
Maybe not your main stream media, but the New York Times has had at least 10 stories on FTX since Nov 22.
But your are correct about the difference in how blue collar and white collar crimes are treated.
Sure looks like SBF took FTX deposits and without permission of the owners, lent them to Alameda with collateral consisting only of FTT tokens whose price was BS. That is, FTT token prices were set based on trades between FTX and Alameda, both of which he controlled.
Pretty blatant fraud.
I ran a scam again, all things go, all things go.
Flew to Bahamas, sold crypto, sold crypto.
We transferred assets around, I don't mind, I don't mind.
I made a lot of mistakes in my mind, in my mind.
You came to give us all your dough, all your dough.
Profits assured 'cause crypto grows, crypto grows.
It was all mindset, you don't know, you don't know.
You'll never find it, all things go, all things go.
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