The ingenuous Bankman-Fried
I happened to catch this yesterday on YouTube, and was fascinated and repulsed by the odious Bankman-Fried and his apologists who reek of equal measures of mendacity and fake sanctity. It struck me, not for the first time, that this should be farce and yet it’s reality:
There’s no reason any of this should surprise me, given the antics of our current president and his family, as well as the Democrats and the press. The most outrageous lies, the most destructive policies, are met with solemn and sometimes fawning approval. There is so much rottenness around that Bankman-Fried’s preposterous pose of innocent naivete is nowhere near the worst of it.
[ADDENDUM: Also see this.]
Who a group elevates says a lot about the group itself I suppose. Democrat elites elevated this narcissistic sociopath who grifted billions from naive rubes. But because he donated to the right people and causes, he’ll probably escape true punishment… maybe. We’re pretty far from the light these days, so it’s difficult to imagine much in the way of actual justice and restitution for his victims any time soon, if ever.
What is it about the first name “Sam” and MIT? MIT not only graduated Sam Bankman-Fried but also the equally odious Sam Brinton, they of the women’s clothing fetish. “The Biden administration on Friday refused to say whether top nuclear waste official Samuel Brinton is still receiving a government salary after being charged with theft. . . . In an email to The Post, the Department of Energy confirmed that Brinton, 35, had been placed on leave, but would not comment on whether they were still getting a government paycheck.”
Photos of them at the link showing off their legs and wearing a T-shirt that reads, “Don’t get mad, get elected” [the last word spelled out in Pride colors]:
https://nypost.com/2022/12/02/biden-admin-refuses-to-say-if-non-binary-staffer-still-getting-paid-after-theft-charge/
As Nonapod says, “Who a group elevates says a lot about the group itself . . . ” And as Neo says, “There is so much rottenness around that Bankman-Fried’s preposterous pose of innocent naivete is nowhere near the worst of it.”
FTX will declare bankruptcy and the courts will require “clawbacks”. This is where FTX, SBF, Sam’s homely girlfriend and their buddies will have to give all their assets to a court fund to be reimbursed to the real victims (including Kevin O’Leary-although he doesn’t deserve anything). This includes the $40 million given to the Democrat party. This will involve the selling of any real estate in the Bahamas and liquidating any other property. Most FTX creditors will get nothing.
SBF’s mother (a leftist law professor at Stanford) has written about the foolishness of the idea of individual accountability and personal responsibility. This is commonly argued from the left, unwilling to accept any form of human free will or agency. As a thought experiment, one should try to imagine a world in which it is widely accepted that objective truth is a chimera, that universal morality is purely fictional and ethical standards therefore purely arbitrary (to be determined by the state), and that no-one is ultimately responsible for anything whatsoever which he or she may have done. The “brave new world” being constructed by leftist totalitarians (WEF/Davos globalists) is predicated upon such socially disruptive and destructive ideas.
He’s a sociopath. That’s a choice, fueled by rotten peer cultures and by the moral kultursmog of his family as indicated by the public writings of his mother and his maternal aunt. Our professional-managerial stratum is shot through with horrible people.
If I’m not mistaken, his parents supplied legal counsel on compliance for his companies. Stomp on their insteps before you apply the tar and the feathers.
At the NY Post:
https://nypost.com/2022/12/01/media-treats-fraudster-sam-bankman-fried-with-kid-gloves-because-he-was-a-dem-darling/
As Art Deco points out, not only should Sam face legal consequences, but his enabling parents as well.
The sad part is they are not just protecting the thief SBF. They want to protect both his parents that teach law at Stanford, particularly his mother and her PAC “Mind the Gap”. That want to keep SBF as the face of all this, because he can pull off the naive idealist that went too far. In reality, he’s the well-placed spawn, similar to Hunter Biden, that handled the business the parents couldn’t be seen doing but he was careless and screwed up. SBF should go to jail, and his parents need to go with him.
If this was a Republican scandal, it would be the biggest news with more to come for months.
Jon Corzine, Ex NJ Governor comes to mind for a Democrat escaping justic, but MF Global was only $1.2 Billion Dollars.
With the bipartisan funding by FTX, some would call it legal bribery, I would be surprised if anything meaningful happens to him. But, there is what happened to Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos Inc. where she got convicted and sentenced to 11 years, but that was only $700 Million or so of fraud.
Hes from a whole sub genre of conman sammy glick bloom of the producers et al
This guy is the bigger player
https://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/2022/11/ramnik-arora-goldman-sachs-ftx
Ask yourselc who went to jail for bcci who bought everybody on both sides of the aisle not clifford not altman not thr likes of andrew young or carter not fmr bush administration figures like ed rogers david paul is the only one that comes to mind same with pharoan adham bin mahfouz
…not only should Sam face legal consequences, but his enabling parents as well. –Kate
SBF’s Stanford Law parents are signatories to a $16 mil tropical vacation home, which seems entangled with other FTX properties in the Bahamas.
Seems worth a legal look.
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The documents for another home with beach access in Old Fort Bay … show Bankman-Fried’s parents, Stanford University law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, as signatories. The property, one of the documents dated June 15 said, is for use as a “vacation home.”
When asked by Reuters why the couple decided to buy a vacation home in the Bahamas and how it was paid for — whether in cash, with a mortgage or by a third party such as FTX — a spokesman for the professors said only that Bankman and Fried had been trying to return the property to FTX.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-bankman-frieds-ftx-parents-bought-bahamas-property-worth-121-mln-2022-11-22/
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I’ll bet.
Leland: “If this was a Republican scandal, it would be the biggest news with more to come for months.”
So true.
If SBF was a Republican, the extradition orders would probably already be drawn up. The MSM would be screaming to see him perp-walked out of his Bahamas hideaway.
Unfortunately, I’m afraid he’s not going to get the book thrown at him as he should. The fix is probably already being constructed by the powers that be. It irks me that I’m so skeptical about our justice system, but that’s where we are these days.
He isn’t going anywhere near a courtroom or jail cell.
Being of the protected class is good work if you can get it.
The Snuffelupagus apology show showed its not his fault, things just got out of his hands.
If SBF was a Republican, the extradition orders would probably already be drawn up. The MSM would be screaming to see him perp-walked out of his Bahamas hideaway.
New York State is currently trying the former CFO of the Trump Organization because certain employees thereof did not report their company perquisites as income. OTOH, John Corzine and his minions got off scot free for raiding customer accounts. This nation’s prosecutors are a repellent bunch, as are the judges who enable them.
Aww, he’s so cutesy poo. You are an adorable genius. Yes, you are! Don’t forget to tip 10% for the Big Guy
Give him a fair trial, and then hang him.
This case is a test to see if the US is still a free country or now a dictatorship of the left. I am not optimistic.
Looking at Sam, I could understand why a naïve investor might think he was some kind of eccentric genius, but after listening to him, it’s hard to think anyone would give him their money.
Madoff also started out as an “effective altruist.” He wanted to spare his clients the loss of assets when the market turned down (though there is a self-interested side to that as well). It wasn’t a Ponzi scheme from the very beginning. Something similar may have happened with SBF. As the sums involved get bigger and more mind-boggling, maybe his mind got boggled? As he discovered how easy and how fun it is to fool people, did fooling become his main motivation?
I thought it was funny that Judge Jeanine could have been saying “the Democrats’ second biggest donor” or “the Democrats’ second biggest stoner.” Either label seems to fit. I could see how strange the tone of Maxine Waters’ tweet was, but is it really a smoking gun?
The purloined con-man.
https://instapundit.com/557124/
The reactions of lefties directed at Tabbi and Muck over Twitter revelations demonstrations what nasty, vile people they are. Truly ugly.
The moral rot is so deep. If you profess to agree with the totalitarian left on politics, they consider you to be morally good and undeserving of any punishment regardless of how abhorrent your acts (including murder). If you disagree with the totalitarians, you are undeserving of any civil rights or constitutional protections even when innocent of any wrongdoing.
They are deeply sick.
stan:
And yet very powerful in shaping public opinion.
If Sam walks, what are the odds that someone who lost everything takes him out?
When citizens become convinced that the system is totally rigged against them, they will take matters into their own hands. They won’t be wrong to do so. Oh, they will be considered criminals by the corrupt, dishonest system. But ….
stan discovers mob justice.
Something about cutting down all the trees (or walls) to get at Satan comes to mind. I think neo has a few posts about it.