No thread on the Sam Bankman-Fried trial, the poster boy for how millennial and gen Z males (primarily) stumbled upon crypto as full of wonderful opportunities to scam and steal?

I know world events are overshadowing a lot right now, but those who enjoy following trials this one is a nice treat.

5 things to know about Sam Bankman-Fried's trial so far : NPR

Quote:

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The U.S. government says disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried committed one of the largest financial frauds in history. His defense lawyers, however, argue he was just a young guy who got in over his head.

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There are wonderful little tidbits out of this trial, like this stuff:

FTX tried a lawyer, Thai prostitutes and finally a bribe to get frozen funds unlocked, witness says (axios.com)

Quote:

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Alameda Research bribed a Chinese government official to unlock $1 billion of its frozen funds on other crypto exchanges connected to money laundering, its former CEO testified Wednesday in the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried.

Driving the news: In Caroline Ellison's continued testimony, she said that at the FTX and Alameda co-founder's behest the firm sent a $150 million payment to the unidentified official.

Details: In 2021, the crypto trading firm's funds were frozen on the OKX and Huobi exchanges someone at Alameda had traded with someone else suspected of money laundering.

• "He seemed concerned," Ellison said of Bankman-Fried's demeanor, and said he had several meetings and started a Signal group chat to discuss how to retrieve the funds.
• Ellison said some of the companies' Chinese employees were involved in the meetings.

Details: At first, they tried a lawyer, but that was "unsuccessful," Ellison said.

• They then tried to use the identification of Thai prostitutes to create accounts on those exchanges in a bid to get those funds back.
• When that didn't work, SBF who initially did not want to try the employee-suggested bribe changed his mind and agreed to do it.

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And yes this was the company at the height of its fame running Tom Brady endorsements, Super Bowl commercials, paid lots of $$$ so that the Miami Heat were playing in FTX Arena, was donating large sums of money to politicians, same guy getting invited to Capitol Hill as one of the main faces of Crypto...all while running a massive fraud out of a condo in the Bahamas with a bunch of his buddies.

There WILL be a nice 'Wolf of Wall Street' level movie coming down the road from all of this. Hopefully they get a good director and actors to really deliver. The script is already written. You don't need to make anything up. The true story is going to be a compelling movie just the way it is.

maxag42 said:

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He probably won't face any jail time. What a joke. All you have to do is invest in Democrat projects and you're good.

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I will be very surprised if he if found Not Guilty, but you never know of course with juries. Facing as much as 50 years. If convicted, he will definitely be in jail for awhile. At least a decade. And Remember even if you invest in politician A, if you embarrass them or cost them money, they tend to turn on you.

Crypto currency assets can be frozen?

Just like regular assets?

If he's found guilty he's definitely headed to jail. No different than Madoff.

You're insane if you don't think he's going to jail.

the most punchable face ever

Ducks4brkfast said:

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You're insane if you don't think he's going to jail.

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The Feds have done a bunch of work indicting and prosecuting him, and the judge yanked him out of his cushy house arrest situation at his parents house and threw him in jail instead, b/c he was contacting witnesses such as his ex-girlfriend, where he is now complaining about the lack of vegan menus.

Yes, the Feds are sincerely trying to convict him and throw his ass in jail for a long time.

And not only his ex-girlfriend but 2 other of his close buddies at the top of that company have done plea deals to testify against him. Its a jury...but if I was him I wouldn't like my chances.

Bro is heading to the fed until he's on Medicare. And he deserves it.

Easily. Everything is traceable.

Their new CEO who's on the surface mission is to "clawback shareholder value" is probably more of a cleaner tasks with making sure evidence of payments to politicians are buried for hood.

SMM48 said:

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Easily. Everything is traceable.

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I thought untraceability was one of the main features of crypto.

lol. No. You mean "anonymous".

Crypto is open ledger blockchain where every transaction is recorded with proof of work.. all you need is to Connect an individual to an account number and one can see every transaction.

SMM48 said:

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lol. No. You mean "anonymous".

Crypto is open ledger blockchain where every transaction is recorded with proof of work.. all you need is to Connect an individual to an account number and one can see every transaction.

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Then an anonymous account can be frozen?

They can connect the dots. Open ledger makes it that much easier.

Remember. There is a limited number of "coins" in crypto circulation.

Every "coin" bought sold or transferred is recorded


Crypto address is visible. Match an individual to an address. Bam. You got them

Only halfway through but the new Michael Lewis book is good so far.

He's pro-abortion just because nobody gets upset over a child they haven't met dying so it doesn't have the "normal" downsides of murder.

Caroline thought she should let herself get tailed by tech bros now, while she's "young and hot"

He was a big part of trading at Jane Street in 2016 using poll info that hadn't hit the news yet that led to them being up $300m the night Trump won and then down $300m the next morning when the market changed its mind reacted positively to the result.

He'd probably be pulling in 20-50 million a year right now if he stayed there but he thought there was no way his best role in life would coincidentally be the first job he interviewed for

sam callahan said:

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Their new CEO who's on the surface mission is to "clawback shareholder value" is probably more of a cleaner tasks with making sure evidence of payments to politicians are buried for hood.

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Kind of weird that the debtor-in-possession is suing to "claw back" funds (including hilariously and appropriately Bankman-Fried's eponymous parents) rather than an appointed Chpt. 11 trustee or his counsel.

I'm only occasionally in BR Court on the creditor's side when the situation arises, so I'm not sure why the US Trustee didn't seek appointment of a Chapter 11 Trustee in this case. Maybe FTX seeking approval to appoint Ray as CEO headed that off at the pass, and was deemed sufficient.

Surely there isn't hope that FTX can be an ongoing concern, although I guess that's what a Chapter 11 filing suggests.

Edit: upon reflection filing Chpt. 11 was just strategic by whomever was calling the shots at FTX at the time. I bet it is converted to Chpt. 7 at some point down the line - either voluntarily or involuntarily.

It's John J Ray, he's been taking over these situations ever since Enron. He's basically "the" guy for these types of jobs.

https://bitinfocharts.com/top-100-richest-bitcoin-addresses.html

Just need to find the lost USB with one of these dormant ones:
https://bitinfocharts.com/top-100-dormant_7y-bitcoin-addresses.html

After he is convicted go after his Stanford law school parents who raised this parasite and then aided his crimes.

Jail. W/o a doubt. Minimum of 10 year

Faustus said:

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sam callahan said:

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Their new CEO who's on the surface mission is to "clawback shareholder value" is probably more of a cleaner tasks with making sure evidence of payments to politicians are buried for hood.

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Kind of weird that the debtor-in-possession is suing to "claw back" funds (including hilariously and appropriately Bankman-Fried's eponymous parents) rather than an appointed Chpt. 11 trustee or his counsel.

I'm only occasionally in BR Court on the creditor's side when the situation arises, so I'm not sure why the US Trustee didn't seek appointment of a Chapter 11 Trustee in this case. Maybe FTX seeking approval to appoint Ray as CEO headed that off at the pass, and was deemed sufficient.

Surely there isn't hope that FTX can be an ongoing concern, although I guess that's what a Chapter 11 filing suggests.

Edit: upon reflection filing Chpt. 11 was just strategic by whomever was calling the shots at FTX at the time. I bet it is converted to Chpt. 7 at some point down the line - either voluntarily or involuntarily.

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Ray is functionally a trustee. I've done this in debtor representations before where problem #1 is executive management. Have to get management to understand if they take the company into 11 themselves, it will get a trustee/converted and they lose whatever shot they may have had at preserving jobs/equity.

As for FTX, it will probably get confirmed as a liquidating 11 with a post-confirmation wind-down trust. In Ponzi scheme situations like this, you have to deal with the notion that "winners" "profits" get clawed back for equal distribution. That process will take years.

I really thought this guy would get Epsteined. Really surprised we got to a trial.

ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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Faustus said:

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sam callahan said:

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Their new CEO who's on the surface mission is to "clawback shareholder value" is probably more of a cleaner tasks with making sure evidence of payments to politicians are buried for hood.

---

Kind of weird that the debtor-in-possession is suing to "claw back" funds (including hilariously and appropriately Bankman-Fried's eponymous parents) rather than an appointed Chpt. 11 trustee or his counsel.

I'm only occasionally in BR Court on the creditor's side when the situation arises, so I'm not sure why the US Trustee didn't seek appointment of a Chapter 11 Trustee in this case. Maybe FTX seeking approval to appoint Ray as CEO headed that off at the pass, and was deemed sufficient.

Surely there isn't hope that FTX can be an ongoing concern, although I guess that's what a Chapter 11 filing suggests.

Edit: upon reflection filing Chpt. 11 was just strategic by whomever was calling the shots at FTX at the time. I bet it is converted to Chpt. 7 at some point down the line - either voluntarily or involuntarily.

---

Ray is functionally a trustee. I've done this in debtor representations before where problem #1 is executive management. Have to get management to understand if they take the company into 11 themselves, it will get a trustee/converted and they lose whatever shot they may have had at preserving jobs/equity.

As for FTX, it will probably get confirmed as a liquidating 11 with a post-confirmation wind-down trust. In Ponzi scheme situations like this, you have to deal with the notion that "winners" "profits" get clawed back for equal distribution. That process will take years.

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So should we all be looking for our postcard in the mail telling us we need to register for our $11.38 portion of the eleventy billion dollar settlement?

Pinochet said:

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That girlfriend of his sure has aged into a troll.

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He's gross too. Ugly dude. Weirdo.

LOYAL AG said:

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ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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Faustus said:

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sam callahan said:

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Their new CEO who's on the surface mission is to "clawback shareholder value" is probably more of a cleaner tasks with making sure evidence of payments to politicians are buried for hood.

---

Kind of weird that the debtor-in-possession is suing to "claw back" funds (including hilariously and appropriately Bankman-Fried's eponymous parents) rather than an appointed Chpt. 11 trustee or his counsel.

I'm only occasionally in BR Court on the creditor's side when the situation arises, so I'm not sure why the US Trustee didn't seek appointment of a Chapter 11 Trustee in this case. Maybe FTX seeking approval to appoint Ray as CEO headed that off at the pass, and was deemed sufficient.

Surely there isn't hope that FTX can be an ongoing concern, although I guess that's what a Chapter 11 filing suggests.

Edit: upon reflection filing Chpt. 11 was just strategic by whomever was calling the shots at FTX at the time. I bet it is converted to Chpt. 7 at some point down the line - either voluntarily or involuntarily.

---

Ray is functionally a trustee. I've done this in debtor representations before where problem #1 is executive management. Have to get management to understand if they take the company into 11 themselves, it will get a trustee/converted and they lose whatever shot they may have had at preserving jobs/equity.

As for FTX, it will probably get confirmed as a liquidating 11 with a post-confirmation wind-down trust. In Ponzi scheme situations like this, you have to deal with the notion that "winners" "profits" get clawed back for equal distribution. That process will take years.

---

So should we all be looking for our postcard in the mail telling us we need to register for our $11.38 portion of the eleventy billion dollar settlement?

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honest answer is yes if you had money on the FTX exchange.

It wouldn't be a postcard like a class action. It would be a letter from BNC telling you to file a proof of claim in the bankruptcy court.

https://www.theringer.com/platform/amp/tech/2023/10/16/23919236/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-trial-caroline-ellison-testimony-ftx-cryptocurrency

Good read. Didn't know SBF had ambitions to be POTUS one day.

Less corrupt than most I suppose

pretty sure thats an ai generated courtroom art.

here's the actual courtroom art:

Oopsie. pic.twitter.com/aog4gsbSDd

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) October 30, 2023