FTX Files For Bankruptcy. What will be the effect of this?

[Swordsmyth]

FTX Recovers $5 Billion In Assets

https://www.thefinancialtrends.com/2...ion-in-assets/

[devil21]

FTX Recovers $5 Billion In Assets

https://www.thefinancialtrends.com/2...ion-in-assets/

Gotta pay the same attorneys that built the ponzi while they unwind the ponzi. Can't have attorneys going hungry, can we? The horror of Hampton's beach houses with empty pantries. That shall not stand.

[Swordsmyth]

Scaramucci Invests In Crypto Firm Formed By Ex-FTX Chief

https://www.thefinancialtrends.com/2...-ex-ftx-chief/

[Swordsmyth]

Crypto-Lender Genesis Files For Bankruptcy

https://www.thefinancialtrends.com/2...or-bankruptcy/

[Swordsmyth]

Sam Bankman-Fried Offshore Entity Emergent Fidelity Files Chapter 11

https://www.thefinancialtrends.com/2...es-chapter-11/

[Swordsmyth]

FTX Lobbying and Donations
Here is all the members who have received donations from FTX members, and their current status on returning donations.

https://unusualwhales.com/politics/article/senate_ftx

[CaptUSA]

Interesting new charges added to this cat...


Sam Bankman-Fried paid over $40 million to bribe at least one official in China, DOJ alleges in new indictment

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/28/sam-...ndictment.html

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried paid out tens of millions of dollars worth of bribes to at least one Chinese government official, federal prosecutors alleged in a new indictment Tuesday.

The indictment said accounts belonging to Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, were the target of a freezing order from Chinese police “in or around” November 2021.

The indictment alleges that Bankman-Fried and others “directed and caused the transfer” of at least $40 million in cryptocurrency “intended for the benefit of one or more Chinese government officials in order to influence and induce them” to unfreeze some of these accounts.

Bankman-Fried and his associates considered and tried “numerous methods” to unfreeze the accounts, which contained around $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency, prosecutors allege. Ultimately, after both legal and personal efforts failed, Bankman-Fried agreed to and directed a multimillion-dollar bribe to have the frozen accounts unlocked, prosecutors alleged. <it worked>

Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund used the unfrozen assets to continue to fund Alameda’s loss-generating trades, continuing on what the government says was a fraud upon customers and investors for another year. FTX and Alameda imploded in November 2022 after concerns about their balance sheet turned into a veritable bank run. Bankman-Fried now faces a federal indictment and civil charges from both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The charges indicate that new evidence has been obtained by the federal government about Bankman-Fried’s international dealings, and come one day after U.S. regulators slapped crypto exchange Binance with allegations of facilitating terrorist financing and violations of U.S. derivatives law.

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried’s collapsed FTX remains mired in Delaware bankruptcy court proceedings.

A spokesperson for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

[Swordsmyth]

FTX’s Bankman-Fried Charged With Bribing Chinese Officials

https://www.thefinancialtrends.com/2...ese-officials/

[Occam's Banana]

SBF says “dishonesty and unfair dealing” aren’t fraud, seeks to dismiss charges
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried prepares to "clear his name."
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...smiss-charges/
Ashley Belanger (09 May 2023)

Late Monday, legally embroiled FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried moved to dismiss the majority of criminal charges lobbed against him by the United States government after his cryptocurrency exchange went bankrupt in 2022.

In documents filed in a Manhattan federal court, lawyers from the law firm Cohen & Gresser LLP shared Bankman-Fried's first official legal defense. Lawyers accused the US of a "troubling" and "classic rush to judgment," claiming that the government didn't even wait to receive "millions of documents" and "other evidence" against Bankman-Fried before "improperly seeking" to turn "civil and regulatory issues into federal crimes."

After FTX's collapse last year, federal prosecutors acted quickly to intervene, within a month alleging that Bankman-Fried was stealing billions in customer funds, defrauding investors, committing bank and wire fraud, providing improper loans, misleading lenders, transmitting money without a license, making illegal campaign contributions, bribing China officials, and other crimes. Through it all, Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty. Now, in his motion to dismiss, Bankman-Fried has requested an oral argument to "fight these baseless charges" and "clear his name." He's asking the court to dismiss 10 out of 13 charges, arguing that federal prosecutors have failed to substantiate most of their claims.

"The Government’s haste and apparent willingness to proceed without having all the relevant facts and information has produced an indictment that is not only improperly brought but legally flawed and should be dismissed," Bankman-Fried's lawyers argued in one of several memos filed yesterday.

Bankman-Fried's lawyers also allege that—after extraditing Bankman-Fried from his home in the Bahamas—the US has failed to honor terms of an extradition treaty requiring that the Bahamas consent to all charges brought against Bankman-Fried.

"Bankman-Fried now faces charges on four counts that were not encompassed by the counts listed in the Bahamas’s Warrant of Surrender and to which the Bahamas has not consented," his lawyers alleged in court filings.

Should the court decide not to dismiss the charges, Bankman-Fried has asked the court to try the charges of illegal campaign contributions and foreign bribery separately from the charges of fraud and conspiracy. His lawyers argue this would help "avoid undue prejudice," because a jury "may use the evidence of one of the crimes charged" to find "his guilt of the other crime or crimes charged.”

In short, combining the charges could "tempt the jury" to “infer a criminal disposition” on "the part of Bankman-Fried," Bankman-Fried's lawyers wrote in a memo.

Additionally, Bankman-Fried's lawyers want a chance to further develop Bankman-Fried's defense. To that end, they've asked the court to compel federal prosecutors to share any withheld "communications or other documents" relating to Bankman-Fried’s extradition from the Bahamas, as well as additional discovery from FTX that goes beyond the incriminating evidence gathered so far by federal prosecutors.

"The Government has failed to provide the required discovery and particulars needed to defend the case," Bankman-Fried's lawyers argued in a memo.
Bankman-Fried could not immediately be reached for comment.

SBF says US is criminalizing acts of dishonesty

One of the memos supporting Bankman-Fried's motion to dismiss repeatedly paints the FTX founder as being perhaps guilty of lying, but not guilty of violating US laws cited in his indictment.

That memo, for example, concedes that Bankman-Fried and co-conspirators lied on a US bank application to open an account to receive FTX customer deposits after the bank had previously rejected an honest application. But just because the bank "was deprived of the opportunity to conduct 'enhanced due diligence' and executive committee review before opening the account," that doesn't mean that Bankman-Fried committed bank fraud, his lawyers argued. To find him guilty of bank fraud, the US would have to prove that Bankman-Fried either deprived the bank of “moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities” or caused banks to risk suffering "economic harm" from losing the "right to control" access to its bank accounts, lawyers argued.

The same argument, lawyers wrote, applies to allegations that "Bankman-Fried engaged in a scheme to defraud Alameda’s lenders by providing them false and misleading information regarding Alameda’s financial condition" or wire fraud allegations that he "misused FTX customer funds by providing improper loans to Alameda."

"Simply making a false statement, by itself, does not constitute wire fraud unless it is made for the purpose of obtaining money or property from the victim of the fraud," Bankman-Fried's lawyers wrote.

Essentially, lawyers argued that, so far, there's no evidence of harm caused because fraud requires a "scheme to cause economic loss to the victim," which prosecutors allegedly haven’t proved. In place of such evidence, Bankman-Fried alleges that federal prosecutors have concocted "a hodgepodge of different intangible losses" suffered by banks and lenders—including "the right to honest services," "the loss of control of assets," and "the deprivation of valuable information." His lawyers argued that this conflicts with prior court rulings limiting the scope of federal fraud statutes to a narrower definition of property rights so that they do "not criminaliz[e] all acts of dishonesty.”

"In the end, the Government is trying to transform allegations of dishonesty and unfair dealing into violations of the federal fraud statutes," Bankman-Fried's lawyers wrote. "While such conduct may well be improper, it is not wire fraud."

Fast indictment followed slow regulatory response

Bankman-Fried's lawyers seem to suggest that the US government—after struggling to keep up with a cryptocurrency boom—overreacted to news that FTX and Alameda Research were commingling funds. Between 2019 and 2021, the cryptocurrency industry jumped from a total of $64 billion in daily crypto transactions to nearly $3 trillion in 2021. During this time, lawyers wrote, "applicable legal framework for the cryptocurrency industry developed much more slowly" while lawmakers debated whether existing regulations applied or new regulations were needed. One of the biggest questions was how US laws applied to foreign cryptocurrency exchanges like FTX, and indicting Bankman-Fried could seemingly help to answer that question.

Bankman-Fried has admitted that FTX suffered from a flawed risk management strategy, Reuters reported. However, while FTX associates like former Alameda co-chief executive Caroline Ellison, former FTX technology chief Gary Wang, and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh have pled guilty and begun cooperating with US federal prosecutors, Bankman-Fried continues to plead not guilty.

In yesterday's court filings, he even seeks to contradict some of his alleged co-conspirators' testimony seeming to verify alleged illegal campaign contributions. Bankman-Fried contends that nothing that has been described by co-conspirators violated US election laws.

"The campaign finance allegations reveal, yet again, the consequences of the Government's rush to indict," Bankman-Fried's lawyers wrote.

Whether the court will find Bankman-Fried's defense persuasive amid the ongoing regulatory confusion over the crypto industry remains unclear. Bankman-Fried's lawyers have said that they could be prepared to go to trial by October, according to The New York Times.

Meanwhile, the US government still doesn't have a full grasp on how to regulate cryptocurrencies. Yesterday, a Wall Street Journal analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) actions showed that the SEC has only now "labeled almost 80 crypto tokens as securities." This represents a "small percentage" of total crypto tokens traded in the US and shows "how little of the industry has been addressed in six years of enforcement."

[devil21]

Looks like the big exchanges are being targeted for shut down by SEC, ahead of CBDC/digital dollar rollout slated for October (rollout time according to LaGarde). Binance and Coinbase just sued by SEC and essentially labeled fraudulent scams. Gensler went on CNBC today claiming that it's fraudulent and a conflict of interest for an exchange to also run a hedge fund, comingle funds, manipulate prices and bet against customers, which is essentially what FTX, Binance, Coinbase, etc have been doing. I actually agree with him on that point. The sheer irony and balls on that man to say that with a straight face, however, since Ken Griffin's Citadel is literally an exchange market maker manipulating stock prices while also running a hedge fund, doing exactly what FTX, Binance, Coinbase, etc do. No problem, conflict or fraud there, though, right Gary?


Just my 2 cents but anyone still holding bitcoin or other $#@!coins should at least consider liquidating and moving proceeds into hard assets asap. It has been said for a long time that the bankers will not allow any digital competing coins to remain active once CBDC goes live. They're determined to cram their CDBC down everyone's throats regardless of how few people actually want it. Don't forget to review the info early in this thread about how Gensler/SEC, MIT, SBF/FTX, Stanford U., etc are all closely interlinked. The entire crypto space has been a big ponzi psyop: cash sponge, money laundering operation, mass conditioning exercise and a testbed for the CBDC. It is now in the end stages of controlled demolition.

[acptulsa]

https://twitter.com/AFTXcreditor/sta...94671970430976

[unknown]

That's nice.

"US offers to drop some charges for now against Sam Bankman-Fried"

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/us-o...y?id=100108547

[Swordsmyth]

FTX Executive Paid Themselves A $22 Million Bonus As Exchange Collapsed

https://www.thefinancialtrends.com/2...nge-collapsed/

[Occam's Banana]

https://twitter.com/Not_the_Bee/stat...12110527889427

[Occam's Banana]

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/statu...31400358543360

[ClaytonB]

[devil21]

SBF sent back to jail, according to media reports.

However, bop.gov shows no such inmate in BOP custody. Hmm.....

[devil21]

SBF trial starts today, starting with jury selection. Trial expected to take up to two months.

[Firestarter]

Supposedly Donald Trump (or his team) demanded that Sam Bankman-Fried would pay Donald Trump $5 billion to not to run for president.
https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-donald-trump-michael-lewis-going-infinite-2023-10

[Firestarter]

Sam Bankman-Fried, as expected, was found guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money with FTX, swindling customers out of $10 billion.
Where did the money go?!?

He was convicted mostly based on the testimonies of his former partners in crime that all got sweetheart plea deals, including star witness Caroline Ellison (whose dad Glenn Ellison is the Department Head of Economics at MIT, where current chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, was a Professor).

It is planned that his decades prison sentence will be decided on 28 March 2024: https://www.theguardian.com/business...ty-ftx-alameda

[acptulsa]

https://twitter.com/alifarhat79/stat...38471564906807

[devil21]

https://twitter.com/alifarhat79/stat...38471564906807

Inverse Cramer.

[Anti Federalist]

"Justice"

https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/statu...00200465183034

[acptulsa]

https://twitter.com/DC_Draino/status...36119599145097

[Occam's Banana]

Judge Kaplan: It is the judgment of the court that you are sentenced to 240 months then consecutive 60 [etc] for a total of 300 months [25 years]

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1773376645161730378
to: https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1773377112294002908

---

https://twitter.com/innercitypress/s...40043744010640
to: https://twitter.com/innercitypress/s...76299626574125
[archive @ Thread Reader: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...744010640.html]
{Inner City Press @innercitypress | 28 March 2024}

OK - Sam Bankman-Fried sentencing has arrived, Inner City Press wrote the book (Crypto Criminal https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMJF66XR) and will live tweet, thread below

Courtroom is full, Assistant US Attorneys glad-handing with people sitting in the second row. (First row behind defense table left empty; SBF will be brought in from holding cell by US Marshals). T minus six...

9:34 am - SBF's post-trial lawyers Mark Mukasey and Torrey Young are are defense table, but SBF has not yet been brought in. Meanwhile the first row has been filled in... with prosecutors.

9:39 am - OK: courtroom deputy Andy and spoken to the Marshals, and they've gone into the holding cell... Now they bring out Sam Bankman-Fried, in MDC-Brooklyn light brown jail uniform

[As SBF reads through papers at defense table, a note: some defendants ask for and get permission to wear a suit to their sentencings, even from the MDC.]

All rise!

Prosecutors are introduced, and an FBI agent.

Mukasey says Torrey Young "may" speak today

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan: Apart from the Guidelines issues, which we are going to take up next, I adopt the pre-sentence report... The Guidelines disputes have been briefed fully, to say the least. We'll start with the US contention about loss over $550 million

Mukasey: We'll rest on our papers.

AUSA Nicolas Roos: We will as well.

Judge Kaplan: So I'll rule. But first, to put it on the record, one of my new law clerks was at Wilmer Hale, which represents Caroline Ellison, but didn't work on the case.

Judge Kaplan: I reject the defense's argument about loss, both on the law and on the facts. The assertion that customers and creditors will be paid in full is misleading - defendants equate loss with dollar volume in the bankruptcy case

Judge Kaplan: Investors and lenders were also injured parties. The crimes here included taking FTX customer money to which defendant had no right and using it no speculative investments by Alameda and a variety of other things.

Judge Kaplan: A fortuitous run-up in the value of some cryptocurrencies bears no relation to the gravity of the crimes that were committed. A thief who takes his loot to Las Vegas and successfully bets is not entitled to a sentencing reduction, even if pay-back

Judge Kaplan: For the reasons well articulated by Mr. Ray, that people will be paid back is speculative. So I find the loss amount readily exceeds $550 million, the top tier. I find investors lost $1.7 billion, lenders lost $1.3 billion, and customers, $8 billion

Judge Kaplan: I'm going to vary downward from the Guidelines range, the process we're going through right now.... Next, about the number of victims. Do you want to be heard?

SBF's lawyer Mukasey: Our memo was before we saw the victim impacts letters

Judge Kaplan: So you're signaling there's not much merit to the argument you made? You don't have to answer that, I'll answer it. Objection overruled... The proposed two point adjustment for use of sophisticated means, I agree with the US. Four for leadership role

Judge Kaplan: On obstruction of justice, I find that Mr. Bankman-Fried's text to the former general counsel did in fact constitute attempted witness tampering. I make 3 perjury findings based on trial testimony

Judge Kaplan: I find the Mr. Bankman-Fried gave perjured testimony at trial - he falsely testified that until the Fall of 2022 he had no knowledge that Alameda had spent FTX customer funds. He falsely testified that he first learned of the $8 billion in Oct 2022

Judge Kaplan: Finally he falsely testified that repayment of third party loans by Alameda would require Alameda to borrow more customer funds from FTX. Now, do counsel want to address those points?

SBF's lawyer Mukasey: No I do not.

Judge Kaplan: I have limited my findings on obstruction to support the finding - there may be more. The total offense level is 60 - once you cross 43, it cannot go higher. The guideline is life in prison. But the maximum is 1320 months in this case

Judge Kaplan: Are there victims who wish to address the court? And if so, how many?

AUSA Roos: There also, in the PSR, sophisticated money laundering. And there is one victim here who wishes to speak.

Victim Sunil Kavuri: I flew in from London, so that you could here from victims. I wanted to speak to you in person, Judge Kaplan, you did a fantastic job in the trial. Many creditors feel the same. I followed the trial live

Sunil: I'd like to address the argument that the loss was zero. They continue to claim that in the media. It is false. I have suffered for two years. The bankruptcy estate is assuming or mischaracterizing us as unsecured creditors. We had property rights

Sunil: Sullivan & Cromwell has trampled over our property rights. They have liquidated billions of dollars of crypto assets. There's a token S&C sold at 11 cents, it's now trading at two dollars. FTX had $10 billion in Solana tokens - they sold it at 70% discount

Sunil: They're selling it to their own clients - Galaxy - it is destroying customer value. This is our property. Then there's Anthropic. Our assets were used to buy the stake. It's our property. I objected, and 1000s of customers supported me.

Judge Kaplan: I appreciate your points - but I'm here to sentence Mr. Bankman-Fried. I accept your assertion the claim customers will be made whole is inaccurate.

Sunil: OK... Great... I brought it up because you ruled these are our assets. We continue to suffer

Sunl: At least three people have committed suicide because of this FTX fraud. So when this FTX bankrutcy... I guess... What I feel, how it relates to Sam, it has hurt me, other co-conspirators, aiders and abetters, need to be held accountable

Judge Kaplan: I think it would be helpful if you could bring your remarks to a close soon.

Sunil: OK, that's it.

Another: Moscowitz, yesterday in Federal court in Miami we moved for a settlement with the insiders. Sam and his team have been helpful

Judge Kaplan: Thank you. Anyone else? No? OK.. Ordinarily I enumerate on the record the various papers I have considered. I'm going to depart. As of 9 am last night, or this morning, I have gotten more than 1000 pages. 451 from the defendant, US for the same & VIS

Judge Kaplan: It was in the nature of an avalanche. I recognize Mr. Mukasey on behalf of his client.

SBF lawyer Mukasey: I don't want anything I say today as disrespect for the jury- we're going to appeal- nor to the victims, we've listened, we understand the pain

Mukasey: My team did not live through the trial but we've studied the record. The government point to James Nicholson who stole from widows. Karl Greenwood who was sentenced by Judge Ramos

[Inner City Press has a 2d Cir appeal of Greenwood's sealing of his file]

Mukasey: Madoff stole from Holocaust survivors. That is not Sam. He did not want to personally inflict pain on anyone in any way. Sam was not a ruthless financial serial killer. He wasn't predatory. He makes decisions with math in his head, not malice in his heart

Mukasey: His mom says he is misunderstood. It is easy to slot people into an old fashioned story of the greedy swindler... Sam never scurried away with money. He stayed to the end. He'll tell you more how much it means to him that people get repaid.

Mukasey: He's an awkward math nerd. He's into veganism. He has an off the chart intellect. He is a beautiful puzzle. He can parse words better than a Talmudic scholar. He was a billionaire unconcerned about material possessions

Mukasey: In middle school he was thinking about his ethical obligations to the global population. In college he spent time helping animals. On Wall Street he gave away his earning to charity. That's through age 21. Sam's devotion to others predated FTX

Mukasey: He never sought out to be the king of crypto. He just wanted to have the largest positive impact in the world. But it was not ends justify the means, that would harm the altruistic movement... How is standing by him now? Not Tom Brady or Katy Perry

Mukasey: It's the scientists that stand with him. It was not posing. Sam Bankman-Fried was committed to doing good... He's been tutoring people in the MDC. He knows what it's like to come across as unlikeable, to practice how to make eye contact in the right way

Mukasey: His mother says there's a terrific sadness at his core. His brother says, Sam would be uncomfortable giving me a hug - but I know he would give me a kidney if I needed one... He has been in the worst prison in the country for the last seven months.

Mukasey: I understand there has to be a perception that justice was done. I'm reminded of the case of Stefan Irving - he was a predatory, and got only 21 years. Don't destroy the prime of this kind young man's life. Let him meet a partner and have a baby.

Mukasey: Sentence him to work hard & give it all away. A few years ago Judge Koeltl wrote an article about Judge Weinfeld, about a white collar defendant who had spread the bread of charity on the waters, then returned. Sam has been kind- let him receive a harvest

Mukasey: We ask that you sentence him with a compassionate heart.

Judge Kaplan: Thank you. Mr. Bankman-Fried?

SBF: I appreciate what Mark said about me. I don't know that the most important thing today is my emotion life or hypothetical future kids

SBF: There are customers who, uh, I agree with most of what Sunil said, what they've gone through, about obviously money they didn't think they'd use, they are deprived of the gains. They've been waiting for a year and a half. What matters are my colleagues at FTX

SBF: I threw away what they had built. They were let down. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about what happened at every stage. Things I should have done and said, thing I shouldn't have. I care about everything too. The uh uh remember the colleagues obviously

SBF: They followed me across the earth, across continents, working past 2 am... I remember, there are so many of them, Natalie taught herself to run a media department. She was doing 10 people's jobs. I gave my brother who had a crazy idea, how to save lives

SBF: It looked like it was going to work. Gary sent me a message one day, a link to a crypto exchange - the whole industry rebuilt itself in the image of what Gary had made. So many things about what he built became industry standards

SBF: Alameda was in danger of falling apart. I got an anonymous message of what I should do to fix it. It was clearly from Nishad, he's famously humble. And Caroline, quite something, mostly self taught, she asked me for advice on her reviews of employees.

SBF: I read her review of a person, I learned so much. They threw themselves into it, then I threw all that away. It uh haunts me every day. I made a series of bad decision. They weren't selfish decisions. Those culminated with a bunch of other factors, crisis

SBF: Alameda wasn't bankrupt, FTX wasn't - Alameda's gains were lost, it was more leveraged than it should have been. We had to liquidate to meet the run on FTX. Then shutting it down. FTX would have survived, Alameda would not have. An unpleasant few weeks

SBF: I made a lot of mistakes. But that's not how the story ended. Customers weren't paid back. FTX didn't survive that. Yeah, customers have been given conflicting claims. That's caused a lot of damage. They could have been paid back

SBF: There are enough assets. It's not because of a rise in the price of crypto, that hasn't hurt, there just was enough. As Sunil said, the emotional pain. Why haven't they been paid back? There was, to be fair, a liquidity crisis. That was in part my doing

SBF: This isn't the time or place to tell the full story. A good place to start with that is the affidavit of Dan Friedberg filed in the bankruptcy court, a year ago. He probably made enemies. Moscowitz has been fighting for them in court.

SBF: Ms Rolle in the Bahamas, a few days after the bankruptcy hack there were a hack on the estate's office. I was in the Bahamas that day. Christina Rolle came to FTX' HQ to make sure they couldn't be further depleted. It was a Saturday until 3 am

SBF: It was inspiring. There are been some who have stood up for customers. But mostly they have been failed, by more people that I can count, not least of all myself. I was the CEO of FTX, I was its leader, that means I was responsible at the end of the day

SBF: It doesn't matter why things go bad, if you're the CEO, it's on you. I'm not the one who matters the most at the end of the day... My useful life is probably over. I've long since given what I had to give. I can't do it from prison.

SBF: I can't impact if I get 5 years or 40 years. I know how the prosecutors see me, the court, the media. I understand it. You referenced my test to the general counsel. I was trying to help - that's not how the prosecutors saw it, the media, that's that. I uh

SBF: I want to address something Sunil said. I uh uh understand what he meant, it seemed like we were denying there was pain. I can see how it would read that way. Their focus may not have been on the right place. Customers have been suffering

SBF: At the end of the day, it looks like customers will finally get paid, current value of assets. It's true for lenders and investors as well. I guess I wish I had been able to do more to help that, I think I failed at that. I'm not sure why, but I do think I did

SBF: There is an opportunity to do what I thought I would do for the world, not what I ended up doing. If people do what they can for the world, hopefully I can see their success not just my own failures. Thank you.

Judge Kaplan: Thank you. Government?

AUSA Nicolas Roos: Samuel Bankman-Fried stole $8 billion dollars. It was theft, from customers spread all over the world. It was a loss that impacted people significantly and caused damage. I want to address a few of the new victim letters

AUSA Roos: They lost their life savings. A man who lives in Portugal - the day before bankruptcy his daughter was born. He was marred by the ominous specter of financial instability and his daughter's future. Then there's the 23 year old from Morocco

AUSA Roos: He is the eldest son. He kept money on FTX not to loan it out to the defendant but for family's security. One more - a couple in the later stages of their life, late 60s, they invested with life savings. They were depressed, they had to go back to work

AUSA Roos: Mr. Mukasey said the defendant didn't look his victims in the eyes. I disagree. These days people look into people's eyes through Twitter. Now also, the defendant took $1.7 billion from investors - that alone necessitates a long sentence

AUSA Roos: Some get 40 or more years for that alone. There were also the loans, two lenders went bankrupt. That too justified, on its own, a severe sentence. Also one of the largest bribes. He committer perjury. It was pervasive

AUSA Roos: You have the defendant's cost / benefit analysis which would allow him to do it again. If Mr. Bankman Fried thought mathematics justified it, he'd do it again. Today he spoke about mismanagement, a "painful few weeks" - no acceptance of responsibility

AUSA Roos: He did not swear off doing it again. He said there is an opportunity to relaunch FTX or an equivalent. That, I submit, tells the court exactly what could happen. A sentence is necessary here of at least 40 years so he will not do it again

AUSA Roos: Mr. Mukasey says the defendant is virtuous... The defendant is not a monster but he committed gravely serious crimes that harmed many people - and he would consider doing it again. So, 40 to 50 years.

Judge Kaplan: Thank you Mr. Roos.

Judge Kaplan: I've considered the guidelines and the 3553 factors. Much of what was said about the defendant's background is undisputed. He was privileged, had loving and devoted parents, he had every advantage they could confer on him, he went to MIT

Judge Kaplan: He's extremely smart and he suffers from autism... He is a high achieving autistic person. He is capable of huge accomplishments and he has frequently a social awkwardness and a way of interacting with people that's unusual and sometimes offputting

Judge Kaplan: He went to Jane Street, made a lot of money, have a lot of it away. There was testimony at trial, I don't remember by whom, I learned that the people at Jane Street were encouraged to play quantitative games, bets

Judge Kaplan: He had been exceptionally ambitous and aware of his talents. Ms. Ellison testified that he was very ambitious. He talked about building two huge companies and very interested in politics and wanted to use his money to have an influence on politics

Judge Kaplan: He said there was a five percent chance he'd be president one day. Indeed, this was a huge financial crime. He wanted to be a hugely politically influential person in his country. It wasn't just the left end of the spectrum

Judge Kaplan: He set up a vehicle to make donation to the right, through straws that wouldn't come back to him. Some of this, at one point, might have been attributed to him have presented himself as in favor of appropriate regulation of the crypto industry

Judge Kaplan: In my judgment, that was an act. And he admitted it, ultimately. On November 15 or 16, he was interviewed by a reporter he knew well who said, You said a lot of stuff about good regulations - was that just P.R. too? He: "Yeah, f*ck regulators."

Judge Kaplan: It was power. Influence... Caroline Ellison was asked, How did the defendant describe his approach to risk? Answer: He said he was risk neutral, he was comfortable as long as positive E.V. - expected value

Judge Kaplan: A man willing to flip a coin as to the continued existence of life on earth. Mr. Bankman-Fried knew that Alameda was spending customer funds on risky investments, political contributions and Bahamas real estate. The funds were not his to use

Judge Kaplan: One of his pithier expression, I think, was "I f*cked up." Mr. Bankman-Fried has the right to plead not guilty & go to trial. Everybody's got that right and I don't hold it against him. But I come back to Ms. Ellison's testimony. He knew it was wrong

Judge Kaplan: He's not going to admit a thing. As is his right. Specific deterrence? His name is mud around the world. But he's persistent and he's a great marketing guy. Mr. Roos is right that the outlines of Sam Bankman-Fried's revised version are clear

Judge Kaplan: The same skills that had him, even after arrest, pitching his story to a huge number of media people. He had every right, we discussed that... On general deterrence, at the end of the day the criminal justice system thrives only if it's seen as fair

Judge Kaplan: People need to feel, It's fair. Or we're back to trial by combat, folks, or something like it. So punishment must fit the seriousness of the crime. And this.. Was. A. Serious. Crimes. Bear with me.

Judge Kaplan: The defendant will rise for the imposition of sentence, please.... [SBF stands, as do his 3 lawyers]

Judge Kaplan: I know the Probation Department recommends 105 years, and the Government 40 to 50 years. That would be more than necessary.

Judge Kaplan: I am not diminishing the harm. The brazenness of his actions. His exceptional flexibility with the truth. His apparent lack of any remorse. I want to add one further thought. I did not think it a fruitful use of time to spell out every lie -

Judge Kaplan: When not lying, he was evasive, hair splitting, trying to get the prosecutors to rephrase questions for him. I've been doing this job for close for 30 years. I've never seen a performance like that.

Judge Kaplan: It is the judgment of the court that you are sentenced to 240 months then consecutive 60 [etc] for a total of 300 months [25 years]

Judge Kaplan: Mr. Bankman-Fried, would you like me to read you the conditions?

SBF: No, thanks, I'm OK.

Judge Kaplan: Any other requests?

SBF lawyer Mukasey: We may submit language regarding designation [to which facility] Let me hand it up

[Anti Federalist]

https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/stat...80776114917712

[devil21]

That transcript clearly shows that Kaplan is covering for Sullivan & Cromwell^^^^^ as they deconstruct the fraud they built. I wont go as far as to say SBF is a patsy but he sure as hell is a scapegoat, while the law firm runs away with huge amounts of fraud money and the political money laundering is swept under the rug. Seems like most of these SDNY trials are essentially limited hangouts.

[Occam's Banana]

https://twitter.com/jeremykauffman/s...76020882710787

[CaptUSA]

https://twitter.com/jeremykauffman/s...76020882710787

Yeah, no. He had political capital. Cronyist capital. His parents are a couple of the biggest financial lawyers in the US and extremely active in the elite democratic party circles. SBF was able to accumulate wealth ONLY because his well-placed investors figured he was safe from "teh law".

Send these types to prison and throw away the key. Their kind of capital is destructive to innocent people.

[Occam's Banana]

Yeah, no. He had political capital. Cronyist capital. His parents are a couple of the biggest financial lawyers in the US and extremely active in the elite democratic party circles. SBF was able to accumulate wealth ONLY because his well-placed investors figured he was safe from "teh law".

Send these types to prison and throw away the key. Their kind of capital is destructive to innocent people.

I gotta go with Hannibal the Cannibal on this one:

"We live in a primitive time, don't we, Will? Neither savage nor wise. Half-measures are the curse of it. Any rational society would either kill me or put me to some use." -- Hannibal Lecter, Red Dragon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmFUcKSUHww