He's repeatedly said things that are plainly not true. I'm not sure if they're deliberate lies, or if there is an element of self delusion.<p>For example, he keeps repeating that customers could be made whole if the $4B of new investment comes through.<p>Newsflash buddy: that ain't happening, ever. Nobody in their right mind or... any... mind would invest in FTX, ever. It's a worthless wreck being picked apart for scrap.<p>But he keeps repeating it like there's a 50:50 chance of it happening and he just needs to "tip things" towards it being more likely.<p>The other big lie he keeps repeating is that mark-to-market value of the shitcoins FTX had on their books. They're worse than junk bonds, with some worth maybe one cent on the dollar, if that. But he keeps repeating that if it wasn't for the freeze on FTX's trading, customers could be refunded their crypto if those "assets" could be just sold off.<p>I want to know what this kid is smoking.
Nobody stupid enough to honestly miss an $8B blackhole is smart enough to run such disciplined interviews.<p>I'm surprised anyone is fooled by the fact he just happens to remember only the facts that point to the least criminal explanation.<p>What's the chance of that?<p>He's either coming clean about how he's not a smart as they said he was, or he's still playing the game. It's another double down.
"Use" in this case means theft. It can't be repeated enough, they stole customer funds, and did something with them their self not as an agent for the customer (hesitate to say invested). At best this is like your stock broker cleaning out your account and going to Vegas (and claiming they new how to double "their" stake, and were going to give you 10% returns back).<p>The whole SBF "effective altruism" is just a variation on solipsism, the belief not being the only one to exist but the only moral actor to exist. That being itself an incredibly selfish or non-altruistic position.
I'm as surprised as many of you that SBF continues to talk to everyone and "admit" all sorts of things. But I think he's just doubling down on the strategy that got him this far! Charm and weaponized stupidity got him his billions, why can't charm and weaponized stupidity help get him out of this mess?
I'll be incredibly surprised if all this admission-of-guilt-galore doesn't get him in _real_ trouble, even if he manages to get only a slap on the wrist.<p>To bypass the Paywall: <a href="https://12ft.io/https://www.ft.com/content/a1df1d73-9932-4d1b-b63a-c0c82241a236" rel="nofollow">https://12ft.io/https://www.ft.com/content/a1df1d73-9932-4d1...</a>
Anytime you hear or read “Alameda”, replace with "Sam's personal account."<p><a href="https://twitter.com/compound248/status/1598446659188707328" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/compound248/status/1598446659188707328</a>
Just go interview a treasury manager at FTX. They definitely knew who were the signers on bank accounts and who had control of funds. There is zero possibility that these "backdoors" were installed without executive sign off at FTX and corporate legal providing some kind of certification or board resolution (which SBF would be involved in). SBF is a compulsive liar.
Most people would be advised to say nothing in this situation.<p>Instead, he’s launching an aggressive PR tour to rebrand himself from a genius wunderkind to a hapless fool who made some innocent mistakes. It’s a risky strategy, but he has two lawyer parents who are almost definitely helping him thread this needle, legally speaking, plus who knows who else through their connections.
The guy is either a conman, or a fool. Either way, he lost a lot of money. He's going to have to face the consequences of his actions, and he's not going to like it.
Crazy theory - Big Bank is behind it. Maybe they employed SBF, maybe they actually infiltrated and exploited a badly run company.<p>No proof, just an idea.
Many people have been confused about why he's talking so much publicly, which is clearly self-destructive if he plans to mount a legal defense.<p>One logical explanation is that this is a prelude to him committing suicide. His public interviews and statements may be his way of leaving behind some sort of explanation and justification.
If people only understood how much of a mirror this is to the way normal banks work it would blow their minds. The main difference being that shifts in dollar value while the bank is giving others your money are miniscule so even super large investors pulling out doesn't tank the bank, and if it does, they quietly go with hat in hand to the regional fed.<p>I think FTX was a known issue and was "setup" for lack of better terminology as the Lehman Brothers scapegoat that will be used to justify regulation against crypto, and if they can, towards CBDCs.<p>“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance.” -James Madison<p>"The real truth of the matter is,as you and I know, that a financial
element in the large centers has owned the government ever since
the days of Andrew Jackson…" -Franklin D. Roosevelt
(in a letter to Colonel House, dated November 21, 1933)
I get a feeling that the twitter mob/vigilante journalism unleashed upon the FTX meltdown story may not entirely be accurate. Obviously something bad has happened financially, and people and emotional and angry. But we have to give our courts and the law system a chance. I don't want vigilante mobs condemning people to jail and death. We are literally hearing only one side of the story - maybe there is a 1% chance that the books were not cooked, that the rapid crypto crash combined with bad accounting practices (not fraud) did actually lead to losing billions of dollars. The very fact that SBF/caroline haven't been arrested leads me to think that the legal authorities see facts which we cannot see. There is an echo chamber forming that is<p>- republican (people linking this meltdown to deep state conspiracy theories)<p>- sexist (comments about caroline)<p>- anti-semitic (comments about religion)<p>and in the past, these mobs have been wrong in many cases. People are repeating theories as if they are facts, and that makes me uneasy.