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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31649 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022

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I Accidentally Got SBF To Admit to Fraud

So...SBF is simply a moron. I've been trying to resist that conclusion, but now I'm asking myself why I bothered.

In the link above Youtuber Coffeezilla drops into a call with SBF (a second time! Why is he still taking calls??) and proceeds to basically get him to admit that funds were comingled.

Coffeezilla noted that SBF always deflects the issue by arguing that some accounts were trading on margin and so were deliberately open to being used by Alameda, unlike regular accounts. So literally all he does - and all any journalist needed to do - was just keep drilling down on whether the FTX only customers who weren't doing that could still get their funds. SBF obviously has no answer. Even worse, he basically screws himself by admitting that they had one withdrawal process which was him admitting to comingling funds.

So...the guy is just a moron. He doesn't have some grand legal plan to plead negligence or ignorance. He has a half-baked plan based on the idea that everyone is dumber than him (despite multiple counterexamples) and he falls apart the minute anyone puts any thought into his answers.

The entire video is actually a good look at how a journalist should view someone like SBF and his word games and deflections and how they should strategize to defeat them (and the end has the sort of pure joy at skewering the target that I bet all journalists feel but are too dignified to admit when picking up their Pulitzer). And this is coming from someone who thought the idea of people like Coffeezilla being "journalists" laughable.

But he has legitimately done the best job of questioning SBF out of everyone (Stefanopoulos was the close second)

SBF and his friends stole billions of dollars. Either they go to jail at some point, or they manage to sneak away like most crypto fraudsters. Neither outcome would be remarkable.

This kind of gotcha journalism is lame. SBF gives the same so slow stupid answers to every question and never really says anything concrete. Hopefully his new lawyer can convince him to stop embarrassing himself.

Enough people buy into his game. Maxine Waters. Even Bill Ackman has talked about him being honest. On a jury of 12 I wouldn’t be surprised if he could convince 1 or 2 every joes who know nothing about the evidence issues to vote with him.

I highly doubt he will submit to a jury trial. It would take years and the odds would be greatly against him prevailing.

He might have no choice. I think the facts in the case would rationalize a Madoff level punishment. He might be better off hoping his snake oil salesman routine fools a couple jurors.

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