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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   29304 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 12, 2022

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Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamian authorities this evening after the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York shared a sealed indictment with the Bahamian government, setting the stage for extradition and U.S. trial for the onetime crypto billionaire at the heart of the crypto exchange’s collapse.

Bankman-Fried was expected to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday. His arrest is the first concrete move by regulators to hold individuals accountable for the multi-billion dollar implosion of FTX last month.

There had been some speculation on when and even whether he would be arrested. Just yesterday someone told me to expect it to take two years. So, why right before tomorrow's hearing? And why not wait for him to give more interviews and provide more evidence?

Will everyone who said he would walk away Scot Free because he's in bed with NYT or Dems or whoever please adjust your priors or whatever?

Nope. At worst he gets the Trump treatment of a fashionably late pardon. Best case, an early release. Unless this guy somehow managed to screw over the wrong jews I don't think he will face anything real.

The SDNY is not well known for slaps on the wrist. He is facing serious charges and is high profile. They will go for the kill.

This. SDNY is where very ambitious lawyers go. They plan to then go into electoral politics, or to change teams and make a ton of money as Former Prosecutors representing the types of folks charged with financial crimes. The media attention on SBF surely has them salivating.

Tangent: as someone who enjoys books on financial scandals, remembering reading about a very hungry Rudy Giuliani when he went after Michael Milken, while watching hair die drip down his face in the parking lot of a landscaping business, was wonderfully tragic, in the original theatrical sense.

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