Sam Bankman-Fried’s Life Behind Bars

I don’t quite understand the fascination with a guy who was a second year delta1 ETF trader at Jane St. it’s literally a step above an intern.

The Kimchi arb was a lie. He never made any money as the arb was persistent due to regulatory. It was a story told to hook the VCs.

Alameda lost a billion in 2019-2020 at the peak of their arb. How’s that work?

Alameda was allergic to money.

1) FTX was booking 0.5% per transaction.

2) Forward revs were parabolic so the dude stole thinking he could cover the theft with FTX comms n-months out. ‘Asking the wrong question…” was an admission of guilt to Singh or Wang, whoever testified about that conversation about the black hole in the balance sheet.

3) Bailing out the other opcos was no lose; they prop up shtcoins and immediately gain access to CUSTOMER DEPOSITS in furtherance of his theft.

He was/is a fucking idiot.

I always assumed Alameda was front-running customers along with acting as a street dealer for Tether. That they somehow incinerated $9 billion while running a hedge fund with a captive retail muppet audience is just... wow.
 
Might have been Michael Santos. The guy did 25 years in federal prison for selling coke. He was sentenced at the height of the war on drugs, with stiff mandatory minimums. His crimes were all nonviolent. That being said, he has admitted that the drugs he sold certainly harmed many people, and that some people probably died from overdoses or from violent crimes committed by addicts who bought drugs from him or his downline.

He didn't get filthy rich, but he directed some investments through his wife, and he managed to accumulate a decent nest egg while he was in prison. He made money behind bars in other ways, too. He went to prison at the age of 23 and got out at the age of 48. He earned two college degrees while in prison. He is now a very succesful coach and motivational speaker who advocates for prison reform.

He has written several books. This one is a good starting point:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/inside-michael-g-santos/1100743155

Some of the story is a bit dated. Technology has changed things. When he was in prison, his connections to the outside were by phone and US mail. Today, almost all federal prisoners, and many state prisoners, have access to a closed e-mail system that can be monitored by corrections officers. And all the messages are saved for years. So even if they don't catch something in real time, they can look back whenever they want to. In many prisons, incoming US mail is now scanned, and the images are also saved for years. So in some ways, communication with the outside world has gotten faster and easier, but it is also easier for the authorities to read it.

Only a couple chapters of the book deal with his investments. Most of the book describes other aspects of life in the US federal prison system. Still a fascinating story.

@Good1 You think you might have to do some time? o_O

You gotta hire a prison consultant.

And buy mackerel futures. :D

Oh yah i forgot about the email system they have. That would be plenty real time (well, would have to check on the actual latency reliability of that), and a great way to get a lot done...if the wardens didn't mind. I'm sure they wouldn't mind incoming quotes. It's the outgoing calls that might be suspicious. But if the language is couched to just pertain to one's own account, then maybe? Or maybe if it's made to just sound like a game to pass time?

Yah i mean it's getting so easy to become a political prisoner. I might try to trip a shoplifter trying to walk out of Home Depot a load of power tools.

But SBF, whatever the judge gives him will probably be well deserved.
 
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I always assumed Alameda was front-running customers along with acting as a street dealer for Tether. That they somehow incinerated $9 billion while running a hedge fund with a captive retail muppet audience is just... wow.

1. Alameda was mostly investing in crypto start ups and such. That is how they burnt the money. See below, only 1.8 B was lost.

2. They actually recovered most of the missing 9 B.

"FTX and FTX US had an estimated $8.7 billion combined shortfall at the time the crypto firm filed for bankruptcy. Roughly $6.9 billion of that shortfall, including a Bahamas real-estate portfolio, had been recovered as of September."
 
Oh yah i forgot about the email system they have. That would be plenty real time (well, would have to check on the actual latency reliability of that), and a great way to get a lot done...if the wardens didn't mind. I'm sure they wouldn't mind incoming quotes. It's the outgoing calls that might be suspicious. But if the language is couched to just pertain to one's own account, then maybe? Or maybe if it's made to just sound like a game to pass time?

Yah i mean it's getting so easy to become a political prisoner. I might try to trip a shoplifter trying to walk out of Home Depot a load of power tools.

But SBF, whatever the judge gives him will probably be well deserved.


I hope he pays it in hooker dollars
 
“The mack currency system is far more stable than crypto,”

Considering that cryptos have no value for the behaviours that they are exhibiting except for hyped-up speculations, anything has more value than cryptos.

Well at least they paired him up with relatively non-violate roommates instead of violent hitmen.
 
Might have been Michael Santos. The guy did 25 years in federal prison for selling coke. He was sentenced at the height of the war on drugs, with stiff mandatory minimums. His crimes were all nonviolent. That being said, he has admitted that the drugs he sold certainly harmed many people, and that some people probably died from overdoses or from violent crimes committed by addicts who bought drugs from him or his downline.

He didn't get filthy rich, but he directed some investments through his wife, and he managed to accumulate a decent nest egg while he was in prison. He made money behind bars in other ways, too. He went to prison at the age of 23 and got out at the age of 48. He earned two college degrees while in prison. He is now a very succesful coach and motivational speaker who advocates for prison reform.

He has written several books. This one is a good starting point:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/inside-michael-g-santos/1100743155

Some of the story is a bit dated. Technology has changed things. When he was in prison, his connections to the outside were by phone and US mail. Today, almost all federal prisoners, and many state prisoners, have access to a closed e-mail system that can be monitored by corrections officers. And all the messages are saved for years. So even if they don't catch something in real time, they can look back whenever they want to. In many prisons, incoming US mail is now scanned, and the images are also saved for years. So in some ways, communication with the outside world has gotten faster and easier, but it is also easier for the authorities to read it.

Only a couple chapters of the book deal with his investments. Most of the book describes other aspects of life in the US federal prison system. Still a fascinating story.

@Good1 You think you might have to do some time? o_O

You gotta hire a prison consultant.

And buy mackerel futures. :D

The feller I was thinking of goes by the name Curtis "Wall Street" Carroll.

Today I learned that you can get smart phones in jail for like $5000. They are brought in by the guards, making themselves a side hustle. This information comes from an interview with SBFs roommate during his trial incarceration, Gene Borrello with YouTuber Tiffany Fong. This interview came out today.(Borrello is now on the outside). Borrello ended up protecting SBF from some extortion scheme. Fong interviewed SBF while in house arrest at his parents.


Borrello doesn't think SBF will ever see the street again.
 
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