SBF running off with $2.2B really makes Caroline's $6m look quaint. I mean, why even go after her for (relative) pennies? The compensation gap between SBF and his underlings just goes to show you that wealth inequality exists even in corrupt organizations. Her charges will be far less, but it goes to show you that even in crime you're being stiffed unless you're at the absolute top of the food chain.
Because (potentially) stealing $6 million is still a very large crime in the absolute sense, even if it is smaller than other related crimes. Because it would be bad to alert white-collar criminals to the fact that they can escape prosecution by not being the largest participant in the criminal enterprise. Because $6 million is roughly 1000x larger (not a typo) than the typical bank robbery, which carries a 20-year sentence, and we don't advocate for non-prosecution of $500 bank robberies. Because it's only fair in a justice system that routinely imprisons people for stealing much smaller amounts.
As things stand today, she could be sentenced to 110 years for what she's already pled to; she's really got to make the prosecutors happy if she ever wants to live outside again.
She fully deserves to go to jail for a long time, but probably won't since she was smart enough to get the early worm in terms of deals with the prosecution.
Related to this is an interesting piece from Freakonomics[1] about drug gangs. They claim wealth inequality existing in corrupt organizations like drug gangs is a necessity.
[1] https://genius.com/Steven-levitt-the-freakonomics-of-mcdonal...
While SBF received much more, I wonder how much in total benefits everyone received. The penthouse, private jets, and vacations probably add up quick.
In the first Freakinomics book you learn that they once had found the accounting of a major drug cartel in NYC and the wage distribution from shoofer (?) on the street to the refiller, the dealer, the neighborhood lord, all the way to the top manager… was the same as at McDonald’s.
Feels like none of those laws helped, we’re stuck with a “natural distribution”.
I'd argue that it's worse in corrupt organizations. Sometimes much worse.
Because when the feds go after her, she is strongly incentivized to flip, and cooperate in kicking the stool out from under SBF.
And because 6 million is big enough of a fraud that you can do a decade for it in Club Fed all on its own. If that were the only fraud that took place with FTX, she'd still deserve to be fully investigated and prosecuted for it.
Because it is still a crime and it would signal other criminals that they can be part of billion dollar scams, make 10s of millions and not be charged of fraud.
In surgeons it means they have the confidence to perform some of the most difficult tasks a human being can undertake and is a net positive even though it makes them difficult to be around.
With cryptobros it makes them easier to catch after their schemes inevitably blow up because in their arrogance they refuse to consider than anyone could ever be smart enough to catch on to them.
There’s been numerous other scandals where we look back and could say “do you think we’d really be that stupid?”
But then again that’s a cognitive bias, because we only know of the scams/fraud that have failed
Now I can walk.
Hooray for god complexes!
Also he should already be in prison, as every second he's not spending there is a second robbed away from his jail time.
He confessed via email and I got access to the bank accounts. Took them to the same unit that is going to prosecute SBF. Took almost 4 years for him to plead guilty, he didn't spend a day in prison, and he has his whole life to pay us all back, without interest.
Naturally, he is trying to be a christian influencer in Nashville.
Heck, he can even offer to return or donate the 2.2B (assuming only he knows where it is) in exchange of a lighter sentence. Will any government refuse that offer? 2.2B is the wage of thousands of people for 10 years.
No one with a personal wealth of more than 2B at the time of arrest has ever served a single day in jail in the United States. People only go to jail if they have lost their billions.
From the infamous irony quotes 'balance sheet': https://d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net/production/7ab64a3b-6c...
Liablities: $8.8bn of customer deposits
* $6.6bn-ish in USD or USDT
* $2.2bn in crypto
* I'm assuming the 'poorly labelled $8bn' is included in this amount, and you don't add it
Assets: $2.5bn?
* $1.5bn of liquid assets.
* $1bn-ish? of illiquid assets.
* Most of these numbers are just made up, but let's finger-in-the-wind them at $1bn ($500m at least is in 'locked USDT')
Now we find out they have another magical pool of money, the $3.2bn that they'd taken out of FTX and put in their pockets.
So the position looks really different: They had $8.8bn on one side of the ledger, and $5.7bn on the other side - After the massive bank run which collapsed the price of their shitcoins.
It appears they had the money to pay out most of their USD / USDT depositors at $0.85 on the dollar, which is obviously still 'insolvent', but possibly enough to survive a bank run (almost) all the way down to the ground (If you suspend redemptions of your crypto and persuade 15% of your USD depositors not to pull their money out)
The final question is: Who did they owe the liabilities to? If some of those 'deposits' were actually owed to other FTX-associated entities, it seems even more survivable, and would probably have preserved some of the value of their shitcoins
