In fawning profiles, Bankman-Fried, known as “SBF,” had long been celebrated for his “seeming rejection of earthly pleasures”: He parked a Toyota Corolla in the penthouse parking lot and shared photographs of himself sleeping on office beanbag chairs — a sign of his hardcore dedication....
Photos of his office setup — a gaming chair sitting at a cluttered desk, entombed in half a dozen computer screens — sometimes showed boxes for Emsam, a stimulant patch prescribed for depression and sometimes used recreationally to boost focus and confidence.
A chemical playbook was common among his work buddies: Caroline Ellison, a co-chief of Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research, tweeted last year, “Nothing like regular amphetamine use to make you appreciate how dumb a lot of normal, nonmedicated human experience is.”...
FTX employed people like George Lerner, an in-house psychiatrist and performance coach, who[se job]... involved finding “dating options” to keep workers feeling happy and fulfilled in their new home. After meeting Lerner at a party, [Margaux] Avedisian, the conference emcee and a crypto entrepreneur, said Lerner asked her whether she’d be interested in pursuing something romantic with Bankman-Fried. The whole arrangement struck her as odd. “A lot of start-ups offer, like, free food, free gym — not ‘we’ll find you a wife,’” she said....
Beyond just building a new corporate headquarters on the New Providence waterfront, FTX officials had said they wanted to establish an “effective altruism” (EA) hub in the Bahamas....
Effective altruism — the term is now a joke — and not just an inside joke — now, isn't it?
From Avedian's Instagram:
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The article itself sounds like soap opera for the masses to me.
Better to start with the talent and maybe at the edges you get boundary conditions that are weird.
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop,” said Herbert Stein, a leading conservative economist who helped make policy in the early 1970s.
Quote Investigator
Here is a game I like to play: Try to guess which media outlets (both mainstream and new) got money from SBF / FTX by the tenor of their coverage.
”dating options” to keep workers feeling happy and fulfilled in their new home
A new way to describe “pimp”?
Effective altruism is a game that has been played for decades. The Most Reverend Al Sharpton and the Clinton Foundation the most recent examples.
The comments in the WaPoo are amusing. It sure didn't take long for the balloon heads to compare SBF to former president DJT.
Buying up top-grade politicians across the District of Corruption's most populous party, Democrat. Democracy dies in darkness. h/t WaPo
At least the real estate has value as the crypto doesn’t. The creditors will at least get something.
Stanford Law Profs were in on the Bahamas scam. Do they still have jobs?
Effective altruism is a nonprofit idea first deployed by the infamous Robin Hood Foundation, which once had both Epstein and Weinstein on its board, along with starlets and reporters like Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, and Gwyneth Paltrow. RHF was founded by the very hedge funders who destroyed the real estate market. The foundation was a continuation of that behavior. "Effective altruism" means handing out money to organizations who recruit the poor, addicted, criminal and lazy and then help them maximize their use (and abuse) of public social service programs largely funded by middle-class taxpayers -- you know, the ones who didn't break the banks or have their subprime defaulted mortgages bailed out in the financial crisis the RHF's hedge funders themselves created. Essentially, "effective altruism" is the crooked super-rich using the government to steal from the middle and working classes to give to the unproductive poor.
Their enormous policy influence on City Hall and in Albany is why NYC doesn't have a middle class anymore. I don't know how this meth-addled child is using the term, but she's actually not too far off. By the way, both Epstein and Weinstein used their positions as RHFoundation board members to visit public schools and after-school programs. And don't think Katie, Diane, Gwyneth et. al. didn't know this.
I do not understand why Sam Bankman-Fried and his cronies are still running around free. Why couldn’t the DoJ at least throw wire fraud charges at them? Did FTX’s contributions to Democrats and news organizations give him do much “juice” that he is untouchable?
This is the biggest political scandal since the 2020 election. Eventually, 2008 will also be included in the list with the Mississippi Bubble and the South Seas Bubble.
So where did the cash for real estate purchases come from if all investor dollars were converted to crypto? Sounds shady if not blatantly ponzi-ish.
Will this democratic fraudster be forced to give back his ill gotten property?
Doubtful. Not in Crook Biden world.
I don't think the Bahamas authorities want to give SBF & Co. up until they get something out it for themselves.
New Providence was a haven for pirates in the 18th century -- and apparently in the 21st as well.
The next Tulip Mania will be along shortly.
Everyone has probably seen the graphic of US taxpayer > Ukraine > FTX > US politicians (Mostly dems but some reps)money flow.
To which John C Dvorak appended > Media in the form of campaign ad buys and I appended >Journalists (Mostly indirectly in the form of salaries)
A nice smooth grift, beautiful in its corruption.
A couple of other data points occurred to me as I was drowsing on my son's sofa after a nice Thankgiving feast:
The US govt send billions of dollars to Puerto Rico as part of the 2016 PROMESA special program to prevent a Puerto Rico govt bankruptcy.
The person selected to head this program was Natalie Jaresko, born in the US but long time resident of Ukraine. Her last job before Promesa had been Minister of Finance for Ukraine. She was born in the US so a US citizen. She also took Ukrainian citizenship in 2014. Prior to that, she had been an investment banker in Ukraine for 20 years or so.
Puerto Rico is under all federal laws and regulations and most of the US tax code. A few years ago our govt decided to promote the crypto industry and passed a number of laws making it attractive to locate here.
Nothing new here. I've known all this for a while. I've even commended on it here. I've commented on how bad a feeling having a former Ukrainian finance minister minding the dollars in our store gave me.
I knew about the crypto promotion. Not a big fan of crypto. Not a big fan of promoting it here.
I had not connected the dots between Ukraine, Crypto and Puerto Rico. And possibly FTX. I still haven't. Yesterday I realized that they were probably connected, I just don't know how yet. (And may never)
John Henry
Blogger Big Mike said...
I do not understand why Sam Bankman-Fried and his cronies are still running around free. Why couldn’t the DoJ at least throw wire fraud charges at them? Did FTX’s contributions to Democrats and news organizations give him do much “juice” that he is untouchable?
As you say juice. Plus, I think I have heard, none of his frauds were committed in the US and thus there is no jurisdiction. I don't know if that is true. Seems like there would be some nexus.
What is even more concerning is that the NY Time would leave him on as a speaker at some high level conference. Even more concerning is the people who are appearing with his. Former Chair of the Federal Reserve Board Janet Yellin? Give her time but so far she has not refused to legitimate him with her presence. Ukrainine prez Zelinsky, Mark zuckerberg are both slime so no surprise there.
And the NYT is in SBF's pocket. How many millions did they get from FTX et al? directly in the form of FTX advertising and indirectly in the form of political campaign funding from FTX donation?
John Henry
He certainly knew how to play the role. Unpretentious. Folksy. Drives a used car. Doesn't spend a whole lot of time worrying about his appearance. Very smart guy who wants to use his gifts, including his ability to make money, for some higher purpose....That's the appearance. Then there's the luxury penthouse. That psychiatrist is a new wrinkle in the rumpled sheets of decadence. The psychiatrist did the opening spadework for the opening rounds of courtship and seduction. That's always a time suck. SBF was an executive who knew how to delegate responsibility and achieve goals with minimal efforts and fuss....You wonder how much of him is pretense or maybe there was some kind of self reinforcing loop where the lies he told himself about his brilliance and benevolence were taken up and augmented by the people around him. It was a good gig while it lasted. He seems to have had a better time than Holmes or Madoff. He might even finish in a better place than Epstein.
Did FTX’s contributions to Democrats and news organizations give him [so] much “juice” that he is untouchable?
To ask the question is to answer it.
Above the fold in the Wall Street Journal, “FTX’s collapse wiped out Founder’s Philanthropc Aims”.
Are you fucking kidding? We failed him,. His fraud would have saved us!
This is why I stopped reading newspapers.
My favorite crypto is a game called Splinterlands. It's a free game, although you really want to pay the $10 fee. I started playing in December, 2019. The NFTs I won ran all the way up to $17,000. Now they've crashed back down to $5,000. But when your cost basis is $10, the volatility isn't stressful at all.
It's basic supply and demand. The demand is increasing because the game is so much fun to play, and people make money playing it. And the NFT supply is shrinking because cards are destroyed during the mechanics of game-play. (You unite cards to make them more powerful).
It's analogous to comic books or baseball cards. One of those cheap markets that don't seem like investments at all. (Until they skyrocket in price). For anybody who is dubious about crypto, I would suggest playing Splinterlands. And if you don't like games, introduce your kids or your grandkids to the game. It might pay for their college tuition one day. (Not kidding).
Plus, I think I have heard, none of his frauds were committed in the US and thus there is no jurisdiction.
@John Henry, if there was a telephone or Internet communication from Bankman-Fried to one of his marks, then there’s a case for wire fraud, or should be.
Bankman-Freid's best investment was in politicians. They may yet save him. Not the investors, of course. They are just suckers to politicians.
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