December 12, 2022

"Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday…”

“… after U.S. prosecutors filed criminal charges, according to a statement by the government of the Bahamas," the NYT reports.
Lawyers involved in the case were surprised at the suddenness of the news, which came the evening before Mr. Bankman-Fried was scheduled to testify in a House committee hearing.

58 comments:

D.D. Driver said...

I wonder if the cameras are about to malfunction in his cell. 😬

Tomcc said...

Maybe he can testify in person tomorrow?

Big Mike said...

I presume that being arrested means he doesn’t have to testify in front of Congress?

n.n said...

Redistributive change. Democrat donations. If you can... He didn't get away with it.

Ampersand said...

Who benefits from the timing of this arrest?

Not the public.

Original Mike said...

Marc Elias, please pick up the white courtesy phone…

Kathryn51 said...

Ohhhhh. . . the possibilities are endless.

Was Maxine about to give him the standard "immunity" for testifying to Congress - so he could say whatever, admit whatever he wished and DOJ couldn't use his testimony in any prosecution???

Or. . .did Joe say - arrest, put him jail and shut that MF up!

At one time - in the beautiful United States of America - we would have laughed at the idea of political manipulation. But now - the odds are in Joe's favor. Fuck those thousands (millions?) of FTX investors who lost Billions (aggregate). We must protect... . . .something.

Yancey Ward said...

LOL! We become more corrupt by the hour, don't we? He was arrested this evening precisely to stop him from having to answer any questions at all tomorrow, and this arrest was certainly requested by the Biden Administration.

Big Mike said...

Fuck those thousands (millions?) of FTX investors who lost Billions (aggregate).

@Kathryn51, well, a few days ago Althouse herself indicated that the investors deserve no consideration. They should have known better, she believes.

Goldenpause said...

Can his Stanford law professor parents avoid the same fate?

Yancey Ward said...

Bankman-Fried should probably request he be put on suicide watch at the jail.

Drago said...

Big Mike: "I presume that being arrested means he doesn’t have to testify in front of Congress?"

Correct. And not only that, ALL information pertaining to how US taxpayer cash given to Ukraine was funneled to SBF which was then completely laundered when CTX "donated" funds to the New Soviet Democraticals (and select GOPe-ers) is now "part of the investigation" and cannot be released to the public for any reason.

I suspect we are looking at a very, very long period of time to complete this "investigation"/coverup before its quietly put away with absolutely no one being held accountable unless, unless, they can somehow get this laid at the feet of Trump or the Trump organization.

That shouldn't be too difficult for the cats that pulled off the "Trump Tower Secret Servers Communicating With Putin Via Alfa Bank Servers" hoax.

Mary Beth said...

I guess that solves his problem with being so overbooked.

Josephbleau said...

Smart move, bottle him up before the Democrat pols can make fools of themselves.

Tim said...

He is about to be suicided. Bet on it.

effinayright said...

No sincere *competitor* would want to compete against a class of weaker, slower, smaller people (i.e., biological women) or feel that 'winning' was desired or deserved.
**********

A helluvalotta good that did Epstein.

Who will watch the watchers?

Narr said...

Anything those scamps paid the Ds will be minimized by 99%, while the much smaller sums of money paid to Rs will be magnified in like measure.

Not that exposing Rs should trouble any honest person, and that's a small price to pay if we can get 10% of the truth out in the process.

chickelit said...

LOL! We become more corrupt by the hour, don't we? He was arrested this evening precisely to stop him from having to answer any questions at all tomorrow, and this arrest was certainly requested by the Biden Administration.

Thank you, Biden voters! You really fucked things over, didn't you.

gilbar said...

Serious Question: What about the Sultry Wood Nymph?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Put your money in the Fried Bank of Sand. An Alternative House of Cards.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm still getting the oops page glitch btw.

You know. It's possible my posts are being monitored and the glitch is a tell-tale sign.

iowan2 said...

They aren't even trying to mask the corruption anymore.

As noted, this stops any investigations but the corrupt DoJ

Static Ping said...

So he hasn't killed himself yet? Odd.

RideSpaceMountain said...

@gilbar

Word is she's turning state's evidence. Either that or she has returned to the 'land of spells and fairies'. Very typical for girls her age when threatened with a very real and lengthy term in a imperial federal penitentiary harem heirarchy sandwiched somewhere between Queen LaShonda and a broomstick dildo.

Strong. Independent. Woman.

chickelit said...

Lem Former Twitter Aficionado said...You know. It's possible my posts are being monitored and the glitch is a tell-tale sign.

Nah...I've been writing inflammatory stuff for days without problems. ;)

Narayanan said...

So he hasn't killed himself yet? Odd.
========
he is not yet in US/NY prison system or Saudi Embassy

Jay Vogt said...

The most interesting thing of all this to me has been that he couldn't bring himself to shut up from about five days before he got put on margin.

That's kind of a basic.

Achilles said...

Kathryn51 said...

Fuck those thousands (millions?) of FTX investors who lost Billions (aggregate). We must protect... . . .something.


A lot of the money SBF stole from millions of mostly small investors went to Democrats and Never Trump Republicans.

That is what we are protecting here.

Achilles said...

gilbar said...
Serious Question: What about the Sultry Wood Nymph?

She is in New York working with Hilary's lawyers.

She is rolling on SBF most likely.

But mostly they are trying to cover up the money they laundered to DC politicians.

Achilles said...

Narr said...
Anything those scamps paid the Ds will be minimized by 99%, while the much smaller sums of money paid to Rs will be magnified in like measure.

SBF did max out his contributions to some Republicans.

They all voted to impeach Trump though.

walter said...

Suitcase full of shorts.

Yancey Ward said...

"So he hasn't killed himself yet? Odd."

It is only Monday.

paminwi said...

Is there something the Republicans were going to question him about that the Democrats really don’t want anyone to know?
He would be under oath, and I think that’s what the Democrats were afraid of.
So, just like that, he was arrested.

Jay Vogt said...

. . . . well, I take that back. the more interesting part of this story is that he had a physician (Dr. Lerner) as the performance coach for his Crypto Hedge fund. And that physician may or may not have proscribed pharmaceuticals to some/all/or none of the owners/staff/or contracted employees, independently or as a group, in a confidential/privileged/or blabby manner while he talked about it or didn't talk about it either in the Bahamas or California or some other place in an ethical or unethical manner in a jurisdiction where he may or may not have had a license to practice medicine if he was, while he was coaching. And, he may of may not have made any money doing this.

He was probably pretty professional the whole way. Wouldn't you think?

wildswan said...

gilbar said...
Serious Question: What about the Sultry Wood Nymph?

12/12/22, 8:45 PM
Blogger Lem Former Twitter Aficionado said...
Put your money in the Fried Bank of Sand. An Alternative House of Cards.

12/12/22, 8:46 PM

Lem,
As you can see Gilbar was posting at 8:45, while you finally got through at 8:46. "Oops" supposedly means that you tried to post at the same as someone else and in this case that seems to be true. Gilbar and you were colliding. Maybe wait a few minutes, rather than a few seconds, and try again so as not to keep colliding. Hope this helps.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

He was arrested this evening precisely to stop him from having to answer any questions at all tomorrow...

The arrest is a quasi-witness-protection program. LOL.

LakeLevel said...

Big Picture Conspiracy Theory: This is all a long-planned hit job on crypto currency. We mustn't have anyone but governments controlling the means of commerce. What is currency but the combined perceived value of that currency. How do you destroy a currency? Make people perceive it as a dangerous joke. Oh, and if you can also funnel a few billion dollars to Democrats and their friends at the same time, so much the better

Rt41Rebel said...

He should have been arrested weeks ago. The fact that he was arrested precisely before the hearing tells me that the powers that be waited to see if the whole mess would blow over. That kid is gonna kill himself before any of the Biden-Afghanistan-FTX-Dem Doner $ laundering operation sees even one photon.

tim in vermont said...

Let's see...

Democrats give huge amounts of government cash to Zelensky. Scream treason if anybody asks that it be audited, or even auditable, Zelensky "invests" large amounts of cash into FTX. SBF donates tens of millions to Democrats. If the shoe were on Trump's foot, and not Biden and Pelosi's, there would be prison jump suits in order.

Remember when Paul Pelosi Jr co-founded that company, but then his name was scrubbed from the corporate founding documents, but the same exact entity with his name now removed ended up in Ukraine in the field of "Green Energy"? What better way to launder foreign aid than through "Green Energy" grants to countries like the Ukraine, who are really dedicated to breaking the fossil fuel habit if we just pour enough money in there!

Zelensky and his cronies made up 40% of the Panama Papers kleptocrats, BTW, a man after Joe Biden's heart. If I really cared about so-called green energy, I would be more mad than anybody about the corruption.

tim in vermont said...

"SBF did max out his contributions to some Republicans."

Interesting use of the term "max out" when he have a couple thousand to Republicans like Susan Collins known as "max out", and 40 million to Democrat PACs for the past election cycle. His claim of giving the same 40 million to Republicans but it was "dark money" so he is not allowed to tell us where he gave the money is a risible attempt to cover for his Democrat cronies.

tim in vermont said...

"Bankman-Fried should probably request he be put on suicide watch at the jail."

Not sure that term means what you think it means, Epstein was on "suicide watch" and it meant that they watched his suicide and did nothing.

wendybar said...

Isn't THAT convenient?? Arrested the night before he was supposed to testify in front of possible recipients of his financial donations??

Big Mike said...

BTW, 12/12/2022 was a day of truly historic proportions. Look at the very first comment on this thread — for the first, and probably only, time in the history of the Althouse blog DD Driver is in agreement with Big Mike and other conservative commentators.

Dave Begley said...

“ Zelensky and his cronies made up 40% of the Panama Papers kleptocrats,”

Now isn’t that interesting.

BUMBLE BEE said...

ONGOING INVESTIGATION!- No further questions congressman.

Iman said...

I see actor Jonah Hill starring in “Good Money After Bad…”, the story of of the rise and fall of a pudgy, sociopathic slob on the make.

rwnutjob said...

I'm certainly no lawyer, but I thought his openness in public statements about what he did, would have made his lawyer blanch.

Tank said...

Whew, lotta cynicism here.

Deserved.

As Tank always says, we are awash in never ending bullshit.

typingtalker said...

I'll bet that SBF's lawyers demand "payment in advance" for their services.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

At which point swamp creature of old Jaime Gorelick makes an appearance.

William said...

My guess is that SBF would have plead the Fifth in his Congressional testimony, especially as such discretion would aid Democrats. He's not likely to say anything harmful to Democrat interests. He was quite quite voluble with some journalists previously, but those words were not under oath......I don't have any money in crypto. So I can be cruelly neutral on the subject. It was always a speculative investment. There's a difference between a crap game and a rigged crap game, but, in any case, you should not be investing the rent money in a crap game. I'm sure many people lost mucho money with SBF, but if they lost anything more than mad money, it's their own fault.

Bruce Hayden said...

“A lot of the money SBF stole from millions of mostly small investors went to Democrats and Never Trump Republicans”

But then, I expect that much of it came from Democrats in the first place. This seems to have been his MO:
- it sure looks like a Ponzi scheme;
- but he gave a lot of money to Democrats and Dem causes;
- so it must be ok to invest in his company.

I get suspicious really quickly when I see claims of almost certain returns well above the rates that you can buy Treasury bills for. That should have been the tip off, because that is how Ponzi schemes have always worked. I ask myself why I, so far down the totem pole, am being offered this (almost) certain payoff? Why me, when the really good deals go to insiders? I think it was, to some extent, the political side that convinced a lot of rich Democrats to invest.

Iman said...

Follow the fucking money. ALL would be exposed.

The guilty would hang if the People knew the truth.

rcocean said...

Was Maxine about to give him the standard "immunity" for testifying to Congress - so he could say whatever, admit whatever he wished and DOJ couldn't use his testimony in any prosecution???

Good Point! My original thought was that he was going to spill the beans on something, and they had to arrest him before he did that. Now, I realize it was the exact opposite. Waters was running cover for him.

Another reason for the arrest. Fear that Bankman-fried would testify, then flee to Israel. Or some other country and fight extradiction. IRC, Marc Rich did that, so did Polanski.

William said...

I lost a fair amount of money in the market recently. I put some money in FANG stocks on the principle that those stocks which are overvalued become even more overvalued. And so they do until they don't. I'm not really bitter about my losses. Just retribution for my greed.....I also moved a lot of money out of my bank and money market accounts where the money was not gaining anything in interest. I moved the money into reputable, conservative bond funds. I was hoping to make 2 to 3% interest on my money. Greed was not involved. Those bond funds lost 10 to 15% of their value. I'm kind of pissed off about this. It's one thing to lose money in the casino and quite another to lose money while acting in a prudent, virtuous way. But that's how the cookie crumbles.

Nonyabidness said...

Sam Bankman-Fried's girlfriend, the CEO of Alameda Research, FTX's hedge fund, is named Caroline Ellison

She's the daughter of Glenn Ellison, an economist who taught economics at MIT with Gary Gensler.

You might know that Gary Gensler is the current head of the SEC, and just arrested SBF.

Gensler was the chair of MIT's Media Lab, which developed "Project Hamilton" an attempt to create a central bank digital currency.

Bill Gates funded MIT's Media Lab CBDC project.

Along with Jeffrey Epstein.

Nonyabidness said...

Sam Bankman-Fried's girlfriend, the CEO of Alameda Research, FTX's hedge fund, is named Caroline Ellison

She's the daughter of Glenn Ellison, an economist who taught economics at MIT with Gary Gensler.

You might know that Gary Gensler is the current head of the SEC, and just arrested SBF.

Gensler was the chair of MIT's Media Lab, which developed "Project Hamilton" an attempt to create a central bank digital currency.

Bill Gates funded MIT's Media Lab CBDC project.

Along with Jeffrey Epstein.

JAORE said...

Full disclosure, I have zero bucks in crypto. Don't know much about it so I don't buy it.

But I have seen and heard this little azzhole a LOT lately.

Who, just who, would invest substantial sums into anything this creepy, nervous, word salad spewing kid sells?