Sam Bankman-Fried Loses Bid To Overturn Crypto Fraud Conviction (reuters.com) 34
Sam Bankman-Fried lost his appeal to overturn his FTX fraud conviction and 25-year sentence. Reuters reports: In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said prosecutors' evidence against Bankman-Fried "was, conservatively stated, robust." "While he was publicly reassuring customers, investors and regulators that FTX customer funds were safe, he was simultaneously using FTX as his own personal piggy bank, spending customer funds on real estate, political contributions, and investments," Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote on behalf of the panel.
Bankman-Fried's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. They may next ask all the active judges on the 2nd Circuit to hear the case, or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. Bankman-Fried is also seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump, according to the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 for "masterminding one of the largest financial frauds in American history," wrote US District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He was convicted on all charges, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering.
Bankman-Fried's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. They may next ask all the active judges on the 2nd Circuit to hear the case, or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. Bankman-Fried is also seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump, according to the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 for "masterminding one of the largest financial frauds in American history," wrote US District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He was convicted on all charges, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering.
It's All Over Except for the Crying (Score:3)
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If he's so smart, then why ain't he rich? (Score:2)
Oh wait. Was SBF rich? Or was it all smoke and mirrors?
But I'm sure SBF ain't so smart. If he can't figure out how to bribe the YOB, then he must be an idiot. I would say let me count the ways, but I've already lost count.
So time for the usual plug for a book? Near as I can tell that makes me dumb if i think there's going to be any positive reaction to a book on today's Slashdot, but still... Michael Lewis writes so well and he did do a book on SBF. Fun story, but mostly wound up feeling like it was all smo
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Not since he donated to Democrats. I mean Trump pardoned Pirate Roberts so there is hope and that dude was way worse (harm wise).
As long as he didn't rip off the Epstein class (Score:2)
This assumes he didn't fuck with anyone important. There was this congressman who kept telling these ridiculous lies but for some reason people fucking loved him. He was on track to be a big star in the Republican party until he fucked with Mitch McConnell's money people. I think he
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Don't worry, he was convicted of fraud, so I'm sure the fraudster-in-chief will pardon him for the right price.
Bribes (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Bribes (Score:5, Informative)
Pardons are set at $1 million. https://www.congress.gov/119/m... [congress.gov]
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"The bribe has to be big enough, or you just have to stroke his ego properly.."
The bribe has to be big enough, AND you just have to stroke his ego properly.
Nothing provokes rage from Trump like saying anything negative about him.
Re: Bribes (Score:2)
Failing that, stroke something else.
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I've heard this repeatedly from those with TDS.
Yet, it doesn't actually seem to work?
Has Trump pardoned a bunch of shitty people? Yep.
Then again, he didn't issue 'pre-emptive' pardons for his family, friends, crackhead son, etc yet, so there's that. Or how about 1500 commutations and 39 pardons on a single day? https://news.wttw.com/2024/12/... [wttw.com]
I mean Kaboni Savage is a particularly awful person. I mean, "burnt a family alive and laughed about it" not "misvalued his commercial property" bad, amirite?
I see
Re:Bribes (Score:4, Informative)
The only reason Biden issued those pardons was because Trump was bragging about how he was going to weaponize the DOJ to go after people.
As for the clemencies, that does not absolve the person of the crime they committed. All it does is show mercy on them.
Compare that to all the January 6th terrorists who have been pardoned. And now there's talk of paying them for their troubles. No, not the $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund*. There is still talk of paying these people for their crimes.
* Anti-weaponization is straight out of Orwell. Or the Soviet Union. Take your pick. Apparently imprisoning people who attack police aren't criminals in his eyes.
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His extensive pardons of J6 criminals prove one thing. It certainly wasn’t Antifa. Also I’m pretty sure he used the autopen because I don’t think that bloated bruised hand could do 1600 signatures.
Re:Bribes (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, about those pardons and the autopen... [pbs.org]
Re: Bribes (Score:5, Informative)
Trump said more than once he would pressure the DoJ to prosecute anyone and everyone that he sees as his personal enemies if he was to be re-elected as president.
When Biden was elected, he didn't pressure the DoJ to go after Trump. Some states did, for illegal shit he did before, after and during his first term, but Biden didn't.
When Trump was re-elected he resumed using the DoJ as his personal legal hit squad.
Given the actual context of both situations, and the events that occurred, your statements are are incredibly detached from reality.
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When people bathe in MAGA kool aid, they indeed become incredibly detached from reality.
This is the result of attacking education for 40 years - nobody has working critical thinking skills any more.
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That's a pretty bad case of BDS you seem to have there. You should see a doctor about that. You know you have a problem when you start every sentence with "But Biden..."
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Your point seems to be, "Yes Trump is bad, but Biden was worse."
So you agree, Trump is bad.
effective altruism (Score:3)
Guess it was not so effective.
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If he wanted to give lawyers a bunch of money, I guess it worked.
If he can scrape up enough for a bribe... (Score:1, Redundant)
then Trump will pardon him on the way out. Might do for Ghislaine too
He deserves to rot in jail (Score:2)
He'll be pardoned anyway (Score:1)
A Trump pardon for his crypto bro is imminent anyway.
The girlfriend is already out (Score:2)
Caroline Ellison was released from federal custody back in January.
Give the "unfortunate looking woman" (to use my grandmother's euphemism) credit for knowing when the jig was up and promptly switching to canary mode.