Madoff's biggest mistake was not buying off every politician he could find. That's why SBF is running free.
This story is interesting now. It will be fascinating when the clawbacks come. Then the recipients of SBF's donations will have to give the money back. Imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth as politicians, mostly Democrats, will have to urgently raise funds to cover the clawbacks. The press could even fill with stories of how their campaigns go bankrupt. Their opponents will have a field day. Covering for him now will only make it all worse when the dirty laundry finally gets aire.
This is what lies in the future. And I can hardly wait.
"It will be fascinating when the clawbacks come." Not a chance. SBF, if he is ever prosecuted, will be hit with failing to maintain proper books and records, assessed a nominal fine and slapped with a suspended sentence. He didn't spend all that money for nothing. Prosecutions require a prosecuTOR. Watch.
Both things could happen: clawbacks & slap on wrist for SBF. They aren't mutually exclusive. We shall see. SDNY prosecutors got back 80-something percent of the Madoff fraud via clawbacks, so there's a precedent.
I agree with you that Madoff's downfall was in failing to anticipate that he would need powerful allies when his fraud was inevitably uncovered. SBF didn't make that mistake. But why not? Does anyone really think it's because SBF was smart enough to think and plan ahead, or even more cunningly, to entrap the rich and powerful, as Epstein may have done? I don't. So I have to wonder how much of this was planned by others, with SBF basically their pawn, and with all kinds of "hold harmless" agreements on the side. And I say this as someone who abhors conspiracy theories -- but who can't ignore the reality that SBF is still a free man who feels confident enough to participate as a speaker at a NYT sponsored conference.
And be interviewed the next morning by George Stephanopoulos. But wait, SBF is still fat and (to all appearances mostly) happy in the Bahamas. George flew in to interview SBF in person. SBF participated in the NYT conference via video.
He was there ! Why wasn't he arrested ? And if this one person knew quite early on that he was a fraud, who is behind him that he was not found out by the rest ? It must have been known. The govt? The shadow govt?
So is this going to be hidden away on a back burner like the Epstein flight logs, next to Hunter’s laptop, behind the accounting of monies sent to Ukraine...gathering dust while we beg our representatives to act????
Sam has better lawyers than Bernie. Fraud prosecution requires intent, and Sam is on a PR tour demonstrating he's too stupid to intend to steal billions. He paid most of the government and the media to believe him.
I've been saying it since 2010, all these people who are advocating to let them hold crypto for you are scammers. Celsius, this guy etc. Crypto (bitcoin in particular since most others are scams) has its uses, but not if you don't hold the private keys. Otherwise you are just a creditor. If you don't have the keys, they aren't your coins.
Of course Biden, Obama etc don't want to push too far since he was a huge donor and the company was a great way to launder billions in $ from Ukraine.
They called us in the mid 1990s. I didn't do anything since they seemed scammy then. He got, what, 22 months? Talk about a light sentence.
Kind of like today when McCarthy told the 1/6 committee to "preserve records". My question is, "or what?" What happened to any of the Russian interference nonsense? What happened to Clapper? Brennan? Hayden? Perjury by them and nothing happened. Comey? Nothing. Fauci probably committed perjury too with some of his statements but nothing will happen.
Of course Libby had the wrong political party so wasn't exempt.
Not to mention all the therapeutics that were denied use during the “Height of the pandemic” because they didn’t allow their narrative to be fulfilled. Will any of those officials that didn’t allow those therapeutics to be used face prosecution for murder? Rhetorical question.
Here's what I don't get. Any situation where a 'normal' person goes bankrupt, the courts start clawing back funds for monies spent in the last however many months are applicable. Some of these damn lawmakers are saying they'll donate that amount to charity. Bullshit, that money should be clawed back from all of them and his crap sold and use that to divide up (for pennies on the dollar) for his customers to get some small bit of money back. This 'donate to charity' crap is a damn joke. This little moron scammed the system in a huge way because he has his hands in politicians pockets. He has to go to federal prison along with all his minions and ugly ass girl friend. Side note, when the money is clawed back, we'll find out exactly how much money went to which politicians. I'm doubting very seriously that he spent as much on both sides as he says. In the long run, that doesn't matter as much as getting every penny they can squeeze out of him, his properties and everyone who was part of this little cabal. Give me a damn break - donate that money to charity? And what about the money invested from Ukraine. So, the US taxpayers put untold sums in Ukraine's hands, they invest with this idiot, he donates to politicians, who vote to give more of our money to Ukraine? Seriously?
Agreed. Giving it to charity is so much BS. Think of all the corrupt .orgs we know of!! Somewhere I thought I saw a list of the politicians he donated to and it was at least 90/10 D/R. Sorry can't recall where I read that.
“…donate to charity…” I’ve heard that suggested before…oh yeah, that’s what Gofundme was going to do with the money it wanted to steal from supporters of the Canadian truckers.
The 'whoopsie, I got caught, I'll give it to charity' has been going on for a long time. I remember reading about Fauci doing it when one of the drugs he was backing had "problems". But no one ever followed up - he could have given it to his kid's soccer team.
But what is interesting is in the past, if 'the club' gets screwed over by a rogue player, they go after him. Think Madoff or Enron. If peons get screwed at the same time, they use it as an argument to bolster their case, not because they really care. So the fact that you have these idiots applauding this clown makes me suspicious. Like they are in on the scam. I am more than willing to be persuaded otherwise. But after the shit show of the last three years, that is going to take some effort.
What law did SBF break? If I make a stupid investment and lose money, should I be entitled to return of my money? Tell me what law he broke please? I think he is a fraud but investors gave him the money and do not deserve a return of money.
Marc CoHodes is a contrarian that called "bullshit" on FTX because it was fake, dishonest and run by Charlatans. Alex Berenson called "bullshit" on Lockdowns, Masks, PCR tests, mRNA shots, etc. because it was run by Public Health Charlatans that have consumed us with Lies and Propaganda. I'm glad these 2 guys are staying in touch and exposing so much fraud, propaganda, lies, ethical violations and untruths.
Similar to many of us calling out Hunter Biden pre 2020 election, similar to calling out false Russian collusion, similar to calling out the great scamdemic of 2020. ete etc etc What's the point? Calling it out is what exactly...a hey look at how right I am all along? Meanwhile NO ONE is being held accountable for any of it.
He got where he was because of his Parents. The Democrats protect themselves like endangered reptiles. They can go to a drag queen party hit all the children over there heads with his one eyed snake 🐍 and if one of us people in the comment section did this it would be breaking news on Fox News.
SBF will not be criminally prosecuted as long as Biden is in office. His mother is a Democrat bundler. I surmise SBF is a shill for Democrat politicians and used FTX to funnel campaign contributions through various PACs to the Democrat Party. If anyone does a deep dive on FTX I will bet they will find he used FTX cash he stole from clients to help Democrats win key races in AZ, NV and PA. This is how Democrats outspent Republicans and allowed them to retain the Senate. The fact that he is a crook is completely irrelevant to Democrats. The DOJ and NY AG will leave SBF alone and continue to go after Trump because SBF is one of theirs.
Why isn't SBF facing the same federal scrutiny as Elizabeth Holmes when her house of cards aka Theranos collapsed? I SO appreciate the comparison of FTX collapse to the mRNA injections. Alex you are really brilliant and such an amazing writer. ty for this.
And we could solve it all with legitimate findings that just tell us what we already know.... And then these sorry jackasses go to jail. IMO, this is one of the things the Republicans were elected to do. But if you notice, now Fauci 'can't remember' the details of anything. That's fine. Send him to jail anyway AND wipe out that juicy gov't pension while they're at it. Too much money going in too many different pockets. In history, revolutions were caused by less than what's going on in this country. We elected a former navy seal in my district here in the great state of Texas for Congress. I believe there are many like him that actually DO love this country and will do whatever it takes to begin to turn this ship around, but one of those things is punishment. If these people aren't punished, it's all hollow.
An off to the side slush fund that for appearance sake had “contributions “ to a few Republican PACs. Not as massive as Obama’s “shovel ready” stimulus slush fund (taxpayer funded)...
Digital assets are here to stay, regardless of whether people think 'bitcoin is a scam', which is an irrelevant and silly question to even ask anymore.
Banks are already moving to digital assets one way or another, and while they won't likely run on bitcoin, they will run on some sort of blockchain bridge currency or token. It's already happening with central banks and commercial banks globally.
The fortunate thing here is that the major crypto legislation that will likely pass next year, the DCCPA, will have to be stripped of all the things SBF influenced. Lawmakers were going to SBF for advice on how to regulate (while accepting his campaign contributions) and the SEC and CFTC have already admitted that they spent 'thousands of hours' meeting with FTX. It happened right under the noses of Gary Gensler and the SEC enablers.
A workable DCCPA and the defeat of the SEC in the Ripple case will be turnkey moments in history of digital assets next year.
You make a false comparison. Digital assets are not CryptoCurrency. Of course ”DigitalAssets” are here to stay. Governments, banks, credit cards have been using system for years. Blockchain adds the security so the Government has the customer, citizen, in direct contact as well as the bank. On top of that Cryptos are Fiat Currencies with zero backing. Dollar is petrol. Yuan is real estate, mfg & trade etc but Bitcoin is ponzi amd high energy signature. So in today’s world may soon be done. Blockchain value remains and will continue to be used until obsolete.
So if the world abandons the petrodollar, the USD will have 'zero backing'?
XRP will be backed by the global liquidity pool that will be used to facilitate cross border payments between CBDCs with XRP as the bridge currency. Everything is backed by the value determination it has in a market. A "fiat currency" is just that, by its very definition; legal tender not backed by any real commodity with no inherent value outside government promises.
Umm, if you don’t think Crypto is anything more than a Ponzi Scheme to begin with, like myself, have written & commented telling people to avoid the fraud. Can I also say I realized the FTT/SBF fraud before anyone else? I ask because when it happened I was not paying attention. But when I saw it had I was happy as I realized had missed that bullet. Had told my children to stay away from investing in the space.
I would agree with you and expand. Ponzi in beginning.His ”box with 20mln” interview was illustration. The embezzelment, money laundering, used to finance other fraudulent business activity was all part of it. So yes, not just Ponzi. But the operations were run similar to Mafia organizations and how BCCI etc were run.
But you ask the best question, where did it all go? Some real estate purchase for parents, friends, self etc. The rest, hard to track but like the Epstein estate. Was called a billionaire, when he dies worth 600+mln and then worth just 124 mln. Where did it all go? Epstein was skilled at hiding, tracking & retrieving/stealing money. SBF has proven he is good as well.
Poor little old America. Can't mobilize a commando team to go get this fraudster and bring him in for justice, because the Bahamas might strike back???
On a seperate topic from my previous comment. Would hope the coming article has more on the corruption, Intelligence agency grooming, comparisons to BCCI, Tower, Epstein. How the Ukrainian gun running, weapons sales with planes to Greece if at all were involved. Just remembering how the Iran Contra was set up and run.
Sounds a lot like the penny stock frauds of decades past. Completely manipulated prices and trades. And remember, the crash of 1929 was due mainly because the stock funds of those days were moving money between each other, to keep them propped up, until the music stopped. Realize as well that most of the "stocks" that are on our exchanges today are ETFs and other non-equity instruments of a ridiculous array of "investments" that will one day hear the music stop again.
It took one day for Bernie Madoff to be arrested.
Yesterday, Bankman-Fried spoke at the New York Times DealBook conference. He was applauded.
Madoff's biggest mistake was not buying off every politician he could find. That's why SBF is running free.
This story is interesting now. It will be fascinating when the clawbacks come. Then the recipients of SBF's donations will have to give the money back. Imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth as politicians, mostly Democrats, will have to urgently raise funds to cover the clawbacks. The press could even fill with stories of how their campaigns go bankrupt. Their opponents will have a field day. Covering for him now will only make it all worse when the dirty laundry finally gets aire.
This is what lies in the future. And I can hardly wait.
"It will be fascinating when the clawbacks come." Not a chance. SBF, if he is ever prosecuted, will be hit with failing to maintain proper books and records, assessed a nominal fine and slapped with a suspended sentence. He didn't spend all that money for nothing. Prosecutions require a prosecuTOR. Watch.
Both things could happen: clawbacks & slap on wrist for SBF. They aren't mutually exclusive. We shall see. SDNY prosecutors got back 80-something percent of the Madoff fraud via clawbacks, so there's a precedent.
I agree with you that Madoff's downfall was in failing to anticipate that he would need powerful allies when his fraud was inevitably uncovered. SBF didn't make that mistake. But why not? Does anyone really think it's because SBF was smart enough to think and plan ahead, or even more cunningly, to entrap the rich and powerful, as Epstein may have done? I don't. So I have to wonder how much of this was planned by others, with SBF basically their pawn, and with all kinds of "hold harmless" agreements on the side. And I say this as someone who abhors conspiracy theories -- but who can't ignore the reality that SBF is still a free man who feels confident enough to participate as a speaker at a NYT sponsored conference.
And be interviewed the next morning by George Stephanopoulos. But wait, SBF is still fat and (to all appearances mostly) happy in the Bahamas. George flew in to interview SBF in person. SBF participated in the NYT conference via video.
The scenario you've described has been run, just recently...
https://youtu.be/84zJ9ahJ-qU
Well, kind of. You can only get away with so much.
There will be no clawbacks
Agreed!
He was there ! Why wasn't he arrested ? And if this one person knew quite early on that he was a fraud, who is behind him that he was not found out by the rest ? It must have been known. The govt? The shadow govt?
He attended virtually, but the disparity in treatment is still astounding.
At the very least he should have had his passport revoked immediately.
So is this going to be hidden away on a back burner like the Epstein flight logs, next to Hunter’s laptop, behind the accounting of monies sent to Ukraine...gathering dust while we beg our representatives to act????
And like Barry Soetoro‘s college applications.
Sam has better lawyers than Bernie. Fraud prosecution requires intent, and Sam is on a PR tour demonstrating he's too stupid to intend to steal billions. He paid most of the government and the media to believe him.
That's an interesting take and actually makes a lot of sense.
I watched in absolute disgust!
I've been saying it since 2010, all these people who are advocating to let them hold crypto for you are scammers. Celsius, this guy etc. Crypto (bitcoin in particular since most others are scams) has its uses, but not if you don't hold the private keys. Otherwise you are just a creditor. If you don't have the keys, they aren't your coins.
Of course Biden, Obama etc don't want to push too far since he was a huge donor and the company was a great way to launder billions in $ from Ukraine.
Bingo!
I think you have a good point
Did you know that people pay Jordan Belfort- The Wolf of Wall Street- for sales training?
He was committing fraud, but some people think they should learn sales from him.
There's a yuge market for even the SBF's of the world.
They called us in the mid 1990s. I didn't do anything since they seemed scammy then. He got, what, 22 months? Talk about a light sentence.
Kind of like today when McCarthy told the 1/6 committee to "preserve records". My question is, "or what?" What happened to any of the Russian interference nonsense? What happened to Clapper? Brennan? Hayden? Perjury by them and nothing happened. Comey? Nothing. Fauci probably committed perjury too with some of his statements but nothing will happen.
Of course Libby had the wrong political party so wasn't exempt.
Not to mention all the therapeutics that were denied use during the “Height of the pandemic” because they didn’t allow their narrative to be fulfilled. Will any of those officials that didn’t allow those therapeutics to be used face prosecution for murder? Rhetorical question.
Here's what I don't get. Any situation where a 'normal' person goes bankrupt, the courts start clawing back funds for monies spent in the last however many months are applicable. Some of these damn lawmakers are saying they'll donate that amount to charity. Bullshit, that money should be clawed back from all of them and his crap sold and use that to divide up (for pennies on the dollar) for his customers to get some small bit of money back. This 'donate to charity' crap is a damn joke. This little moron scammed the system in a huge way because he has his hands in politicians pockets. He has to go to federal prison along with all his minions and ugly ass girl friend. Side note, when the money is clawed back, we'll find out exactly how much money went to which politicians. I'm doubting very seriously that he spent as much on both sides as he says. In the long run, that doesn't matter as much as getting every penny they can squeeze out of him, his properties and everyone who was part of this little cabal. Give me a damn break - donate that money to charity? And what about the money invested from Ukraine. So, the US taxpayers put untold sums in Ukraine's hands, they invest with this idiot, he donates to politicians, who vote to give more of our money to Ukraine? Seriously?
I wonder what charity? Let me guess, "The Good Dems for vote counting"?
Agreed. Giving it to charity is so much BS. Think of all the corrupt .orgs we know of!! Somewhere I thought I saw a list of the politicians he donated to and it was at least 90/10 D/R. Sorry can't recall where I read that.
“…donate to charity…” I’ve heard that suggested before…oh yeah, that’s what Gofundme was going to do with the money it wanted to steal from supporters of the Canadian truckers.
The 'whoopsie, I got caught, I'll give it to charity' has been going on for a long time. I remember reading about Fauci doing it when one of the drugs he was backing had "problems". But no one ever followed up - he could have given it to his kid's soccer team.
But what is interesting is in the past, if 'the club' gets screwed over by a rogue player, they go after him. Think Madoff or Enron. If peons get screwed at the same time, they use it as an argument to bolster their case, not because they really care. So the fact that you have these idiots applauding this clown makes me suspicious. Like they are in on the scam. I am more than willing to be persuaded otherwise. But after the shit show of the last three years, that is going to take some effort.
Seriously. The "sunbeam" of money laundromats!
What law did SBF break? If I make a stupid investment and lose money, should I be entitled to return of my money? Tell me what law he broke please? I think he is a fraud but investors gave him the money and do not deserve a return of money.
Fraud, lots of fraud. This is a short thread, explains the fraud
https://www.reddit.com/r/ftx/comments/z5mrhs/what_laws_did_ftx_break/
Marc CoHodes is a contrarian that called "bullshit" on FTX because it was fake, dishonest and run by Charlatans. Alex Berenson called "bullshit" on Lockdowns, Masks, PCR tests, mRNA shots, etc. because it was run by Public Health Charlatans that have consumed us with Lies and Propaganda. I'm glad these 2 guys are staying in touch and exposing so much fraud, propaganda, lies, ethical violations and untruths.
Great rundown! There's a reason we say "NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COINS".
The real mind-blowing moment is realizing the same exact thing would happen to the banking system -- and that's why causing a bank run is illegal.
Similar to many of us calling out Hunter Biden pre 2020 election, similar to calling out false Russian collusion, similar to calling out the great scamdemic of 2020. ete etc etc What's the point? Calling it out is what exactly...a hey look at how right I am all along? Meanwhile NO ONE is being held accountable for any of it.
He got where he was because of his Parents. The Democrats protect themselves like endangered reptiles. They can go to a drag queen party hit all the children over there heads with his one eyed snake 🐍 and if one of us people in the comment section did this it would be breaking news on Fox News.
SBF will not be criminally prosecuted as long as Biden is in office. His mother is a Democrat bundler. I surmise SBF is a shill for Democrat politicians and used FTX to funnel campaign contributions through various PACs to the Democrat Party. If anyone does a deep dive on FTX I will bet they will find he used FTX cash he stole from clients to help Democrats win key races in AZ, NV and PA. This is how Democrats outspent Republicans and allowed them to retain the Senate. The fact that he is a crook is completely irrelevant to Democrats. The DOJ and NY AG will leave SBF alone and continue to go after Trump because SBF is one of theirs.
Why isn't SBF facing the same federal scrutiny as Elizabeth Holmes when her house of cards aka Theranos collapsed? I SO appreciate the comparison of FTX collapse to the mRNA injections. Alex you are really brilliant and such an amazing writer. ty for this.
Elizabeth Holmes must not have donated enough money to the Democrats.
And we could solve it all with legitimate findings that just tell us what we already know.... And then these sorry jackasses go to jail. IMO, this is one of the things the Republicans were elected to do. But if you notice, now Fauci 'can't remember' the details of anything. That's fine. Send him to jail anyway AND wipe out that juicy gov't pension while they're at it. Too much money going in too many different pockets. In history, revolutions were caused by less than what's going on in this country. We elected a former navy seal in my district here in the great state of Texas for Congress. I believe there are many like him that actually DO love this country and will do whatever it takes to begin to turn this ship around, but one of those things is punishment. If these people aren't punished, it's all hollow.
An off to the side slush fund that for appearance sake had “contributions “ to a few Republican PACs. Not as massive as Obama’s “shovel ready” stimulus slush fund (taxpayer funded)...
Great article/interview on a timely subject.
Digital assets are here to stay, regardless of whether people think 'bitcoin is a scam', which is an irrelevant and silly question to even ask anymore.
Banks are already moving to digital assets one way or another, and while they won't likely run on bitcoin, they will run on some sort of blockchain bridge currency or token. It's already happening with central banks and commercial banks globally.
The fortunate thing here is that the major crypto legislation that will likely pass next year, the DCCPA, will have to be stripped of all the things SBF influenced. Lawmakers were going to SBF for advice on how to regulate (while accepting his campaign contributions) and the SEC and CFTC have already admitted that they spent 'thousands of hours' meeting with FTX. It happened right under the noses of Gary Gensler and the SEC enablers.
A workable DCCPA and the defeat of the SEC in the Ripple case will be turnkey moments in history of digital assets next year.
You make a false comparison. Digital assets are not CryptoCurrency. Of course ”DigitalAssets” are here to stay. Governments, banks, credit cards have been using system for years. Blockchain adds the security so the Government has the customer, citizen, in direct contact as well as the bank. On top of that Cryptos are Fiat Currencies with zero backing. Dollar is petrol. Yuan is real estate, mfg & trade etc but Bitcoin is ponzi amd high energy signature. So in today’s world may soon be done. Blockchain value remains and will continue to be used until obsolete.
So if the world abandons the petrodollar, the USD will have 'zero backing'?
XRP will be backed by the global liquidity pool that will be used to facilitate cross border payments between CBDCs with XRP as the bridge currency. Everything is backed by the value determination it has in a market. A "fiat currency" is just that, by its very definition; legal tender not backed by any real commodity with no inherent value outside government promises.
There you go. Would still have some petrol, but would have lowered value tied to real estate &trade.
Umm, if you don’t think Crypto is anything more than a Ponzi Scheme to begin with, like myself, have written & commented telling people to avoid the fraud. Can I also say I realized the FTT/SBF fraud before anyone else? I ask because when it happened I was not paying attention. But when I saw it had I was happy as I realized had missed that bullet. Had told my children to stay away from investing in the space.
I would agree with you and expand. Ponzi in beginning.His ”box with 20mln” interview was illustration. The embezzelment, money laundering, used to finance other fraudulent business activity was all part of it. So yes, not just Ponzi. But the operations were run similar to Mafia organizations and how BCCI etc were run.
But you ask the best question, where did it all go? Some real estate purchase for parents, friends, self etc. The rest, hard to track but like the Epstein estate. Was called a billionaire, when he dies worth 600+mln and then worth just 124 mln. Where did it all go? Epstein was skilled at hiding, tracking & retrieving/stealing money. SBF has proven he is good as well.
Poor little old America. Can't mobilize a commando team to go get this fraudster and bring him in for justice, because the Bahamas might strike back???
I confess I had the same thought.
We need a Mossad-tyype team.
On a seperate topic from my previous comment. Would hope the coming article has more on the corruption, Intelligence agency grooming, comparisons to BCCI, Tower, Epstein. How the Ukrainian gun running, weapons sales with planes to Greece if at all were involved. Just remembering how the Iran Contra was set up and run.
Sounds a lot like the penny stock frauds of decades past. Completely manipulated prices and trades. And remember, the crash of 1929 was due mainly because the stock funds of those days were moving money between each other, to keep them propped up, until the music stopped. Realize as well that most of the "stocks" that are on our exchanges today are ETFs and other non-equity instruments of a ridiculous array of "investments" that will one day hear the music stop again.