Sam Bankman-Fried must have had a few loose $millions, in the same way that many of us have $500 credit balances in miscellaneous accounts that we’ve forgotten about. Why didn’t he gather these up and fly to Moscow as soon as the stories broke regarding his crimes?
My November 3, 2017 post… Where can Harvey Weinstein go for a peaceful retirement?:
Plainly Harvey Weinstein is not going to be working in Hollywood again. In any event, at age 65 he has reached normal retirement age. If he stays in the U.S. he risks prosecution for whatever happened during meetings with actresses in California, Connecticut, New York, and perhaps some other states. Even if evidence against him is weak, what prosecutor could resist becoming famous by bringing charges? (See Window into American criminal justice system from the daycare sexual abuse trials of the 1980s for some stuff that influences prosecutors in deciding whether to pursue a case.)
Harvey could probably beat the “beyond a reasonable doubt” rap a few times, given that most of the situations were private encounters and there were no unbiased witnesses. … Why would a 65-year-old with money want to stick around to spend the remaining years of his life as a defendant?
Harvey, of course, did not take the advice from my blog. On May 25, 2018, therefore, he was forced to turn himself in to the NYC police and surrender his passport. Harvey Weinstein will be in prison for the rest of his life rather than seeing if foreign actresses have the same flexible attitude about what is reasonable to do with a fat old guy in exchange for a role as American actresses had.
Perhaps Sam Bankman-Fried does not read this blog, but why wasn’t it obvious to him that he would likely have a much better life going forward in Moscow than in a U.S. prison? (It seems safe to assume that the Russians wouldn’t be in any hurry to extradite the 2nd largest donor to Joe Biden and wouldn’t cry about some American crypto enthusiasts losing $billions. And perhaps even Joe Biden and fellow Democrats who got money from SBF wouldn’t be inclined to pressure the Russians to send him back either.)
The front desk gals at the Marriott in Moscow (2017) where Bankman-Fried would have been welcomed:
The downtown Moscow shopping mall where he could replace all of the stuff that he left behind in mom and dad’s Bahamas houses:
Related:
- How to party with Hollywood Stars and Supermodels (regarding Jho Low, accused of working with Goldman Sachs to steal $billions from Malaysia, who is supposedly living very comfortably in China)
Brazil would have worked as well, I think, and the weather is better.
No argument about the weather, however …
https://br.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/assistance-u-s-citizens-arrested-brazil/
An extradition treaty between the United States and Brazil was signed on January 13, 1961 and implemented on February 11, 1965. The treaty allows both countries to request the return of individuals if the offense(s) committed are considered crimes by both countries. “Voluntary” extradition is not included in the extradition treaty.
All extradition cases are decided by the Supreme Court, with an average waiting period of one to two years. During this waiting period, the individual remains in the custody of the Federal Police and is entitled to receive consular visits.
What makes you think he didn’t also steal from Russian oligarchs, and would experience rather savage reprisals?
Russia? You’ve gotta be baiting your readers on this.
Russia is one of the few countries that does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S. and that also is mostly immune to U.S. pressure (a country that needs U.S. money and/or trade might still extradite someone just because Joe Biden asks). Russia also has a rich tradition of literature, art, architecture, science, and engineering. Can you think of a better place for someone who wants to live 50+ years free from U.S. criminal prosecution?
Wht would Russia want to shelter a con artist?
I wondered similar things but @Fazal has a point: right now at least, it’s pretty opaque who he stole from and who he gave to. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled some screwy stuff with other people overseas, even if there is no extradition treaty. This runs deep, and I think he was looking and thinking about a place to go before he was arrested in the Bahamas and tossed in the hell hole of a prison there.
If he didn’t have a plan for flight, knowing the things that he has done, he really is a whack job. How long did you think it was going to last before the hammer came down? Time is going to tell the full accounting here – not least because there are probably some indicitable politicians and foreign interests involved.
Separately, I’m always amazed to see the GUM department store from the inside especially the Louis Vuitton store and so forth. I think we studied that department store in the eighth grade, when I halfway expected it to be a glowing pile of rubble by now, along with most of New York City and me and lots of other people. I remember telling a friend: “I don’t know why we’re studying this. We’re all gonna be a big puddle of molten radioactive ash soon.” Maybe I was just ahead of myself.
By the way I don’t mean YOU you. I mean the depersonalized figure of speech “you.”
I don’t know, he could emigrate to Russia, annoy someone, say by playing videogames while they were trying to talk to him about spilling the beans on US pols. and then get sent to the front and get killed. I think i would prefer a low security US prison. He might ahead of trial accept responsibility, plead guilty and receive a sentence not all that harsh. Given that his two lieutenants have already pleaded and will testify that he instructed them to do whatever, his prospects at trial don’t seem good. And maybe he will drop the dime on his dad and mom so the feds get two Stanford law profs and that will be reflected in his sentence. So remaining in the US has a lot of optionality — notwithstanding those perky hostesses.
And here I thought participants in a polycule couldn’t be compelled to testify against each other.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ftx-co-founder-sam-bankman-fried-will-released-250-million-bail-judge-rcna62994 is interesting. “FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is accused of misappropriating billions of dollars deposited in the crypto currency exchange, walked out of federal courthouse in New York on Thursday after posting $250 million personal recognizance bond.”
The guy previously said that he was broke. All of his money had been wrapped up in FTX. But he happened to have a spare $250 million in stolen customer funds to post bail?
This is a great example of white privilege. Homie is accused of stealing something worth $2,000 and languishes in jail for months awaiting trial. The white guy is accused of stealing $billions and will be relaxing in the $10 million Palo Alto house of his limousine liberal parents.
Holy shit. I hope his parents have some really good security at that house of theirs. They’ve obviously got the money.
That’s a strange bail.
Who “posted” the remaining $246M ? His parent’s house is valued at “only” $4m ! Who is this mysterious crypto fan ? Should not the bail source be public information ?
He’s probably defrauded Russians out of many millions of dollars as well.
If you defraud wealthy Russians, who often are gangsters in suits, you tend to end up dead if you are in Russia. Or even without.
Why didn’t Sam Bankman-Fried go to Russia? Because he was not a reader of this fine blog!
“Sam Bankman-Fried must have had a few loose $millions”
Guessing that SBF might well have had some millions laying around. But it probably would have some billions to entice Russia into giving him shelter. And doubt he had that, even if the allure of Moscow had occurred to him.
This reminds me of something I’ve wondered about for a while: will governments really tolerate supersonic private jets? Currently, if you try to leave the country on a gulfstream or whatever, there’s a pretty good chance that, if the government has a real problem with it, they can send something fast to track you down. No current fighter, except maybe the F-22, can supercruise long enough to catch someone in a Concorde, which could go Mach 2 for hours, provided that the Concorde has a pretty good lead. (presumably the supersonic business jets that get floated around will have serious range, too)
I suppose it’s an open question as to whether they’d send a military jet after a white-collar criminal, but who knows? It sure seems like they might have sent one after a Snowden.
Some reading comprehension issues among the commenters here.
> A recognizance bond is a written commitment from the accused to appear in court when ordered. In return, Bankman-Fried’s camp won’t be required to meet the full collateral requirements of the bail.
No funds were put up. The bond is solely secured against his parents’ house.
How can a $250M bond be “secured” by a $4M collateral ? Whose reading comprehension do you have in mind ?
@Ivan because the government was lying about the 250 million dollar bond. In reality he left jail without paying any money. His parents also didn’t pay anything.
TS: What a scam! If they’re going to lie to us this way, why not go bigger? Say that it is a $100 billion bond. Though, I guess the Bankman-Fried family could pay off $100 million of the $250 million if they sold their luxury real estate portfolio in the Bahamas. https://nypost.com/2022/11/22/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-and-his-parents-bought-bahamas-real-estate-worth-121m-report/
TS: That does not make much sense. In order to pacify stupid peasants, the bond might have been established at , say, $10M, even without putting up any cash, with a much better PR effect. The implausible amount of $250M immediately raises suspicion that the bond is fake and is designed to impress hoi polloi.
Interestingly, I could not find any speculation as to the provenance of the remaining $246M collateral in any major publication.
You’d think life in Russia was hard with all the sanctions & being ruled by a dictator. Of course, you can’t get most stuff anymore in US because of inflation. Wonder how life under Putin’s iron fist compares to Calif*’s plastic bag restrictions.
Question for those who might know: If a prisoner is held in the Fox Hill Prison and then extradited to the United States, do the Bahamas bill the USA for the expense of the prisoner’s care in their facility? I ask for two reasons:
1) Where does that money go and how is the “invoice” sent?
2) Since SBF’s stay at Fox Hill was the Penthouse Treatment, it must have cost a pretty penny, at least in the Bahamas. So do they bill the USA for his VIP First Class Esplanade Excelsior treatment?
https://nypost.com/2022/12/21/sam-bankman-frieds-bahamas-prison-perks-included-cable-tv-air-conditioning-report/
“Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was kept away from the general prison population and enjoyed special perks such as air-conditioning and cable TV during his short stint at Fox Hill, according to a report Wednesday….He was given his own cot…The 30-year-old crypto huckster has “spent his days watching TV news and reading articles about himself.” Bankman-Fried has also “been allowed to play crossword puzzles” for entertainment…The report said the picky-eating Bankman-Fried “has been getting vegan food” in addition to more standard fare such as grits and sausage for breakfast and corned beef and chicken wings for lunch.”
Compared to the usual treatment at Fox Hill Prison, that’s living on a cloud! I wonder who set all that up for him? It would be fascinating to read the transcripts of the phone calls.
Thanks for that link. Mr SB-F has apparently received some peculiarly favorable treatment, based on that and on the bogus “$250M bond”. So I’ll hazard an answer to the post’s question:
> Why didn’t Sam Bankman-Fried go to Russia?
Because he knows he’s not in any trouble. He’s not in trouble because he did what he was told and followed the script. The script brought “crypto” into disrepute (or more than it already was) and provides a great pretext to “regulate” it, i.e. to discourage the little people getting control of their own money. It also generated a lot of loot.
An objection might be: how could they be so blatant and think they can get away with it, whoever “they” are? Answer: the covid pandemic revealed that most people will believe virtually anything they’re told so long as it bears the stamp of official approval. Inhibitions might have put a brake on things a few years ago but not now.
This theory would be disproved if SB-F does escape to Russia or somewhere beyond the reach of US (in)justice, or actually serves hard time. Let’s see.