Sam Bankman-Fried: the Bernie Madoff of Crypto
Scammers gonna scam...even when it's for 'the greater good.'
Here’s a 90-second video:
Here’s a news item:
Are you rightly pissed yet?
Here’s the whole story. Keep in mind that this guy’s admirers are among the people who voted to keep us marching toward collectivist Socialism.
Unfortunately, there is no greater return on investment in America today than bribing politicians and regulators. SBF and his network understand that reality. They spent the days before the collapse of FTX delivering massive resources into fixing the regulatory levers of power in D.C. to their liking.
During the crypto token bear market, Sam Bankman-Fried and his collaborators were trying to create a regulatory monopoly for their flagship FTX digital currency exchange, along with their massive venture capital empire, vacuuming up an incredible amount of equity in the digital token space.
Like most Ponzi schemes, things often great, at least from the outside looking in, while the Ponzi is operating. FTX was running Super Bowl ads, putting its name on stadiums, recruiting A list celebrities, actors, and athletes, all to prop up the operation.
SBF and his team, including his D.C.-based lobbyist brother (who is also committed to the effective altruism ideology), needed to find a way to eventually de-risk the Ponzi. They sought to win the day by achieving a government-sanctioned monopoly of their fraud scheme. Their lobbying efforts included dishing out hundreds of millions of dollars in political donations, mostly delivered to Democrat campaigns, with a clear intention to generate political indebtedness. Contrary to their stated aims, FTX was not, under any circumstances, on some humanitarian mission to “help crypto” or anything of the sort. The activities pursued by SBF and his team display a campaign to further corrupt legislators and regulators, with the hopes to establish an anti-competitive environment to the benefit of their enterprise.
Engaging in sketchy activity and embracing D.C. corruption sure is morally reprehensible, but, as you’ll understand in a moment, effective altruism can be interpreted as sanctioning such actions for the “greater good.”
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