SBF/FTX
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Andy McCarthy's take on the bail - it's all for show.
The Biden Justice Department and the SDNY want you to know that this is a very serious case — an “epic” fraud, the prosecutors said in court today. So bail was agreed to at $250 million, so the Justice Department could say it is the highest bail amount in the history of federal prosecutions, maybe even the history of the universe.
But is it really? SBF did not have to put up $250 million in collateral. The only thing that appears to be posted is his parents’ home in Palo Alto. I’m sure it is very nice, but rest assured it’s not anything remotely close to $250 million nice.
Other than that, the bond has to be co-signed by four “financially responsible people.” A financially responsible person is one who is reasonably trustworthy when it comes to paying his bills; financially responsible does not mean financially rich. There is no requirement in the bond that the FRPs demonstrate a capacity to pay $250 million if Sam goes on the lam.
The fact is, SBF has already been released. They let him go on a signature. He didn’t need to establish that, if he absconds, the government would have $250 million in cash or other assets on which to execute. DOJ likes being able to tell the media that SBF’s bail is “a quarter billion dollars.” But if an alleged criminal were really so terrible as to rate that kind of historically exorbitant bail amount, then the government wouldn’t release him on little more than a signature on a piece of paper. It would instead make him come up with lots and lots of property so that the government would have something close to the bond amount that it could quickly collect if he took off.
I am not saying that the crimes charged are unserious. SBF is obviously looking at scores of years in prison. But Bernie Madoff’s swindle dwarfed what SBF is charged with — about $50 billion, compared to about $2 billion. Yet, Madoff’s bail was $10 million, 1/25th of what the Biden Justice Department claims SBF’s bail is.
Clearly, it is true that anyone who signs the bond as a surety would be liable for the face amount of the bond. In theory, if SBF flees, the four co-signers, only one of whom must be nonfamily, would theoretically be on the hook for a quarter-bil. That doesn’t mean, though, that the sureties have that kind of money, or that the government has any realistic expectation of collecting such a sum.
In essence, the government took SBF’s passport and told him to stay with his parents. They told the world he was such a flight risk that he was forced to sign a bond for $250M . . . and then they released him — home for the holidays! — having posted no assets and having provided the government with no indication that the taxpayers can expect to see anything close to $250M if he flees.
I don’t believe he’ll flee, mind you. He’s probably tapped out, he doesn’t want to see his parents lose their home, and he doesn’t seem like the type who’d do well in the life of a fugitive. But the bail amount is meant to shape public opinion about the gravity of the case, that’s all.
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In fairness, he’s confined to the parents home and has an ankle bracelet. It’s not like he’s “a free man”.
This is interesting:
He also pointed out that Mr. Bankman-Fried had consented to extradition. Had he resisted the process, leading to a drawn-out legal fight, it was “a near certainty” the government would have opposed any pretrial release, Mr. Roos added.
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It was probably in the couch cushions.
FTX Says It Has Located More Than $5 Billion in Cash, Liquid Assets
Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX said it has located more than $5 billion in cash and other liquid assets and is hoping to sell hundreds of additional holdings with a book value of more than $4.6 billion.
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⅓ of congress critters got money from FTX
More than one in three of the 535 senators and representatives in the U.S. Congress showed up to the new session with FTX baggage, having received campaign support from one of the senior executives of the fraud-ridden crypto giant.
CoinDesk has identified 196 members of the new Congress – many of whom were just sworn in last week – who took cash from Sam Bankman-Fried or other senior executives at FTX, a crypto exchange that filed for bankruptcy in Delaware in November after CoinDesk revealed unusually close ties between FTX and Alameda Research, an affiliated hedge fund. The names in Congress range from the heights of both chambers, including new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), down to a list of recipients new to high-level politics.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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⅓ of congress critters got money from FTX
More than one in three of the 535 senators and representatives in the U.S. Congress showed up to the new session with FTX baggage, having received campaign support from one of the senior executives of the fraud-ridden crypto giant.
CoinDesk has identified 196 members of the new Congress – many of whom were just sworn in last week – who took cash from Sam Bankman-Fried or other senior executives at FTX, a crypto exchange that filed for bankruptcy in Delaware in November after CoinDesk revealed unusually close ties between FTX and Alameda Research, an affiliated hedge fund. The names in Congress range from the heights of both chambers, including new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), down to a list of recipients new to high-level politics.
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⅓ of congress critters got money from FTX
More than one in three of the 535 senators and representatives in the U.S. Congress showed up to the new session with FTX baggage, having received campaign support from one of the senior executives of the fraud-ridden crypto giant.
CoinDesk has identified 196 members of the new Congress – many of whom were just sworn in last week – who took cash from Sam Bankman-Fried or other senior executives at FTX, a crypto exchange that filed for bankruptcy in Delaware in November after CoinDesk revealed unusually close ties between FTX and Alameda Research, an affiliated hedge fund. The names in Congress range from the heights of both chambers, including new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), down to a list of recipients new to high-level politics.
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Heartland Resurgence does not appear to be a Republican Org that I can tell https://heartlandforward.org/research-publications/
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And Collins? LOL….
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You have got to be kidding me.
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He’ll get decades in prison, he’ll have more money laundering and fraud charges than there are stars in the sky.
This was just respecting a treaty with the Bahamas.
Federal prosecutors pursuing the criminal case against the cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried said on Wednesday that they were dropping a charge that he violated campaign finance rules.
Mr. Bankman-Fried was charged with fraud and campaign finance violations in December after the sudden collapse of his company, the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. He was quickly extradited to the United States from the Bahamas, where FTX was based.
But in a court filing on Wednesday night, the prosecutors said the Bahamas had informed them that the nation’s government had not intended to extradite Mr. Bankman-Fried on the campaign finance charge.
“In keeping with its treaty obligations to the Bahamas, the government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count,” the prosecutors’ filing said.
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The other, more pertinent news about SBF came out a day earlier - the Feds are trying to revoke his bail.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/26/investing/sbf-hearing-gag-order/index.html
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He’ll get decades in prison, he’ll have more money laundering and fraud charges than there are stars in the sky.
This was just respecting a treaty with the Bahamas.
Federal prosecutors pursuing the criminal case against the cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried said on Wednesday that they were dropping a charge that he violated campaign finance rules.
Mr. Bankman-Fried was charged with fraud and campaign finance violations in December after the sudden collapse of his company, the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. He was quickly extradited to the United States from the Bahamas, where FTX was based.
But in a court filing on Wednesday night, the prosecutors said the Bahamas had informed them that the nation’s government had not intended to extradite Mr. Bankman-Fried on the campaign finance charge.
“In keeping with its treaty obligations to the Bahamas, the government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count,” the prosecutors’ filing said.
This was just respecting a treaty with the Bahamas.
Prosecutors are planning a second trial on the five charges that were withdrawn in June, including an accusation that Mr. Bankman-Fried bribed a foreign government.
I wonder what "foreign government" that was.
I also wonder what critters might have been exposed if they looked under that rock.
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Sam Bankman-Fried still slapped with campaign finance charge
Federal prosecutors in New York on Tuesday signaled their intention to hold embattled crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried accountable for alleged campaign finance violations despite dropping the charge last month on a technicality.
Bankman-Fried, the former founder and CEO of cryptocurrency FTX, was slapped with a host of charges last year focused on an alleged multi-billion dollar fraud against company investors, which could land him in prison for decades.
Among those allegations, the charges included campaign finance violations accusing Bankman-Fried of seeking influence in Washington and in state capitals by improperly using customer and investor money to make political donations.
The campaign finance charge was dropped after officials in the Bahamas, where Bankman-Fried was arrested, said they had not agreed to extradite him based on that count.
In a letter to the judge on Tuesday, however, prosecutors said they intend to file a superseding indictment next week that will seek to incorporate Bankman-Fried's alleged campaign finance scheme into seven other existing charges.
"The superseding indictment will make clear that Mr. Bankman-Fried remains charged with conducting an illegal campaign finance scheme as part of the fraud and money laundering schemes originally charged," the letter said.
"The defendant's use of customer deposits to conduct a political influence campaign was part of the wire fraud scheme charged in the original indictment. And as part of the originally charged money laundering scheme, the defendant also concealed the source of his fraudulent proceeds through political straw donations," the letter added.
