Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Ulbricht

> The evidence that Ulbricht had commissioned murders was considered by the judge in sentencing Ulbricht to life and was a factor in the Second Circuit's decision to uphold the sentence.

If this is what you are referring to...

Commissioning murders makes him quite a dangerous person.

In fairness, even 25 years is more than they give the average murderer.

https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-pu...

You could quite reasonably argue that SBF's sentence was, if anything, excessive. And, by extension, that Ulbricht's was simply grotesque.

Sam Bankman-Fried defrauded people. He didn’t intentionally create a digital black market, where everything from hit jobs, narcotics, poison, weapons, and human trafficking could (and were) conducted.

And since there are many well-known marketplaces for legal activities (eBay, Craigslist, Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, AutoTrader.com, need I go on?) then the only defining feature was that this was a black market.

One cannot “accidentally” do this. So yes, aiding and abetting countless crimes and possibly murder —> life sentence.

In that context do you still find it unjust?

It’s not about justice. It’s all about who you know.

Are you comparing FTX to Silk Road?

...didn't the Silk Road guy (which is what I assume you're referencing) also hire assassins to attack his criminal-enterprise opponents?

now do and calcualte how many years Sam Trabucco of alameda got? hint, first word is z

> most (a lot of?) people got their money back

On average people got 70% of their money back I believe. However the story is way more complicated than that.

Most Madoff investors put their money in decades before, saw 20+ years of growth, and took out dividends over those years. Most investors were pensioners living off their dividends.

When the team came in to clear up the mess at the end, they redistributed the money according to pay-ins and pay-outs. So, imagine you put $1m into the fund in 1985, took $100k out per year, and in 2005, 20 years later, still had >$1m in the fund. In ~2010, the restructuring team would sue you for $1m because you had taken out $2m after putting in only $1m. But you don't have that money, all you've got is a house and a reasonable yearly salary. Unfortunately many people lost their houses and other assets because they had taken out more than their original contribution over the >20 year period.

Even if you didn't take anything out, people bet the rest of their financial lives on the fact that their initial contribution had gone up. Only counting for inflation, getting back their initial investment would be a terrible financial outcome, but accounting for what they reasonably thought they had, this would still be ruinous.

This is all why FTX saying people might get back their money is a terribly misleading statement.

Madoff's investors lost massively compared to investing in index funds.

He scammed too many other rich and powerful people I think. Just stick with scamming the commoners and you'll be fine :)

Madoff destroyed families, and folks lifetime savings

He ripped off the rich and powerful.

Why should it make a difference to your sentence whether or not your victims get their money back?

He made rich people lose money.

Many of his victims were rich and powerful - it was an affinity fraud.