https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...ence-calls-100-year-recommendation-grotesque/
SBF asks for 5-year prison sentence, calls 100-year recommendation “grotesque”
Bankman-Fried argues for 63 to 78 months, says he "is already being punished."

"if you can't do the time, don't do the crime"

 

https://www.fastcompany.com/9107125...s-in-jail-but-how-long-will-he-actually-serve

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for his role in the fraud and conspiracy scandal that took place at the crypto exchange. That was far less than the 40 to 50 years prosecutors were lobbying for, but about five times the sentence his own lawyer had requested.
But will Bankman-Fried serve all that time? Almost certainly not. His lawyers plan to appeal the conviction and the sentence. However, if that fails, legal experts say that while SBF will see his sentence reduced, it won’t be by the drastic amount some felons receive for good behavior.
Christopher Zoukis, a federal prison consultant based out of Charleston, South Carolina, estimates SBF will likely serve about three-quarters of the sentence.

The moral of this story, don't grift rich people.

 

https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/18/i...breach-after-230-million-suspicious-transfer/
WazirX halts withdrawals after losing $230 million, nearly half its reserves

WazirX, a leading Indian crypto exchange, halted withdrawals Thursday after a security breach it called a “force majeure event” resulted in the loss of $230 million, nearly half its reserves.

The Mumbai-based firm said one of its multisig wallets had suffered a security breach. A multisig wallet requires two or more private keys for authentication. WazirX said its wallet had six signatories, five of whom were with WazirX team. Liminal, which operates a wallet infrastructure firm, said in a statement to TechCrunch that its preliminary investigation had found that a wallet created outside its ecosystem had been compromised.

“The cyber attack stemmed from a discrepancy between the data displayed on Liminal’s interface and the transaction’s actual contents,” said WazirX in a statement on Thursday. “During the cyber attack, there was a mismatch between the information displayed on Liminal’s interface and what was actually signed. We suspect the payload was replaced to transfer wallet control to an attacker.”

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/bu...recks-kansas-bank-sends-ex-ceo-pri-rcna167642
Cryptocurrency 'pig butchering' scam wrecks Kansas bank, sends ex-CEO to prison for 24 years
The massive embezzlement led to the collapse and FDIC takeover of Heartland Tri-State, one of only five U.S. banks that failed in 2023.

“The first thing he says is, ‘Brian, I need to borrow $12 million for ten days, and I’ll give you $1 million for loaning it to me,’” Mitchell recalled. “I’m sitting there and I said, am I in a bank in Elkhart, Kansas, or in an alley with a loan shark in Chicago.”

When he asked Hanes what he wanted the money for, Hanes “pulls out his phone and acts like he’s logging in and he shows me this account that has $40 million, $42 million,” Mitchell said. “He said, ‘Brian, I’ve got this money and it’s in cryptocurrency, and I need $12 million to help verify the funds.’”
...
Hanes’ lawyer John Stang, who did not respond to a request for comment, in a sentencing submission wrote, “Mr. Hanes made some very bad choices after being caught up in an extremely well-run cryptocurrency scam.”

“He was the pig that was butchered,” Stang wrote. “Mr. Hanes’s vulnerability to the Pig Butcher scheme caused him to make some very bad decisions, for which he is truly sorry for causing damage to the bank and loss to the Stockholders.”

He is truly sorry for getting caught.

 

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/24/24249490/caroline-ellison-sentence-ftx-alameda-fraud
Caroline Ellison sentenced to two years in jail for role in FTX fraud

Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for her role in the FTX collapse. She must also forfeit $11 billion.
Ellison pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and five conspiracy counts in December 2022 as part of a cooperation agreement with the government. Prosecutors had recommended a lenient sentence because of Ellison’s “extraordinary” and “very timely” cooperation. Her own lawyers asked for no jail time, as did the federal Probation Department.


SBF's parents should be next.

 

https://gizmodo.com/bitcoin-price-flash-crash-ether-thiel-2000647613

Bitcoin’s weekend crash is being blamed on a single whale who sold 24,000 Bitcoin, according to crypto watchers on X. Bitcoin’s most recent peak hit $117,370 on Friday, not too far from the all-time high of $124,500. But Bitcoin is currently sitting at $112,660, well below recent highs.


“Bitcoin flash crash today, which wiped out $310M in long positions, has been traced to a SINGLE Bitcoin whale dumping BTC for ETH. The whale sold 24,000+ BTC, including coins that hadn’t moved in 5+ years, sending 12,000+ BTC today alone to the Hyperunite trading platform,” crypto analyst Jacob King tweeted on Sunday.

“They’ve sold 18,000+ BTC ($2B) so far and are in the process of dumping the remaining 6,000+ BTC ($670M). Most of the money is being moved into Ethereum, $2B bought and $1.3B staked,” King continued.

That sale seemed to set off a chain reaction and a flurry of selling with $100 billion wiped out in just 24 hours, according to Forbes, as traders seemed to worry about whether the optimism from Jerome Powell’s statements Friday might be a mirage. Powell signaled he may lower interest rates at the next meeting of the Federal Reserve in September.

Thiel really has a knack for buying low and selling high, which is the smart play for any investor with discipline. But that’s obviously not how markets actually work in practice, crypto or otherwise. People buy at the top because they fear missing out, and then get left holding the bag by guys like Thiel. The question, of course, is whether crypto’s most recent highs are sustainable.

Pump and Dump...

 

Bitcoin Miners on the Run After Stealing $1.1 Billion in Electricity

​

“The risk of allowing such activities to happen is no longer about stealing,” Malaysia’s deputy minister of energy transition and water transformation, Akmal Nasir, who chairs a special task force specifically set up to crack down on illegal Bitcoin mining, told Bloomberg. “You can actually even break our facilities. It becomes a challenge to our system.”

 

https://gizmodo.com/bitcoin-price-flash-crash-ether-thiel-2000647613



Pump and Dump...

It's a bit hard to call it pump and dump when the bitcoins that were sold had been held for over five years. Still, not impossible, I guess. Depends on if he was taking part in activities intended to drive the price up, such as feeding hype into the mill. Otherwise, it's just someone deciding that it's time to get out while the getting it good.

It's interesting to note that the "recent peak" of $117,370 is categorized as "close to" the all-time high of $124,500 (it's 5.7% below), but yet $112,660 is considered "well below" the recent highs, when it is just 4.0% down from them.

 

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/24/24249490/caroline-ellison-sentence-ftx-alameda-fraud
Caroline Ellison sentenced to two years in jail for role in FTX fraud

Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for her role in the FTX collapse. She must also forfeit $11 billion.
Ellison pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and five conspiracy counts in December 2022 as part of a cooperation agreement with the government. Prosecutors had recommended a lenient sentence because of Ellison’s “extraordinary” and “very timely” cooperation. Her own lawyers asked for no jail time, as did the federal Probation Department.


SBF's parents should be next.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Ellison-freed-January-prison-FTX-crypto.html
Ex-girlfriend of Sam Bankman-Fried set to be released from prison EARLY - two years after she brought down the disgraced FTX founder