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Ajay-p
I never had any doubt but did anyone have doubt? Michael Lewis's book Going Infinite portrayed SBF (to me at least) as a hapless kid caught up in something he did not understand. Lewis is the only person I have read that seemed to defend SBF. Was he the only one?
bilalq
Of his actual guilt? No. But there's a very real question about whether or not he'd actually be convicted. The justice system isn't really known for fairness.
cyanydeez
rich people need to work on their Teflon to some degree but usually they're smart enough to hire lawyers before they break the law
Ajay-p
In this case I think Mr. Bankman-Fried did more to talk himself into a conviction than anything he did. I read that reporters in the overflow room laughed aloud at his answers, which made me feel there was an eagerness on some to convict him. I cannot help but think of Martin Shkrelli and how similar he is to SBF in their attitudes.
infecto
I don’t like this take and I don’t think it’s true. He is 31 and well into adulthood. He was a trader who at Jane street. He is far from hapless or confused. In comparison Zuckerberg was a billionaire by 23 I think?

I just don’t like it perpetuated that he is some confused teen.

M2Ys4U
Everyone referring to Bankman-Fried as a kid or child or whatever was defending him (or, more likely, defending their own interest in keeping the crypto grift going). And there were a lot of articles being published pushing that angle.

He was 27 when he started FTX.

spamizbad
27 is only 14 in white collar criminal years.
pxmpxm
That did come up at the trial - his was a manicured image to accomplish just that.

"Look at that on-the-spectrum mathy kid! Cargo shorts, goofy hair... he doesn't even understand things like social decorum!" all while he was deliberately social engineering his way into the elitest social strata.

YiraldyGuber
I think it's more likely they were defending SBF due to shared ancestry rather than a shared interest in crypto.

I am very invested in "keeping the crypto grift going" and hope he dies in prison.

AdamJacobMuller
How did this trial happen so quickly!

FTX went bankrupt less than a year ago!

CraigRo
They moved heaven and earth to get it done.
dgrin91
Its funny, when FTX first went under everyone said he would never be arrested.

Now we say it happened so quickly :)

anonu
The next thing to armchair debate is sentencing. His convictions sum up to 110+ years in prison. That seems a bit extreme to me.

Going to guess he will get 25 years and then get out in 15.

Gibbon1
Probably. Journalists love to sum the max sentences for each charge even through sentencing never works that way. At least that's my take away from an essay by a criminal lawyer.