<story><title>A software change allowed FTX to use client money</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/technology/how-secret-software-change-allowed-ftx-use-client-money-2022-12-13/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>&amp;gt; Only Singh, Bankman-Fried and a few other top FTX and Alameda executives knew about the exemption in the code, according to three former executives briefed on the matter. A digital dashboard used by staff to track FTX customer assets and liabilities was programmed so it would not take into account that Alameda had withdrawn the client funds, according to two of the people and a screenshot of the portal that Reuters has previously reported.&lt;p&gt;If you want to see what you should never do as a software engineer if you like not being in jail, this is it.&lt;p&gt;Singh will definitely get prison time as well, though I&amp;#x27;m sure all the higher-ups in FTX are trying to point fingers to get deals. In the Madoff scandal, 2 of Madoff&amp;#x27;s programmers were sentenced to 2 1&amp;#x2F;2 years each. In this case, Singh has much more culpability as a higher-up (not to mention a pre-collapse billionaire).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fatnoah</author><text>&amp;gt; If you want to see what you should never do as a software engineer if you like not being in jail, this is it.&lt;p&gt;Not quite the same level, but in my early days working on a payment system, a request from the product team was to create a summary screen where customer service reps could see payment histories AND THE CC INFORMATION USED FOR THE PAYMENTS.  In my mind, there was no way that would end well, so I strenuously objected and had to endure some very heated conversations over the course of a month or two. Eventually product team agreed to last 4 digits + expiration.&lt;p&gt;Nowadays it wouldn&amp;#x27;t even be a conversation, but in the early 2000&amp;#x27;s, it was a different world.</text></comment>
<story><title>A software change allowed FTX to use client money</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/technology/how-secret-software-change-allowed-ftx-use-client-money-2022-12-13/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>&amp;gt; Only Singh, Bankman-Fried and a few other top FTX and Alameda executives knew about the exemption in the code, according to three former executives briefed on the matter. A digital dashboard used by staff to track FTX customer assets and liabilities was programmed so it would not take into account that Alameda had withdrawn the client funds, according to two of the people and a screenshot of the portal that Reuters has previously reported.&lt;p&gt;If you want to see what you should never do as a software engineer if you like not being in jail, this is it.&lt;p&gt;Singh will definitely get prison time as well, though I&amp;#x27;m sure all the higher-ups in FTX are trying to point fingers to get deals. In the Madoff scandal, 2 of Madoff&amp;#x27;s programmers were sentenced to 2 1&amp;#x2F;2 years each. In this case, Singh has much more culpability as a higher-up (not to mention a pre-collapse billionaire).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jwmoz</author><text>My claim to fame is that I dealt with SBF and Nishad to get some Python code for their api client merged in, the first non-FTX committer. I coded up a lot of the api functionalities that were missing. They never gave me a tip. A couple years later when I pitched for investment they declined it as they &amp;quot;were looking for more volume&amp;quot;.</text></comment>