<story><title>FTX – The fraud was in the code</title><url>https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/the-fraud-was-in-the-code</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bmitc</author><text>Pretty insane that Sam Bankman-Fried decided to plead not-guilty. And it&amp;#x27;s interesting that their defense is an implication that a witness is committing perjury for a lighter sentence without any evidence backing it up.&lt;p&gt;And just what in the world were any of these people thinking? Sam Bankman-Fried isn&amp;#x27;t remotely charismatic, so I just don&amp;#x27;t understand why people would follow his demands and actively participate in such obvious fraud. How do you reason with yourself about &lt;i&gt;randomly generating&lt;/i&gt; an insurance fund&amp;#x27;s balance that has been testified, under oath to Congress and various other binding contracts I&amp;#x27;m sure?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>&amp;gt; Pretty insane that Sam Bankman-Fried decided to plead not-guilty.&lt;p&gt;Would easily bet that was his decision. He&amp;#x27;s obviously made insanely stupid choices already, like leaking Caroline Ellison&amp;#x27;s journal and getting his bail revoked.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sure he was counseled against it, but his lawyers were probably like &amp;quot;well, he wants to swing the bat, and we get paid more if it goes to trial anyway.&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>FTX – The fraud was in the code</title><url>https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/the-fraud-was-in-the-code</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bmitc</author><text>Pretty insane that Sam Bankman-Fried decided to plead not-guilty. And it&amp;#x27;s interesting that their defense is an implication that a witness is committing perjury for a lighter sentence without any evidence backing it up.&lt;p&gt;And just what in the world were any of these people thinking? Sam Bankman-Fried isn&amp;#x27;t remotely charismatic, so I just don&amp;#x27;t understand why people would follow his demands and actively participate in such obvious fraud. How do you reason with yourself about &lt;i&gt;randomly generating&lt;/i&gt; an insurance fund&amp;#x27;s balance that has been testified, under oath to Congress and various other binding contracts I&amp;#x27;m sure?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xwolfi</author><text>Perjury*&lt;p&gt;Sam is highly charismatic, especially when all you want to hear is that you send 2000$ and will receive 100k$ if only you listen to him and use his product. He&amp;#x27;s part of the mumbo jumbo guru crowd.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m a programmer in finance: I understand nothing when SBF talks, it&amp;#x27;s like complete random BS, totally different from the traders I work with who would use complex concepts but with always a visible thread: utility -&amp;gt; transformation adding value -&amp;gt; profit, with SBF it&amp;#x27;s all so fuzzy and unclear, it&amp;#x27;s like he pretends to talk like we&amp;#x27;re idiots to hide the fact he&amp;#x27;s the idiot who forgot that you need to sacrifice potential upside for downside insurance...</text></comment>