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I still really disagree with statements Lewis's conclusion that "It's hard to say what SBF's real crime was."
Even if we say it wasn't a crime to give customer funds to Alameda when customers expected them to be deposited at FTX, and even if we say Alameda never actually lost any funds, there's still stuff like using customer funds to give personal loans to FTX executives.
The FTX funds transferred to Alameda were used not only for Alameda’s proprietary trading, but also to fund loans to FTX executives, including Bankman-Fried himself, and to fund personal real estate purchases.
Between March 2020 and September 2022, Bankman-Fried executed promissory notes for loans from Alameda totaling more than $1.338 billion, including two instances in which Bankman-Fried was both the borrower in his individual capacity and the lender in his capacity as CEO of Alameda
This is from an SEC complaint against SBF, so again, not necessarily proven. Although, if you read it, I think the SEC did their homework and isn't just making stuff up.
I think SBF committed fraud. I don't like that Michael Lewis went all-in on wishy-washy trying to say nothing really bad happened.
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Ok the deltec involvement is later and I don't know much about that
Plus, as came out here they didn't really "lose" it all. Lewis does a back-of-envelope calc at the end, too, and even disregarding value of serum and Solana etc, there's plenty left over.