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Yeah, and he still said "I never saw anything like this". I think he was used to, even in corporate hokey-pokey, if they were cooking the books they at least kept books. FTX etc. had a mess where nobody was keeping track of anything, so they probably simply lost money by sheer stupid carelessness and not deliberate fraud in some instances. They can't even figure out how many people worked/are working/were working there, since there wasn't proper records kept. Any hog, dog or divil could be a disgruntled employee who hacked those missing millions.
I swear, you have to be really smart to be this dumb. This all reads like the very worst strawman of the rationalist/rationalist-adjacent/EA Bay Area types. They thought they were too cool for school, and that learning off some game theory and some problems about one-boxing strategy meant they didn't have to do boring old traditional usual corporate and business stuff. They were making millions with cutting-edge finance of the future! They were smarter than the average bear! They had thrown out conventional social morality around relationships and all that jazz, they were building the new model of community, why have tedious stuff like "have to have an expenses claims system in place" when you can have kewl fun emojis instead?
Honestly, I'm reading the Chapter 11 filing and you wouldn't let a bunch of six year olds in a kindergarten carry on like this. How the ever-living purple people eating fuck did this selection get people anxious to hand over billions to them????
In future this Bahamas luxury compound of idiocy is going to be what I point to when responding to "legalise drugs! nootropics are fun and healthy! what harm does it do anyone to hack their brains?" talk.
I bet a movie is already in the works. Reminds me of Rogue Trader, or War Dogs or similar films.
Young dodgy maverick gets into $industry and makes bank by not playing by the rules until things spiral out of control. The hedonistic lifestyle and law eventually catch up to him. Audience feels good that Icarus is punished for his audacity. The End.
Edit: Just saw Tanista beat me to it. You just know Hollywood is already on this.
I haven't watched a Hollywood movie in ages, but if they make one about this, I'll make a point of watching it.
I just hope they don't try to romanticise any of this shit (e.g. Bankman-Fried was just a guy who wanted to do good but went down the wrong path).
I want sweaty, chubby nerd Bankman-Fried slapping on stimulant patches and downing nootropics while playing League of Legends in his beanbag seat while he's supposed to be keeping track of where the hell the payments are coming in, and giving permission via "personalised emoji" to some mook in chat asking can they have half a mil to do shit without even knowing if this mook actually works for him or not because nobody knows who works where.
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