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suy  2yr ago (astralcodexten.substack.com)   Edited 2yr ago   4226 thread views

Scott Alexander on Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX and Effective Altruism

astralcodexten.substack.com

I made this a top level post because I think people here might want to discuss it but you can remove it if it doesn't meet your standards.

Edit: removed my opinion of Scott from the body

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There are generally regulations around the operations of a charity. To quote from the Charities Governance Code in my own country:

Conflict of loyalties

A conflict of loyalties is when a charity trustee’s loyalty to another group could prevent them, or even just appear to prevent them, from making a decision in the best interests of the charity.

Example: This might happen when the charity trustee has joined the board as a nominee of a particular group, such as members in a particular county, a funding body, or staff.

This situation could cause the charity trustee to think that they should act in the interests of the group that nominated them, rather than the charity as a whole.

Exercising Control

Why this principle is important

All charities, no matter what their complexity, must abide by all legal and regulatory requirements that are relevant to the work they do. The charity trustees are responsible for making sure this happens. Charity trustees must understand that the governing document of a charity is a legally binding document in its own right.

The trustees are also responsible for a charity’s funds and any property or other assets that it holds. As much as is possible, they must also consider and reduce risks to which their charity is exposed.

Standards

Make sure you have appropriate financial controls in place to manage and account for your charity’s money and other assets.

Identify any risks your charity might face and how to manage these.

At a minimum, your board agendas should always include these items:

█ reporting on activities;

█ review of finances; and

█ conflicts of interests and loyalties.

There's a ton more of this stuff, but this gives you a taster. I'd be highly surprised if American charities weren't bound by similar constraints, and EA is a charitable body so it has to work under these kinds of regulations.

A lot of this will be "closing the stable door after the horse has bolted" but it won't hurt them to review their practices and see how they can tighten up assurances in future.

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