Boxturret posted:

Cantorsdust posted:

i don't know if you made this yourself or not but nice work

Boxturret posted:

Boxturret posted:

made it a few years ago, yeah. just stumbled across it when going through some old files.

good times

Boxturret posted:

...! posted:

i'm tender legal coin

Boxturret posted:

Boxturret posted:

made it a few years ago, yeah. just stumbled across it when going through some old files.

good times

Soricidus posted:

debut…tcoin?

Business Insider posted:

Sam Bankman-Fried's parents are begging a judge to keep him out of prison, warning their son's social awkwardness could put him in 'extreme danger'

Jacob Shamsian Feb 28, 2024, 2:20 AM CST


Sam Bankman-Fried's family members begged the judge who oversaw his criminal trial to give him a light sentence, arguing that his social awkwardness could put him in "extreme danger" behind bars.

"I genuinely fear for Sam's life in the typical prison environment," Barbara Fried, his mother, wrote in a letter to the judge. "Sam's outward presentation, his inability to read or respond appropriately to many social cues, and his touching but naive belief in the power of facts and reason to resolve disputes, put him in extreme danger."

quote:

Joseph Bankman, in his letter, warned that his son's "odd" social cues — which his lawyers said should be attributed to neurodiversity — could be misread by people in prison as "disrespect, evasion, or lying."

"Such a setting would put Sam in an environment where his responses to social cues will sometimes be seen as odd, inappropriate, and disrespectful; when that happens, he will be in significant physical danger," Bankman wrote. "Nothing can justify putting him at that risk."

quote:

"Only thirty-two years old and with his whole future in front of him, Sam now faces the prospect of spending much of the rest of his life in prison," Barbara Fried wrote in her letter. "His father and I face the very real possibility that we will not live long enough to see him freed. There are no words for the grief we feel."

quote:

In a searingly emotional letter, Barbara Fried said her elder son had been wrongly cast as "a cartoonish villain driven by greed" who perpetrated "the fraud of the century."

In reality, she argued, Bankman-Fried devoted his life to altruism, dropped everything to help friends going through family tragedies, and "has battled depression his entire life."

After the collapse of FTX in November 2022, Bankman-Fried shared with his parents his experience of anhedonia, she wrote.

"We knew about his depression, but he described something deeper and sadder: that he has never felt happiness or pleasure in his life and does not think he is capable of feeling it," Barbara Fried wrote.

Bankman-Fried's lawyers shared personal writings where he reflected on being "unlovable" and quoted Macklemore's rap lyrics.

"I don't feel pleasure. I don't feel happiness. Somehow my reward system never clicked," Bankman-Fried wrote in 2016. "My highest hights, my proudest moments, come and pass and I feel nothing but the aching hole in my brain where happiness should be."

quote:

Barbara Fried said in her letter that her son's behavior and tics during the trial — in which he took the witness stand in his own defense — were associated with "high-functioning people" with autism.

"He is bad at responding to social cues in 'normal' ways, uncomfortable looking people in the eye, uncomfortable with outward shows of emotion," Fried wrote. "He has no interest in small talk but will engage passionately and relentlessly with ideas to the point that can exasperate and exhaust others."

While those character traits might have let him thrive at MIT, on Wall Street, and at FTX, they made him look like "a freak with evil intentions" in the eyes of the public, she wrote.

She said it would be even worse in prison.

"It may be that some of the inmates will come to appreciate Sam once they get to know him," Barbara Fried wrote. "But miscommunication in that environment is dangerous, and Sam's traits greatly elevate the likelihood of its occurring."

She continued that putting him in solitary confinement to protect him from others was no solution. "It just a more certain form of murder, and in many ways, a crueler one, slowly destroying his soul rather than his body."

Carmine Simpson, a former police officer held in the same federal Brooklyn jail on child-pornography charges, wrote a letter to the judge praising Bankman-Fried's character. He said Bankman-Fried had already been the subject of "hazing" and "multiple extortion attempts" because of his stature.

"In any setting, Sam is the least physically intimidating person and this is especially noticeable inside a jail," Simpson wrote. "This has and will lead to him being frequently targeted for hazing, harassment, and assault more so than the average inmate.

In the sentencing submission, Bankman-Fried's lawyers said Bankman-Fried "has practiced facial expressions" and made other efforts to overcome his neurological challenges. But it would be difficult, they said, for him to master them in prison.

"Prison often requires inmates to follow the 'unwritten rules,' as defined by other inmates — rules that are often highly reliant on social and emotional communication of deference and power and often at conflict with the written rules," they wrote. "The social dynamics in prison and the scrutiny he is receiving is likely to result in him facing physical violence."

quote:

"I have no illusions about the redemptive power of prisons," she wrote. "Being consigned to prison for decades will destroy Sam as surely as would hanging him, because it will take away everything in the world that gives his life meaning."

Paladinus posted:

It is decided. He will be hanged.

Escape From Noise posted:

Sam Hangman-Fried?

Boxturret posted:

raminasi posted:

"high-functioning" autism, aka "the quirky, smart kind of autism, not the gross weird kind."

...! posted:

sam's parents say he's too special of a boy to be in prison, he will probably be sad so they should let him out

[quotes]

great choice of character witness, sam

quote:

it truly astounds me that his parents can say this poo poo with a straight face. consequences are for poor people!

Improbable Lobster posted:

"he's white"

...! posted:

his touching but naive belief in the power of facts and reason to resolve disputes

...! posted:

quoted Macklemore's rap lyrics.

qirex posted:

are ”facts and reason” when he lied on the stand for a full day then didn’t recall all the lies he just told under cross examination?

Grace Baiting posted:

additionally i wish to submit an amica curiae brief to the sentencing judge, consisting solely of big lmaos at this claim:

quote:

"He is bad at responding to social cues in 'normal' ways, uncomfortable looking people in the eye, uncomfortable with outward shows of emotion," Fried wrote. "He has no interest in small talk but will engage passionately and relentlessly with ideas to the point that can exasperate and exhaust others."

While those character traits might have let him thrive at MIT, on Wall Street, and at FTX, they made him look like "a freak with evil intentions" in the eyes of the public, she wrote.

FAUXTON posted:

look we know our son may look like a remorseless grifter without a shred of morals or dignity to everyone

Eeyo posted:

what's your bets for sbf's sentence? i'm going with 25 years

Eeyo posted:

what's your bets for sbf's sentence? i'm going with 25 years

kw0134 posted:

reminder there's no parole in the federal prison system; it's wysiwyg with respect to sentencing. so if good boy sbf gets 25 years, then he serves that much time with a credit for pre-sentencing detention.