The people that Bernie Madoff stole from, got most of their money back. ~90% at this point.
Because Madoff stole from mostly rich, mostly white people, ultra high net worth individuals, financial institutions. US society makes sure that rich folk are made whole, have loans forgiven (Eg PPP), etc.
But the people that SBF stole from are unlikely to ever get their money back. Because they were disproportionately Black, low net worth individuals. AKA, normal people.
And please, stop acting like SBF was left leaning, or disproportionately supported Democrats' politicians. That's a lie.
SBF said himself, that he gave exactly the same amount to Dems as GOP. He said that he made his GOP donations through dark money, to intentionally conceal his political objectives and *appear* left leaning to fool people.
Personally, I don't care if SBF gets 100 years, or 10 years, or 1 year, or no jail time.
Him sitting in jail doesn't improve my life. It doesn't bring restitution for his victims. It doesn't prevent future victims. It doesn't discourage the "Forbes 30 under 30, to 30 years to life" pipeline. It doesn't make VC firms more likely to fund Black women than the next SBF. It doesn't stop long-termists from writing long blog posts about how caring about ethics is "the enemy."
@mekkaokereke no this is wrong, it doesn’t affect my life directly at this moment, but the more men like that are allowed to victimize people without proper consequences the more men will victimize people because they know they won’t have consequences.
Martin Shkreli went to jail for fraud, then got out and got into crypto.
Shkreli then allegedly did things that would have been big problems in traditional finance, but were completely OK in crypto.
https://web3isgoinggreat.com/single/martin-shkreli-dumps-his-projects-token-in-hack
Jail is not an effective deterrent. The right levers to stop these things are in other places.
If we want to protect future victims from harm, we should do that directly. Eg, Shkreli is not allowed to work in Pharma or securities.
Every Black woman CEO that has ever tried to raise money for her startup, but was told to come back when she had "traction," should read and reread again the story of how SBF was funded.
He was caught playing a computer game while pitching VCs. Literally online gaming during his pitch meeting. League of Legends.
And. They. Funded. Him.
I care much more about fixing this broken system than I care about how many days SBF plays pickleball at Club Fed.
@mekkaokereke @maggiemaybe Not just funded him, but made a big deal about him being checked out during the meetings... like being a sloppy, disrespectful weirdo with the attention span of a gnat was somehow a PLUS. You can't even call it an "old boys' network" because SBF wasn't all that connected.
@dkbgeek @mekkaokereke @maggiemaybe
I can't help thinking of that bit in Office Space where the main character is talking to The Bobs about how little he cares about his job and is called "leadership material" as a result
I guess what's supposed to be absurd satire is not so absurd after all
@beeoproblem @dkbgeek @mekkaokereke @maggiemaybe
When satire works, it’s not because it’s absurdly false. It’s because it presents the truth in a way that makes it appear as absurd as it is.
@beeoproblem @dkbgeek @mekkaokereke @maggiemaybe
I was asked in a job interview “why do you want to work for us?”, which I answered “I’m not sure I want to work for you. Why should I want to work here?” I felt, based on language and attitude, that they wanted me more after saying that.
It’s a weird dynamic.