A new story from Crypto Critics' Corner

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And then I talked to his dad later in the day. How much money were they giving you? They were talking about, I've said this before, they were talking about a billion dollars, which seemed, you know, a lot of money, but certainly would be manageable in the context of the size of the business. But later in the evening, that number went from a billion to four and a half billion. And then I said, okay, that was obviously a problem, and it's a bigger problem than they want to admit to. And so I made the decision that evening. I got on my phone, I booked myself a JetBlue flight down to the Bahamas, and I wanted to see for myself what was going on. You know, listen, I put my name and reputation at stake. I introduced Sam to a lot of people. Brett and I, one short year ago, and I believe you were there with us, we had Crypto Bahamas at the Baja Mar Hotel. Brett and I organized a dinner for the likes of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton and a whole host of luminaries. One short year ago, he fast forward, it's sort of still hard to believe that we're where we are right now. And so I needed to see it for myself. And so I went down there and I would say that the war room was despondent. And this was an exchange that should have no duration issues. That means for at least several days before FTX declared bankruptcy, at least according to Scaramucci's version of the story, and the lawsuit also alleges he was down there and part of those talks to get emergency fundraising. He knew FTX was insolvent. I don't know what's going to happen, right? I want to clarify, as usual, that we're not lawyers, we don't pretend to be, we aren't going to suggest that we would have any better idea of what's going to happen with any of this than anyone else. What's being described sounds like fraud. It sounds like a breach of fiduciary duties. It sounds like fraud. It sounds like criminal. And I don't know how that plays out. We're going to get an idea based on how the co-defendants in the FTX Alameda stuff who have already pled, what happens to them? I don't know yet. Nobody knows. I can presume they're going to get a lot less time than SPF. I really believe that. I don't know if it'll be true. We're going to find out. My belief is strongly that they will see a significantly less amount of time in prison if they get prison time at all. Outside of Sam Trabuco, who we still haven't heard from, I think when he does decide to appear, we'll be doing a lot of time in prison. We should add, in the interest of journalistic fairness, that lawyers for Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried issued a statement to several outlets where they say, these allegations are nonsense. That house we lived in and referred to as our house and that was paid by FTX funds was in no way criminal or fraudulent, yada, yada, yada. And then they throw in some stuff about how, uh, John Ray is wasting all this money and this is a distraction. This is meant to inflame people right before our son goes on trial. And so some version of that is their statement. And that's, that's the liberty I'll give it. And we've talked about this before as well. They already put it down in writing. They can say whatever they want now. I don't really fucking care if they deny it. You sent the emails, guys. You sent the emails. You literally put it in writing. The one thing you shouldn't do- Out of context, Cass. Yeah, out of context. My fat ass, dude. We've said it before. I don't know if you're going to do crime like this on this level, if you're going to be doing, you know, moving tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars at a time in the name of, you know, crime. I mean, sorry. Um, not of the, not of the criminal sort, but if you're going to be doing this, don't write it down. It's super simple. Do a phone call. Like, why wouldn't you do a phone call instead? Idiots. You guys are law professors. Are you- What if the lines are tapped? Right. I don't know, man. These guys are law professors. It's hard to believe, but it makes you question everything. And this is, this is the last point I want to make. It makes you question everything. These guys had crazy reputations in Silicon Valley and the education world, right? Upper education world. They, they were well known for their, for their essays and their, their statements about tax law and, and freed particularly about criminals and, you know, treating them correctly and all this stuff. It didn't take that much money for them to completely give up their reputation and do the exact opposite of what they'd been teaching for decades. That's crazy. That's crazy. And it's not just them. And, and, and I hope people realize that. Like, it just makes you question everything so much more because who, who, who are you going to rely on now? People are going to throw away their decades long reputations in academia and everything that they once stood for, for some millions of dollars in some property. I mean, that is, that says something. And, and I don't know if that's an American societal issue. It's a global issue. I don't know, man, but it's troubling to me. There's certainly issues with many of the elites in America. I think both Joseph Bank and Barbara Fried spent a lot of time around people who were richer than them, who they thought they were smarter than, and had at some level a belief that this was finally their chance to be both smart and rich. Warped, warped and sad. And certainly a statement on the, the, the way academia, higher education in America works, especially at these private institutions. It's super sad and super corrupt. And if you want to stop that, if you want to do something about, you know, if you want to do something to stop this kind of gross academia stuff, this fraud, donate to Castcoin guys. It's super simple. Anyway, I think that's going to do it for this episode. Remember, hit the like and subscribe button and all that stuff. I hate it when people say it, but I know I have to. Thanks for listening.

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