How FTX’s Young Executives Shattered Their Parents \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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How FTX’s Young Executives Shattered Their Parents archive.is/TXrOn

361 sats \ 9 comments \ @nym 31 Oct 2024 bitcoin

Their parents’ lives have been shattered. Some of them faced enormous legal bills or suffered reputational damage. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s parents, the Stanford University law professors Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, were sued by FTX’s bankruptcy estate over their financial entanglements with the company. Ms. Ellison’s parents, who both teach economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, were harassed online and hounded by the news media.

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70 sats \ 3 replies \ @SimpleStacker 31 Oct 2024

Good. SBF's mom is especially egregious because she positioned herself as the key proponent of a fraudulent philosophy known as "effective altruism"

22 sats \ 1 reply \ @south_korea_ln 31 Oct 2024

All recent college graduates, they bonded over a shared commitment to effective altruism — a philanthropic movement that calls on young people to donate most of their money to charity.

A very charitable description given by the writer of the article~~

But remind me why is it fraudulent?

The idea is to make as much money as possible to donate it, right?

Does it entail making as much money as possible, no matter what (hence the use of the fraudulent qualificative in your description?)? Or does it refer to the fact that most followers of this movement don't practice what they preach, i.e. live a lavish life in the Bahamas while getting tax advantages by donating to charity?

Genuinely asking, never really looked into the details...

176 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 31 Oct 2024

This is just my personal opinion, but I have two criticisms:

It rests on faulty assumptions about the possibility of moral/ethical neutrality which can be somehow determined scientifically. In practice, it is a tool for moving power into the hands of those with "expert" credentials to determine what is good policy and what is not.
It is too easily used as a veneer for people to hide their selfish behavior / selfish intentions behind public acts of charity.

It reminds me of Jesus's saying in the book of Matthew:

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

Oftentimes, the veneer of virtue that charity imparts can actually lead people to worser behavior in their private lives. I've heard this first hand from some friends who work in the non-profit/NGO space. (Though this is more a criticism of any kind of non-profit/charity/activism, and not necessarily a criticism of effective altruism per se.)

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @spraveenitpro 31 Oct 2024

I believe it was effective autism

113 sats \ 0 replies \ @_b_o_n_e_s_ 31 Oct 2024

the VCs who enabled the kids are just as guilty

24 sats \ 0 replies \ @south_korea_ln 31 Oct 2024

Across those cases, the FTX conspirators benefited from privileges that most criminal defendants lack, said Seth Goertz, a former federal prosecutor in Arizona. They hired top-tier law firms to mount sophisticated defenses featuring empathetic portraits of their lives, anchored by polished parental testimonies.

“You’re certainly seeing class dynamics in play here,” Mr. Goertz said. “This is not something a defendant who just has access to a public defender could do.”

I think this is the crux of the matter the parents conveniently ignore. Reminds me of so many cases in Korea where celebrities get away with a slap on the hand.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @byzantine 31 Oct 2024 freebie

i believe there were reports that the parents were in the group chat and may have known of the fraud which makes them potential conspirators