That is what Sam Bankman-Fried has done. The slovenly crypto-fraudster was exposed weeks ago. His business was not simply badly handled or the victim of unfortunate circumstances. FTX crypto exchange and the hedge fund Alameda Research went out of their way to defraud investors and users. But despite this fact, Bankman-Fraud still seems to have support. No cancellation for him!
Just look at how his friends at The New York Times have treated him. In recent weeks they have tried to portray the collapse of FTX as — at the worst — a case of unfortunate mismanagement. The poor diddums billionaire boy just became too successful too fast. Problems are bound to happen. You know how it is.
This week the paper went one further. They actually hosted the fraudster at a New York Times event. Their description of him in the event program was “29-year old American investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist.” Well that’s one way to describe him. At the end of the event the moderator asked everyone to join him in applauding their guest and the audience dutifully did so.
Can anyone think of another example of this happening. Did Bernie Madoff get soft-soap articles about him after his fraud was discovered? Did he have invitations to major public events to put his side of the story after his ponzi scheme collapsed? Not that I remember. But Bankman-Fried has been given all the soft treatment possible. Now why should that be?
Jurisdiction isn’t why SBF is getting kid gloves.
Remember, the US got a satellite state to throw Alexey Pertsev in jail without charges for protecting privacy. Happened in two days!
So, they’d lean on the Bahamas if they wanted to. They don’t want to.https://t.co/vvS4WbJ62W pic.twitter.com/pYMaGIk6BE
— Balaji (@balajis) December 1, 2022
Meanwhile: China.
On Nov. 30, New York Times journalists Muyi Xiao and Paul Mozur discussed their recent reporting on China’s growing domestic surveillance with OPC Past President William J. Holstein. Both were part of teams that analyzed more than 100,000 state bidding documents and talked to citizens on the ground to unravel the Chinese government’s use of technologies such as phone tracking, DNA collection, facial and voice recognition software to gather vast amounts of data. This information is fed into algorithms to find patterns and predict behavior such as crimes or protests, or signal police when someone with a history of mental illness approaches a school.
Its insane that our government has the nerve to lecture other nations about corruption. https://t.co/Jpx6NRoObf pic.twitter.com/cQPwDUa1tN
— Haze 𓅊 (@GodSon83) December 2, 2022