Were SBF's parents in on it? Follow the Money - Episode 130

[@ListRankSell]

"I think both Joseph Bankman 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." Man, this explains so much.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

Blew my mind with how bullseye it sounded.

[@thorsrensen3162]

But in reality they were just simple thieves. Stealing small account holders savings by just taking the money right out of the accounts and wiring them to other real banks.

[@josephhuman7390]

Hey Sell, in my opinion your is comment is correct, It seems to add up, their one chance or shot at life changing $$$, and especially them being the smartest people in the room.

[@qinby1182]

Simple question... You work with your parents They are HIGHLY QUALIFIED, more qualified than you. You end up being "the fall guy" They got rich. Did this happen "out of sheer luck" from their side OR They really do not like you as much as they love themselves??? Considering of what I know and seen of SBF I can see that but still NORMALLY parents protect their children... Just look at senile Biden... he even put himself at risk although how these greedy narcissists think is really hard to grasp... BUT KNOWING it is hard to grasp is a good start to understand. Maybe SBF really is innocent, set up by his parents (not that it helps) BUT for a child trusting its parents is in my eyes more credible than the opposite. In the end... JUDGE BY HOW IT TURNED OUT. Rich parents child going to jail... AND THEY MUST HAVE KNOWN IT WOULD COLLAPSE Compare this with Elisabeth Holmes.... Where her parents involved??? Did she give tens of millions to her parents, did they work in her company??? and she was "as bad as it gets" So the SBF relation with his parents is not "sound"

[@CallousCarter]

Also a great case study in how wealth inequality corrodes the expectations and standards of the broader society. If I spent a moderate amount of time co-mingling with VC gargoyles I'd probably end up convinced I was more deserving of their kind of money than they were too....

[@ragnarosthefirelord8662]

SBF's dad sending a passive aggressive email and ccing Sam's mom is the most ethical way I've ever heard of "earning" a million dollar salary. Great work guys, keep printing those CasCoins!

[@LanceR63]

All four parents of Fried and Ellison are MIT and Stanford professors, and all four parents have a history of being involved in top White House and government agency research committees. On top of that, they all hold Ph.D.s in mathematics and economics. So, we're talking about incredibly intelligent and well-connected individuals here. Now, here's where things get interesting. We're supposed to believe that these parents didn't raise an eyebrow when their 20-something children suddenly found themselves at the helm of a cryptocurrency exchange startup. They were living it up in a $40 million penthouse in a resort in the Bahamas, jet-setting around the world, and throwing around tens and hundreds of millions of dollars like confetti. And all of this went on for 2-3 years, with their parents thinking these kids were just prodigies? Seriously, I can't help but shake my head in disbelief.

[@loislois3526]

They all lost all credibility- I don’t think SBFs parents were so well connected that their social circles won’t shun them. This is embarrassing and their son is so odd that there really is no standing by them. They are all alone now. Other professors definitely won’t hang with them anymore that’s for sure

[@loislois3526]

They were wannabes. Gifted individuals are a dime a dozen in the bay. It was a facade

[@kkhanhp]

Speaking as an academic, professors are positioned as these figures who give up a lot of money and accreditation in pursuit of knowledge, but progressing within the Ivory Tower itself requires a certain amount of ego, self-inflation, and either ruthlessness or a willingness to turn a blind eye to things that seem not-so-above-board, just like in any private business. It doesn't surprise me in the least that they were highly lauded professors willing to do underhanded stuff and put their careers at risk.

[@qinby1182]

Simple question... You work with your parents They are HIGHLY QUALIFIED, more qualified than you. You end up being "the fall guy" They got rich. Did this happen "out of sheer luck" from their side OR They really do not like you as much as they love themselves??? Considering of what I know and seen of SBF I can see that but still NORMALLY parents protect their children... Just look at senile Biden... he even put himself at risk although how these greedy narcissists think is really hard to grasp... BUT KNOWING it is hard to grasp is a good start to understand. Maybe SBF really is innocent, set up by his parents (not that it helps) BUT for a child trusting its parents is in my eyes more credible than the opposite. In the end... JUDGE BY HOW IT TURNED OUT. Rich parents child going to jail... AND THEY MUST HAVE KNOWN IT WOULD COLLAPSE Compare this with Elisabeth Holmes.... Where her parents involved??? Did she give tens of millions to her parents, did they work in her company??? and she was "as bad as it gets" So the SBF relation with his parents is not "sound"

[@tin-n-tan]

That's a pretty broad brush.

[@loislois3526]

Yup and being somewhat unremarkable can be explained by being hired in the late 80s and 90s. They probably weren’t any more money makers than other professors getting research grants but their tenure process was during a less competitive time for sure. Makes a ton of sense why they did what they did - they were wannabes. Being smart, accomplished, with high earnings is hardly anything special in the Bay Area - especially now more than ever

[@harlendevraak1202]

Most parents: Son, do not steal other people’s money Bankman & Fried: Son, we want in on the loot

[@nineteenfortyeight]

Bankman: wants a million dollars for part- time consulting on contract law Also Bankman: Doesn't read own employment contract; surprised to be paid agreed- upon amount 😂

[@antoniofernandesmarchetti1097]

And he is a LAWYER!

[@Praisethesunson]

Son your scam company didn't pay me as much as I want. I'm going to tell your mother.

[@winstonwolfe2537]

Thanks for the coverage. Turns out the sociopathic fraudster is just a chip off the old block. You guys rock! Keep up the great work.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

*blocks, plural. Both parents. Yikes.

[@KenjaTimu]

That is silicon valley ethics.

[@gordons-alive4940]

I would be very surprised if SBF and his parents didn't see themselves as better people than most. Superior morals and ethics. Even after getting nearly 30 million in gifts from Sam's companies right before they crashed and burned. Even now that everyone knows these were ill gotten gains, they don't think they should have to return it.

[@gertrudlehmann4869]

Spot on!

[@melissastreeter22]

I love it when young people of this generation, meaning you hosts, are so articulate, clear and informed. Gives me hope for the future of our country.

[@jfcfjcjfq]

03:40 Has to be an all-time greatest "I'm telling your mother" moment

[@CryptoCriticPod]

A negotiating tactic they don’t teach you about in business school

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

The menacing tone of "let's ask your mother together..." lol.

[@Nohandleentered]

They sound like a fun family. I think I’ve hit year 36 without a demand email from my parents for money. Oof

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

That was the coldest "hmm let's ask your Mom" I've ever heard.

[@NickKautz]

This is not nearly as exciting as it's being portrayed. People fail to realize that SBF had legimiately earned several billion $ of his own money that he would spend using Alameda. A company can have multiple seperate money tunnels for different purposes. He was just paying his parents well , as anyone would.

[@CryptoCriticPod]

@NickKautz no, he hadn’t. Alameda Research was basically never profitable, and FTX was insolvent basically from the jump

[@NickKautz]

That's incompetent. It was a thriving exchange other than crypto going through a rough patch, and the company holding too much of it's own token that was only backed by confidence in itself. @@CryptoCriticPod

[@tin-n-tan]

​@@NickKautzthat's not true though.

[@jimshorts4317]

What I find most fascinating is that both Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried are entirely unremarkable on paper. They have very little working world experience, predoniminantly academic backgrounds, and yet somehow they ended up as faculty in Stanford Law. Like, how low is the bar there? If you look at their backgrounds, they are not noteworthy people. Barbara Fried has like 4 years of actual work experience. Joseph Bankman has less than ten. Barbara's undergrad and masters are in LITERATURE. Joseph's PhD is in Clinical Psych? What? These people are WEIRD. If it wasn't for the J.D.'s they have, I'd be more qualified than they are.

[@carocarochan]

They're well connected...

[@loislois3526]

Just googled and have some insight. One - the bar is extremely high at Stanford. Professors don’t need to be famous but they do have to be smart and produce good research. It is far more competitive today to get hired as a prof there and across the board so based on their age I looked at his hiring date - 1989! The in at Stanford in that era was easier albeit he probably still had to be qualified in a way. Now - there’s a bunch of different ranks of professor but if he’s tenured than he can’t really lose his job easily. A lot of faculty hired before 2000s had an easier time getting in to the field and it was less competitive. And most are still in the jobs today. He has produced a lot of research and authored curriculum material based on a quick glance at his bio so that is a valid achievement in his field I agree they are both unremarkable - I think people assume they are more connected than they are because of Stanford and having money and living in the Bay Area. The Bay Area is over saturated with people just like that - they aren’t well connected and they aren’t special. But they did want to be which is why they were pushing to get into politics. I guarantee their colleagues will never speak or associate with them after all this comes out and their connections with the school via the donations are only at the higher up corners. They weren’t backed by Stanford per se but I bet Stanford didn’t mind taking their money a bit- oh and if we’re talking about $ to research universities - a lot of TT professors are valued for bringing in research money to their field. Usually it’s a grant but I bet it didn’t hurt. Hope this gives some context - I’m a prof

[@Praisethesunson]

​@@loislois3526I wonder what was going on in the 1980's that the elite schools of the rich were willing to stick an unethical man into the ethics professorship position.

[@thorsrensen3162]

I like how you dig into this case and reveals how this family operated as hard core criminals. I hope they will get punished hard.

[@gordons-alive4940]

I suspect that Sam's sentences will end up running concurrently and he will end up doing about ten years while his parents won't be prosecuted. They'll tell us that there wasn't enough evidence of criminal wrongdoing to prosecute despite the e-mails and their actions and then wait for the media and everyone else to forget about it. They are a very well connected family.

[@markn8866]

Shocker!!! Lawyers with NO integrity and a full tank of corruption. Lock up the whole darn family and flush the key.

[@CJBroonie]

They were law professors, not practitioners. Very different. But skeezy just the same.

[@progressoful]

😂😂 for real

[@trevorgough2286]

They'd corrupt the prison..

[@emmy8526]

Love this episode. Spare a thought for all of SBF’s (and Elizabeth Holmes’ and Adam Neumann’s) peers, whose parents were like, "Why aren’t you a high-achieving billionaire on magazine covers?" and who probably still kind of think that even after all of these scams went bust. Status-obsessed bourgeois parents like SBF’s are a curse: valuing achievement and money over worth, let alone ethics.

[@JR-yx3po]

And Fried is a legal ethics professor! These are the likes of the academics in these sick institutions.

[@redherronrecords]

My parents are totally like that and i'm thinking of spending christmas at home alone from now on.

[@loislois3526]

And social skills lol

[@loislois3526]

@@JR-yx3poyea he’s definitely toast in his academic and social circles for sure

[@bc-guy852]

WHAT?? I first checked you guys out months ago; the material is always fabulous and I thought for sure you'd have ten times the subscribers you do! This is a great episode and should be viewed by the masses! Great work guys - respect from BC, Canada.

[@chancellorism]

I hope Stanford uses this an an ethics lesson for themselves and all the bright young minds they are forming.

[@stevemurch3245]

Along with Theranos

[@tsaotsaofamily]

Marc Teesier Lavigne as well

[@tupacalypse88]

How we all F’d up 101 😁

[@xyzmediaandentertainment8313]

Lol Stanford would never. It's an institute run by the elites for the elites.

[@hairychris444]

Probably not. Just not get caught. Note: I am not a fan of the whole Stanford U/Silicon Valley/tech VC clusterfuckery.

[@FizzleFX]

Love how transparent this case is. Those guys are horrible criminal's. They couldn't steal a cookie without leaving a trail of crumbs...

[@r.b.8635]

😂😂😂😂

[@jimpollard9392]

Never expect honesty, integrity, or moral courage from academia.

[@winstonwolfe2537]

In defense of academia. These are people running multibillion dollar businesses pretending to be concerned about education and academia. The entire US private university system is rotten to the core. Tax sheltered endowment funds instead of decent education for everyone. Absolutely disgusting.

[@vanopnt]

Nonsense. All sorts of people in academia.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

@@vanopnt Point is academia doesn't make them automatically good, smart, informed, ethical people. What made you feel like you had to respond with a fatuous statement like that? They weren't maligning all academics everywhere or saying academia is illegitimate; only that the sheer act + enterprise of being an academic doesn't guarantee higher moral status or intellect. Considering several research fields have been dealing with scandals involving data manipulation + research fraud lately, & the star academics involved were found out + called out by other academics, but were protected for too long by their institutions + reputations, it's an even-handed, informed, + timely reminder.

[@MonGeezy]

This trial has exposed SBF’s mom and dad as pious, weak, nerdy, criminals.

[@loislois3526]

Exactly

[@hairychris444]

Stanford people doing Stanford things....

[@laxman90210]

100% agree with the points about elite universities in the US. Just become money centric entities instead of being rooted in education

[@cadekachelmeier7251]

I'd love to buy some CasCoin. Could we structure it as a donation and route it through a couple of my off shore shell companies? I'm definitely NOT planning on using this as part of a criminal conspiracy.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

6:16 Sure, they were asking questions. Important ones, like: "Can I get away with this?", "How can I get away with this?", & "How much of this can I get away with?".

[@michellebowers8652]

Mom and Dad got greedy, pure and simple. They saw all the money and instant fame whirling around their son and wanted a piece of the action.

[@loislois3526]

💯

[@IsleyNumber1]

Man I'm LOVING the high frequency CCC recently. But can we talk about the donations CasCoin has made to Cas's mother's PAC lately? I just wanna know that all disclosures were followed correctly etc etc.

[@willow2595]

Me too

[@1lcp1]

I was hoping you would cover this. Excellent as always.

[@mclaarson]

Ftx was their money box and sfb was the key to it and now they would just ditch their son on his own, taking the shot on his own. Remarkable parenting.

[@joseph2707]

FANTASTIC video. Extraordinary content. Thank you.

[@mqbq3651]

As a financial controller/consultant something in me dies everytime i hear them talking about which companies and bank accounts to use for their transactions as if it does not matter 😅

[@Aquatj999]

12:09 Cas: "Why aren't they being criminally charged?" Ad: "Money makes the world go round, and crypto pushes the future forward!" LMAO

[@Binkbinkson]

Great reporting here. Good work

[@anthonyreguero3328]

They need to go to jail.

[@OwenGilmoreOG]

Great video guys. Not super surprising though. Parents are humble professors and are somehow able to get $250 million to bail out sonny boy? Nothing suspicious about that! Cas, nice stache!

[@I_am_Junebug]

Humble Stanford professors? That would be extremely unusual.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

Haven't listened yet but SO EXCITED I'm clearing my slate this morning just to listen. I've had so many questions about how much his parents knew & what their motivations are & what they should have known considering their backgrounds. I can't comment on the actual video yet, but before we go, thank so much for addressing questions that are eating me alive!

[@warrenpeece1726]

Interesting. Says a lot about the "legal ethics" philosophy of the parents and Stanford.

[@robertborbely9005]

Just finished the episode, watched all the way through, no idea what was being said, but MAN, THAT STACHE! Loved it! :D Seriously though, a great one! Please keep these coming, you guys are fantastic!

[@briancolucci536]

They absolutely should be criminally charged. They knowingly manipulated and exploited their son (who, let’s face it, shouldn’t have been trusted to run anything more complex than a goat rodeo) to line their pockets. Sam argued he didn’t have intent or knowledge but got convicted anyway. It would be interesting to hear two Stanford law professors explain their lack of intent.

[@cycit5485]

The moustache rocks 😉 Great video guys 👍

[@CryptoCriticPod]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@coopermorgan9570]

Amazing episode guys! I really appreciate your content thank you both.

[@CryptoCriticPod]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@billcashman5900]

Do you think criminal charges will be filed against them eventually?

[@CryptoCriticPod]

Impossible to say, white collar prosecutions are unpredictable, and they may be “distant enough” to not make it worth it. Perhaps there’s not evidence of enough explicit criminality

[@W4t3rf1r3]

Combine your facial hair and you get a full goatee Love the podcast

[@loislois3526]

Also - I’m jazzed that SBFs parents retired and their positions can be replaced by those of a more progressive generation. Lots of changes are occurring with the outdated folks finally retiring

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

Thanks this was fantastic & I look forward to you following this part of the story as developments evolve/come out. Appreciate you both, & Bennett's armchair psych analysis at the end rings true to me. I'm poor but I can pass as middle class & my old professional role put me around a lot of academics. Academics can fixate on really petty sh*t & interpersonal politics. Sick & warped, as Cas correctly says.

[@4bibimimi]

SBF knew exactly how much money his parents made. That $250,000.00 was in line with what they were already making. If Joseph was leaving Stanford, he was not interested in a lateral move in any way. He had access to ridiculous money and a tax shelter! His life's work was about to pay off!

[@eurabio]

I think they were always corrupt and not that suddenly FTX changed them.

[@otto1630]

Sam is the exact child i would think that bankman-fried would have raised .

[@loislois3526]

Yeah he’s unremarkable and easily tempted by greed and fame. Parents were the same. They wished they were as connected as people assume but even SBF had the smallest circle of friends and they were all loners too

[@cinemaipswich4636]

It's called a "Preferential Payment". Something that no other Corporate Officer or shareholder received, in the dying days of the business.

[@alr9967]

Therefore clawback rules should apply. They need to pay it all back into the bankruptcy disbursement coffers

[@MrCurcio99]

The parents better get served a lawsuit!! Great coverage!!

[@CryptoCriticPod]

The parents were served a lawsuit, that’s what we were discussing in this episode

[@kirkwilson6229]

Did they do "the exact opposite of what they were teaching"? I think they were both doing what they had been doing for years: giving shady advice to businessmen to make money. They had a rep in silicon valley because they shuffled numbers and redefined ethics, not because they were wonderful, upright people.

[@Carolinapetroska]

Yes of course.

[@loislois3526]

Those older profs are so outdated - doesn’t surprise me one bit. I wouldn’t want to be taught by an ethics prof whose generation is less up to date with ethics in our current era. Doesn’t mean older profs by any means are incapable of doing the subject justice however institutional change is happening quicker and more easily when newer folks are coming in

[@B007-g4e]

😮 Both SBF's parents should be charged with RICO. They should both be disbarred. All their assets should be dissolved to fund FTX's cheated customers. The sentences for the both of them should be deportation to Russia's Black Swain prison for life.

[@rajahferrier7475]

SBFs mother has aged 15 years in the last year

[@josephhuman7390]

Yes she has! She looks like one of those Jail mug shots, before drugs after on drugs, the worries on this have seriously aged his mother.

[@nineteenfortyeight]

Her before picture is probably 15 years old 😂

[@a.h.8947]

A really good video thanks for all the content

[@donragnar8430]

You guys are a leading indicator for Patrick Boyles content 😉

[@retrojay86]

Yup😂

[@The1980Philip]

Funny to hear crypto investors talk about "suffering", while crypto was specifically designed to facilitate crime.

[@Carolinapetroska]

100% guilty son and parents for manipulative tactics of the law and stealing money from investors for their own benefits.

[@Aries73]

All this corruption makes me think a lot of these private post-secondary institutions should be shut down and auctioned off to public colleges and universities.

[@kashishkumar8374]

CasCoin holders 🤝 FTT holders : Getting rich on paper, without all the criminality, lack of corporate governance or fraud aside of the latter, of course.

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

& they left their Moms + PopPops out of it!

[@purplepurrpurrin]

I'm worried Bennett is putting pressure on Cas again to promote the podcast again. Is this is at great risk to the future of CasCoin, does the newly announced CEO Burrito have and comments?

[@MsJoybird1]

Sam’s dad was definitely in on the decision making. Sam’s mother guided Sam on donations to Democrat candidates in the 2020 elections!

[@sunnohh]

Stanford, bad at academics, sports, ethics, spinoffs and alumni

[@nineteenfortyeight]

Presidents ...

[@REEEEDACTED]

yasss listening on metra to chicago this morning 🖤🖤🖤

[@williamharvey4732]

Get his parents ! Two immoral Stanford , of course, lawyers . Experts in this sort of crime. They !! Knew it all. Then partisapated.

[@LtDan-yt7lb]

"But Mom!" 😂

[@AlbinoMutant]

Great episode.

[@1911Earthling]

They might have the ill gotten wealth but they will never spend it with any respect. No matter where they go they will be hated and treated like dirt.

[@rachest]

They were all STEALIN!! Them and all of their friends

[@delgadogarces]

Great work on this!

[@chadbarnard3620]

Cas is that an alternative Astros hat? Pretty sweet design 💫

[@tupacalypse88]

Their chance to be smart and rich by stupidly leaving a trail while stealing others money with there son. Yeah i think they were wrong about themselves

[@twinturbo3461]

100% they were in on it.

[@fassin666]

BT, love the vibes 🥰

[@fasted8468]

You guys are great just subbed

[@CryptoCriticPod]

Thank you!

[@tonyalways7174]

This makes me wonder how many other schemes this crime family have been involved in.

[@roc7880]

I believed these people who were not only lawyers but were law teachers were smart. Did they really put the crime in writing?

[@georgeromey4971]

Amazing these 2 young guys know more about this than big lawyers for the Prosecution and within the corporate press.

[@retrogametech1626]

I think anyone that got any money from ftx should get 20 years in prison starting with every politician and every celebrity and even this guys parents

[@Abizarre1]

Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for. Do you guys have a podcast feed? I hear good things about a podcast feed

[@GeorgeSemel]

Up to there necks in on the scam. Both need to go straight to prison too.

[@sonsofthewestredwhiteblue5317]

When he attended his last court hearing he complained of having ‘less than 100k in the bank.’ … oh diddums. My heart bleeds for you. I’ll mention it to the blokes in the YT comments and we’ll pass the hat around.

[@katebunch2047]

This is almost like the movie BLOW- Johhny Depp, crazy cocaine dealer - wow, we are amazed at all this money, thank you.

[@pedrocoentro2009]

It's not just American. Greed is very human. Greetings from Porto ❤️❤️

[@rozilla66]

Of course they were involved.... They've been neck deep in this sludge.

[@sharonsekhon9475]

Great analysis

[@testpattern701]

Stanford University is going to give back $5.5M in donations they received. Give it back to whom? Didn't Daddy Bankman give it to them in the first place? Bankman and Fried could use $5.5M to pay for the defense of their boy genius. Sam is going to the slammer and I'm not. Who's the genius now?

[@forbesy33]

So basically a family of grifters

[@auctionmusic]

its clawback time....

[@tristandeboer]

When I bought CasCoin I thought I was buying a podcast beer coaster, instead I haven’t even gotten a worthless JPEG!

[@CryptoCriticPod]

Ooh coasters are an interesting merch idea. We’ve talked about getting actual CasCoins minted as merch before too

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

@@CryptoCriticPod I'd wear a CasCoin necklace! EDIT: & buy one, ofc lol

[@chrisretford6627]

Cas has the best hats

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

Shorts idea: A Cas hat a day for December. Let's kick 2023 out of here in style.

[@1310Robbo]

People knew before the collapse that Sammy’s parents were in on the scam

[@petejunebug]

Cas’s mustache gives him +20 trust

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

Soul patches = -1000 Both Cas + B serve great hairy face. I wonder if they're ramping up for Movember, getting a growing start? Aw, if CasCoins were physical, we could make them flocked, like weird 70s animal tchotchkes that feel like freshly mown hair. Dang.

[@renpilak6048]

Why are they not charged with fraud, tax evasion, etc?

[@freyamiles3718]

I hate the term bankruptcy remote. I want it so that execs can have their money and assets used if the company collapses. It just stinks of the phrase "Corporation, n. an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility."

[@watchdog304]

Goodness gracious! This whole family seems completely despicable.

[@fassin666]

Cas, love the moustache

[@picahudsoniaunflocked5426]

Primo "Castache".

[@charleskramer6189]

Ambrose Bierce "Devil's Dictionary" Lawyer (noun) - one skilled in circumvention of the law

[@josephhuman7390]

Has anyone heard anymore on the brother Gabriel?

[@CoreyChambersLA]

It's plausible that SBF and friends believed that they were acting within the law, and that they were simply set back by a major decline of crypto prices.

[@williewonka6694]

Yes, follow the money WHEREVER it leads. Those who profited beyond salary were involved. Look at the "charities", as well.

[@youlube1029]

I am selling tokens for buying say, bananas,houses and asking Barbara what she thinks. and in the process I' ll get a hairdresser.