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Sam Bankman-Fried thrown into solitary over Tucker Carlson interview: report

180 points| rntn | 1 year ago |gizmodo.com

226 comments

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[+] tempodox|1 year ago|reply
> SBF blamed his erratic appearance in old interviews on being distracted by tech devices.

Really, the excuses this guy is throwing around remind me of little children.

> Carlson kept acting throughout the interview as though it’s just normal and reasonable for wealthy people who donate to politicians to expect corrupt favors from those same people in their time of need.

That's just being realistic, isn't it?

[+] majormajor|1 year ago|reply
> > Carlson kept acting throughout the interview as though it’s just normal and reasonable for wealthy people who donate to politicians to expect corrupt favors from those same people in their time of need.

> That's just being realistic, isn't it?

For Carlson - a wealthy politically connected person who I would be unsurprised if he is the recipient of favor - I'm sure it's realistic.

But there are more of us who don't have the wealth or political connections to get favors than there are those who do.

So it's weird that people who claim to care about corruption keep voting for and snuggling up to extremely wealthy obviously-favor-trading conmen. The president doesn't even try to hide the games. So after that it's unsurprising that someone like Carlson is starting to drop the pretense too.

Will the people he gets his power from - his audience - care, though?

[+] Recursing|1 year ago|reply
> > SBF blamed his erratic appearance in old interviews on being distracted by tech devices.

> Really, the excuses this guy is throwing around remind me of little children.

That's not what he says though, https://youtu.be/dN1CR2dyfo8?feature=shared&t=169 "My mind was racing because there were a billion things to keep track of [with the company]"

(Not defending SBF here, he deserves his sentence)

[+] PavleMiha|1 year ago|reply
> That's just being realistic, isn't it?

As evidenced by this situation it's not true that any criminal can give money to any politician and expect favours. Perhaps some criminals curry more favour, and perhaps some politicians are more transactional.

[+] amazingman|1 year ago|reply
No. Not in a society that values the rule of law. I keep seeing amoral "do whatever you can get away with" sociopathy masquerading as "realism" in our discussions of politics. I wish it would stop.
[+] spongebobstoes|1 year ago|reply
I think it's wrong to use solitary as an extra (and extra-judicial) punishment.

Prisons should need a strong medical/safety justification for putting prisoners into isolation, which is torturous for many people.

[+] borski|1 year ago|reply
You’re right. But in this case SBF engaged in an external interview, without permission, over a link normally reserved for access to attorneys.

When the interview came out, it’s safe to assume the prison had no idea how it happened. He was in solitary for 24 hours, possibly so they could ensure there were no smartphones or anything else.

It also may have been just to punish him. But there’s at least one reasonable reason, given that it was only 24 hours.

[+] Teever|1 year ago|reply
I broadly agree with this but it raises a bigger question -- how do you punish someone who is already in a process of punishment?

That's an especially important question when someone is going through a very long punishment process, like what does another life sentence mean to someone who has a life sentence? You can't execute someone twice, right?

If someone breaks a very important rule in prison there needs to be some way to put an immediate stop to that behaviour and to disincentivize them from doing it again and in a situation like this is seems like solitary confinement is the most effective way to do that.

[+] cm2187|1 year ago|reply
So what are you suggesting to handle misbehaving inmates? A strongly worded memo?
[+] viccis|1 year ago|reply
If SBF was able to get a smuggled phone, as the article speculates, to do an unauthorized interview, then he is clearly using his connections to sidestep aspects of his incarceration. Putting him in solitary is an appropriate way to cut him off from engaging in further such corruption, and it should be repeated for any further violations. The only problem here is that it took this long for them to identify that he had the ability to do things like this.

Billionaires like him should serve the same time in the same manner as any other citizen.

[+] pedalpete|1 year ago|reply
I'd agree if he were in solitary for an extended period of time, but is 24 hours really that torturous?
[+] kolbe|1 year ago|reply
What would you suggest to solve the problem solitary is aiming to solve? Chesterton's Fence was built for a reason. Solitary isn't torturous in the traditional sense of the word. It is consistent with the idea of prison--it's just a worse version of prison. It acts to disincentivize rule breaking within the system. What other ways can we attack this problem with high enough confidence that removing the proverbial "fence" will not result in a total disaster.
[+] GaggiX|1 year ago|reply
>which is torturous for many people.

That's why it's used as a punishment.

[+] namuol|1 year ago|reply
The story here is that a criminal that stole billions is staging a prison escape through an openly corrupt political administration and their subservient media apparatus.
[+] 6stringmerc|1 year ago|reply
As an inmate in a terrible county jail who chose solitary confinement for mental health reasons - and to avoid the 4 Tray Crips who effectively run general population in Tarrant County Corrections - I’m glad he’s going in. I have several stories of hearing entitled and “tough” men absolutely crumble when forced to sit out punishment in that environment. There’s a recent phrase that goes “fuck around and find out” which totally fits here.

Yes, solitary confinement is akin to forced mental distress in most incarceration systems. No, it’s not randomly doled out.

The fact remains if he wanted to do an interview with Tucker Carlson he could have accomplished it in writing using the mail. He chose not to do so. No sympathy here.

[+] sebmellen|1 year ago|reply
I live in Tarrant County. I’ve heard horrible things about the deaths in our county jail. Maybe slightly off topic, but anything you can share from your time there?
[+] javajosh|1 year ago|reply
Sidenote: Voidzilla did a 6 minute video about this interview [1]. Tucker focused on injustice, but not the billions SBF stole from people, but the fact that the people who took SBF's political contributions didn't get him off. The implications seem to be that Tucker values transactional justice rather than unbiased justice. This is a sea-change in American (and indeed Western) jurisprudence that is (to me) some combination of shocking and expected at this point.

1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BLzWTRmq2k

[+] wmf|1 year ago|reply
Didn't Mark Twain say that an honest politician is one who stays bought? I guess Tucker agrees with him.
[+] maxbond|1 year ago|reply
If Bankman-Fried does somehow get a pardon, I will be amazed that the bitter debate on HN about whether he would get off scott free or would be thrown in prison somehow resulted in both parties being correct.
[+] misiti3780|1 year ago|reply
why would trump pardon him - he donated to mostly democratic causes and openly hated trump (was going to pay him 5B to not run reportedly)
[+] cvalka|1 year ago|reply
Unless Trump is a complete moron, SBF will not be pardoned.
[+] dralley|1 year ago|reply
Sam Bankman-Fried's "comeback plan", item #3, as per evidence obtained from his Gmail account: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.59...

"Go on Tucker Carlsen, come out as a republican

a) While public contributions show one thing, you see another thing including super pacs

b) Come out against the woke agenda

c) Talk about how the cartel of lawyers is destroying value and throwing entrepreneurs under the bus in order to cover up the incompetence of lawyers"

[+] bigyabai|1 year ago|reply
> Talk about how the cartel of lawyers is destroying value

Picking a fake fight with lawyers seems like the sort of thing you'd do if you were desperate to go back to jail...

[+] nindalf|1 year ago|reply
I'm reminded of this quote from Shogun.

> Every man has three hearts: one in his mouth, for the world to know; one in his chest, just for his friends; and a secret heart buried deep where no one can find it

The path to success is keeping your strategy secret until long after you've executed it.

Sadly this dude was afflicted with verbal diarrhoea, he just couldn't stop talking and writing. How much more effective the same strategy would be if he had just kept his mouth shut. He's made it needlessly difficult for himself.

Still, it's not a huge issue. All he has to do is cozy up to Trump and get his pardon. I can already hear it - "he was treated very horribly, very unfairly. Believe me, I know."

[+] rawgabbit|1 year ago|reply
a) Pay Trump

b) Say the right things so Trump has cover to grant you a pardon

c) Say the right things so Trump has cover to grant you a pardon

[+] belter|1 year ago|reply

[deleted]

[+] rwmj|1 year ago|reply
Is there a chance the constitution will be changed after all this so the president can't pardon people?
[+] tcj_phx|1 year ago|reply
The most important line in this interview was at about 33:00: “The hardest thing is not having something meaningful to do in here”. https://x.com/tuckercarlson/status/1897709140535132442

Prolonged use of Solitary confinement is a humans right abuse: https://www.aclu.org/documents/abuse-human-rights-prisoners-...

Prison is mostly just warehousing people for a prescribed amount of time. I've read that people start to develop PTSD after about 7 days of confinement. Sometimes incarceration is all you can do with violent people and fraudsters. I'm sure most inmates are deteriorated by their 'correction'.

My friend would rather be in jail than in a psych ward, so that's one positive take on incarceration. [I have videos proving she was misdiagnosed. Arizona's psych wards implement an obsolete approach to 'mental health', using palliative drugs. In 2022 Chris Palmer published his book about the 80 years of science establishing that mental disorders are caused by metabolic problems, but the standard of care is still palliative treatment.]

[+] takeda|1 year ago|reply
Adams, Tate now this, looks like the administration is looking for best scammers they can find.
[+] dgfitz|1 year ago|reply
> the federal agency confirmed to the newspaper that it did not give permission for the interview with Carlson to go forward.

I didn’t realize it was so hard to control the freedoms of inmates. I actually thought that was the whole point.

[+] Trasmatta|1 year ago|reply
> SBF said in the Thursday episode of Carlson’s show that he doesn’t believe Democrats “saved” him while being prosecuted during the Joe Biden years because they knew he was giving to Republicans as well.

He's upset that Democrats didn't let him commit crime just because he donated to them? Holy corruption, Bankman.

[+] micromacrofoot|1 year ago|reply
the phenomenon of going right wing after committing crimes so you can find a sympathetic ear feels rather troubling, especially because it seems to work no matter how blatant it is
[+] randycupertino|1 year ago|reply
Ever since Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht I have been waiting to see if he will also pardon Sam Bankman-Fried and Elizabeth Holmes.
[+] seydor|1 year ago|reply
Why? they are fraudsters, which ulrbicht was not. also they have only served a few years
[+] forinti|1 year ago|reply
Ulbricht had the backing of the libertarians.
[+] aprilthird2021|1 year ago|reply
I really wonder if the whole insolvency and locking up customer funds thing happened which led to the revelation of fraud etc. If that happened now, with Trump in office. Would he have just not been arrested, indicted, convicted, etc.?
[+] Molitor5901|1 year ago|reply
I despise the snot but solitary confinement should only be used for the most egregious, violent offenders. Throwing someone in the "hole" for such a minor thing is inhuman. Solitary should be outlawed.
[+] xiphias2|1 year ago|reply
By stealing billions of dollars he destroyed more people than the worst repeated violent offenders. Also he's clearly paying politicians off. In my opinion he should be categorized in the worst category even just looking at the lost thousands of years because people won't be able to pay medical bills because of him.
[+] voxadam|1 year ago|reply
Solitary confinement as punitive measure is most certainly cruel, unfortunately it's far from unusual, at least in the United States.

SBF is beyond loathsome but he should still be treated humanely.

[+] slimebot80|1 year ago|reply
Well after Tucker fluffed Putin, kinda makes me wonder if they put the right person in solitary.
[+] tw1231283|1 year ago|reply
Crypto czar David Sacks was in favor of the Silicon Valley Bank bailout but spoke against SBF in 2022, when SBF was believed to be a Democrat.

Otherwise there would be a good chance of making gambling with customer money legal (which is what the Silicon Valley Bank did) and SBF could co-chair the Sovereign Bitcoin Reserve together with DPR.

[+] Leary|1 year ago|reply
On an EV basis, the worst thing SBF did was probably funding Anthropic and accelerating the demise of humanity.