I was wondering why SBF seemingly behaved like an innocent man. Giving interviews, talking to podcasters, remaining at his residence.

Why didn’t he make a run for it?

If he did take all those billions as was claimed, why didn’t he move to a country that doesn’t extradite or just move off the grid for a couple years?

Was he burnt out? complacent? drugs?

Or did he never have that money in the first place?

    • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
      431·
      2 years ago

      SBF was arrogant as fuck, and a bunch of rich people mistook it as eccentric genius so they started praising him as a genius. He did some very stupid things and he definitely isn’t a genius, but isn’t an idiot either. He’s smart enough to know when he’s got.

    • Kalash@feddit.ch
      26·
      2 years ago

      No, everyone had been telling him he was the smartest guy in the room. He clearly wasn’t.

      • AnarchistsForDemocracy@lemmy.worldOP
        712·
        2 years ago

        He was an MIT grad in physics and minor in math, his girlfriend was a mathmatician too. Clearly he must be intelligent. Maybe he wasn’t the genius everybody hailed him as. However if you are smart enough to understand topology and other math-related topics, I would assume that he would be smart enough to funnel money out to secret untraceable accounts, buy diamonds and stash them at strategic locations in numerous countries, have an exit strategy.

        Why couldn’t he just have bought a submarine and flee to russia? Or just make a run for it on a regular boat?

        I have a lot of trouble believing that if you have all that money, and you have at least as much smarts as the average math student, that you cannot extracate yourself from the situation he was in.

        • Kalash@feddit.ch
          9·
          2 years ago

          He was an MIT grad in physics and minor in math, his girlfriend was a mathmatician too. Clearly he must be intelligent.

          Yes, depending on how hard he worked, properly a bit above average. But really it doesn’t say that much.

          I would assume that he would be smart enough to funnel money out to secret untraceable accounts

          Why? Those seems more like something a lawyer or economist would know about. As you said he graduated in physics and maths.

          But I agree. He should have been smart enough to at least hire someone to help him with that.

            • JoBo@feddit.uk
              3·
              2 years ago

              He did do what other rich folk do. Based himself in a tax haven and, initially, tried to challenge extradition.

              Not many rich folk end up on trial. But even fewer end up absconding with their cash, never to be seen again. He is the normal kind of rich folk: he assumed he would get away with it because he is a born-rich kid who has never faced a consequence in his life.

              • agent_flounder@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                2 years ago

                There is a difference between rich and powerful,perfectly illustrated by comparing this guy to any number of rich assholes who should be in jail but aren’t.

                • JoBo@feddit.uk
                  2·
                  2 years ago

                  That’s true but it’s more than fair to say that SBF was powerful. He wasn’t donating to the GOP and Dems for shits and giggles, yaknow?

                  • agent_flounder@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    3·
                    2 years ago

                    If he was powerful he would have been able to skip out on consequences. That’s what power makes possible. Simply donating to politicians is nowhere near enough. You need to have connections, leverage, relationships, etc.

        • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7·
          2 years ago

          Intelligence doesn’t preclude stupidity.

          He hadn’t gotten caught until he did, and even then, he believed he’d had a track record of getting away with anything.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          2 years ago

          I think there’s one major flaw here:

          You’re thinking about this as an average human.

          When you have insane amounts of money, you get what you want.

          He likely shopped around high price lawyers, but since he’s used to being told he’s right and a genius. He would have hired a law firm that agreed with him and said he’d be fine.

          They likely knew better, but told him what he wanted to hear and took his money with a smile.

        • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
          5·
          2 years ago

          What you are saying is that he had a head for numbers.

          That says absolutely nothing about his ability to function in society. He had a personal world view that was extremely self-centred and ignored most US social values. The way he operated his businesses shows that he also had no clue how to responsibly manage a business; he left the wrong tasks to the wrong people and left tasks to others that were his responsibility as CEO. He felt that telling others that something was legal was just as good as actually making sure that the things he wanted to do actually WERE legal.

          So… not delusional, just ignorant of pretty much everything outside his own narrow area of expertise, and assuming that his smarts at math automatically made him an expert at everything without actually learning the details of how everything else worked.