32 Billion Dollar Crypto Scammer

[gcode]

I've never bought into the crypto thing. I've never understood it and have stayed far far away.
Some folks at work got into big time crypto a couple of years ago and have been hurt pretty bad.
They were laughing at me for being a pussy and missing the boat. Glad I missed it, as it seems to have sunk.

The FTX Exchange melted down this week. I don't even know what it is but loses amount to $32 billion and counting
A lot of big name Dems are involved, but I think they are mostly suckers, not the scammers



Common Sense

"The Next Warren Buffett." That's how Fortune magazine dubbed Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto wunderkind who wore shorts, schlubby socks, and sneakers on stage with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. But Bankman-Fried, worth an estimated $32 billion at his height, wouldn't just be a financial oracle like Buffett. He would also be the second-coming of George Soros: By the end of this midterm election cycle, he'd become the second largest donor to the Democratic Party.

Over the past few days, all of that has come spectacularly undone.

[gcode]

They are keeping the cash

The embattled crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, who is now under federal investigation and suspected of defrauding his investors, spent the election season shelling out cash to Democrats: $865,000 to the Democratic National Committee, $1 million to Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D., N.Y.) Senate Majority PAC, and $6 million to the House Majority PAC.

With each passing day, it looks more and more like FTX's customers won't get their money back. But Democrats won't say whether they're going to hang on to the cash. The Democratic National Committee, Senate Majority PAC, and House Majority PAC did not respond to requests for comment about Bankman-Fried's donations. The White House has also not weighed in on Bankman-Fried's $5 million contribution to Future Forward PAC, which spent $74 million in support of Biden in 2020.

[gcode]

he's had a whole lotta help

He invested heavily in Democratic politicians in the hopes that he would become "too big to jail"
He was the 2nd biggest investor in Dem 2022 candidates, right behind George Soros

[YoDoug]

There are some ties to Ukraine war chest investments that are coming to light. The far right sites are claiming it was a money laundering op for the dems in 2022. They give billions to Ukraine, Ukraine invests in FTX, FTX CEO donates to dems. I still have not seen concrete proof, but enough to make me believe it is true.

[mkd]

Sam bankrupt-fraud has amazingly exceeded the Biden crime family's graft scheme through Ukraine.
 Enemy of the people media are silent.
 Compared to the decades long demonization of the chuckleheads breaking into the Watergate hotel under the Nixon administration is amazing.

 Burn the whole thing to the ground.

[CNCAppsJames]

My youngest kid... 😆😅🤣😂

I told him "... stay away from that shit... but it's your money."

Gives me $250 for BitCoin and $250 for Etherium. At it's peak he could have got out + about $300-ish for both.

Today; BitCoin is at $107.80 and Etherium is at $109.70 or -$282.50.
😆😅🤣😂😆😅🤣😂😆😅🤣😂

[gcode]

A whole lot of people dumped their stimmy checks into crypto

A guy at work is big into stocks
He got into Dogecoin at .30
It's at .085 today

He was big into Facebook and sold off part of his 401k  to double down when it changed to Meta.
I told him to be careful. That Meta VR stuff is creepy weird.
He said, F that, Zuk is a genius. He's down about 70% now

I'm the worst though. I bought 3k shares of Apple at $7 back in the day
Sold it for $10 a share and thought I was a badass daytrader. That stock is worth about $750k now 

[Matthew Hajicek]

I messed with Bitcoin when it was in the $0.12 to $45.00 range (never put money in, just mined), took out enough to pay for the video card, then lost what I had in Mt. Gox.  Never got back in.

[neurosis]

I told him to be careful. That Meta VR stuff is creepy weird.

I have a feeling that is going to be our future. It's already becoming super popular in gaming etc.

I know people who watch movies on their VR head sets. 

I don't know that I would invest in it, but I have a feeling that at some point these will be in most homes. 

[gcode]

I've never tried a VR head set, but I think the 2 or 3" focal length would make things very hard on your eyes

[YoDoug]

I don't think I would ever have an interest in VR. All of the activities I like doing are physical activities. I like Jujitsu, Running, Mountain biking, Snowboarding, etc. I also enjoy building projects and woodworking, etc. The reasons I like all those activities could not be simulated in VR.

[neurosis]

I've never tried a VR head set, but I think the 2 or 3" focal length would make things very hard on your eyes

I went to a place when I was in Vegas that had a multi player VR game setup. There was a group of about 8 of us.  It was crazy realistic and very immersive. So much so that people were freaking out over heights and falling off of buildings. 


Unless you've tried it, it's really hard to explain. 

I don't have a personal VR head set and I doubt that I would ever get one for myself.  But since I started playing Microsoft Flight Simulator, I'm noticing that more people that I thought play the game in VR. 

[Jim at Gentex]

I don't think VR is for me either.

Like Newb said, spatial disorientation is a common side effect with those things.
I'm prone to motion sickness to begin with, particularly in a boat, or even riding in the back seat of a car for long periods.

If I DID try anything VR, it would likely be one of the newer VR golf games.
I have heard that some of those are also quite realistic and immersive.

I doubt I would ever invest in a VR system just to play a golf game, but I think I would at least give it a go if someone I know had one that I could try.
 

[rdshear]

I have Quest 2 VR set and if you want a good workout, get one and play some of the games.  Beat Sabre is a fun game that can be quite the workout.  Ping Pong is fun in VR.  I don't play mine as much as I would like, but when I do, it gets this fat old guy worn out pretty quick depending on the game of course.  BTW, killing zombies in VR is fun too. 

[TylerBeer]

I messed with Bitcoin when it was in the $0.12 to $45.00 range (never put money in, just mined), took out enough to pay for the video card, then lost what I had in Mt. Gox.  Never got back in.

Same, except I used the first bitcoin ATM in Toronto just for the sake of trying it. at the time I said "This feels like a mess" and then never got involved despite plenty of people I know making a bunch of money. Hope they got out while they could.  Thing with that kind of thing is often people don't talk about how much they lost, most people that are into stocks only tell everyone when they're up up up.

I still have some bitcoin in a bitcoin wallet that I'll never remember what service I used, let alone the logins. I'm sure it's long gone