Worth watching in full. I’ve heard Stephanopoulos’s interview was harder hitting but haven’t watched it yet.
I downloaded an MP3 version of it, so the reactions below are based on his voice and replies alone and not body language, though I’m notably handicapped when it comes to eq:
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Repeatedly distanced himself from Alameda, made clear he ran FTX but claimed not to know what was going on in detail at Alameda — beggars belief considering he owned 90% of Alameda and every prior Alameda CEO was Sam’s close personal friend or *perhaps cough cough* more
Tries to blame the collapse on leverage, which I assume is a hot button issue with regulators and easier to understand by the general public, but annoying that Sorkin doesn’t dig deeper into the obviously fraudulent evidence (like systemic co-mingling and improper usage of customer funds; Alameda front-running / VIP status on FTX exchange; taking out multiple BILLIONS in personal loans, where did those funds go?; the role of close senior execs including Nishad and Gary)
Within FTX structure, shifts blame to regulators (repeatedly claims FTX US and FTX Japan, etc, were ok and solvent because there were stringent regulations). It’s sorta like saying I stole my classmate’s lunch money because the teacher wasn’t in the room
With two Stanford law professors as parents, he clearly understands the importance and practice of “plausible deniability”
His public track record proves beyond a doubt that he is a very effective and disciplined communicator. Just read his many tweet threads. So why would we suddenly assume he’s NOT being disciplined and purposeful in conducting these interviews, despite his *claims* that his lawyers don’t want him to do this?
Hilarious bit at the end where he complains about hypocritical “do-gooderism”, when his publicly stated life’s work was to promote an over-intellectualized neo-facade of do-gooderism known as ineffective altruism. Merriam Webster literally defines a “do gooder” as “an earnest often naive humanitarian or reformer” gtfo of here
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I hope he ends up in jail. I hope it takes many years before he steps foot in a cell, so he has to spend time and brain cells and stress and money defending himself in court and outside it.
But knowing how the American penal system works he’ll probably receive a light sentence served in a cushy minimum security getaway with plenty of utilitarian philosophy books and vegan couscous or whatever the f he pretends to eat