The latest on Sam Bankman-Fried

This is turning into a fascinating year for litigation. Of course there is the former President and his four indictments, as well as his continued civil troubles. The civil troubles feature an old lawsuit about a videophone he was hawking back in the day -- a marketing scheme that was mostly about selling the right to sell the phones, or selling the right to sell the right, etc, in classic pyramid fashion.

That aside, the year 2023 has seen the trial and conviction of Alex Murdaugh for the murder of his wife and son.

The Telles/German case is still hanging fire.

Dominion's lawsuit against Fox News would really have enlivened the year. As it happened, the willingness of the Fox empire to pay three quarters of a billion dollars to avoid a trial was itself remarkable and almost as much fun.

Another great upcoming trial expected this year will be that of Sam Bankman-Fried, one time impresario of the great cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. The case has become a touchstone for beliefs about cryptocurrencies, the blockchain technology that drives them, and the whole idea of a billionaire-genius guru. SBF is no longer a billionaire, never appears to have been a genius, and likely isn't anyone's guru any longer, but that now-dismantled image will make for a fine trial. His lawyers will portray him as a naif who somehow found himself handling huge sums of other people's money and who didn't understand the responsibilities that entailed. Quite a comedown.

At any rate, the latest news: the conman and/or naif ex-billionaire is no longer out on bail under house arrest. He is actually in the hoosegow.

Bail was revoked -- and the former President night want to take note of this -- because SBF allegedly engaged in witness tampering. One of the key witnesses against him was his one-time romantic partner Caroline Ellison, who was also the CEO of Alameda Research (the exchange's data-crunching arm) back during this couple's high-flying days. Another key witness will be Ryne Miller, who was general counsel for FTX. SBF has made elicit contacts with BOTH of them while under house arrest.

SBF had access to writings of Ellison in a sort of digital diary. He shared them with a reporter and they found their way into an NYT story on the case. This seem to have been in retaliation for her cooperation agreement with prosecutors.

Separately, he contacted Miller via the encrypted messaging platform Signal. For 'choir practice,' presumably.

I don't know what Miller has admitted to. But I do know that Ellison has acknowledged conspiring to cheat the customers of FTX out of billions of dollars.

The situation reminds me of the old logical/game-theoretical situation known as the "prisoners' dilemma." If everyone keeps their mouth shut, punishments low. If only one talks, that one goes free. (I don't think Ellison has gotten so good a deal as that.) If either party talks, punishments high for the silent one.

Of course the rules of the PD as they usually are presented presume that the prisoners can't talk to each other. That is precisely why SBF violated the strict no-contact rule for the period of house arrest. And why he is now locked up.

It is nice when reality gets all literal on our overused metaphors.

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