Erik TorenbergGeneral Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

Balaji: Even though SBF is guilty, the real bad guys got away

11 Nov 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:37

In this commentary, Balaji argues that although Sam Bankman‑Fried (SBF) is personally culpable for the FTX collapse, the broader system that enabled his fraud remains intact. He points out that investors who lost money receive no restitution, while politicians who benefited from FTX donations retain their seats, indicating that the real perpetrators—those who shaped the political and financial environment—escaped accountability. Balaji likens this outcome to the Iraq War and the 2008 financial crisis, where a single individual might be punished but the underlying structures that caused the disaster persist, leading to a declaration of “mission accomplished” despite systemic flaws.

Chapters

The system got an F on SBF, and how can you tell? Okay, all of the elections that SBF helped swing with stolen money will never be unwound. The investors who put money into FTX, they lost their shirts, but the politicians who got money out of FTX, they keep their seats. So the bad guys got away with it. The, the system didn't work. It's just like the Iraq War, the financial crisis, you know, maybe there's like one guy who gets his wrist slapped, like Bush for the Iraq War, but the system that, that actually made it happen is still there, right? And, you know, they're declaring mission accomplished.