The BitMEX indictment is here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/founders-and-executives-shore-cryptocurrency-derivatives-exchange-charged-violation#_ftn1
The government’s indictment shouldn’t be treated as the “truth,” of course, but the facts are damning and extremely shady—these guys were claiming they were operating a foreign entity for non-US citizens (to trade crummy crypto derivatives), but they were actually doing it from an office in Manhattan and selling to people in the US and helping them conceal it. They also made sure that BitMEX skirted the rules to prevent money laundering, which is, of course, a huge portion of crypto transactions.
So yeah. Hard to argue it’s just some minor compliance issue. At the sentencing the defense lawyers argued that it “wasn’t as bad as Silk Road”—which, big whoop. The defendants pleaded guilty, the company was fined hundreds of millions of dollars, and Delo had to pay a $10 million fine, which is substantial.
IS it the worst thing ever? No, but this guy clearly plays fast and loose with ethics and does a super shady kind of business.
It’s open to interpretation, but I don’t think”thrown overboard” is there to suggest much about the EA community, though I’m sure some wish there were a way to distance EA from someone who was so deeply entangled with SBF.
Whatever the case, I think the reference primarily serves to set up the following:
Will’s responses in the piece fall far short from “accepting the burden of duty.” First, on his propagating the myth of SBF’s frugality:
and this, in reference to the Slack message:
Perhaps Will doesn’t deserve much blame (that’s certainly a theme running through his comments so far). But if he isn’t able to tell the truth about what happened, or isn’t equipped to grapple with it, it’s bad news for the movements and organizations he’s associated with.