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Comment by dragonwriter | Hacker News Reader

> What would you say is different about this case, or what about the environment has changed, as compared to Madoff in 2008?

Madoff confessed to his sons and said he was imminently going to surrender to authorities, his sons called the FBI, the FBI interviewed him at home (no arrest, no warrant, no indictment), and he confessed to the scheme being a large scale fraud to the FBI.

And Madoff was physically within US jurisdiction.

And Madoff had much clearer records and much less complicated an organization that the FTX network of companies, which seems to have been highly optimized to conceal specific evidence of fraud and theft by, between, and by insiders against the companies in the network.

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Madoff was also involved in a highly regulated industry. That's one thing that confuses me about all of this. A main selling point - probably _the_ main selling point - for crypto has been that it allows users to avoid the current legal framework. And that was also the main reason FTX gave for moving to the Bahamas - there was much less regulations.

It's strange to see people actively seeking a space outside of the government's legal jurisdiction, and then getting incensed that the government isn't entering that jurisdiction more quickly to protect them when things inevitably go sideways.

You’re confusing things. Centralized exchanges like FTX are acting as asset custodians in the same way as a bank, or a stock broker. FTX is not a cryptocurrency.

Crypto users that espouse freedom from government are usually talking about being able to use crypto, on chain, without government interference. They don’t want to be taxed for using bitcoin as a currency, be able to use decentralized services without complex regulations and tax laws, etc. etc

I’ve never heard the case made that asset custodians should be able to steal assets from their customers regardless of the underlying asset.

It is so convenient that Madoff was the single mastermind behind everything and his children knew absolutely nothing.

When the scam fell apart he even confessed to them so they could immediatelly report him to the FBI.

After all they didnt know anything!

He definitely did everything on his own and definitely didnt make this move to save his children.

The fact that Madoff is the only one in prison while his innocent children and innocent employees are free shows that the justice system works!

The story of what happened to Bernie's family after he confessed is pretty tragic. Definitely appears as if they were just as surprised as everyone else, and struggled to cope with the dishonesty and destruction caused by a close family member.

One of his sons, Mark, committed suicide on the 2 year anniversary of Bernie's arrest. It was his second attempt. The suicide note he left (his first attempt) read in part: "Now you know how you have destroyed the lives of your sons by your life of deceit. F*ck you"

Let's be careful before rushing to judgment.

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