Oh no, he's found HN! :p

> It appeared as though it was his lack of rigor and discipline (keeping books properly) which did him in, not dishonesty

"Gosh, how was I supposed to know it was wrong to lie and secretly 'borrow' other people's money without permission for my own gambles at the casino over and over!? I was going to put it back eventually, when I finally won enough back. It's society's fault for not ensuring I was properly educated in these extremely fine points of post-graduate human behavior."

I can't imagine accepting that from, say, a random manager of a gas-station convenience store, let alone someone with Bankman-Fried's wealth and advantages in life and a full-time job in fancy finance.

I'm sure Bankman-Fried also make a ton of "technical" breaches... But mostly in the same way a bank-robber also has an improperly licensed firearm and a double-parked getaway vehicle with old license-plates. They are not so much "mistakes" at that point as details of how the Big Crime was committed.

> he actually made everyone a boat load of money.

Like Bernie Madoff did? No, lots and lots of people lost money, and—in order to disguise it for a while—he ensured a much smaller number of people got some of the dwindling pile.

Don't forget he also had parents who were experts in law. If there is anyone who knows the illegality of what he was doing, it's definitely him.