From SBF to Elizabeth Holmes – Why do frauds thrive in Silicon Valley?

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Silicon Valley presents itself as a haven for tech start-ups wanting to change the world for the better. But, beneath the facade, it has a serious fraud problem. Why do tricksters thrive among the geniuses? Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX crypto exchange is the latest high-profile example – but he’s far from being the first tech start-up founder to wind up in jail. Erin Griffith is a reporter for the New York Times specialising in tech and finance – and joins Chris Jones in The Bunker to discuss this dark phenomenon. • “When there’s a lot of free money going around, that’s going to attract a lot of people to exploit that.” – Erin Griffith • “The venture capital investors who are backing these companies are sophisticated… but there’s also an element of FOMO because there are only so many startups that might be the next Facebook.” – Erin Griffith • “I’m not sure anything is changing apart from some of these charges for fraud that are now being prosecuted in criminal court.” – Erin Griffith We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit Support us on Patreon. Written, presented and produced by Chris Jones. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved
0:05.4	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
0:11.8	Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retrain. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?
0:13.0	I loved going to college.
0:14.0	It's good you can retrain and do something.
0:16.0	Yeah, yeah.
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1:15.0	its founder, Sam Bankman-F-T-X cryptocurrency exchange imploded spectacularly in 2022
1:18.0	and its founder Sam Bankman-freed
1:20.0	has been sentenced to 25 years in prison convicted of fraud.
1:24.0	But if you thought his story is an isolated one, you'd be wrong.
1:28.0	The culture of Silicon Valley has often been summed up in one simple phrase, fake it until you make it.
1:35.3	So perhaps it's no surprise that this trillion dollar industry is shrouded in criminality,
1:40.3	but how did it get here and will it ever change?
1:42.6	Well I'm delighted to say that I'm now joined by Erin Griffith,
	...

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