Everyone's focusing on Sam Bankman-Fried, understandably, but I think there's a lot we can learn from Caroline Ellison's and Gary Wang's testimony.

They're both guilty, that's clear. But it's unclear to what extent. And I'm not talking about it from a moral standpoint, I'm talking about a practical level of guilt.

Based on what they said, they both knew that was Bankman-Fried was doing was wrong and said nothing and did nothing.

It seems Wang may have found out about it a bit sooner, but they both knew. Not only that, they both helped Bankman-Fried. Actively.

However, once the horse had bolted, Ellison and Wang decided to close the stable.

Bankman-Fried decided to chase the horse and broke his leg.

Bankman-Fried made a string of amazingly bad decisions. Fraud is bad enough, and then he got caught, which is always a dumb move, again from a purely practical point of view. But then he kept talking, and talking, and talking.

Every single time he spoke he looked worse. And then he took the stand, against his lawyers' advice, and made it worse still.

His fraud cost him his freedom, but the way he handled himself *after* he'd got caught probably will end up costing him a few extra years in prison.

Ellison and Wang did something different. Mistakes had been made, and they both realised it didn't make sense at all to keep making more mistakes on top of it.

The prosecutor and their attourneys were probably very clear with them.

They probably must've told them something like, "all three are of you are done. You're all looking at jail time. But you can either cooperate and cut your losses or be a smart-ass and throw away your life once and for all."

Ellison and Wang made the only clever decision among those that were available.

They threw Bankman-Fried under the bus, big time, and they'll likely be free in a few years time.

So that's the lesson I learned.

When you hit rock bottom, stop digging, which is exactly what Bankman-Fried didn't do. He kept on digging.