I & I Editorial BoardNot only was crypto-billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s company, FTX, allegedly a fraud, but it spent huge sums on recent elections to get Democrats into office. Was this a case of massive election fraud? If so, it isn’t just Bankman-Fried who should be punished.
In case you’re not caught up on all this, FTX, a futures exchange for crypto-currencies including its own, exploded into the public’s attention just after the election. That’s when it was revealed that FTX had questionably transferred or “loaned” some $10 billion to its sister company, Alameda Research, to “fund risky bets,” a highly questionable move seemingly to shore up Alameda’s finances.
And yes, FTX was a big deal. It’s name is on an NBA arena. Its commercials featured NFL GOAT Tom Brady, as well as “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” creator Larry David.
That brought media reports about some of the money, around $1 billion, simply “disappearing.” That was followed by a host of regulatory agencies and prosecutors launching investigations of the company.
FTX has filed for bankruptcy, and its 30-year-old founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, has resigned.
As recently as January, the company’s market value was $32 billion. Bankman-Fried was very recently estimated to be worth $16 billion.
Today, both FTX and Bankman-Fried are worth zero. And the bizarre and sybaritic lifestyle of Bank-Friedman and a number of others who lived with him in a communal mansion in Bermuda have come to an abrupt end.
All of which has been covered to a fare-thee-well by the media, pretending it’s merely just about that old human sin, greed.
“I’m sorry. That’s the biggest thing,” Bankman-Fried tweeted out last week. “I f—ed up, and should have done better.”
But that’s not all of the story.
While news of FTX’s problems first started trickling out in early November, the midterm elections took place on Nov. 8. That was the very day the FTX story broke big, after a possible White Knight takeover of FTX by rival Binance was cancelled.
The full picture of potential criminality didn’t emerge until just after the election. Coincidence?
In addition to his other activities, Bankman-Fried was an ardent and generous donor to the Democratic Party.
How generous? “Bankman-Fried gave roughly $40 million to Democrats during the 2022 election cycle, making him one of the biggest donors to a fundraising juggernaut that helped stave off a Republican wave in the midterms,” noted the Washington Free Beacon.
Early in the year, the young Bankman-Fried talked about possibly giving as much as $1 billion to the Democrats. Even though he didn’t give that much, he’s No. 2 right behind socialist billionaire George Soros in Democratic Party donations for 2022.
He delivered $66,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign, a hefty $400,000 to the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, $6 million to the Pelosi Dems’ House Majority PAC, and a whopping $27 million to the Protect Our Future PAC. The latter two gave money only to Democrats.
You might never have heard of Bankman-Fried, but the White House did. After spending millions during the 2020 presidential campaign to support Democratic candidates and Joe Biden, and $40 million more this year, Bankman-Fried won access to the White House.
“Bankman-Fried and his team of lobbyists at FTX met with top Biden White House officials during visits on April 22, May 12, and May 13,” the Washington Free Beacon reports.
And, perhaps not surprisingly, he also hung out with former President Bill Clinton, who appeared at an FTX-sponsored conference on cryptocurrency in the Bahamas.
And then there’s this:
The FTX CEO’s family — consisting of his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, and brother Gabe Bankman-Fried — has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and actively worked with left-wing organizations committed to supporting Democrats. The four appear to have had subtle influence on the Democratic establishment for the better part of a decade.
‘We’re ambitious and looking to make a splash,’ Gabe Bankman-Fried said in an interview with NBC News in May.
Splash made.
There’s no crime in contributing to a political party. Unless, of course, the donations are illegal, and the Democrats knew it.
We have lots of questions. Was this all just a lone wolf leftist delivering money to his favorite far-left political party? Was he aided by Democratic officials, who knew FTX was little more than a Ponzi scheme but milked it like a cow anyway?
Why didn’t U.S. regulators, the Democrat-dominated Congress or law enforcement go after FTX before, given what now seem to be clear signs that his business model was questionable at best, criminal at worst?
At minimum, Dems should have to return their ill-gotten loot. They’re recipients of stolen property. Did they know that?
Americans deserve answers, given the enormous impact this bankrupt company had on recent elections. We hope the new House, now controlled by the Republicans, will add FTX and its political influence to the growing list of things that must be investigated to save our country from becoming a one-party state.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Bob Maistros
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
There are several more angles to this story.
One ‘illiquid asset’ listed as owned by FTX was a $7.3 million bet that Trump would lose in 2024. FTX filed for bankruptcy before Trump even announced his candidacy.
FTX was used to channel ‘donations’ to the Ukraine. Did all of that money actually arrive there, or was some of it was diverted to the Democrats?
Above all else, what did FTX get from the Biden administration in return for almost $40 million?
SBF was the second best sugar daddy for the Democrats in this election cycle.
Was this yet another example of ‘quid pro Joe’?
An article on this is available here: https://ensign.substack.com/p/second-best-sugar-daddy-for-the-democrats
TThe GOP House might deliver a few answers in 2023, if speaker McCarthy is amenable. But I expect minority leader McConnell and the Senate RINOs will provide cover for the Dems, since they are united against Trump and this aided that cause. If the GOP can overlook the obvious mathematics of Pennsylvania counting 750,000 more ballots than were mailed out in 2020’s presidential election, then they can overlook anything and collude without limit. My guess is a complete news media blackout and social media suppression and censorship will be the Dems response to this, just as it has been for many other things. Particularly since FTX was used to fund Ukraine (openly acknowledged, even by a grateful Zelensky), and some of this Ukraine FTX crypto-currency was converted to fiat currencies that allegedly also have found their covert way back to Democrat coffers in the USA. Plenty to go down the old memory hole (Amnesia, Amnesia, Amnesia). Just like the now forgotten blowing up the NordStream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany and the still extant USA troops in Syria harvesting 80% of that country’s oil. Amnesia is an American specialty, maybe even a character trait.
Will be interesting to see how the Dems spin, deny, dismiss and suppress FTX. It is called “election denial” and results in cancellation and suppression to assert that voting machines (electronic computers or calculating machines) can be programmed (like any machine or computer) to count votes differently from how they are cast. If they can get away with that lie, then the even more nebulous crypto-currencies should be easy to obfuscate. Don’t forget, the DNC “owns” the DOJ/FBI and has the NSA/CIA propaganda machine and the major media and big tech at its disposal.
Any money paid out 6 months before a bankruptcy is considered “fraudulent conveyance” and must be returned, even if the recepient thought the payment was legal at the time. Dear Democrats, no excuses, send the money back so that maybe some of the sheeple will be repaid.
Fraudulent conveyance was used with distributions by Madoff and in many other cases. 100% of ALL of his donations need to be returned. Did you see maxine waters already rejecting that? Maxine….FTX donations ‘May have been’ to influence…’You can’t object’ if they’re legal and ‘we deal with that’ as regulators.
So besides hugging SBF (and throwing him kisses while on the Floor!!) Max is already refuting their return! I heard SBF went to the Capital 50 times.
Hey Dave, spot on. But as we have learned these last few disastrous years, rules don’t apply when your cause is just.
Any money paid out 6 months before a bankruptcy is considered “fraudulent conveyance” and must be returned, even if the recepient thought the payment was legal at the time.
Please delete in favor of longer post
This will go nowhere. Democrats are experts at getting away with things like this. They push the limits of the law, then change the law to to make what they do legal. Ballot harvesting comes to mind–still ILLEGAL in many states.
Why no mention of the Ukraine $ laundering – – Congress gave our tax $ to UK, who gave (or was it ‘mis appropriated’?) some to FTX, who gave it to Dem members of Congress
I look at every Ukrainian flag flying from once no-war neighbors homes as an accounting tic mark noting that campaign funds will soon be on their way to the DNC while Raytheon missiles ruin some Russian family’s breakfast. This really is obscene.
This makes Watergate look so small and frivolous by comparison. One facet I do not see being addressed is that the millions of dollars laundered back to politicians is coming from a foreign country (Bahamas). I thought foreign money was not allowed to influence our elections but clearly I must be wrong.
We will get no answers; justice is dead in America. Perverted and destroyed by the treasonous, morally depraved democrats.
Republicans are in collusion with Democrats, both are criminally corrupt.
Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX, contributed $24 million to Republicans. How did that not get into this report? Makes the situation look different, doesn’t it?
Sam Bankman-Fried. There is poetic justice in that name.
This is likely to spin out of control sooner and suddenly rather than later and measured. What has been going on in this country politically since the founding of fraud factory FTX in 2019 is frankly frightening as it appears that FTX, the World Economic Forum, COVID19, and the War in Ukraine all seem to be related more and more each day. FTX and the War in Ukraine is the funding mechanism to keep globalist supporting democrats in power and America first republicans out.
Hopefuly in 2024 we will see a well needed cleaning out of the Whitehouse of the Biden Mess
People will start whipping out pitch forks and torches and taking so-called “justice” into their own hands. Nobody wants that to happen. Thus, Democrat voters need to moderate the leadership of their power.