In 2020, the second-biggest donor to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign was Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of the cryptocurrency derivatives platform FTX. In the 2022 midterm elections, only George Soros gave more to Democratic candidates. On Nov. 11, FTX, which had been valued at $40 billion in March, declared bankruptcy. On Dec. 13, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York indicted Bankman-Fried on charges including wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud investors, lenders, and the United States, conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws, and conspiracy to commit commodities and securities fraud.
That’s a lot of conspiracy. And there’s more. Bankman-Fried and his inner circle are alleged to have illegally diverted as much as $10 billion from FTX to its trading subsidiary, Alameda Research. More than $7 billion is missing in what the Southern District of New York calls “one of the biggest financial frauds in history.”
SAM BANKMAN-FRIED’S FAMILY PLEADS WITH PRISON TO FEED HIM VEGAN MEALS: REPORT
When Bernie Madoff ran history’s biggest Ponzi scheme, he used the proceeds to enrich himself, his family, and his friends and keep the fraud going. Madoff’s was a classic long-game ripoff. FTX, however, was fast and furious, and the scandal is both financial and political. Major investment firms such as Sequoia and Blackrock bought into FTX and the unregulated cryptocurrency market. Investors followed. In…
