- Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried “SBF” met with White Home officers on at the least 4 separate events in 2022.
- Bankman-Fried donated over $70 million to election campaigns inside 18 months, being one of many high political donors within the US.
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried “SBF” met with White Home officers on at the least 4 separate events in 2022. In line with a Bloomberg report on 30 December, SBF met with the Counselor to the President, Steven J. Ricchetti, as not too long ago as 8 September.
Nonetheless, the assembly was not accessible on customer logs. This assembly passed off barely two months earlier than the collapse of the crypto trade.
SBF had beforehand met coverage adviser Charlotte Butash on 13 Could 2022.
What did the White Home’s assembly with Sam Bankman-Fried entail?
Reportedly, no political dialogue passed off on the assembly. As a substitute, it targeted on the crypto trade and crypto exchanges. The information has created fairly a buzz among the many members of the Twitter crypto neighborhood, who have been curious to know why there have been so many conferences between SBF and White Home officers.
A resident of the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried reportedly visited Washington a number of occasions in an effort to affect crypto coverage. He was beforehand accused of making an attempt to steer regulators away from centralized crypto exchanges equivalent to FTX and towards DeFi platforms equivalent to MakerDAO.
Political donations value greater than $70 million
Bankman-Fried donated greater than $70 million to election campaigns inside 18 months. SBF was among the many high political donors in america. He gave at the least $40 million to politicians and political motion committees within the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections, largely to Democrats. SBF additionally contributed considerably to the fundraising committees and PACs of each events.
Bankman-Fried gave the utmost particular person contribution of $5,800 to greater than a dozen Congress members, together with Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow and Arkansas Republican John Boozman who chair the Senate Agriculture Committee. The Committee performs a significant function within the regulation of crypto property within the US. The aforementioned members launched a invoice collectively this yr that ought to give FTX a path towards regulatory compliance within the US.
In an interview with crypto vlogger Tiffany Fong on 16 November, Bankman-Fried admitted that he donated roughly the identical quantity to each events, however his Republican donations have been at midnight.
The Bahamian Securities Fee released a media assertion on 29 December, which acknowledged that it was holding buyer property value $3.5 billion. Property might be held till the Supreme Courtroom directs the Fee to ship them to the purchasers and collectors who personal them.