The drama surrounding FTX is getting a lot worse. Initially, it was believed that Sam Bankman-Fried – the man behind the now failed digital currency exchange – gave a lot of money to democrat politicians, and he did. However, it’s now being alleged by him that equal money was given to republicans, only those donations were more secret.
FTX Also Allegedly Delivered Funds to Republicans
FTX collapsed in mid-November of last year following what SBF referred to as a “liquidity crunch” on social media. He initially sought the aid of Binance and approached the company about being bought out. However, Binance said that the problems the firm was dealing with were too big to handle, and thus the buyout did not occur.
From there, FTX had no choice but to file bankruptcy, and its founder resigned from his post. The company has caused ripples throughout the space, and many other enterprises – such as Block Fi – have been forced into similar bankruptcy proceedings as a result.
Last year, it was reported that Bankman-Fried was the second largest donor to the democrat party. When this knowledge was made public, many right-leaning politicians – such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz – jumped on it and took to social media to attack members of the left. On Twitter, Cruz wrote:
Will Joe Biden and democrats who cashed Bankman-Fried’s checks give that money to the people SBF screwed?
Now, however, Bankman-Fried has come out to say he gave just as much to republicans as he did to democrats, though many of those donations occurred on a more secretive level. He said in an interview:
I donated to both parties. I donated about the same amount to both parties. All my republican donations were dark. The reason was not for regulatory reasons. It’s because reporters freak the f*ck out if you donate to republicans. They’re all super liberal, and I didn’t want to have that fight.
It is alleged that much of the money for republicans was delivered via FTX US per data from Open Secrets. However, much of the money that SBF himself donated to politicians largely went to leftwingers. Open Secrets shows that Bankman-Fried donated nearly $1 million to specific democrat candidates in the last election cycle, while nearly $40 million went to democrat-centered groups.
By contrast, it appears he gave less than $250K of his money to republican candidates, so clearly bias exists.
Scary for Many Reasons
The situation raises several questions. It’s not exactly easy to take SBF’s word on anything, anymore. The allegation that his company utilized customer funds to purchase luxury condos in the Bahamas suggests he doesn’t have a penchant for the truth.
At the same time, if what he’s saying is real, this is far more frightening given many members of the U.S. government either couldn’t recognize corruption when they saw it, or worse – they’re part of the corruption themselves.
