Elon Musk has suggested that disgraced crypto exchange billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried donated more than $1 billion to Democrats before FTX collapsed.
If Musk’s claim is true, SBF would mean that SBF donated significantly more than the originally reported $40 million to Democratic politicians before his company collapsed entirely.
On Friday, CEO of healthcare tech startup Will Mandis tweeted: “SBF’s $40 million donation to avoid going to jail for stealing over $10 billion is one of the trades with highest ROI ever,” referring to the known number of donations to Democratic politicians.
Musk then weighed it up and replied, “That’s just the publicly disclosed number. His actual support of the Dem election is likely over $1 billion. The money went somewhere, so where did it go?’
Prior to FTX’s implosion late last month — largely attributed to the questionable split of funds between FTX and crypto trading firm Alameda Research — SBF had a close relationship with the ruling party in Washington, DC.
He has testified before Congress, met with lawmakers and regulators, and donated large sums to left-of-center media operations, leading to observations that his alleged crimes have been treated more gently by the mainstream media than is appropriate.
Before his company’s demise, SBF pledged to give $1 billion to political candidates.
Musk, who has been vocal in criticizing SBF, has now claimed that the failed crypto boss donated more than $1 billion to Democratic politicians
SBF’s $40 million donation to avoid going to jail for stealing over $10 billion is one of its highest ROI trades of all time
— Will Manidis (@WillManidis) December 1, 2022
SBF has claimed to have donated equal amounts of money to Democrats and Republicans. Before the implosion of his crypto exchange, he had close ties with powerful DC politicians
It has also emerged that SBF has been one of Democrats’ biggest donors in recent cycles, reportedly spending $36 million during the last midterm election, primarily through the Protect Our Future Pac.
Bankman-Fried claims he has donated to both major political parties, although his donations to the Republicans have been obscure, meaning they have not been publicly traceable.
He said during an interview with Tiffany Fong that he gave “about the same amount of money” to both Democrats and Republicans.
He claims to have exploited a loophole in the Citizens United Supreme Court’s ruling to keep his Republican donations discreet because the “liberal” media would “freak out.”
“I was their third-largest Republican donor this year,” he said during the interview published last week.
Despite being the second-biggest contributor to the Democrats during the last campaign cycle, it was recently revealed that SBF donated at least $1 million to Senate Republicans just weeks before FTX’s dramatic burn.
However, Musk is now publicly claiming that SBF donated a significantly higher number to Dem-Elections, though it’s unclear where Musk got his information from.
Bankman-Fried was spotted on the balcony of his $30 million penthouse in the Bahamas by last week. He said he no longer lives there but is staying somewhere in the Bahamas
Musk publicly questioned where exactly SBF’s alleged $1 billion in donations went. He also criticized media coverage of SBF’s sinking
SBF was in a media blitz recently as he is accused of channeling more than $10 billion from FTX users into Alameda Research.
Last week he spoke to Good Morning America about his $30 million penthouse in the Bahamas. During the interview, he said he “didn’t try” to manage risk on FTX.
“I think there’s something even deeper wrong, which is that I didn’t even try. As if I hadn’t put the time or effort into managing risk on FTX,” he told GMA.
Bankman-Fried added that if he had “spent an hour a day thinking about risk management,” his company wouldn’t have imploded.
“I think I stopped working that hard for a while. You know, honestly, looking back on myself, I think I got a little cocky, I mean more than a little, and I think a part of me feels like we made it.
The 30-year-old also appeared to be trying to dodge questions about what he knew about FTX funds being passed around to pay down debt for Alameda Research, a trading firm founded by Bankman-Fried and run by his ex-girlfriend Carolyn Ellison.
Bankman-Fried is currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over reports he helped funnel $10 million from FTX to Alameda.
The crypto CEO whose restless FTX sparked market panic: a hoodie-wearing vegan who was once worth “$25 billion” and sleeps four hours a night
Sam Bankman Fried
Sam Bankman-Fried, a vegan who sleeps four hours a night, has become a public face of cryptocurrency with a personal fortune estimated at nearly $25 billion that has since dwindled to $100,000, according to Forbes magazine become.
FTX’s success has allowed the platform to forge prestigious partnerships, most notably with American football legend Tom Brady and former supermodel Gisele Bundchen, and comedian Larry David has been featured in a TV commercial for the Super Bowl.
Almost always appearing in a hoodie and dark t-shirt, Bankman-Fried has pledged to donate nearly his entire fortune to his favorite causes, such as animal welfare and the fight against global warming.
The son of Stanford Law School professors and a graduate of the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he worked as a Wall Street broker before turning to cryptocurrencies in 2017.
Bankman-Fried moved the company to the Bahamas, which has virtually no taxes, saying the Caribbean nation is “one of the few countries that has a comprehensive cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency exchange licensing system.”
He has been a strong advocate for smoother access to the crypto market for the general public, particularly in the United States.