SBF Conspiracy: Was FTX being used to launder money for the democratic party?
As each day passes, new details are revealed in the never-ending FTX rabbit hole. Let’s look at SBF’s reach outside of crypto.
The web of lies
Where did Bankman-Fried's money come from? How much was stolen? We still don’t know the answers to these questions. As each day passes, new details are revealed in the never-ending FTX rabbit hole. Let’s look at SBF’s reach outside of crypto.
The beginning of the end
FTX was founded in 2019 and somehow managed to become one of the biggest names in crypto quickly. But no one could remember where the founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, came from and how he'd elevate to such a position so fast.
Interestingly, his family has strong ties to D.C.’s Democratic party. They have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and actively worked with left-wing organizations committed to Democrat support.
For the past decade, the four appear to have had a subtle influence on the Democratic establishment. His father, Joseph Bankman, has written about and made a career out of dismantling the cash economy and assisting the government in detecting tax evasion. His mother, Gabe Bankman-Fried, is a prominent Democrat.
WEF ties with FTX
There are also family ties to The World Economic Forum, which supports FTX and SBF's aunt Linda Fried, an epidemiologist who is heavily involved with WEF.
Oddly, the Bankman-Fried brothers have led joint fundraising efforts to prevent future pandemics. According to Federal Election Commission data, about $27 million of Sam Bankman-Fried's $38 million donation to political campaigns and groups during the midterm election went to Protect Our Future PAC.
A political action committee dedicated to supporting candidates who advocate for anti-pandemic policies.
The World Economic Forum had previously listed FTX as one of its partners, touting the Bahamas-based firm as a "cryptocurrency exchange built by traders, for traders."
“FTX was a World Economic Forum partner. In light of last week’s events, their partnership was suspended, and they were removed from the Partners section of our website,” a spokesperson for WEF told The Post.
According to one WEF insider, Bankman-Fried most likely ended up on the group's website because he donated money to the organization in addition to his upcoming speaking engagement.
As we look further, we see that SBF has connections in high places. CEO of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, met with him to help FTX to get regulatory approval. Here is a photo of Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison’s father, Glenn Ellison, with Gregory Palm, a former top Goldman Sachs lawyer (one of the wealthiest corporate lawyers in the US).
Why is SBF so protected?
Maybe one of the reasons for that is that he was one of the largest donors to Democrat candidates, second only to George Soros.
As you can see below, SBF gave the second-largest donation to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020.
So, are the Democrats behind the scam of the century?
Bankman-Fried is the latest of many Democratic megadonors accused of egregious criminal acts: Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Ed Buck, and Bernie Madoff. The list continues to go on.
If we look at the numbers:
$5.7 million — amount Bankman-Fried donated to President Joe Biden's campaign and other Democratic-aligned entities in 2020,
$40 million — amount SBF donated to political candidates and committees during the 2022 election cycle, most of which were aligned with the Democratic Party,
$15.6 billion— Bankman-Fried's estimated net worth on Nov. 8, 2022,
$0 — His estimated net worth on Nov. 11, 2022.
The Financial Times published an article titled “Sam Bankman-Fried’s Fall Cuts Off Big Source of Funds for U.S. Democrats.” They wrote in it that Sam Bankman-Fried stormed onto the U.S. political scene with multimillion-dollar donations that led lawmakers, particularly Democrats, to believe he was ushering in the next generation of donors. He said he was just getting started—talking of donating $1 billion in 2024, though he later backed off that lavish promise.
As mentioned in the article, raising funds for Democrats is practically a family business. According to Vice, the Frieds are the secretive Silicon Valley group that has funneled over $20 million to Democrats.
SBF = Scam Bankman Fraud?
The motivations of Bankman-Fried were not purely ideological. He also donated to members of critical financial committees to avoid an investigation by authorities. He even donated $155,000 to the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees cryptocurrency regulation. Caroline Ellison, his girlfriend, is the CEO of Alameda. Her father is the head of economics at MIT, and he knows many of the critical bureaucrats in financial regulation.
So, what was their goal?
At best, SBF and Alameda are symptoms of widespread corruption in Washington. The rule of law has vanished. Perhaps because they supported the Democrats, they believed they could get away with anything while the media lavished them with praise. We can see that it led to their downfall.
As far as we know, SBF is in the Bahamas, where police have interviewed him instead of arresting him. Rather than extradition, US authorities have discussed bringing him to the US for questioning about where the missing money is.
Ukraine partners with FTX
The Ukrainian government mysteriously disappeared online records of its fundraising arrangement with FTX just days before the scandal erupted. The initiative claims to have raised $60 million for Ukraine, but where did the money go?
Bankman-Fried stated in a press release accompanying the announcement of the FTX partnership with Ukraine that “at the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, FTX felt the need to assist in any way it could.” He promised that the agreement would allow him “to deliver aid and resources to the people who need it most.”
The last post about aid for Ukraine was on October 26th. Archived screenshots indicated that Kyiv purged the FTX fundraising page in late October, several days before the FTX crisis erupted.
Ukraine's government, FTX, and Everstake all now face serious questions:
Why did the ostensibly raised funds appear to have disappeared in a few days?
Why have no donations been received on the Aid for Ukraine webpage or its new website since then?
How much has been donated since the initial influx, and where did the rest of the money go?
Dark plot twist
Given how complicated the story has become, it is not surprising that people started digging for more information. Crypto Twitter users began sharing the image below, which sparked a social media storm.
Take a look at SBF's Twitter profile picture as well. Are these similarities just a coincidence, or is there something further he may have been trying to communicate?
People are also perplexed by SBF's strange tweets.
One thing is sure: money has been stolen; the question is when SBF began stealing from customers and how much.
Obfuscation games of all kinds have been played here. Donations made using potentially stolen funds. The publicly available numbers may only be the tip of the iceberg.
Proof that FTX was involved at that level has not been discovered. It is plausible. The initial media adoration for Bankman-Fried should be a cause for concern. Corruption exists at all levels of business and government.
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