The FTX scam, Sam Bankman-Fried, the Clintons and the Democrats

Bankman-Fried spent millions on Dem campaigns
https://www.axios.com/2022/11/15/ftz-crypto-bankman-fried-democrats-midterms-campaigns

So an additional $19 million went towards the GOP by another FTX c-suite crypto bro.

 

Other posters, not you. It's crazy how the institutional investors didn't do much of any due diligence here.

FWIW, here are a few of the conspiracy that I have seen here and elsewhere:

Why isn't he in jail yet? It took years to bring criminal cases against Skilling and Lay (Enron).

FTX laundered money to Democrats through Ukraine. That was quickly shut down.

No investigation because of donation. Just factually wrong.

Just a bunch of (mostly fake) "curiosity" based on nothing but connection and donation that is "worth asking questions about". These are dumb distractions from what is a very serious fraud. If there is any larger conspiracy, investigations by serious people that do serious work will get there. But we know that won't happen with everything must be a conspiracy.

 

I wouldn't be surprised, and I think I would probably read that as the OP attempting to make them appear guilty by association.

 

Now we got the Jew Laser link….

 

I think my take is the word 'conspiracy' is used very flippantly, like how we used 'terrorist' flippantly in the early 2000's. I really dont think blatant lies and speculation are conspiracies.

The whole FTX thing is wildly bizarre that leaves much room for speculation.

 

I'm just trying to figure out if SBF likes beating geriatrics with hammers while having gay sex...

 

FT has a nice infographic for where all the money flowed into and out of. Can't help you further if you're not a subscriber.

www.ft.com /content/428c7800-c72d-4c59-9940-4376fea6e263
Sam Bankman-Fried’s fall cuts off big source of funds for US Democrats

11/13/2022

Sam Bankman-Fried stormed on to the US political scene with multimillion-dollar donations that led lawmakers, particularly Democrats, to believe he was ushering in the next generation of donors. But in a matter of days, his business empire collapsed into bankruptcy and the prospect of millions more in donations evaporated.

Before the fall of Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the entrepreneur had emerged as the second-largest donor to Democrats after George Soros. He had vowed to give up to $1bn to political candidates linked to causes he supported, a pledge from which he later backed away.

He also became one of the most prominent crypto representatives in Washington, supporting digital asset legislation and hiring former regulators as advisers.

Bradley Beychok, co-founder of the Democratic super political action committee (Pac) American Bridge 21st Century, said Bankman-Fried “came on the scene out of nowhere [and] became a large supporter of different causes and candidates very quickly,” adding that he had built an “organised campaign”.

But a liquidity crisis that has forced the 30-year-old’s $32bn business empire into bankruptcy has erased a potential pool of funds linked to a seemingly reliable player in an often volatile industry.

“Sam didn’t live up to his commitments,” said one Democratic lobbyist working in the crypto space. Bankman-Fried’s grand spending promises had been “more bluster than action”, the lobbyist added.

The entrepreneur was the second-largest donor to Democratic-leaning groups during the latest midterm elections, spending $36mn. Soros spent $126mn, but the Pac he supported with that large donation only spent about $15mn this cycle.

The majority of Bankman-Fried’s donations, about $27mn, went to the Protect Our Future Pac, which supported candidates that prioritised pandemic prevention, one of his interests. It endorsed 25 Democrats in congressional races this cycle, of which 18 have so far won their respective races. Chief among these were Virginia representative Abigail Spanberger and Florida representative-elect Maxwell Frost, who at 25 will be Congress’s first Generation Z member.

While the volumes pledged were akin to those given by longstanding corporate titans, some argue Bankman-Fried’s donations were not entirely effective.

In Oregon’s sixth congressional district, Bankman-Fried’s super Pac spent a whopping $11mn on Carrick Flynn, a pandemic researcher and first-time congressional candidate who failed to advance to the election.

Some lobbyists and donors said they suspected Bankman-Fried’s primary goal in politics had been to further his crypto interests. During the 2022 cycle, Bankman-Fried donated $155,000 to rightwing Pacs: the Alabama Conservatives Fund, which backed Republican Alabama Senator-elect Katie Britt, a crypto supporter; and Heartland Resurgence, which backed Senator John Boozman of Arkansas, the top Republican on the Senate agriculture committee that oversees crypto. Bankman-Fried also gave to Debbie Stabenow, the committee’s Democratic chair.
Both Boozman and Stabenow said this week that they would continue to support the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, for which Bankman-Fried campaigned.

The FTX founder and the company’s US counterpart FTX.US gave $3.5mn to the GMI Pac, which in turn transferred approximately $5.8mn to Web3 Forward Pac, a pro-crypto super Pac. Web3 Forward has supported the campaigns of Democrats, including Senator-elect John Fetterman in Pennsylvania and Oregon senator Ron Wyden, who chairs the powerful Senate finance committee.

During the election, Bankman-Fried sat out some high-profile races including Tim Ryan’s failed Senate campaign in Ohio, although Ryan had sought to refine the country’s infrastructure bill so as not to hit crypto groups.

David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, which has opposed many of the policies that Bankman-Fried has advocated for, said the FTX founder had been “jumping with two feet” into the political realm.

But he added: “He didn’t have very good political consultants . . . What Sam did was pick and choose individual targets and got involved in the primaries — which didn’t work,” McIntosh said.

The entrepreneur also grew his profile in Washington by hiring former regulators to liaise with financial watchdogs, including Mark Wetjen, former acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. FTX had submitted an application with the CFTC to automate risk management tasks in futures markets that are typically completed by brokers. Wetjen declined to comment.

The concerns over FTX’s financial health and its links to Bankman-Fried’s proprietary trading group Alameda Research that triggered a deluge of customer withdrawals from the exchange have also raised questions about the source of funds used for donations. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating FTX over its crypto lending activities and management of customer funds, according to a person familiar with the matter.

But legal experts argue that even if these funds were proven to be linked to wrongdoing, there probably would be no legal basis for clawbacks.

James Cox, professor of corporate and securities law at Duke University, said this was due to the “bona fide” principle, which protects individuals who accept money with no knowledge it derives from illicit activity.

What could trigger refunds might not be the law, “but the question about how can the party overcome the opprobrium of being associated with ill-gotten gains?” added Cox.

Harking back to another business scandal that reverberated through US politics, John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School, said: “I do not see the political recipients of Bankman-Fried’s donations as personally liable, but they may be embarrassed into returning these donations, just as many returned donations from the Sacklers,” in reference to the family embroiled in the country’s devastating opioid scandal.

But if lawmakers remain comfortable with Bankman-Fried and his donations do dry up, Beychok said this would not hurt Democrats, who had consistently out-raised Republicans in recent cycles.

“I rest assured that 2024 will be a spendorama and I don’t think that anything that happens . . . with FTX is going to change that,” Beychok said.​

 

How many law firms did Alex Jones burn through? SBF got daddy's college friends to rep him now.

https://www.semafor.com/article/11/17/2022/sam-bankman-fried-parts-ways-with-paul-weiss-lawyers

Sam Bankman-Fried has parted ways with the white-shoe lawyers helping him as he faces federal investigations into the collapse of his crypto empire, people familiar with the matter said.

Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old whose FTX exchange and web of related crypto firms unraveled last week, had been working with Martin Flumenbaum at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a dean of the white-collar bar who defended Michael Milken in his securities fraud trial in the 1990s and AIG in its post-2008 dealings with the Justice Department.

"We informed Mr. Bankman-Fried several days ago, after the filing of the FTX bankruptcy, that conflicts have arisen that precluded us from representing him," Flumenbaum said in a statement.

Bankman-Fried is now represented by Greg Joseph, former president of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Also on his legal team as an advisor is David W. Mills, who teaches criminal law at Stanford Law School, where Bankman-Fried’s parents are both professors, some of the people said.

Bankman-Fried hasn’t been accused of a crime. The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has “boots on the ground” at an FTX U.S.-registered clearinghouse, commissioner Kristin Johnson said at a London conference.​

 

I think I make the distinction this way.

Speculation is normal and wise with an open mind to know to wait and not jump to any conclusion (however tempting).

Conspiracy is not speculation. It’s edging to conclusions based on (fill in your favorite data points from the wild net).

 

99ers dropping knowledge

 

What thread?

 

lol

 

National security vs financial fraud.

Elon probably shouldn’t have taken foreign loans from China, Saudi, UAE…. Places known for their strong free speech…. Not to mention China getting a stake of a US media company. We see what Russia is doing when they don’t own a stake in media….

We are currently looking into TikTok too for national security concerns as well.

 

Darling of the alt-right?

 

I admit to being completely ignorant of this whole situation and of crypto currency in general.

Can someone give me a brief synopsis of what this is or direct me to a good link I can read about it? Is crypto now dead?