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The Almighty Buck Bitcoin Politics

SBF Used $100 Million In Stolen FTX Funds For Political Donations (reuters.com) 107

Posted by BeauHD from the latest-developments dept.
Sam Bankman-Fried used money he stole from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange to make more than $100 million in political campaign contributions before the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, federal prosecutors said on Monday. Reuters reports: An amended indictment accused the 31-year-old former billionaire of directing two FTX executives to evade contribution limits by donating to Democrats and Republicans, and to conceal where the money came from. "He leveraged this influence, in turn, to lobby Congress and regulatory agencies to support legislation and regulation he believed would make it easier for FTX to continue to accept customer deposits and grow," the indictment said.

Bankman-Fried faces seven counts of conspiracy and fraud over FTX's collapse, though the indictment no longer includes conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws as a separate count. [...] Bankman-Fried's indictment does not name the two people prosecutors say he used for "straw donors" to donate money at his direction. But other court papers and Federal Elections Commission data show they are Nishad Singh and Ryan Salame. Singh, FTX's former engineering chief, pleaded guilty to fraud and campaign finance violations in February. He donated $9.7 million to Democratic candidates and causes, and said in court he knew the money came from FTX customers.

Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian unit, gave more than $24 million to Republican candidates and causes in the 2022 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commision data. He has not been charged with a crime. In a separate court filing on Monday, prosecutors said Salame's lawyer had told them he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to testify. Prosecutors said Salame told a family member in a November 2021 message that Bankman-Fried wanted to use political donations to "weed-out" anti-crypto Democratic and Republican lawmakers, and would likely "route money through me to weed out that republican [sic] side." On Friday, a U.S. judge revoked Sam Bankman-Fried's bail due to probable cause that he tampered with witnesses at least twice. He is being sent to jail.
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SBF Used $100 Million In Stolen FTX Funds For Political Donations More

SBF Used $100 Million In Stolen FTX Funds For Political Donations

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  • Well of course he did. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Tuesday August 15, 2023 @01:16AM (#63768164)

    Every time I read something that confirms the guy is just an old-school grifter who found a modern exploit, I smile. But as unsophisticated as he is, buying politicians is a practice almost as old as the grift. And our politicians are for sale as much - or more - as they've ever been. I applaud him for the scale of it, though. He's made a lot of classic villains look penny-ante. And all without being "better" at it than they were. Right place, right time, right mental makeup.

    One of the interesting side-effects is that plenty of highly technical people are shown to be as susceptible to being snowed as the least educated among us - and more so to some avenues of attack. Being technical in no way prevents you from also being stupid.

    • And the exploit wasn't modern either. It was just a promise to give people something with fake value in return for their real money. Any thing can be that fave-value thing, as long as the promises sound desirable enough.

      The real exploit is always money, because money talks and bullshit is co-mingled.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Opportunist ( 166417 )

        It was just a promise to give people something with fake value in return for their real money.

        That's the oldest grift in the book. Religions have been peddling the afterlife since times immemorial.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by iMadeGhostzilla ( 1851560 )

      "Buying politicians" conveniently sounds they all equally profited from the crook regardless of ideology -- and certainly not just "progressive" ideology -- since the journos in the Reuters article innocently say "Democrats and Republicans", but the key question is, which Republicans?

      '"Venture capital firm Sequoia was a big backer, investing over $200 million in SBF, a lot of which he then invested back in Sequoia, whose chairman and managing partner Michael Moritz is a big donor to the Dems as well as to a

      • Which politicians were bought in this case isn't really important. The worst you can say is they were ignorant - willfully so. Politicians from both sides of the aisle guilty of being bought on a regular basis. The purchaser changes - the game does not.

        Judging a bunch of political people on their understanding of technical underpinnings isn't really fair. Even the people who understand that world were snowed.

      • Nobody ever said they equally profited - that's a construct in your mind.

        Also, this story wouldn't be a thing if not for the striking down of McCain - Feingold. Remind me who funded and backed Citizens United again?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by whitroth ( 9367 )

        Sorry, *what*? In what definition of "hate group" is the Lincoln Project? Have they threatened anyone, like, say, the "Proud Boys"?

        Talk about extreme right-wing bias on the part of the article.

        Oh, and FT is paywalled.

        • You are correct, the Lincoln Project people are a group and they hate Trump but they are not a hate group by the usual definition of the term; to label them so reveals the article's bias.

          I hope you are just as diligent in correcting the hard left mob when they call Republicans and center-right independents fascists, Nazis and so on. Which, judging by your low ID which means you grew up in an America where freedom of expression was a thing, might be what you're doing.

          • I agree with you that blanket labelling of a group is a terrible idea. It's nearly always incorrect - and it's always incomplete. What you can reasonably say is that Americans who exhibit fascist and Nazi characteristics are much more likely to be Republican than not.

            But it's a basic logic problem. Concluding that because some Nazis are Republican, all Republican's are Nazis is terrible thinking.

            But in your heart of hearts, if I gave you three signs, "Republican", "Democrat", "Independent/Other", and put an

          • Hard left? Is CPUSA really that vocal?

          • Haters who hide behind false flags are just a little more guilty than those who don't: https://cloudfront-us-east-2.i... [arcpublishing.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nomadic ( 141991 )

      Old school grifters were usually smarter. SBF seems like an idiot.

    • I think the whole "effective altruism" also gave him cover. I have mixed feelings on the whole effective altruism movement as it seems most are pie in the sky grifters who pat themselves on their backs for being philanthropist (or more importantly future philanthropists) and they can use that as an excuse to do a lot of shady business because they "promise" in the future they will donate lots of money to causes that benefit humanity .

      • It's why pedophiles become scout masters and little league coaches. Wrapping yourself in the veil of altruism isn't new.

  • In other news... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Tuesday August 15, 2023 @01:27AM (#63768176) Homepage

    ...American politicians accepted $100 million n bribes, carefully designed to skirt campaign finance laws. In return, they supported legislation...

    America's Congress is as corrupt as they come. Sadly, none of them will be going to jail over this revelation.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Black Parrot ( 19622 )

      I'm sure all the honest politicians will give the donations back.

    • Just funnel it through family members and have them send to other relatives and you are good.

    • Re:In other news... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by systemd-anonymousd ( 6652324 ) on Tuesday August 15, 2023 @01:58AM (#63768218)

      They also managed to drop a whole bunch of his charges. And he used stolen money to pay them off. This should be the scandal of the century.

      • This should be the scandal of the century

        Given the Trump saga ongoing it doesn't even qualify as the scandal of the week.

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by Zekolas ( 1029166 )
        Fake news. One charge was dropped as the Bahama's didn't consider it as part of the extradition treaty it has with the USA. Basically for the Bahamas to send SBF back to the USA the USA had to disclose what crimes he would be charged with. One charge was added after he was extradited then withdrew after it was argued this wasn't part of the extradition agreement they had with the Bahama's

        • They've dropped a bunch of charges against SBF.

          They had a long list of charges, edited it (as you noted) to extradite him, and have dropped a charge relating to campaign finance law violations, because Bahamas said if the charges stand, it would be a violation of the terms of extradition.

          It is a cozy situation - SBF steals money, donates it to Dems (mostly), and when caught, has Dem DOJ drop campaign law charges...

      • Nah, I think a certain ex-President with over 100 felony charges levied against him for trying to end liberal democracy in the United States might "trump" some idiot douchebag crypto-scammer running an obvious ponzi scheme, who happened to spread a lot of stolen money around with politicians to keep the grift going.

        • Nah, I think a certain ex-President with over 100 felony charges levied against him for trying to end liberal democracy in the United States might "trump" some idiot douchebag crypto-scammer running an obvious ponzi scheme, who happened to spread a lot of stolen money around with politicians to keep the grift going.
          As they say in Tropic Thunder, "Never go full retard." I'd wait and see what happens to those 100 felony charges once they are adjudicated in a court of law. But keep huffing the MSNBC "walls ar

          • Have you read the indictments and looked at the evidence therein?

            Have you heard from actual legal experts that say how any of the defenses being firehosed through NewsFox propaganda channels are not valid in a court of law?

            Yeah, we'll wait and see what happens. Bullshit propaganda outside the courtroom won't play inside a courtroom where you aren't allowed to lie, and you aren't allowed to make shit up that you can't prove with hard evidence and corroborated witness testimony provided under penalty of perj

            • I'm willing to bet that he's not convicted of anything before the next presidential election. There's a desire to martyr him, pushing him higher in republican primaries, but not enough to actually get him off the election ticket. It's not like the democrats haven't run this sort of thing before. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/12/democrats-interfere-republican-primaries/

              • The only data we have is national polling that isn't worth the electrons agitated to transmit it when you're still 14 months from the election, and state-by-state poll numbers that really only matter in the early primary states where the candidates are spending any time or money at all. Everything else is noise, and because it's all there is, it's what gets reported to fill broadcast minutes and newspaper column-inches.

                And in the polling that matters, that data is coming from actual random people that answ

            • Mark meadows is charged as a coconspirator because he asked someone for a phone number.

              Another individual is charged as a coconspirator for booking a conference room.

              It will be interesting to see how all these "charges" stand up in Federal court, as many/most will be sent there, as is the accused's right.

              They say you can indict a ham sandwich - a grand jury indictment is not a conviction, the grand jury is a one-sided process, where exculpatory evidence need not be presented, and the accused has no ability

          • If we could just find 11,782 votes. Listen to the tape. Or do you deny it is real?

        • BUT WHAT ABOUT TRUMP!?

    • Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday August 15, 2023 @03:34AM (#63768312)

      That's not fair. The USA has the best government money can buy.

    • Wouldn't it be nice if our elected officials faced prison sentences & got permanent criminal records for participating in bribery & corruption?

    • And nothing can be done about it due to a supreme court that isn't interested in common sense solutions to the problem. We tried to fix it 10 years ago, but some uber-wealthy donor-class billionaires decided that recently passed campaign finance reforms didn't allow them to buy members of Congress to put on a shelf any more, so they manufactured a case to put in front of a friendly Supreme Court to undo it.

      We call that case "Citizens United" - which basically draws an equals sign between fat sacks of cash

      • Do you remember what Citizens United was about? It was about showing a movie critical of Hillary too close to Election Day. That Democrat lawsuit to protect Hillary gave us Citizens United.

        The Dobbs decision was because Democrats weren't happy with a 15 week limit on Abortions, and when they lost their case, the issue was handed back to the states, and many states have limits much shorter than the 15 weeks they found so horrible before Dobbs.

        The pattern? Democrats push their luck, lose ground, then get mad

    • ...American politicians accepted $100 million n bribes, carefully designed to skirt campaign finance laws.

      And by 'skirt' you mean violate federal campaign law? He actually committed crimes and broke the law, by labeling it as "skirting the law" you make is sound like he only violated the SPIRIT, not the LETTER of the law. He literally gave customer money to others to donate to politicians - EXACTLY what Dinesh D'Souza went to jail for, and his crime involved exactly $3,000, not the literal millions SBF illegally donated.

  • Whats astounding that wasn't enough (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Bob_Who ( 926234 ) on Tuesday August 15, 2023 @01:43AM (#63768194) Journal
    I guess this mean K Street thinks that $100 million is low balling.... without even more dark dollars wrapped in unaccounted super PACs. Clearly he's an amateur.

  • Yes we know. (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Pretty much all of it went to the Democrats, the remainder to the RINOs. So no difference. Both are slithering scum that would kill a freight load of kittens for more power, and then blame someone else for their actions -- which many here would then hate without question.

    Sam will probably Epstein himself, since he knows too much. He was mothing more than a pawn to funnel money from the tax payers back to these liars in Washington just in time for the 2022 midterms.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Got a source for that claim? Otherwise it sounds like classic right wing finger pointing and projection.

      • Re:Yes we know. (Score:5, Informative)

        by gizmo2199 ( 458329 ) on Tuesday August 15, 2023 @09:55AM (#63768946) Homepage

        Not only mostly to Democrats but he was actually the second largest donor to the Democratic Party for 2022.

        "Bankman-Fried contributed more than $70 million to election campaigns in less than 18 months, placing him among the nation’s top political donors. He personally gave at least $40 million to politicians and political action committees ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, mostly to Democrats and liberal-leaning groups, making him the second overall top donor to Democrats, only behind George Soros, according to the Center for Responsive Politics."

        https://time.com/6241262/sam-b... [time.com]
        https://www.opensecrets.org/ne... [opensecrets.org]

        • Some other perspectives:

          Reuters [reuters.com]

          Bankman-Fried's indictment does not name the two people prosecutors say he used for "straw donors" to donate money at his direction. But other court papers and Federal Elections Commission data show they are Nishad Singh and Ryan Salame.

          Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian unit, gave more than $24 million to Republican candidates and causes in the 2022 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commision data.

          Fortune: [fortune.com]

          Sam Bankman-Fried’s donations to Democrats are well documented. In an interview released Tuesday, the former FTX CEO said he similarly funded Republican campaigns—but kept it quiet.

          “All my Republican donations were dark,” SBF told crypto influencer and YouTuber Tiffany Fong, referring to political donations that aren’t publicly disclosed. “The reason was not for regulatory reasons, it’s because reporters freak the fuck out if you donate to Republicans. They’re all super liberal, and I didn’t want to have that fight.”

    • >Pretty much all of it went to the Democrats
      Except that now we have a more complete (so far) total, it turns out he split the bribes 50/50 between the two parties. So, no, your talking point is utter BS.

  • Who cares? What about the hot office orgies? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Every FTX customer would benefit from information like that being shared.

  • "Former Billionaire" Gives me a warm fuzzy comfort feeling.

    • It shouldn't. He lived the life. He was "confined to his parents home" when first arrested. You would have been in federal pen, general lock up. And yes he's got legal problems but will still die of old age with more money than you'll ever see in your life.

      Lemme know when he's crying to the press about getting ass raped every day.

      • It shouldn't. He lived the life.

        You can't truly suffer until you have had something you value taken from you. That won't be lost on him in his tiny cell, eating prison loaf for every meal or spending his youthful years in prison. He forfeited status, luxury, power, wealth and youth. That makes me smile too.

      • Actually no, since _all_ of his "money" came from the criminal enterprise so he would have to forfeit any gains he made from FTX/Alameida but when he gets out in 20 years maybe some fintech bros will throw a couple million his way for the lulz...

        • If you believe every penny was found and taken, sure. I don't. I have no reason to believe so. You recall his home and corporate headquarters wasn't exactly in a bastion of anti-corruption and clean banking?

      • What I can't figure out is how the guy could be so insanely stupid as to violate the relative simple terms of the bail. As a result he is now in one of the worst fed holding jails. If that doesn't define stupid I don't know what does. He really could end up dead before trial. Not that I'd shed a tear over it.
    • Why? He still likely has many millions. There's speculation that he's hiding it via family members that he trusts. If that's true, the best we can hope for is that the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.

  • The Super Battle Fortress 1 shot a big energy blast into the sky and killed Zentradis.

  • SBF was not a "chosen" grifter (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EmagGeek ( 574360 ) on Tuesday August 15, 2023 @07:24AM (#63768572) Journal

    SBF must have done something to upset the ruling class, as they apparently rejected his application for admission to the oligarchy. He did everything right. He stole money from the everyman, funneled it upwards into his own pockets, and lied to everyone about it. It's textbook oligarch.

    I wonder why they did not accept him. Perhaps he was not making the "right" political contributions or something.

    • well he can pay for max commissary each month so he can buy services from other inmates to keep him safe.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nomadic ( 141991 )

      "SBF must have done something to upset the ruling class"

      Oh lord...he broke the law and got caught. Like happens with a lot of people, including rich people.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by RobinH ( 124750 )
        Exactly. What it means to live in a free country is that we give you the benefit of the doubt, and if you abuse that trust, the legal system will (eventually) catch up with you. Sounds like he had lots of fun while it lasted. Hope he likes living in a cage.

    • It was his hair.

    • SBF must have done something to upset the ruling class, as they apparently rejected his application for admission to the oligarchy. He did everything right. He stole money from the everyman, funneled it upwards into his own pockets, and lied to everyone about it. It's textbook oligarch.

      And then he bid up the price of US federal politicians by dumping stupid amounts of money into their campaigns in an off year. The entrenched Old Money hates amateurs coming in and shaking up established price structures.

  • Even if convicted on this count, no one from the DoJ is going to show up at congressional offices with an order to turn over the funds on penalty of accepting stolen/fraudulently obtained money.

  • From the "No!!! Really???!!!" sarcasm department.

  • Is (or was) he really a billionaire? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Tuesday August 15, 2023 @09:33AM (#63768872) Homepage
    If I convince you to deposit with me a bunch of money, with the promise I'll pay it back, and give some of it away to politicians, and buy my parents a nice house in the Caymans, and pay myself a fat salary with deposited money, and then mint a hundred million *units* of crypto, and then sell one unit of it for $10 to my girlfriend so I can say this currency is worth a billion dollars, am I really a billionaire?
  • Yes, we knew all this. Ukrainian funds, unaudited, were redirected to uniparty politicians in D.C. But if you called for accountability in our war spending you were smeared as a Russian stooge.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by RobinH ( 124750 )
      If you're going to make accusations like that, back it up with references to established facts that are cross-checked by reputable sources.
      • How about this House Oversight Committee report [house.gov] showing the Bidens took millions from Ukrainian oil & gas or are you going to tell me Hunter is a legit oil & gas expert worth millions? You partisans have a hard time with search engines? Why are you always asking for "references" for obvious shit the rest of the world has clued into literally years ago and the evidence keeps mounting. It would be like Trumpers claiming Trump University was totally on the up-and-up. Willful ignorance is the only excus

  • Epsteined (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Tuesday August 15, 2023 @10:06AM (#63768990) Homepage Journal

    He facilitated the transfer of money from the Ukraine War funding to the DNC Campaign Funds for 2022 - laundered through crypto obfuscation.

    In the current political climate his testimony (and thus survival) might be too dangerous to powerful people.

    He was initially assigned to the MDC jail where Epstein didn't hang himself though it was reported yesterday that he surrendered in Brooklyn, so we don't know yet if the cameras will malfunction again while the guards fall asleep.

    The charges of "witness tampering" are bogus. He talked smack about his ex girlfriend but it's established law that this is protected speech by a defendant (cf. Gentile v. Nevada).

    The charging attorney knows this damn well (assuming she's a qualified DA) but did it anyway for political purposes. Amazing how his crimes in The Bahamas wound up being charged in SDNY where judges do what they're told.

    Were he in Club Fed instead his safety would not be in question. He seems like a scumbag but for now he's legally an innocent man.

    • He facilitated the transfer of money from the Ukraine War funding to the DNC Campaign Funds for 2022 - laundered through crypto obfuscation

      Link please. I don't not believe you... I would like to know more. But at first glance that sounds like a claim that could have been reached by a questionable extrapolation.

    • it may interest you to know that there are serious allegations that Epstein, who apparently had no further education beyond a high school diploma at the time, was hired to teach math to under-age girls at a private school - and this person who hired him was none other than Donald Barr, the late father of former US Attorney General Bill Barr (who had served under George HW Bush and was thus recommended to Trump, who himself had banned Epstein from his properties and probably knew nothing of the Barr-Epstein

  • 1) If these were illegally obtained donations, will any candidates or organizations return the money?
    2) If SBF gave more than was legally allowed to any candidate, will that candidate be held accountable?

    I'm guessing no on both counts. I do predict, that the current president will pardon him if he's convicted.

    And that friends is how illegal campaign contributions work.

    • 1) If these were illegally obtained donations, will any candidates or organizations return the money?

      There have already been "confidential" letters from the creditors to the candidates/organizations to request that the donations be returned, with the implication that the bankruptcy court might claw them back (with interest). It is possible that a few candidates/organizations will cut their potential losses (and future visibility by being named in the court proceedings) by returning the funds, while others, not so much.

  • I look forward to him appearing on a new episode of "American Greed"

  • I mean the only thing more absurd than this is if there was, say, a secret island where politicians, Hollywood stars, and rich elites could sneak off for some rapey sex with underage minors.

    Then the guy running said island somehow crosses the wrong person (or they find his blackmail stash), ends up prosecuted, and then "commits suicide" the week before he's set to testify.

    FOUR YEARS LATER we still don't really have anyone prosecuted over any of it, even though we know some folks went SCORES of times. ...and

  • Everyone knows buying art is a good way yo show your support legally and of course comply unrelated, get appointed to roles that help you.

  • "On Friday, a U.S. judge revoked Sam Bankman-Fried's bail due to probable cause that he tampered with witnesses at least twice. He is being sent to jail."

    Wait, so they put people in jail for that?! I figured a stern talking to was all the "elite" got for stuff like that. I guess you have to threaten a bunch of people and attempt to nullify a free and fair election by conspiring to send fake electors and bullshit court challenges to get that kind of kid glove treatment.

  • Boiled in oil. It's sad that the old punishments have gone out of style.
  • I love the fact that this article tries to make it seem like he donated more to Republicans than Democrats, when that is a lie. https://time.com/6241262/sam-b... [time.com]

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