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by stuckinhell 1295 days ago
The fraud seems to get political very quickly with FTX. Sam Bankman donated enormous amounts of money to democrats. He was the second biggest donor behind George Soros. He said he also donated an equivalent amount to establishment republicans via dark money channels.

Sam Bankman was clearly a smooth political operator.You don't have meeting with Gary Gensler the head of the SEC otherwise.
3 comments
JumpCrisscross 1295 days ago
> Sam Bankman was clearly a smooth political operator

No, he wasn’t. This is a myth he crafted for his retail audience. He threw money around. But D.C. is filled with schmucks buying photo ops for millions of dollars.

> don't have meeting with Gary Gensler the head of the SEC otherwise

You’re saying SBF’s donations, and not his role as CEO of FTX, got him a meeting with FTX’s regulator?

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wpietri 1295 days ago
Yeah, if I were one of FTX's regulators, I would be fascinated to meet with him. Or any other big-name crypto person. Assuming they're brave enough to set foot on US territory at all, that is.
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jjtheblunt 1295 days ago
> He said he also donated an equivalent amount to establishment republicans via dark money channels.

where did you find that? i've not seen it (yet)

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ceejayoz 1295 days ago
https://fortune.com/crypto/2022/11/29/sam-bankman-fried-poli...

> 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.”

His co-CEO also publicly donated millions to Republican causes. https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/donor_detail/20....

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meroes 1295 days ago
How could being the second and third largest donor to Dems/Reps respectively at the same time be a good strategy? Genuinely curious.
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gizmo686 1295 days ago
The point of political donations (at this scale) is not to get your preferred candidate elected. It is to get leverage with the candidate who ends up getting elected.
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ceejayoz 1295 days ago
It's twice as many people you can call up and say "remember when I gave a bunch of money to your PAC?"
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