Things aren’t going well for Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman Fried. Though he spent millions on trying to curry political favor with the ruling class, he has been charged in connection with the meltdown of FTX and his misuse of customer funds that was exposed by that meltdown.
In fact, he’s now facing even more charges in connection with the scandal. Those charges include, the Financial Times reports, securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
The addition of those new charges means that SBF now faces, as is shown on the updated indictment that was released on Thursday morning, 12 total charges. Breitbart, reported on the updated charges and how his former colleagues are involved in them, saying:
[T]he new charge sheet lists evidence that appears to come from two of Bankman-Fried’s closest former colleagues, the head of FTX’s trading affiliate Alameda, Caroline Ellison, and FTX co-founder Gary Wang.
Both the latter two pleaded guilty to criminal charges in December and agreed to co-operate with U.S. prosecutors.
CNBC reported on the new charges that SBF is facing as well, relying on an unnamed source to claim that SBF now faces decades more prison time and noting that the updated indictment provides more details on what was allegedly going on at FTX and the many political donations that he made. In that outlet’s words:
A source familiar with the new counts said that SBF, as he is popularly known, could face an additional 40 years in prison if convicted in the case, where he is accused of “multiple schemes to defraud.”
The new charging document lays out in greater detail Bankman-Fried’s allegedly fraudulent conduct related to his cryptocurrency exchange FTX and an associated hedge fund, Alameda Research, both of which went bust in late 2022.
The 12-count indictment also provides new details of hundreds of political donations that Bankman-Fried allegedly directed in violation of federal campaign finance laws.
The vast majority of SBF’s donations ended up flowing into Democrat campaign coffers, as CBS admitted in a report on his political donations from around the time the FTX scandal first broke, saying:
Public records of Bankman-Fried’s money show it primarily went to support Democratic committees and candidates. He donated $6 million to the House Majority PAC, the main outside group supporting House Democrats. He also gave $250,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $66,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
The bulk of his political donations — $27 million — bankrolled the “Protect Our Future PAC,” a group advocating for pandemic preparedness.
The “Protect Our Future PAC” spent $24.2 million on independent expenditures (mailers, ads) to support 19 Democratic House candidates including Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia and recently elected Reps. Maxwell Frost, of Florida, and Jasmine Crockett, of Texas. Carrick Flynn, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in the Oregon Democratic primary, saw $10 million in outside spending from the “Protect Our Future PAC.”
So they might feel the pinch in 2024 without him donating millions, though he reportedly made “dark” donations to Republicans as well, so perhaps the funding shortfall will balance out.
Featured image credit: By US Senate – https://www.c-span.org/video/?517737-1/senate-hearing-regulating-cryptocurrency-markets, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=125506065
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