According to Caroline Ellisonthe key witness in the fraud trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX wanted to run for president of the United States. Before falling from grace, SBF was the darling of the crypto industry in Washington political circles. He has testified several times before the United States Congress. Many considered him one of the industry’s best regulatory assets.
Sam Bankman-Fried saw himself as potential president of the United States
Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, described SBF as ambitious. However, his ambitions went beyond the crypto industry. SBF took a close interest in the White House. He estimated that he had a 5% chance of winning the presidential elections. These revelations are probably not as explosive as the young woman’s testimony on the difficulties of Alameda Research.
After joining Alameda in 2018, Ellison discovered that the firm was in a much more dire financial situation than SBF had suggested. Ellison confirmed that Alameda siphoned off funds from FTX users to keep its operations afloat. She also claimed that she had wanted to resign on several occasions but that SBF had dissuaded her from doing so, arguing that FTX would be the victim of a ” bank run ». Part of these funds had been used to repay creditors, another portion had been used to make numerous investments (against Ellison’s advice), and a fraction was reserved for political contributions.
At one point while testifying against her former boss and ex-boyfriend, Sam Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison recounted that he claimed that he had a five percent chance of one day becoming president of the United States.
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) October 10, 2023
Sam Bankman-Fried’s financial contributions to consolidate his influence
The former CEO of FTX has made numerous donations to organizations and political leaders, both Democrats and Republicans. According to Coindesk, one in three members of Congress and Senate reportedly received donations from SBF or FTX executives. Previously, in 2020, SBF donated $10 million to the presidential campaign of Joe Biden. He would have even considered paying Donald Trump so that the latter does not run as a candidate for the presidency of the United States. SBF had pledged to contribute $1 billion for the 2024 elections. Bankman-Fried gained attention in the political and financial sphere with his contributions. And according to Ellison, that was exactly what he was looking for:
”(SBF) thought it was a very effective method, that you could get very high returns in terms of influence by spending relatively small amounts of money.”
The collapse of FTX put an end to SBF’s political ambitions. Afterwards, the new management of FTX expressly asked political figures to return these funds. Regarding payments that are not voluntarily returned, FTX said the debtors “reserve the right to bring actions in the bankruptcy court to demand the return of such payments, with interest accruing from the date to which any action is taken”.
Sources : Inner City Press, Popular.info, Coindesk
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2023-10-14 10:54:46
#Sam #BankmanFried #wanted #president #United #States
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