By Billy Bambrough
December 10, 2022:
Information Clearing House
-- "Forbes"
- Tesla billionaire and new Twitter
owner Elon Musk has suggested the disgraced
former chief executive of collapsed bitcoin and
crypto exchange FTX donated far more money to
Democrats than previously thought.
Musk, who
claimed he saw red flags when FTX founder
Sam Bankman-Fried offered cash toward his
Twitter takeover, revealed via Twitter that he
thinks Bankman-Fried could have donated "over $1
billion" to Democrats ahead of the FTX's
meltdown—far more than the near-$40 million
that's been reported.
"That’s just the publicly disclosed number,"
Musk
posted to his almost 120 million followers
in response to tech chief executive Will Manidis.
"[Sam Bankman-Fried's] actual support of
Democrat elections is probably over $1 billion.
The money went somewhere, so where did it go?"
Bankman-Fried and the operations of his
bitcoin and crypto exchange FTX have come under
intense media scrutiny following his $32 billion
business empire's shock collapse into bankruptcy
last month—blamed on FTX comingling funds with
the trading company Alameda Research, also owned
by Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried rode the bitcoin and crypto
rally to billionaire status over the last few
years, building FTX into one of the world's
largest exchanges and fostering a reputation as
crypto's "lender of last resort" as a brutal
crypto crash pushed many companies to the brink
of collapse earlier this year.
Ahead of FTX's implosion, Bankman-Fried was a
regular in Washington D.C. where he testified
before Congress and met with lawmakers and
regulators. He was also a donor to left-leaning
media companies, sparking suggestions the media
has failed to adequately hold him to account
following FTX's meltdown.
Bankman-Fried had previously said he would
donate $1 billion to political candidates before
rowing back the pledge. However, he has emerged
as one of the largest Democrat donors in recent
years, spending a reported $36 million in the
latest midterm elections mostly via the Protect
Our Future Pac.
In an interview posted to YouTube this week,
Bankman-Fried claimed to have donated to both
Democrats and Republicans.
"I donated about the same amount to both
parties," Bankman-Fried
told the crypto YouTuber Tiffany Fong,
adding all his "Republican donations were dark."
This week, the U.S. Senate began the first in
a series of hearings into FTX’s collapse and
have said they intend to hear from Bankman-Fried.
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reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
in this article are
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reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
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