Legacy media outlets and President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) neglected to mention that Sam Bankman-Fried was a top donor to Democratic-aligned causes in their releases on the disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon’s sentencing Thursday.
Bankman-Fried contributed more than $37 million overwhelmingly to support Democrat-aligned causes during the 2022 midterm election cycle, according to OpenSecrets. Yet the DOJ said he gave “millions of dollars of political contributions to candidates from both parties” while corporate outlets did not include details about the donations.
CNBC’s article on the sentencing cited prosecutors saying Bankman-Fried gave to “both Democrats and Republicans.” The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press all published articles mentioning the contributions without noting which party they went to.
The fraudster contributed $5 million to a Super PAC boosting Biden’s 2020 campaign called Future Forward USA, according to Federal Election Commission data. He also gave $50,000 to the Biden Victory Fund and $2,800 to the Biden campaign in October 2020.
Moreover, Bankman-Fried allegedly tasked FTX Director of Engineering Nishad Singh to make contributions to Democrats in his name for reasons relating to “optics,” the former executive testified, according to a trial transcript posted by Inner City Press.
A jury found Bankman-Fried guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy-related charges in November, with the New York probation department’s recommending a sentence of 100 years in prison, according to a February court filing requesting a more lenient sentence. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer had asked for a 60-78 month sentence, referencing his philanthropic ventures and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Bankman-Fried “misappropriated and embezzled FTX customer deposits, and used billions of dollars in stolen funds for a variety of purposes, including … to help fund over a hundred million dollars in campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans to seek to influence cryptocurrency regulation,” according to the DOJ’s August indictment against him.
The fraudster gave $10 million to a Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell-tied group called One Nation in August 2022, Puck News first reported and DOJ prosecutors confirmed. Former FTX executive Ryan Salame gave $23 million to mostly Republican candidates and groups during the midterm elections, according to OpenSecrets.
“SBF may serve as little as 12.5 years, if he gets all of the jailhouse credit available to him,” former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner told CNN Thursday.
The Post thanked the Daily Caller News Foundation for referencing its past reporting on Bankman-Fried’s political donations in an earlier article.
The DOJ, CNBC, the NYT and the AP did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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