Cryptocurrency’s fallen king Sam Bankman-Fried, who ran FTX into bankruptcy and now may be criminally charged for scamming money from investors, not only funded the campaigns of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola, and the Alaska Democratic Party through his direct donations and funneled donations, he was indirectly funding left-leaning news organizations in Alaska, most notably the Anchorage Daily News. And he was funding a news group that defines what “misinformation” is.
“SBF [Sam Bankman-Fried] was heavily involved in Democratic Party politics: In the 2022 election cycle, he was the second most prolific funder of Democratic candidates after George Soros. But he wasn’t just a funder of electoral efforts. He funded both progressive and mainstream media organizations,” writes Robby Soave Reason Magazine.
ProPublica, a nonprofit that pays for reporters to do investigative journalism, paid the salary of reporter Kyle Hopkins at the Anchorage Daily News in 2019, for participation in “local reporting network initiative.” The amount was $92,256.
This year, the FTX Foundation promised ProPublica $5 million, but has only made good on a third of the grant, leaving the news organization looking to other funders to make up the shortfall in what it has promised to media companies.
“One has to wonder how newsrooms will respond to S.B.F. [Sam Bankman-Fried] going forward. The then-billionaire hired a team of advisers who have been making investments in nonprofit and for-profit newsrooms over the last year, including in Vox, The Intercept, ProPublica, The Law and Justice Journalism Project, an international affairs podcast, and most prominently, Semafor,” wrote at Puck.news, which has been documenting the links between Bankman-Fried, FTX, and various non-profit and for-profit news ventures.
Some of ProPublica’s funding comes from George Soros’ Foundation to Promote an Open Society or other Soros-related charitable foundations. One of the biggest funders of ProPublica is a foundation called Crankstart, which is the family foundation of Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz.
Sequoia Capital is the fund that invested Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation money into FTX.
In 2019, the Anchorage Daily News received a grant from ProPublica as one of 14 newsrooms in the Local Reporting Network grant cycle, which was to support “investigative and accountability reporting at the local and regional levels.” CoastAlaska, a nonprofit that runs seven public radio stations in Southeast Alaska, also received a grant of nearly $24,000 from ProPublica that year.
The Anchorage Daily News used the funds to cook up a series of reports on how Gov. Mike Dunleavy had failed the people of rural Alaska by not providing enough law enforcement. Headlines such as “Citizens hide from active shooters as Alaska is slow to deliver on 2019 promise of village Troopers” and other headlines and sub-heads blaming Gov. Dunleavy for the lawlessness in village Alaska were the norm during a two-year timeframe when activists were also trying to recall the governor for other unfounded claims, such as so-called “loyalty pledges” that he supposedly required from executive branch appointees.
The newspaper and ProPublica won a Pulitzer Prize for the series.
Winning Pulitzers for projects that attack conservatives is just the kind of winning endeavor that someone like Sam Bankman-Fried would be interested in funding.
Other news organizations that FTX Foundation was funding included Vox, The Intercept, Semafor, the ProPublica Law and Justice Journalism Project, and a podcast.
One of the grants made by the FTX Foundation’s Future Fund was $500,000 for the Public Editor Project to “use a combination of human feedback and Machine Learning to label misinformation and reasoning errors in popular news articles.”
In other words, Bankman-Fried was funding the shaping of the narrative in the news by funding liberal news organizations and by deciding what was reasonable and what was misinformation.
Teddy Schleifer, a reporter for Puck, reports that Vox is a “progressive news web site created by liberal bloggers Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias.” Vox Media owns New York magazine. The Intercept received a $3.25 million grant. Semafor, a new journalism site started by Ben Smith, formerly of the New York Times and Buzz Feed, was another liberal news site seeded with Bankman-Fried’s ill-gotten gains.
Robby Soave in Reason speculates that Bankman-Fried was also buying favorable coverage from the media. The link is not direct, but major news organizations have used a light touch in their coverage of FTX and Bankman-Fried’s intentions to reshape the world through his “Effective Altruism” project. After all, Bankman-Fried was also funding Democrats and scammy nonprofits, including one run by his brother that was influencing Covid policy in Washington, D.C.
The FTX charitable endeavor is octopus-like, with many arms and tentacles that supported Sam Bankman-Fried’s interest in climate change, pandemics, predictive technologies, and Democrats. In fact, Bankman-Fried was a major funder of Democratic Party politics; in 2022 he was the second only to George Soros.
“The FTX contagion now appears to be spreading to some of the nonprofits, academics, institutes and think tanks that allied themselves with or received money from the FTX Foundation, which was funded by profits from Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange. The foundation claims to have donated $190 million,” wrote Forbes magazine.
Much of the foundation activities are not traceable or transparent. Bankman-Fried also had foundations that were sloppily run and whose activities are not clear. Some have no websites. Others are not listed with the IRS.
“It’s unclear how much of that money came from the foundation’s main giving vehicle, the Future Fund, which as of September had committed $160 million towards dozens of nonprofits and researchers; some of that money also was invested in companies whose profits would be redistributed to philanthropic causes. Recipients fell under the organization’s ‘areas of interests,’ which spanned artificial intelligence, space governance, combatting biohazards and climate change, but all under the banner of Effective Altruism: a philosophical movement that advocates doing the most good possible,” Forbes wrote.
“Individuals and organizations promised funds from the FTX Foundation are now grappling with the fallout, according to several that spoke with Forbes. One group says that it didn’t receive any funds at all from Future Fund, while another received only part of what had been promised. At least two that did receive money admit to feeling guilty–or even looking to rid themselves of the capital,” the magazine reported.
“Some of the Fund’s largest grantees were Effective Altruist groups with ties to MacAskill and Oxford. MacAskill mentored SBF for years and “nudged” him to take his first trading job at Jane Street Capital back in 2017, according to Sequoia Capital’s now-deleted 14,000-word fluff piece,” according to Forbes. Sequoia Capital, as mentioned much earlier in this story, is the group that invested Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. millions in FTX.
“To date, the Future Fund has given $30 million in grants to organizations that are part of Effective Ventures, a U.K.-based charitable entity chaired by MacAskill, according to the Future Fund’s June update. That includes Longview Philanthropy, a nonprofit started by two Oxford grads that ‘design and execute bespoke giving strategies for major donors,’ which was given $15 million; the Center for Effective Altruism, MacAskill’s main group, which received $13.94 million; and Non-trivial Pursuits, which received $1 million,” Forbes explained in this story.
Read the fluff piece by Sequoia that the company doesn’t want you to see.
I never understood the attacks on Dunleavy. Walker wouldn’t have given the left as much as Dunleavy did.
Dunleavy was the best governor for the Democrats since Bill Egan.
Avenger: Wow what a statement.
Since Walker couldn’t get away with giving the legislature the other half of the dividend, he has become a less than useful idiot.
Hey ma, you need to take a leave of absence. Don’t you have a life other than this constant negativity?
MA is part Commie, being from SE Alaska.
One of the reasons ADN will not receive subscription fees from me although I believe it is civic duty to support private honest journalism regardless of political slant to help maintain the republic form of government. Propoganda is not journalism. The deep disrespect ADN displayed toward minority readers comments during the failed 2020 “election” period gave evidence of mere political ruthlessness which is undeserving of defense. It was profoundly bullying and calloused deserving of the loyal US Secret Service inquiry in my belief.
Galeutian, journalism with any political slant, honest or not, is not journalism. The applicable term is “op-ed” for opinion-editorial.
Whatever it is the republic needs it per se.
RE: “he was indirectly funding left-leaning news organizations in Alaska”
Hmmm. I’d say DIRECTLY.
We Alaskans are so fortunate to have Suzanne investigating the facts and spilling out the truth for us all to see. May the Truth flow like water.
In the future I’d like to see SD wield her mighty pen exposing the Leftists policy positions, backgrounds, and who’s funding them – relentlessly and ruthlessly BEFORE election.
Versus attempting to character assassinate someone running on the Republican ticket – who by any measure would be better than Peltola on abortion, guns, education, oil & gas policy, mining, tax and business policy, etc.
Well written article – no cap.
He needs a ride to the train station. Nothing more than a con man thief.
Best part about Karma. You do enough wrong, and it comes back to you in spades! How many other companies like this are messing with our elections?? Can’t say they aren’t if the Crypto nut did it… Just saying.
Will even the ignominy of having been funded by a sociopath like Bankman-Fried (you couldn’t make that name up!) finally be enough to bring shame to Princess Lisa? Not likely.
Why would a guy? (I use that term lightly) feel the need for two last names?
Telling in itself.
I really hope they investigate the news of a lot of that aid money destined for Ukraine being funneled to Fried and the the democrats election campaigns
Yep, not likely! Win with a write in and then with RCV. You gotta give it to her tho. She has ways to win. Be it legit or illegitimate.
The ADN is just one a cog in the machine. (1 of hundreds of cogs) It’s clearly evident that the rag doesn’t need to rely on readership for subscription’s for which to operate.
Many many “projects “ fund the machine.
– shovel ready jobs
– pallet of cash to Iran
– GM bailout
-Bank bailout
– Ukraine “aid”?
Countless ways to funnel one’s own $ to slit their own throat.
My union being a prime example.
The dark money being used to fund the anti- America agenda from those like Soros, and Bankman might be coming from the Communist Chinese, and the Russians. Soros and Bankman might be cutouts for the Chinese money. The Chinese want to undermine the United States. Soros has pumped millions into electing prosecutors who let the criminals run free. This has occurred in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia. The New York Post has some great reports on this- worth a read. The effect of all this corrupt, dark money is to have Americans looking inward, and fighting with each other instead of being outward looking and calling out China for its hatred of free speech, its massive propaganda campaigns, its torture of the minority populations, and its global military expansion.
The Democrats that Bankman helped get elected will also be soft on crime, and they will embrace open borders and the destruction of our economy to the great determent of our nation.
We need to stop this dark money insanity. But how?
Ask Jerod what he got 2 billion from the Saudis for.
Murkowski, Peltola, and the Alaska Democrat Party need to reimburse the Permanent Fund for the scammed money. They took this dark money for their benefit. I imagine lots of the Inflation Expansion Act and monies to Ukraine are going to the same causes.
I call on the Board of the Alaska Permanent Fund to direct that the Corporation terminate the relationship with Sequoia Capital. There is no room for bad judgment and bizarre leftist politics in the management of Alaska’s nestegg.
‘https://www.bitchute.com/video/Z0hXX8Vt9ATh/
Here is the fascinating and very disturbing story behind FTX, etc. It was Kind of like listening to someone read a spy novel in the complexity and inter-connected malfeasance of these big players.
Altruistic ha ha ha ha. He received benefits from lawmakers for those donations. And don’t expect the Democrats to investigate themselves too much. Now do the story on how the money the Democrats sent to Ukraine was funneled back to them through all those campaign donanations.
Adding to your comment Jack: Democrats (and Republicans) used extensive and unbelievable amounts of our(present and future) hard earned tax dollars to “aid” Ukraines (Country, not peoples) war against Russia. Seeing great opportunities: those very same politicians said the ‘R’ word three times – Russia,Russia, Russia – then clicked their heels together – and whoosh, our hard earned tax dollars magically came back to roost in the pockets of those very same nasty, unlawful and nefarious politicians. Truth is known. Without cheating, pick pocketing and lack of any ethics they (politicians) would NEVER win and NEVER have enough dough(nations) to fund their goals.
The Daily News tried to do to Gov. Dunleavy what they did to Gov. Parnell in 2014 with the National Guard stories. Back then the paper had a more diverse readership, and the stories definitely affected the election. Now the paper is just an echo chamber for the liberal left who weren’t likely to vote for the Governor in the first place.
The adn is nothing more than what you stated. An echo chamber for the libs. I can attest to that. I have sent 3 letters to the editor criticizing them of all of the liberal articles and liberal letters to the editor. And only one got printed. I thought that newspapers were supposed to be nonbiased. But if they are the ones who says what gets printed and what doesn’t, and if they print 10% conservative articles, who can say that they are biased?
Mayor Dan, you hit it right on the head. The attempts to do stories that would catch on with the public was unprecedented. Thankfully, they didn’t work. Part of the reason may have been the Governor’s response to the Western Alaskan Disaster. When he cut his own scheduled fundraiser during the campaign to ensure that the response efforts would be quick and decisive, I am certain that some in the public noticed. He actually ran far ahead of projections and that may have been part of the reason. Kudos to Suzanne for this latest expose. This is what makes MRAK unique.
Anchorage has not had real newspaper in 60 years. ADN is simply a hack for AP, Washington Post and other garbage “news” outlets. The old Anchorage Times was not much better, if at all.
One more item: The new show “Alaska Daily” has ADN fingers all over it and keeps stating that no one cares about the disappearances of native women. The show completely ignores Governor Dunleavy’s efforts to have a special investigative emphasis on this very thing. Standard for the ADN.
What about Dunleavy doing NOTHING about Kevin Clarkson’s sexual harrassment of an underling? Ran all over respect for women in his campaign then ignores the horrible behavior of his attorney general
Dunleavy is a dud of a governor regarding women and the missing and murdered Native women.
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