Sam Bankman-Fried gave $40 million to Democrats and their political campaign committees. Hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to a political entities run by D.C. insiders and former staffers of Congressman Don Young. Those funds were used to fight Alaska Republicans candidates so that Democrat Mary Peltola could become Alaska’s U.S. Representatives. Nearly $10,000 went to the Alaska Democratic Party. It worked.
It was a massive election campaign fraud involving ripping off investors and giving the money to Democrats, but one of just many perpetuated by Bankman-Fried and the Democrats.
Now, the Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Samuel Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors of his FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), the cryptocurrency trading platform of which he was the CEO and co-founder.
In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, Bankman-Fried is charged on eight counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customer and lenders, wire fraud on customers and lenders, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.
But wait, there’s more: Documents show that Bankman-Fried is being charged with conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws, as he “willfully and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to commit offenses against the United States by engaging in violations of federal law involving the making, receiving, and reporting of a contribution, donation, or expenditure, in violation of Title 52, United States Code, Sections 30109(d) (1) (A) & (0).”
The federal changes say Bankman-Fried “did defraud the United States, and an agency thereof, by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of a department and agency of the United States through deceitful and dishonest means, to wit, the Federal Election Commission’s function to administer federal law concerning source and amount restrictions in federal elections.
Bankman-Fried had been under criminal investigation by federal and Bahamian authorities after his FTX house of cards collapsed in November. The company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, just after the Nov. 8 election, a year in which Bankman-Fried had donated tens of millions to mostly Democrat causes and campaigns.
According to the SEC’s complaint, since at least May 2019, FTX, based in The Bahamas, raised more than $1.8 billion from equity investors, including approximately $1.1 billion from approximately 90 U.S.-based investors.
Bankman-Fried promoted FTX as a safe, responsible crypto asset trading platform, specifically touting FTX’s sophisticated, automated risk measures to protect customer assets.
The complaint alleges that, in reality, Bankman-Fried orchestrated a years-long fraud to conceal from FTX’s investors:
- the undisclosed diversion of FTX customers’ funds to Alameda Research LLC, his privately-held crypto hedge fund;
- the undisclosed special treatment afforded to Alameda on the FTX platform, including providing Alameda with a virtually unlimited “line of credit” funded by the platform’s customers and exempting Alameda from certain key FTX risk mitigation measures; and
- undisclosed risk stemming from FTX’s exposure to Alameda’s significant holdings of overvalued, illiquid assets such as FTX-affiliated tokens.
- the commingling of FTX customers’ funds at Alameda to make undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations.
Read the SEC complaint against Bankman-Fried here:
“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “The alleged fraud committed by Mr. Bankman-Fried is a clarion call to crypto platforms that they need to come into compliance with our laws. Compliance protects both those who invest on and those who invest in crypto platforms with time-tested safeguards, such as properly protecting customer funds and separating conflicting lines of business. It also shines a light into trading platform conduct for both investors through disclosure and regulators through examination authority. To those platforms that don’t comply with our securities laws, the SEC’s Enforcement Division is ready to take action.”
“FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy Mr. Bankman-Fried created by, among other things, touting its best-in-class controls, including a proprietary ‘risk engine,’ and FTX’s adherence to specific investor protection principles and detailed terms of service. But as we allege in our complaint, that veneer wasn’t just thin, it was fraudulent,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “FTX’s collapse highlights the very real risks that unregistered crypto asset trading platforms can pose for investors and customers alike. While we continue to investigate FTX and other entities and individuals for potential violations of the federal securities laws, as alleged in our complaint, today we are holding Mr. Bankman-Fried responsible for fraudulently raising billions of dollars from investors in FTX and misusing funds belonging to FTX’s trading customers.”
The SEC’s complaint charges Bankman-Fried with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The SEC’s complaint seeks injunctions against future securities law violations; an injunction that prohibits Bankman-Fried from participating in the issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any securities, except for his own personal account; disgorgement of his ill-gotten gains; a civil penalty; and an officer and director bar.
In parallel actions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced charges against Bankman-Fried.
He’ll get a slap on the wrist. Liberals are not allowed to be held accountable to the law. They’re above it don’tcha know.
John, did you not notice it was “liberals” who charged and arrested him?
Interesting that Don Young’s staff members were fighting so hard to defeat Republicans, and so easily compliant and helpful to support Democrats. It clearly demonstrates the importance of hiring loyalists and like minded employees. Another example of a completely broken political machine.
Good luck finding anyone who would be loyal to a Republican in DC. If you’re a Republican and want loyal staff, you pretty much have to bring them with you to any capital city.
He’ll get a slap on the wrist because the beneficiaries of his criminal largess will be influencing the outcome.
He didn’t buy the seat. We have Mary because the GOP wet the bed as usual.
It wasn’t due to his money Sarah and Nick had a prolonged cat fight, splitting the vote.
“………Sarah and Nick had a prolonged cat fight, splitting the vote……..”
How do you ‘split the vote’ in a ranked choice election?
It was Palin Derangement Syndrome.
By one candidate, Palin, taking forever to endorse ranking the red.
By another candidate, Nick, campaigning primarily on how nasty Palin was.
Neither did much of a job explaining why vote for them. I’m me (Palin) and I’m not her (Nick) is not a platform to attract voters.
But it’s a great one for convincing voters neither was worth supporting-especially in the 2nd slot.
It’s not rocket science. No matter how much you like Palin, she was never gonna win. Not with a 60% negative rating.
At some point you’ll have to accept the biggest liability to Palin was Palin. And that liability split GOP voters down the middle.
Avenger, didn’t anybody ever teach you that a white lie is better than the truth? Get with it: it’s somebody else’s fault!
The Masked Dude is on to something here. More right than wrong in his analysis.
Excuse me: IS Congress on Christmas break or not?
FTX, DNC, FBI, big tech, mainstream media … the cards are stacked against the Republicans.
If it did that’s on Alaskans. No one to blame but yourself.
Bosk is correct.
we get what we deserve up here in this little experiment in democracy.
“Did Bankman-Fried’s money-laundering operation buy Alaska’s congressional seat?……”
Not according to the RINO Party. It was Palin who done it.
RINO is the new “racism!” claim. It has been diluted to the point of meaningless through incorrect and overuse.
As hard as it may be for some to accept, it is entirely possible to hold an alternative view to their personal demagogy and still be Republican.
But it does illustrate why the left wins. They work, they whip the votes, candidates, and voters. The right forms circular firing squads.
There was a lot of funny money that slid under the bed in this election, much of it from Soros as well as Bankman. It went as usual to “action groups.” These were not directly connected to the campaigns. Let’s face it, elections are getting more and more expensive. That’s why parties must stay together and not divide. Sadly, once Palin entered the race she became a lightning rod. She became the star of the show. No amount of money was going to change that. And the result was no longer in doubt.
All the political donations and sponsorships need to be returned, the money was stolen and the fools need to be reimbursed as much as possible
Ya where did $8 billion disappear to exactly???
Is $10,000 really a worry? Seems more like chump change in our unlimited donation situation.
In the 2022 Federal election cycle:
$4,486,354 went to Republicans.
$1,777,104 went to Democrats.
It was stolen misappropriated Alaska PF money. Carlyle to sicamore capital to democrat campaigns. Bunch damn crooks.
America is dead.
Will Democracy rise?
Or will we defend the Republic?
FBI sand DOJ
Will come to the conclusion that Fried didn’t know what he was doing was illegal.
This MRAK post is going to age as well as all the support for Kanye (and in a few more years, former President Trump). SBF’s interest was in buying every politician. I hope SD will post stories about this over the coming year when all of the dark money is brought out into the light. After months of regularly reading MRAK I have found that I often disagree with various points or comments, but it seems like there might be some common ground with regular people around here that all of this unlimited, hidden cash pushing these campaigns is anathema to what most of us want—a government of the people that reflects what most of us want. Let’s win and lose some elections based on candidates and their positions, not what some corporate schmuck’s financial interest.
I second the Masked Avenger on why the republicans lost to Mary Peltola. People want to know who to vote for by what they stand for, and what they say they will do. If Nick had stuck to who he was and what he wanted to see done in Alaska, he might have done a whole lot better. Mary Peltola stayed on message and was elected to a full term. Palin should have stayed out of it.
Time for a truly Conservative party then, that will uphold the fiscal and social values that reflects the will of the people and adheres to our constitution.
And his donation to murkowski has given the democrats a convenient cover story: “But he also donated to republicans!”
Frank is correct all political donations should be returned. Although Do not hold your breath. Let Alaska lead the rest of politicians with Murkowski returning her fraudulent political donation.
Democrats don’t care how dirty their campaign money is, or where it came from. As long as it is useable currency to help their communist, woke causes.
Funny. I thought Queen Sarah was gonna lead the charge against RCV in Alaska.
Seems like this would be something she’d want to comment on, since it theoretically could have affected her race.
Yet she’s strangely silent far as I can tell. Can anyone link to Sarah’s comments on this specific concern?
I was wondering where all the money was coming from this last election cycle. Democrats were on the radio 24/7 and filled my mailbox daily. Glad I have curbside recycling for all the paper. How much did the Permanent Fund lose? Lisa Murkowski needs to pay back the $2900 she got. Not a lot of money but it sure was dark and dirty.
How was that papered in tho; just to be latently kind…
Does anybody have a corruptometer?
The young man spent millions electing Democrats, and now he’s going to jail. Someone may want to double-check those jailhouse security cameras, I smell an Arkancide coming up?
Has anyone actually read the attached indictment? I’m tired and having trouble focusing so maybe I’m missing it, but I cannot find a charge specified as a violation of Title 52, United States Code, Sections 30109(d) (1) (A) & (0) mentioned anywhere in the indictment.
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