Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried scheduled meetings with Bill Clinton, other Democrats prior to crypto exchange’s collapse

10/20/2023 / By Ramon Tomey

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, reportedly scheduled meetings with former President Bill Clinton and other prominent Democrats prior to his firm’s bankruptcy.

The scheduled meetings came to light during an Oct. 17 testimony by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Richard Busick at Bankman-Fried’s trial in Manhattan. Busick had carried out analysis on an AT&T phone allegedly used by Bankman-Fried, and subsequently disclosed several meetings and calendar entries he found on the phone when he took the witness stand. The FBI agent told federal prosecutors that the scheduled meetings corresponded with the phone’s location at those times, something lawyers for the FTX founder questioned.

One such meeting involved Clinton, with the two scheduled to meet in September 2022 at the New York Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The meeting between Bankman-Fried and the erstwhile president came roughly two months before FTX filed for bankruptcy in November of that year.

Earlier that year, Bankman-Fried reportedly scheduled a dinner with New York City Mayor Eric Adams in March. He also set up a meeting with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in August, a month before meeting Clinton.

Aside from the three Democrats, the FTX founder had also scheduled a meeting with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund. Bankman-Fried and the head of the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund met at The Pierre Hotel, also located in the Big Apple, in September 2022.

Prior to the September 2022 meeting, Bankman-Fried and Clinton had crossed paths at a cryptocurrency conference in the Bahamas in April of that year. Both appeared on a panel at the event, alongside former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The disgraced FTX founder faces seven criminal charges in Manhattan court, which could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. He is accused of siphoning FTX client funds to keep his Alameda Research hedge fund afloat and embezzling FTX money to fund his lavish lifestyle.

SBF donated to prominent Dems, including Joe Biden

The FTX founder also donated to prominent Democratic politicians including President Joe Biden, according to star witness Caroline Ellison. She had been the former CEO of Alameda Research, but entered a plea deal with federal prosecutors for a lighter sentence. In turn, Ellison took the witness stand and testified against her former partner. (Related: Star witness Caroline Ellison says disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried instructed her to COMMIT CRIMES and MISLEAD LENDERS.)

Ellison disclosed Bankman-Fried’s donation during her Oct. 10 testimony, while being cross-examined by Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon. “He thought it was very effective,” the former Alameda CEO answered when asked about Bankman-Fried’s remarks on spending money on politics. “You could get very high returns in terms of influence by spending relatively small amounts of money.”

“He donated $10 million to [Joe] Biden, and that was a relatively small amount of money. He felt that was something that got him influence and recognition.”

In December 2022, the Daily Mail reported that Bankman-Fried illegally made donations to more than 100 political entities. The tabloid cited a filing by prosecutors accusing him of donating to 52 Democrats, 10 Republicans, 50 Democrat-affiliated groups three GOP-affiliated groups and three nonpartisan groups.

“While Bankman-Fried’s donations filed with the [Federal Election Commission] skew heavily Democratic, he claimed his donations were equally bipartisan – saying in a November [2022] interview [that] he believed himself to be the ‘second- or third-biggest’ GOP donor in the 2022 election cycle. He said he sent most of the Republican donations through untraceable dark money groups,” the Mail reported.

“Through massive donations to [political action committees] and political groups, crypto billionaires like Bankman-Fried have so far been able to convince lawmakers that the budding industry needed a hands-off regulatory framework to grow. The collapse of FTX and the bad optics of potentially taking an illegal donation may sow doubt on that.”

Watch Fox News host Jesse Watters talk about Sam Bankman-Fried having “full access” to the White House below.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.