SBF’s political dreams: The fraudster hoped his crypto swindle would make him ‘hugely influential’, but his DC dreams came crashing down with collapse of his FTX empire
Before his fall from grace, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was carving out a high-flying political career, donating millions to both parties and even believing he could one day become president.
He was pictured with politicians including Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, and used donations to gain influence with policymakers – at one point even being touted as the next George Soros.
During his trial, his former girlfriend and business partner Caroline Ellison revealed that he thought he had a 5 percent chance of ever becoming president.
That all came crashing down in December 2022, after his multi-billion dollar crypto exchange collapsed and he was arrested in the Bahamas and charged with campaign finance violations and fraud.
Prosecutors accused him of donating $90 million in client money to political campaigns, including $6 million to the House Majority PAC, the main outside group backing House Democrats.
Bankman-Fried had extensive political ambitions and donated millions of dollars to both political parties
Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years behind bars and ordered to forfeit $11 billion for defrauding investors in FTX crypto exchanges, leaving his political dreams dead in the water.
Those charges were later dropped, but the size of the donations showed the strength of his political ambitions.
Ellison said during his trial in October that Bankman-Fried had often spoken to her about his business and political plans.
She said he believed there was “a five percent chance he would become president.”
She added that Bankman-Fried used FTX clients’ money to make political donations because he believed he would get “very high returns in terms of influence.”
She gave an example of a $10 million donation to President Joe Biden, which she said would bring “influence and recognition.”
In the 2022 election cycle, Bankman-Fried donated $6 million to the House Majority PAC, the main outside group supporting House Democrats.
He also donated $27 million to Protect Our Future PAC, a group that advocates for pandemic preparedness, and $6 million to the Future Forward PAC’ in 2020, which supported Biden’s 2020 presidential run.
Among the individual recipients was New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who received $5,800 from Bankman-Fried in June 2022.
Caroline Ellison testified that her ex-boyfriend thought there was a five percent chance he would become president
The FTX stock market was worth $32 billion at its peak and Bankman-Fried appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine, which touted him as the future of finance.
A joint fundraising group associated with the candidate, called ‘Gillibrand Victory Fund’, also collected $10,800.
He also donated to Republican candidates, such as Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy who received $5,800 from Bankman-Fried in August 2021.
In November, during a phone call with YouTuber Tiffany Fong, he claimed he had donated an equal amount to Republicans and Democrats.
He told her, “All my Republican donations were dark (meaning they don’t show up in the FEC files).
“The reason was not for regulatory reasons, but because reporters freak out if you donate to the Republicans. They’re all super liberal, and I didn’t want to have that fight.
He also reportedly considered paying former US President Donald Trump $5 billion not to run, ‘Going Infinite’ author Michael Lewis told 60 Minutes in October 2023.
Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D, and John Boozman, R, who co-sponsored a crypto regulation bill that supports SBF, gave their FTX-linked donations to charity
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., said he gave the donation to a food bank in West Virginia
A number of politicians were forced to return their donations after he was indicted.
The campaign of Beto O’Rourke, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for governor of Texas, was one of the first times a huge Bankman-Fried check was bounced.
The campaign said it returned the $1 million donation on Nov. 4, before FTX filed for bankruptcy, because the donation was unsolicited.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., scored $20,800 from Bankman-Fried between campaign donations and donations to a PAC supporting her, and Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., received $13,700 from Bankman-Fried and co-CEO Ryan Salame .
Boozman said he would donate the money he received from Bankman-Fried to the UA Foundation Jon Richardson Scholarship Fund and Stabenow said she plans to donate the money to a local charity in her state.