FTX fiasco founder SBF faces further fraud charges FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's eight-count indictment related to the collapse of his crypto empire has been superseded by a new 12-count indictment unsealed in New York which provide graphic details about the extent the defunct biz paid off politicians. In addition to the eight prior charges, some of which have been modified …
I find it bizarre that a member of America's ruling class finds himself in front of a judge at all. He must have cheesed off the wrong people.
I just checked and it doesn't look like the Theranos lady has actually seen the inside of a cell yet so he might never actually face any real consequences either.
What's absolutely bizarre is this level of corruption is endemic in the American system. The largest campaign donors get their bought senators to vote for their favoured causes. Your elected representatives are supposed to represent "we, the people" not "corporate greed". And to change that system would be like turkeys voting for Christmas, so it's never going to change. And that's just the out in the open stuff. You've then got the revolving doors. And who knows what brown envelopes are getting passed under the table?
Welcome to the wonderful world of crypto. The sector is largely unregulated and nobody was paying any attention to these relatively new companies. It was almost unheard of for a company to go from zero to moving around billions in as short a time as the crypto boom companies managed. And it's all hot air.
According to this (lengthy) article:
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/17/congress-ftx-problem-1-in-3-members-got-cash-from-crypto-exchanges-bosses/
you are correct, and Bankman-Fried donated to Democrats. However another FTX director donated $24M to Republicans (and was the 11th-largest political donor in 2022), while a third donated $10M to Democrats. I have no idea whether these should be counted towards the totals (or if they were donating on behalf of Bankman-Fried). This may well end up being sorted out by a long series of court cases.
Most of the $40M was allegedly donated illegally via two company officers. One made donations to democrats and the other to republicans. A discussion I saw on the indictment for campaign contribution fraud alleged that one officer directed $25M to conservative Republicans. It did not state how much in total he donated to republicans or democrats but he was clearly a major donor to both parties.
A few months ago Sam Bankman-Fried was quoted as saying he donated more to Republicans but the anti "Woke" mod as usually ignored reality and have been on a bandwagon all this time branding him a democrat donor.
Just to save anyone else having to look it up, NY Times seems to think it's around $55m Democrats to $24m Republicans, among the three of them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/17/us/politics/sam-bankman-fried-political-donations-doj.html
$79 million is only what, 400 years' salary and benefits for a decent senior engineer (outside California)?
Not FTX.
But, Politicians and Crypto, like fleas to a pile of dung...
Is there a bit of a ponzi angle to this?
Literally only clicked on this article to go straight the comments.
The whole Cryptocurrency situation is risible and while the initial idea may potentially have been altruistic, it's nothing more than what the internet has been for the past 2 decades; one great ponzi scheme.
[Cue Michael Jackson eating Popcorn Meme]
one great ponzi scheme
No, it really isn't.
A Ponzi scheme is a particular type of fraud. There are many types of fraud being perpetuated with cryptocurrency, DeFi, NFTs, and related foolishness. Ponzi schemes appear to be in the minority, if you survey a decently-comprehensive summary (such as Molly White's).
Imprecision in these matters helps no one.
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