TGIF: SBF. FTX. WTF! – by Nellie Bowles – Common Sense
Can Dems handle investigating FTX? The crypto wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried seems like he d be in a lot of trouble right now. It sure looks like he was running one of the largest financial scams in history, with his cryptocurrency bank at one point valued at $32 billion and Bankman-Fried on his way to being the world s first trillionaire, according to the investment firm Sequoia Capital. But Bankman-Fried was also one of the largest donors to the Democratic party, second only to George Soros this past cycle. And so the touch from media and regulatory bodies has been extraordinarily, hilariously soft. SEC chair Gary Gensler, a former campaign finance chair for Hillary Clinton, has long been cozy with Bankman-Fried, helping his business grow (when you give that much money, it s only fair to get a little something back). From Fortune magazine: Cop-on-the-beat Gensler not only failed to spot the crime he appeared set to go along with a legislative strategy that would have given SBF a regulatory moat and made him king of the U.S. crypto market.
It s a family operation. Bankman-Fried s parents are Stanford Law School professors and deeply involved with Democratic party leadership. His mother, Barbara Fried, has helped raise tens of millions for Democrats through her PAC, Mind the Gap. His father, Joseph Bankman, helped draft tax legislation for Elizabeth Warren.
So the media has decided for now that the young Bankman-Fried was just a goofy overextended do-gooder. As the NYT put it this week: His ambitions exceeded his grasp and he was just super overextended. Same thing happens when I make too many work commitments I end up in the Bahamas with a billion dollars. SBF is still on the line-up to speak at an upcoming NYT event with Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury.
That darn SBF. Those darn Democrats! Always trying to transform the world with their altruism, and always turning out to be corrupt. It’s a caution and no mistake.
On another subject — Somebody on twitter said said of Secretary Yellen that she announced she was stepping down to spend more time in the Shire — which was unkind.