Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) gave his first interview with “citizen journalist” Tiffany Fong post-collapse.
The pair mentioned a number of facets of the FTX saga, together with the “backdoor,” FTT as collateral, and his regrets. However of specific curiosity have been SBF’s feedback on darkish cash donations made to Republican politicians.
It’s extensively recognized SBF was a big supporter of the Democrat administration. His $37 million donations made him the get together’s second-biggest donor, after investor George Soros.
Some speculate this hyperlink is an element within the lack of legal proceedings towards him. For instance, lawyer John E. Deaton questioned why authorities have failed to reply, calling the legal justice system “compromised.”
Let me make this clear if SBF isn’t arrested and charged with fraud, wire-fraud, theft, and presumably cash laundering earlier than and as an alternative will get to spew out his bullshit narrative, our system of justice has been compromised. @ewarren you declare to be for the little man, the place are you https://t.co/cdmOa7U0an
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) November 23, 2022
Nonetheless, primarily based on Fong’s interview, it appears SBF has extra political clout than first thought.
Sam Bankman-Fried performed either side
In current months, Fong’s investigations into Celsius, and now FTX, have earned her a fame for sound investigative journalism.
In the course of the 20-minute interview, the problem of political donations cropped up, with SBF saying he donated “about the identical quantity” of cash to each events. Additional, donations to the Republican get together have been “darkish.”
“I donated to each events, I donated about the identical quantity to each events… All my Republican donations have been darkish.”
Explaining why he selected this route, SBF mentioned it was not for regulatory causes. Moderately, it was to quell the potential backlash from left-biased information shops.
“It’s as a result of reporters freak the f*ck out in case you donate to Republican. They’re all secretly liberal and [I] didn’t need to have that battle, so I made all of the Republican ones darkish.”
Coffeezilla speaks
Chiming in on the disclosure, YouTuber Coffeezilla aka Stephen Findeisen, mentioned there was quite a bit to unpack with SBF’s feedback.
Firstly, referring to SBF’s now notorious tweet during which he mentioned “FTX is okay,” Coffezilla mentioned he’s skeptical about whether or not the previous CEO is telling the reality. Nonetheless, whether or not he’s mendacity or not, it’s a lose-lose scenario for SBF.
Sharing his insights, Coffeezilla mentioned it goes to point out that SBF has no political agenda, solely that he wished to be highly effective and to be seen to care, “that’s why he performed either side.”
“If he’s mendacity, this appears to be like dangerous for him. But when he’s telling the reality it appears to be like worse. It reveals you the way cynical Sam was. He by no means cared about politics. He cared about energy and notion”
Coffeezilla continued by saying this mindset is about “attempting to craft a picture.” With the beneficiant billionaire picture in tatters, SBF is now attempting to deflect the legal narrative into one in all “the sensible man who made an embarrassing mistake.”
