by Rebecca Terrell, The New American:
Failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX was yet another Democratic money-laundering scheme, pundits claim. Its now-disgraced former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) catapulted himself to the echelons of Big Finance after founding the company in 2019. He quickly became one of the youngest billionaires in the world — at least in reputation — and a darling of Democratic Party fundraisers.
Earlier this month, however, Bankman-Fried’s $16-billion net worth imploded overnight when FTX’s supposed $32-billion valuation evaporated. Its rival Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, had planned to buy FTX but instead uncovered a liquidity crisis in the company and its hedge fund, Alameda Research.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
Bolstering Alameda’s balance sheet were billions in counterfeit FTX tokens (FTT) that propped up the trading firm’s market value and made it appear liquid. Just days before the collapse, CoinDesk quoted the CEO of investment platform Swan Bitcoin, Cory Klippsten, who had reviewed FTX’s financials: “It’s fascinating to see that the majority of the net equity in the Alameda business is actually FTX’s own centrally controlled and printed-out-of-thin-air token.”
Naturally, Binance pulled out of the purchase agreement, causing a run on FTX, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections on November 11. Alameda Research and more than 100 other affiliates followed suit, and SBF resigned.
Analysts call it one of the largest financial scandals in history, with as much as $2 billion in client funds missing. (Of course, this analysis ignores the fact that the Federal Reserve has for decades been “legally” conjuring money out of thin air, thereby destroying the dollar’s value, and setting the U.S. up for similar economic collapse.)
However, the political revelations of the FTX demise are particularly damning. The company’s collapse cuts off a huge funding source for Democrats, reports Financial Times, since Bankman-Fried had “emerged as the second-biggest donor to liberal groups after George Soros.”
Federal Election Commission filings reveal that SBF donated more than $39 million in 2021 and 2022 either directly to candidates or indirectly through political action committees (PACs). Fox News noted that most of these gifts went to leftist causes.
SBF had already made headlines in 2020 as the second-largest donor to Joe Biden’s campaign, with a total of $5.2 million.
From a start-up in 2019, to a $5.2 million donation in 2020, to $38 million in the past two years, SBF’s skyrocketing success prompted major-media comparisons of him to early 20th-century tycoon J.P. Morgan.
As investors pulled their money out of cryptocurrencies, Bankman-Fried started bailing out cryptocurrency firms. He characterized his actions as altruistic. Many reporters uncritically accepted this interpretation.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) November 17, 2022
Considering SBF’s shady business dealings, it’s an apt comparison. Last March CoinDesk reported that FTX partnered with Ukraine to launch a crypto-donation website for that country’s war effort. The announcement came within days of President Joe Biden’s pledge of billions in American taxpayer dollars to Ukraine.
The U.S. has sent more than $60 billion to Ukraine as of early November, according to The Post Millennial, which summed up the situation in plain terms: “Ukraine partnered with FTX as the Biden administration funneled funds to the invaded nation, and FTX then made massive donations to Democrats in the U.S.”
Read More @ TheNewAmerican.com
