Earlier this week in the Bahamas, the corrupt cryptocurrency trader was arrested
Sam Bankman-Fried, the creator of a significant cryptocurrency exchange who is now accused of scamming investors before his firm crashed last month, donated to President Joe Biden’s campaign, but the White House has yet to indicate if Biden will refund those payments.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on “anything that’s connected to political contributions” when asked whether the president would return the donations during a press conference on Tuesday. She cited a federal law that forbids some officials from participating in political activities.
Prior to the recent collapse of his cryptocurrency trading business, FTX, Bankman-Fried was a significant supporter of the Democratic Party, giving $52,800 to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and nearly $40 million to Democratic candidates during the November midterm elections, according to the Federal Election Commission. His contributions to Republicans running for office in the elections were slightly over $250,000, albeit they were substantially smaller.
The 30-year-old trader was detained on Monday in the Bahamas at the US government’s request. He is now facing a multi-count indictment related to his actions while serving as the CEO of FTX, which includes accusations of wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiring to commit a number of other crimes, including violations of campaign finance laws. The maximum term for four of the offenses is 20 years in jail.
Bankman-Fried, on the other hand, maintains that he just “screwed up” and “made a lot of mistakes” while running FTX, which was previously one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world. He denies that he engaged in fraud.
