Sam Bankman-Fried, the eccentric young billionaire who recently saw his fortune vanish after a collapse in the cryptocurrency market, proved to be one of the biggest donors to Democrats in the 2022 midterm election cycle.
According to the New York Post, Bankman-Fried donated $40 million to the Democratic Party for various “get-out-the-vote” efforts and other suspicious election procedures, including ballot-harvesting campaigns. He had also previously donated $10 million to Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020.
In addition, Bankman-Fried’s mother, Barbara Fried, co-founded a far-left political action committee (PAC) called “Mind the Gap,” which raised an estimated $140 million for similar “get-out-the-vote” schemes in the midterms.
The 30-year-old Bankman-Fried made his fortune, once estimated at over $16 billion, through his cryptocurrency exchange company FTX, which is headquartered in the Bahamas. However, it was revealed earlier this month that another one of Bankman-Fried’s companies, Alameda Research, had a significant portion of its assets in FTT, the native token of FTX; this revelation led to a complete selloff of FTT holdings by rival exchange company Binance.
As a result, the value of FTT and FTX both completely collapsed, and Bankman-Fried’s wealth dropped by a staggering 94 percent in just one day. Between $1 billion and $2 billion worth of customer funds in FTX have also completely evaporated. Bankman-Fried, along with FTX’s co-founder Gary Wang, are now being held in custody by Bahamian authorities after they had been caught attempting to flee to Dubai.
Prior to his collapse, Bankman-Fried was heavily promoted by the mainstream media and received political support from Democrats, including a visit to the White House. Bankman-Fried was noted for his unusual appearance, demeanor, and behavior; he admitted to taking drugs often, only ate vegan food, and was allegedly involved in a polyamorous relationship with multiple coworkers, who all lived together in his penthouse in the Bahamas.