Elon Musk: “FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried was a major Democratic Party donor, so no investigation”

It’s an epic fall from grace. In just a matter of days, FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (also known as SBF) went from being a multi-billionaire with at least a $16 billion net worth to losing all of his wealth.

Until this week, Bankman-Fried has earned a reputation as a savior who bailed out struggling crypto companies. Today, Bankman-Fried is a bankrupt criminal who mismanaged billions of client funds. He now faces multiple criminal charges and his two deleted tweets that may land him in prison.

But Elon Musk weighed in on the matter in a post on Twitter saying “SBF was a major Dem donor, so no investigation.”

SBF was a major Dem donor, so no investigation

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022

As we reported this morning and also confirmed by multiple media reports, Bankman-Fried secretly moved $10 billion to Alameda Research using a “backdoor” he built into FTX software without alerting external auditors and at least $1 billion of client funds have gone missing at FTX.

Bankman-Fried also admitted that he had “f*cked up, and should have done better” in a tweet posted on Thursday.

 “I’m sorry. That’s the biggest thing. I fucked up, and should have done better,” he tweeted.

But it already is too late after 100,000 creditors, with assets ranging from $10 billion to $50 billion, lost all their money. Bankman-Fried is now under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for possible violations of securities laws and handling of customer funds.

Once seen as the “Robin Hood of crypto,” Bankman-Fried used his personal wealth to donate to political causes that care more about his life goals. He was seen as the postal boy of the controversial form of philanthropy called “effective altruism.” It is the idea or a social and philosophical movement that advocates “using evidence and reason to figure out how to bring as much benefit to as many people as possible.”

So what went wrong with this seemingly successful 30-year-old MIT graduate who promised to make the world a better place?

It all started in 2020 when Bankman-Fried first came into the spotlight after he made the second-largest donation to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Bankman-Fried donated a whopping $5.2 million to Joe Biden’s campaign, behind only former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who made a donation of $56 million.

SBF was a major Dem donor, so no investigation

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022

Fast forward two years later. The embattled FTX founder also spent $40 million on the midterm elections, with the bulk of that money going to Democratic candidates, also making him the Democratic Party’s second-biggest donor.  He once disclosed his support for bipartisan politicians was also in a bid to lure more crypto allies.

Bankman Fried is also behind the Protect Our Future PAC, which has raised more than $28 million this year. His mom, Barbara Fried, is a Stanford Law School professor and a co-founder of Mind the Gap, a pro-Democratic super PAC organization “known for its secretive operations, where it attempts to quickly gather donations over a short period of time to prevent Republicans from mobilizing their own donors in response,” the PAC said on its website.

Meanwhile in May before the FTX saga, Bankman Fried said he could spend $1 billion or more in races from now through the 2024 election before he later backed down. Bankman Fried made the statement on the Pushkin Industries podcast, “What’s Your Problem,” that he expected to give “north of $100 million” in the next presidential election and had a “soft ceiling” of $1 billion.

In the video below, Bankman-Fried explains why it is so critical to make donations to his favorite political party. Enjoy!