by Renee Parsons, American Thinker:
While the world’s largest cryptocurrency failure is in its early stage of bankruptcy, the FTX collapse is more complex than just extraordinary, remarkable wads of money, as they are accompanied by the mystique of an alleged Boy Genius who was a billionaire (not) by the time he was 30 years old. It remains an eternal puzzlement how any adult with half a brain could have relied on an overgrown adolescent with a massively exaggerated sense of self to handle more than a C-note, preferably one at a time. It defies coherent explanation — except the participation of politicians and bureaucrats blinded by the colossal greed from a novice charlatan professing altruistic inclinations as cover for his Ponzi scheme makes perfect sense.
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On November 11, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) resigned as CEO after revelations of massive insolvency and political largesse, having achieved the status of a big-time political roller bestowing millions of dollars on predominately Democrat political circles before and during the recent midterm elections.
With the Senate Agriculture Committee meeting on December 1 regarding the FTX bankruptcy, it will be of exceptional interest whether committee members who received campaign funds from either FTX or from SBF personally will announce such receipt and recuse themselves from participation — which would, in fact, make for sparse attendance. SBF personally donated the maximum allowed campaign donation of $5,800 to committee chair Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and ranking member Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.). Both, joined by committee members Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) co-sponsored legislation to provide the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with new authority to regulate digital commodities and a facile path to regulatory compliance. With an oversight hearing scheduled in December, it will also be of great interest to follow whether the House Financial Services Committee was similarly compromised.
In addition, SBF made personal $5,800 campaign donations to committee members Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Booker (other recipients remain unidentified) as well as $2.5 million to Sen. Mitch McConnell, a member of the committee and trustee of the Senate Republican Leadership Fund. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) were also recipients of a personal $5,800 maximum donation along with dozens of House candidates. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)’s Republican House Campaign Fund received a paltry $2 million.
Enter Terry Duffy, CEO of the CME Group, who was approached by Boy Wonder in March to entertain a potential business arrangement that Duffy immediately sensed would have been a “biblical disaster.” “I knew this was a joke,” he said, telling Sam Bankman-Fried that “you’re a fraud, an absolute fraud.” Duffy wondered why the Commodities Future Trading Commission appeared to be pushing through FTX’s request to ease regulatory trading requirements.
On May 12, 2022, Duffy testified before the House Agriculture Committee in opposition to the FTX proposal and walked into an antagonistic, vitriolic attack from Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). Daring to know the difference between capital and market requirements better than Khanna, Duffy was reminded that he was under oath and then accused by Khanna of “making false statements” to the Congress. That’s how Democrats help out their donors.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that FTX gave $70 million to the Democrats within an 18-month period and that SBF personally donated another $40M to liberal-leaning PACs and politicians. Being of a bipartisan spirit, another $23M was donated to House Republicans such as Rep. Tom Emmer (Minn.), who is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, just elected to House leadership as whip. During the 2022 midterm elections, as McCarthy’s right-hand man, Emmer was known to divert funds away from America First candidates. As a result of the FTX collapse, Emmer said, “I’m not going to pass judgment until we see the details” and that SBF is “a very likable young man.”
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