SEC reveals Sam Bankman-Fried squandered FTX missing funds on political donations and himself

By bellecarter // 2022-12-16

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Federal documents have exposed that Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has taken billions of dollars out of the "Ponzi scheme" company to spend on his personal needs and countless political donations. The controversial mogul, who was arrested in the Bahamas on December 12 and is now facing charges following his company's bankruptcy filing, "gifted" himself $1.338 billion through personal loans, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). "Between March 2020 and September 2022, Bankman-Fried executed promissory notes for loans from Alameda totaling more than $1.338 billion, including two instances in which Bankman-Fried was both the borrower in his individual capacity and the lender in his capacity as CEO of Alameda," the SEC stated. Funds from FTX included more than $8 billion that went toward affiliated trading firm Alameda Research SBF founded in 2017. Reuters reported that between a billion and two billion dollars of those funds are missing. The SEC alleged the loans to Bankman-Fried and other individuals were "poorly documented, and at times, not documented at all." Records for the purchase and ownership of real estate were also "poorly organized and documented." The federal agency also found that the crypto company made massive political donations. According to reports, Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives like Ryan Salame and Nishad Singh funneled about $73 million into political candidates and causes. SBF was the second largest individual donor to Democrats behind billionaire businessman George Soros. He used his money to infuse $38 million into Democrat causes during the 2022 election cycle, according to 100PercentFedUp. His donations focused primarily on green energy initiatives and electing Democrat candidates like Senator-elect John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. Fetterman was projected to lose his race against Dr. Oz following his underwhelming performance on the debate stage, where he struggled to form coherent sentences. "It's taking money from customers, and using it for our own purposes," the new FTX CEO John Ray told Congress during a company review session.

SBF's parents bought $121 million worth of Bahamas properties

Based on the firm's bankruptcy court filing, another $300 million from FTX and Alameda was allocated to luxury Bahamas real estate, which went to him, his parents and other FTX executives. Reuters reported that SBF's parents – Stanford University law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried – bought at least 19 properties worth nearly $121 million in the commonwealth nation over the past two years. (Related: Sam Bankman-Fried's parents purchased $121 million in "vacation home" properties in Bahamas using illicit funds from FTX crypto scam.) One of these properties is a home with beach access in Old Fort Bay, a gated community that was once home to a British colonial fort built in the 1700s to protect against pirates. It served as a "vacation home" for SBF's parents, but is going to be returned to the company following the bankruptcy proceedings. The documents seen by Reuters showed that FTX's other purchases were luxury beachfront homes, including seven condominiums in the opulent resort community called Albany, a resort where Tiger Woods hosts a golf tournament every year, which cost almost $72 million. As per the properties' deeds, the units were to be used as "residences for key personnel" of the company. The news outlet could not determine who lived in the apartments. FTX and its employees admitted earlier to having bought real estate in the Bahamas, where it established its headquarters in September last year. SBF himself said he lived in a house with nine other colleagues. For his employees, he said FTX provided free meals and an "in-house Uber-like" service around the island. The headquarters is now unoccupied with the furniture pushed against some windows and the company signage has been removed. The $4.5 million plot of land is also currently empty. The employees did not return to the headquarters after leaving earlier this month as per the security guard. Watch the video below that talks about the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas. This video is from the Willow channel on Brighteon.com.

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SBF's parents bought $121 million worth of Bahamas properties

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