Anyone getting their news from a variety of sources has no doubt heard of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and “former” CEO of a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange in 2019, FTX, which was valued at $26 billion in the spring and worth nothing now (Yahoo Finance, A Hayward 11/11/
22). He is also the son of two Stanford University law professors.
The high rolling Bankman-Fried was apparently spreading this wealth far and wide, that is, for a while. According to Decrypt (S Chipolina 2/14/22).
SBF committed to a 19 year deal sponsoring the Miami Heat’s arena, partnered with multiple Washington based sports franchises and even sponsored an FTX Super Bowl commercial with Seinfeld producer Larry David.
He is reputed to be the second highest donor to the Democrat party, giving about $45 million to mostly Democrat candidates and organizations, including a few Republicans, right before the collapse of his empire. At one time he boasted he planned donating $1 billion in 2024 (The New Republic, D Strauss 11/23/22).
In the same spirit of giving, his mother formed a group at Stanford called Mind the Gap, a fund raiser in Silicon Valley which at the time, according to VOX News, planned to spend $140 million in 2020 to boost Democrats and defeat Trump (T Schleifer 1/7/20).
Professor Fried is also the author of a 2013 article in the Boston Review claiming the “notion of personal responsibility” has ruined criminal justice and economic policy (Daily Wire Ben Zeisloft 11/18/22). This might explain a lot about Bankman-Fried as he still lives like royalty in a $30 million penthouse in a very exclusive, walled and gated 600 acre compound in the Bahamas called Albany
(Fortune, Leo Schwartz 11/22/22) while untold investors count their losses this Thanksgiving.
Today as your Thanksgiving dinner costs an estimated 20 percent more than last year, which was 14 percent more than 2020 (ABC7, Liz Kreutz 11/21/22), be thankful you didn’t invest in FTX. Also note Bankman-Fried was the second highest donor to Joe Biden (Yahoo, Sebastian Sinclair 11/5/20) another investment gone sour.
Ralph Miller