Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter, has speculated that Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, may have given up to $1 billion to Democrats.
Musk responded in a tweet on Saturday to Will Manidis, cofounder and CEO of ScienceIO, who stated that Bankman-Fried made “one of the greatest ROI transactions of all time” by giving $40 million and avoiding jail time for stealing more than $10 billion in user cash.
“Just the amount that was made publicly available. He possibly contributed more than $1 billion to Democratic races. Where did the money go once it was spent?”
According to the currently available data, SBF came in second place after billionaire George Soros as a donor to the Democratic Party during the 2021–2022 election cycle. He gave Democrats $39,884,256, according to Open secrets.
For his speculative claims that presumably lack any supporting evidence, some cryptocurrency community members condemned Musk. One person said, “This statement is so very reckless.”
Although Bankman-contributions Fried’s to the Democratic Party were well known, he also asserted in an interview that he gave a comparable sum to the Republican Party. He claimed that all of his Republican donations were “dark,” nevertheless.
Musk’s tweet has received over 4,500 comments and more than 124,000 likes as of this writing. Many individuals were astonished by Musk’s charges and demanded evidence to back them up, even if some people agreed with the Tesla CEO.
SBF has really openly bragged about his contributions to the Democratic Party. He didn’t disclose his donation to the Republican Party of the same amount, though, until recently.
In a recent interview, Bankman-Fried asserted that he gave Republicans comparable amounts of money. “I gave to both sides. I gave around the same amount to both parties,” Bankman-Fried said to citizen journalist and crypto pundit Tiffany Fong.
He claimed that all of his contributions to the Republican Party were “dark” or grants that were not made public. “Reporters freak out the fuck if you contribute to Republicans, not because of regulatory reasons. They’re all really liberal, so I didn’t want to get into a debate with them.
The Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case, which permits contributors to contribute anonymously to politicians, has made secret payments legally permissible.
The disclosure occurs as criticism over SBF and the fact that legislators have not questioned him yet increases.
An estimated million consumers and investors suffered billions of dollars in damages due to FTX’s bankruptcy filing earlier this month. Two prominent regulatory organisations, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Justice Department (DOJ), are presently looking into FTX for improper management of consumer cash.
This, according to one Twitter user, is a severe accusation. They stated: “Elon Musk has made serious allegations that POTUS accepted stolen money to run for president.”
Bankman-Fried reportedly “turned off my bs detector” when he reached out to offer $3 billion in finance for his Twitter buyout, according to Musk, who has said he never trusted him.