Sam Bankman-Fried says he gave Republicans as many millions as Democrats, but didn’t publish it because reporters would “freak out.”
“All my Republican donations have been obscure,” SBF told crypto influencer and YouTuber Tiffany Fong, referring to political donations that have not been publicly disclosed. “The reason wasn’t for regulatory reasons, it was because reporters freak out when you donate to Republicans. They’re all super liberal and I didn’t want to have this argument.”
SBF was the second-largest donor to the Democrats during the last election cycle, and he told Fong he gave about the same amount to the Republicans. Politicians like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (DN.Y.), Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.), and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) have since returned or pledged the money after FTX imploded and rocked the crypto industry.
The $40 million Bankman-Fried donated to Democrats last cycle fell short of financier George Soros, who gave away about $128 million. If SBF actually donated the same amount to both parties, as he said Tuesday, he would also be the Republicans’ fifth-largest single donor, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets.
SBF’s comments to Fong came just hours after Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Treasury Committee, asked the top six cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase, to provide financial statements and other information on how they are doing it dealing with customers means. Bankman-Fried has reportedly dived into clients’ money to fund personal expenses, including betting at his trading firm, Alameda Research.
“As Congress considers much-needed regulations for the crypto industry, I will focus on the clear need for consumer protections along the lines of the assurances that have long existed for customers of banks, credit unions and securities brokers,” Wyden wrote in a letter also to Kraken , KuCoin, Bitfinex and Gemini sent.
In Washington, pressure was mounting on lawmakers to actually do something about crypto regulation even before the collapse and bankruptcy of FTX, which surfaced a few weeks ago, according to a Nov. 2 report by CoinDesk. FTX is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Judiciary Department, according to which Wall Street Journalbut the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have been criticized for doing next to nothing to prevent the FTX house of cards from collapsing.
In the House of Representatives, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chair of the House Financial Services Committee, recently told CNBC that the committee will play a role in reviewing FTX, adding that the Legislature is “doing everything would do what we can to uncover any apparent violations committed.”
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