Dec 30, 2022
Sam Bankman-Fried had 4 White House meetings in 2022—as recently as Sept 8
The most recent of these meetings, with senior White House adviser Steve Ricchetti, took place on September 8, around two months before the cryptocurrency mogul's FTX empire began to unravel.
The most recent of these meetings, with senior White House adviser Steve Ricchetti, took place on September 8, around two months before the cryptocurrency mogul's FTX empire began to unravel, Bloomberg reported.
At least three other meetings took place earlier in the year, two of them also with Ricchetti, on April 22 and May 12, and another with senior Biden aide Bruce Reed on May 13.
His brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, is also recorded as having taken a meeting of his own at the White House in March, an indication of how deep the ties were between the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange and the Biden administration.
It is alleged that the meetings were focused on the cryptocurrency industry rather than on politics, although the White House has refused to comment further on the matter.
Bankman-Fried, currently awaiting trial for what prosecutors have described as one of the biggest financial frauds in US history, has donated millions of dollars to the Democrats, and was the party's second-largest individual donor in 2022.
The White House has refused to comment on whether any of this money will be given back, though some individual Democratic groups and candidates have stated that they will return donations they received from the FTX founder.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas earlier this month and has since been extradited to the US. He was released on a $250 million bond and is currently under house arrest at his parents' $4 million Palo Alto home.
He is facing securities and wire fraud charges related to the collapse of FTX, which prosecutors have alleged he used as a "personal piggy bank." He has been accused of stealing at least $1.8 billion of investors' money.
If convicted of all charges, he faces a potential 115-year prison sentence. He will be arraigned in a Manhattan court on January 3.