You know, it’s easy to assume that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF as he’s known, has suddenly turned his back on his long history of Democratic support in a bid for clemency from Republican US President Donald Trump. But let’s not forget, SBF also supported Republicans to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
Currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for what some have called the largest financial fraud in American history, SBF recently expressed his disappointment in the Democratic party in a Feb. 18 interview with The New York Sun. He characterized the Republican Party as “far more reasonable.”
Many have considered this move an attempt to appeal his case and possibly secure a presidential pardon. Trump, after all, has a history of pardoning high-profile figures, including Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.
During the 2022 midterm federal elections, SBF publicly supported Democratic candidates to the tune of $40 million. But in 2023, emerging evidence in his trial showed that he spent a substantial amount on Republican candidates through FTX execs and back channels.
SBF supported Dems and Republicans, but not Trump
In 2020, SBF was the second largest individual donor to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign behind Michael Bloomberg. He also donated some $5.2 million to political action committees (PAC) supporting Biden.
Again in 2022, SBF showed significant support for Democratic candidates, spending nearly $40 million on Democratic causes, a sum superseded only by American investor George Soros.
Michael Lewis, author of the book Going Infinite — which recounts the rise and fall of SBF — said in a CBS interview that SBF viewed Trump as an existential risk to democratic stability.
According to Lewis, SBF wanted to fund efforts by Mitch McConnell to elect Republicans who were not fans of Trump.
SBF would donate tens of millions of dollars to a Republican super PAC, albeit through back channels and other FTX execs. In a 2022 interview with crypto personality Tiffany Fong, he claimed to have done so in order to avoid media scrutiny.
“All my Republican donations were dark. I think you won’t see them,” he told Fong.
West Realm Shires Services, which did business as FTX US, donated $1 million to McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund and a further $750,000 to Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s Congressional Leadership Fund.
FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame donated $24.5 million to Republican candidates through the party’s “WinRed” platform. He also reportedly gave $2.5 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and $2 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund.
Lewis said that SBF had even investigated whether it would be legal to pay Trump $5 billion not to run for president. Per Lewis, the talks were still ongoing when FTX began to implode.
SBF likens his situation to Trump
In the Feb. 18 interview, SBF said he had always viewed himself as “center-left,” which is why he wanted Biden to win over the socialist Democratic candidate Senator Bernie Sanders in 2020.
However, by 2022 — the election where he donated $40 million to Democrats — he said that he had become “really frustrated and disappointed with what I saw of, you know, Biden’s administration of the Democratic Party.”
SBF characterized his “dark” support of Republican candidates as a means to achieve progress on pro-crypto policies.
“I spent a lot of my time in DC trying as best I could to hope that even though it was, at that point, sort of a Democratic trifecta, that I could work across the aisle to stop draconian measures from being taken by the administration against the industry,” he told The New York Sun.
SBF claimed his trial was subsequently politicized under a Democratic administration unfriendly to the crypto industry. He said he didn’t think there was “a very fair and balanced view or approach” at his trial. “A lot of that had to do with judicial rulings coming into my trial.”
He also called into question the conduct of Judge Lewis Kaplan, the federal judge overseeing his trial. “I know President Trump had a lot of frustrations with Judge Kaplan. I certainly did as well.”
When asked if his case was an exception, in the context of his appeal or a potential pardon, SBF said he saw certain patterns in his case. “It’s not the only one that has them. There are a lot of other cases that have the same problems,” Bankman-Fried said.
When media and politics get involved, “I sense it blows everything out of proportion,” he added.
SBF’s chances are slim, Ver seeks a presidential pardon as well
Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ulbricht, but that doesn’t mean there’s one coming for SBF. William Livolsi, executive director of the White Collar Support Group — an organization that advocates for fair post-conviction policies — previously told CryptoMoon that “the comparison between Ulbricht and SBF isn’t entirely straightforward.
“Both are high-profile figures in the crypto space, but their individual cases, and the sentences imposed in each, are very different. Additionally, Ulbricht’s clemency was publicly tied to the campaign promise President Trump made to his political supporters.”
Ulbricht had already served years of a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. SBF was convicted to 25 years just last year and is still in the appeals process.
Furthermore, SBF isn’t the only crypto exec seeking presidential clemency.
Noted Bitcoin (BTC) activist Ver is currently being held by Spanish authorities while awaiting extradition back to the United States to face tax evasion and wire fraud charges.
In January 2025, Ver made a plea to Trump in the form of a short “documentary” video outlining the details of his case and claiming he was the victim of “lawfare” — a legal conspiracy against him because of his support for Bitcoin.
Ver also drew similarities between himself and Trump, alluding that Trump was a victim of lawfare during the numerous criminal cases against him over the past four years.
Ver, for his part, has the support of Ulbricht. The Silk Road founder said on Feb. 21, “Roger Ver was there for me when I was down and needed help. Now Roger needs our support.”
“No one should spend the rest of their life in prison over taxes. Let him pay the tax (if any) and be done with it.”
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2025-02-21 18:51