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Bankman-Fried used $100M in stolen FTX funds for political donations, US says

reuters.com

11–20 of 179 posts

Re: Bankman-Fried used $100M in stolen FTX funds for political donations, US says

#12
post #8
post #6

Funny how because these are "donation" and "lobbying" but not "bribe" there is no consequence for the receiving party and also no recuperation of the money.

I suspect there will be pressure to return the money, particularly if it was through straw donors, lest anyone be associated with taking dirty, dirty money from a criminal. 100M isn't that much money for political campaigns in 2023.

Stupid question: Doesn't a (social or legal) norm to return money donated by crooks make politicians more willing to sweep their donors' misdeeds under the rug (and push judges to do the same), in order to avoid having to justify themselves?

Re: Bankman-Fried used $100M in stolen FTX funds for political donations, US says

#13
post #6

Funny how because these are "donation" and "lobbying" but not "bribe" there is no consequence for the receiving party and also no recuperation of the money.

It's quite common for politicians to return money that is stolen/foreign/otherwise when they find out.

Sometimes because the law requires it, but also if they don't, the attack ad for their opponent writes itself.

Although obviously it depends on how much time has passed and whether the money should already be considered "spent". Because even if the politician wants to repay it, new donors want their money going to re-election activities, not going to repay FTX. After a period of time, you might as well be asking the television stations to return the money they received for running the campaign ads, which... isn't gonna happen.

Re: Bankman-Fried used $100M in stolen FTX funds for political donations, US says

#14
post #5

and it looks like those donations will get him nowhere.

[flagged]

He’s hardly in a maximum security prison with that kind of risk of violence, and HN really doesn’t need random conspiracy theories.

Re: Bankman-Fried used $100M in stolen FTX funds for political donations, US says

#15
post #11

and it looks like those donations will get him nowhere.

[flagged]

The article says he donated to DNC and to GOP (through Salame) to eradicate anti-crypto sentiment among lawmakers. Not so sure about the desire to create a socialist pet.

Re: Bankman-Fried used $100M in stolen FTX funds for political donations, US says

#17
post #14
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

He’s hardly in a maximum security prison with that kind of risk of violence, and HN really doesn’t need random conspiracy theories.

The guy you're replying to took the data as he saw it, formed a hypothesis that matched the data, and the hypothesis makes a prediction which can be validated. Is it an unlikely/weak hypothesis? Sure. But you're asking him to just throw away thought/science, to not try to explain the world.

Re: Bankman-Fried used $100M in stolen FTX funds for political donations, US says

#18
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect there will be pressure to return the money, particularly if it was through straw donors, lest anyone be associated with taking dirty, dirty money from a criminal. 100M isn't that much money for political campaigns in 2023.

Stupid question: Doesn't a (social or legal) norm to return money donated by crooks make politicians more willing to sweep their donors' misdeeds under the rug (and push judges to do the same), in order to avoid having to justify themselves?

[dead]

Re: Bankman-Fried used $100M in stolen FTX funds for political donations, US says

#19
post #15
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The article says he donated to DNC and to GOP (through Salame) to eradicate anti-crypto sentiment among lawmakers. Not so sure about the desire to create a socialist pet.

He donated like 3 grand to the GOP.
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