Alleged crypto swindler Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly met with President Biden’s aides no less than 4 instances this 12 months earlier than he was arrested on fraud costs.
Bankman-Fried took conferences with senior White Home advisor Steve Ricchetti on no less than three events in 2022 and met with the 80-year-old president’s deputy chief of workers Bruce Reed as soon as within the final 12 months, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
The disgraced founding father of cryptocurrency change FTX met with Ricchetti, who serves as a counselor to the president, as just lately as Sept. 8, in response to Bloomberg.
Bankman-Fried’s youthful brother Gabriel additionally reportedly participated in a gathering on Might 13.
The report additional demonstrates the shut political connections Bankman-Fried developed in Washington earlier than his stunning downfall.
The Washington Free Beacon reported in November that Bankman-Fried was welcomed to the West Wing for 2 conferences with Ricchetti on April 22 and Might 11.
The previous crypto mogul is accused of defrauding traders out of no less than $1.8 billion.
Earlier this month, White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to say whether or not Biden would ask his aides to return 2020 marketing campaign contributions from the accused cryptocurrency con man.
Bankman-Fried, 30, was a major Democratic Party donor earlier than the collapse of FTX, giving $50,000 to the Biden Victory Fund in October 2020 and one other $2,800 on to the Biden marketing campaign that very same month, in response to Federal Election Fee data.
Bankman-Fried additionally spent $10 million backing Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign by oblique donations.
Forward of November’s midterm elections, Bankman-Fried donated some $39.2 million to congressional Democrats – a complete bested solely by left-wing billionaire George Soros.Federal prosecutors within the Southern District of New York charged Bankman-Fried earlier this month with eight felony counts, together with conspiracy to commit marketing campaign finance violations.
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