Free Republic

The founder of FTX used executives as cut-outs for donations, prosecutors allege... That Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX that recently filed for bankruptcy, was aggressively using campaign donations as part of a campaign to woo Washington toward his vision of cryptocurrency regulation was no secret — nor was it a secret that other FTX executives quickly became some of the country’s biggest political donors to both Republicans and Democrats, especially those who work on financial regulation. But a new federal criminal indictment alleges that things may have been even simpler than they...

Two academics at Stanford University secured the $250 million bond on behalf of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried ahead of his trial, court documents revealed on Wednesday. Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty last month to eight charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission through campaign finance violations. His cryptocurrency empire collapsed at the end of last year after users and investors learned that FTX had improperly commingled funds with sister trading company Alameda Research. Mark Cohen, a lawyer for Bankman-Fried who previously defended Jeffrey Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell,...