FTX Founder Sought to Pay $5B to Prevent Donald Trump from Running in 2024
- FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried wanted to give $5 billion to prevent Donald Trump from running in 2024.
- SBF believes that Trump belongs on the list of existential risks that will undermine democracy.
- SBF wanted to help Mitch McConnell fund the Republican candidates who were at odds with Trump.
- Before the strategy could be carried out, SBF’s crypto exchange imploded and filed for bankruptcy.
Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF in the digital assets space and the disgraced founder of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, once considered paying former President of the United States and billionaire Donald Trump close to $5 billion in order to prevent him from running in the recent elections. It seems that the crypto entrepreneur’s journey came to an end prior to this happening.
The former FTX CEO’s trial date is approaching, and new events have come to light. In an interview with CBS News 60 Minutes, Michael Lewis, the author of “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon,” the book that tracks the former crypto billionaire’s life, stated that SBF considered paying Trump $5 billion to prevent him from running for a second term in the upcoming elections because he believed that the billionaire was a threat to democracy.
It is important to mention here that while the talks of giving away $5 billion to a single person were being held behind closed doors, SBF’s crypto exchange FTX imploded and the entire Bankman-Fried empire filed for bankruptcy. According to the author, SBF wanted to help Mitch McConnell, a US Senate Republican leader, fund the Republican candidates who were at odds with Trump.
The original plan was to help McConnell fund millions of dollars for those he deemed fit to govern the United States. Following a dinner with the Congressman, the crypto entrepreneur lent tens of millions to Republican candidates, most of whom the current FTX management under John Ray III is trying to recover from the politicians.
Meanwhile, the author noted that SBF believes Trump is on the list of existential risks that will undermine democracy and wants a figure to stop the billionaire from standing in the elections. He asked how much money it would take, but Bankman-Fried is not sure that the $5 billion sum came from Trump himself.
As reported earlier by Bitnation, FTX is currently planning to reboot operations under a new name, and creditors seek to recover $750K sent to Shaq, $300K sent to Naomi Osaka, and $2.3 million sent to Kevin O’Leary.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
