There are two sets of rules…one for the in-crowd, the other for the outsiders. Such is the case for slovenly Sam Bankman-Fried, who has apparently dodged a second trial for conspiracy to make unlawful political donations and bribery of foreign officials. It almost makes you wonder who the Department of Justice is trying to protect.
According to Fox News, federal prosecutors decided late last week to forego a second trial against Bankman-Fried, citing “public interest” in a quick resolution to the case. That has irritated conservatives and others interested in seeing him prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Prosecutors filed a letter in federal court in Manhattan where they wrote they “do not plan to proceed with a second trial” since “much of the evidence that would be offered in a second trial was already offered in the first trial and can be considered by the Court at the defendant’s March 2024 sentencing.”
“Given that practical reality and the strong public interest in a prompt resolution of this matter, the Government intends to proceed to sentencing on the counts for which the defendant was convicted at trial,” the prosecutors continued.
As expected, Republicans and conservatives slammed the court’s decision.
“So we won’t know which politicians he bribed or who’s [sic] campaigns he influenced? That collective sigh of relief you are hearing is from the DEEP STATE,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) wrote in a post on X.
John Cardillo, a conservative commentator, also slammed prosecutors, alleging the DOJ is protecting Democrats.
“Sam Bankman-Fried will not face second trial,” Cardillo wrote on X. “DOJ is protecting his Dem donation recipients.”
The founder of CryptoLaw, John Deaton, who has followed Bankman-Fried’s case closely and commented on it many times, also posted on X: “The DOJ has shown again, that it is NOT an independent agency,” he wrote. “Who is the Attorney General protecting?”
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, also took prosecutors to task, claiming the case “became too high-profile for the DOJ to completely ignore.”
“The SBF case became too high-profile for the DOJ to completely ignore, but they made sure laundering $100 million of customers’ money to Schumer, Biden, and McConnell and other dark money groups would never blow back on the ‘elite.’ Trump faces 700 years in federal prison, but America’s uniparty cabal just gave themselves a get-out-of-jail-free card. You’re witnessing DC corruption in realtime,” he wrote on X.
Also weighing in was Trending Politics co-owner Collin Rugg, who said, “Making bribes with stolen money is fine as long as that money is going to U.S. politicians.
“SBF donated $100 million during the 2022 midterms, pouring millions into dark money groups with customers’ funds,” Rugg wrote on X. “Some of these groups were linked to Senate leaders including Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer.”
Rugg also included a clip that showed Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) blowing Bankman-Fried a kiss during one of their encounters.
Bankman-Fried donated almost $38 million between 2021 and 2022 to various candidates and PACs, with most of that cash finding its way to Democrat candidates and left-wing groups, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
Most of the political donations went to the Protect Our Future PAC, founded in January 2022 and dedicated to pushing candidates committed to preventing future pandemics.
Bankman-Fried, convicted of stealing funds from the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, has been locked up since August when his bail was revoked for witness tampering. He was found guilty early in December on seven federal charges and is set to be sentenced on March 28.
Bankman-Fried, whose first public appearance showed him as a slovenly, long-haired, overweight dufus, yet somehow he duped people such as former NFL quarterback Tom Brady, his ex-wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, former president Bill Clinton, singer Katy Perry, and many others.
Bankman-Fried’s ruse came dumpling down when a crypto news site, CoinDesk, published a bombshell report that Alameda Research, a hedge fund also run by Bankman-Fried, had over half its $15 billion portfolio invested in FTT–the crypto token printed by FTX, also owned by Bankman-Fried. The BBC reported that the revelation raised questions about the actual value of Alameda’s holdings and the apparent conflict of interest between Alameda and FTX, which were supposed to be independent companies.
After that was revealed, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said he would dumb his sizable portfolio of FTT. That led to the collapse of Bankman-Fried’s “empire.”
Prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of “misappropriating and embezzling billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits, scheming to mislead investors and instructing other executives at his businesses to do the same,” Fox News reported.
In giving Bankman-Fried cover for the campaign finance violations, prosecutors used the excuse that much of the evidence presented at the first trial would have been repeated at the second trial. They reasoned that since they “proved that the defendant engaged in a scheme to make unlawful campaign contributions, the Court may consider this scheme as relevant conduct at the defendant’s sentencing.”
They also alleged that they were prevented from including the illegal campaign contributions charges “because the extradition agreement with the Bahamas to arrest Bankman Fried did not include that count,” Fox News wrote.
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