Former crypto billionaire and Democratic Party megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried revealed he gave large sums of “dark” money to Republicans in a Nov. 29 interview.
He told crypto YouTuber Tiffany Fong that “all my Republican donations were dark” because “reporters freak the fuck out if you donate to a Republican” and that he “didn’t want to have that fight” with “super liberal” journalists. He claimed he was the third largest Republican donor and gave “about the same” to both parties. He did not specify how much he donated to Republicans or which GOP politicians he supported.
BREAKING🚨:
SBF used a loophole in the Citizens United rule to donate $37M of “dark money” to Republicans
“I donated about the same amount of money to both parties this year … I just didn’t disclose the Republican ones bc the media would freak the f*** out” pic.twitter.com/IUh6VG42nq
— Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker ♟ (@PelosiTracker_) November 29, 2022
Campaign finance watchdog group OpenSecrets reported that Bankman-Fried donated over $36 million to Democrats and over $39 million in total, making him the sixth largest donor of the 2022 midterm election cycle. He was Democrats’ second-largest donor behind George Soros, who contributed over $128 million to Democrats this cycle. (RELATED: Disgraced Crypto CEO, Democrat Megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried Funded Republican Campaigns)
Public records show that Bankman-Fried made relatively small donations under his own name to multiple Republican campaigns and affiliated groups. His statements to Fong, however, suggest that he exploited a dark money loophole to give far more money to Republicans than public records would suggest.
Bankman-Fried’s net worth peaked at $26.5 billion, according to Forbes Magazine, before his crypto empire collapsed earlier this month following a report about alleged misuse of customer funds. He told Axios in a separate interview that he has $100,000 left in his bank account the last time he checked.
Before Bankman-Fried’s net worth collapsed, he raised the possibility of spending $1 billion on the 2024 election during a podcast interview, CNBC reported. A recent report by Puck News detailed Bankman-Fried’s plan to become Democrats’ biggest donor in the 2024 election cycle before he lost all of his wealth.