Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried lost his entire fortune in the Election Day collapse of his crypto exchange company, FTX. Bankman-Fried may be the single biggest loser in this most recent titan fall, but, an ESG champion to the bitter end, he has spread the misfortune around.
High-profile losers
Tom Brady and his ex-wife, Gisele Bündchen, each took an equity stake in FTX as part of a 2021 ambassadorial partnership. While Brady became a brand ambassador, Bündchen took on the role of FTX's environmental & social initiatives advisor.
Both promoted FTX in a series of commercials and other initiatives, such as this one:
FTX Crypto: Tom Brady is In. Are you?youtu.be
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Brady and Bündchen were both named in a class-action lawsuit filed in Miami's Southern District of Florida federal court on Wednesday, along with former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, Golden State Warriors basketballer Stephen Curry, Los Angeles Angels baseballer Shohei Ohtani, "Shark Tank's" Kevin O'Leary, and "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David.
The class-action complaint alleges that Brady and his ex-wife, like other brand ambassadors, were responsible for "misrepresentations and omissions" in the advertisements in which they told acquaintances to unwittingly throw their money away into "the FTX Ponzi scheme."
The suit, which claims that Bankman-Fried and his celebrity accomplices are behind losses to American consumers in the neighborhood of $11 billion, is presently seeking more than $5 million in damages.
Stephen Curry, named in the suit, signed onto a "long-term partnership" with FTX in September 2021 in exchange for an equity stake in the company, now worthless. Like Brady, Curry promoted FTX in advertisements.
Barron's suggested that Curry — who said in one advertisement, "[W]ith FTX I have everything I need to buy, sell, and trade crypto safely" — could now "lose big."
Anthony Scaramucci's investment company, SkyBridge Capital, which manages around $2.2 billion, was shaken up by the collapse. FTX Ventures acquired 30% of the firm last September.
Scaramucci, who lasted 10 days in the Trump White House, told CNBC that he had been "duped."
"He was giving me the money ... I was doing a lot of due diligence on him, but clearly not enough;" said Scaramucci per a TheStreet report.
Last last week, SkyBridge Capital tried to buy back the stake from the exchange.
Sequoia Capital had two funds invested in FTX.com and FTX US — the first at $150 million, the second at $63.5 million — Fox Business reported.
In a Nov. 9 statement, Sequoia indicated that its "exposure to FTX is limited," claiming that the $150 million loss "is offset by ~$7.5B in realized and unrealized gains in the same fund, so the fund remains in good shape."
The $63.5 million allegedly represented less than 1% of the second fund.
SoftBank previously fundraised for FTX, bringing in $400 million. A "minor investment" of under $100 million had been given to the company, which SoftBank plans to write off as a loss.
There are other sizable investors which are set to lose face and cash, including:
- the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, now facing a potential loss of $95 million;
- Chase Coleman's Tiger Global Management, down 44% in the first months of the year, invested with the OTPP in a December 2019 funding round that reportedly valued the company at $8 billion;
- Paradigm, which invested $278 million in FTX;
- Genesis, the derivatives of which business Fortune reported had $175 million locked up in FTX;
- Multicoin Capital, which has an estimated $863 million in crypto and other assets frozen at FTX; and
- Galaxy Digital, which claimed last Wednesday to have had a $76.8 million exposure to FTX.
It's not just big firms that have been left in the lurch. While the bankruptcy filing drawn up by FTX indicated that the company has over 100,000 creditors, CNBC reported that there could be more than one million creditors.
Democratic beneficiaries
Many may now associate FTX with loss and misfortune. The same may not be true for a legion of Democrats.
Prior to the collapse of FTX and his professional demise, Bankman-Fried made a name for himself as a Democrat megadonor.
TheBlaze previously reported that Bankman-Fried donated $10 million to then-candidate Joe Biden in 2020 and spent at least $39,826,856 this year in an effort to help Democrats win their House races.
Fox Business reported that in 2001 and 2022, Bankman-Fried donated roughly $38 million to Democratic candidates and leftist PACs.
FTX funneled $27 million through the leftist PAC Protect Our Future, accounting for nearly 95% of the funds raised by the PAC.
Citing Federal Election Commission filings, Fox Business noted that Bankman-Fried wired $9 million to the PAC in February and then made three subsequent donations collectively worth $18 million between March and June.
Another $1 million was donated to the PAC by top FTX executive Nishad Singh.
The group supported the following Democrats:
- Carrick Flynn (given $10.5 million), who ran to represent Oregon's 6th Congressional District and lost his primary to Andrea Salinas in May;
- Michigan state Senator Adam Hollier and Joshua Lafazan of New York (given $1.1 million), both of whom ran for Congress and failed in their respective primaries; and
- general election winners Reps. Lucy McBath of Georgia and Shontel Brown of Ohio, and Reps.-elect Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Valerie Foushee of North Carolina, and Robert Garcia of California (given over $1 million).
Fox Business indicated that the PAC also shelled out between $200,000 and $972,00 to several other leftist politicos, including Rep. Jesus Garcia (Ill.) and Reps.-elect Morgan McGarvey (Ky.), Maxwell Frost (Fla.), and Sydney Kamlager (Calif.).
In May, Bankman-Fried told Jacob Goldstein of "What's Your Problem?" that he was considering donating "north of $100 million" and up to $1 billion to Democrats in the 2024 presidential elections.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/here-are-some-of-the-biggest-ftx-losers-along-with-its-biggest-democrat-beneficiaries?
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/11/16/report-ftx-could-owe-more-than-1-million-creditors/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/11/16/house-announces-december-hearing-on-ftx-collapse/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/hunter-biden-interview-goes-sideways-caller-asks-former-ftx-ceo-sam-bankman-frieds-mega-donations-democrat-party-audio/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/hunter-biden-twitter-account-discovered-deleted-4-hours-later/
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