Fox Business’ Charles Payne tore into FTX billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s connections to Democrats on “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday.
Fried was reportedly the second biggest donor to Democratic candidates and spent millions on Democratic candidates in the midterm elections before the money was even there. He said on the “What’s Your Problem” podcast in May that he considered giving $1 billion to Democrats.
“It doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter because it wasn’t his money,” Payne said. “That’s the point we’re trying to make here. Listen — there’s already been reports — today on my show I’m going to show a screen of the setup of this company, you’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It was designed from the very beginning to be convoluted, a maze,” Payne continued. “An absolute maze where there are these things called backdoors and they’re siphoning off billions and billions and billions of dollars, they’re funding this, they’re funding that. They’re living a great life.”
Democratic Sens. Kristen Gillibrand of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Tina Smith of Minnesota and Bob Menendez of New Jersey all benefited from Bankman-Fried’s donations. (RELATED: ‘Really, Really Ugly Facts’: Citadel CEO Ken Griffin Calls Out FTX For ‘Trump Lose’ Section)
“Listen, [Bankman-Fried] was helping to craft legislation!” Payne said, adding that the Democratic Party will likely have to “refund” the $40 million from those who were, in the words of New York Post reporter Miranda Devine, “ripped off by their crypto benefactor.”
The value of Bankman-Fried’s assets dropped from $16 billion to $0 following the collapse of his business. The collapse stemmed from a liquidity crisis at his crypto exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried and the company have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.