'He just wanted to build this flywheel of domination': how crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried conquered Washington
An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Early last month, Washington was abuzz with rumors about Sam Bankman-Fried's coming Christmas party.
The all-out holiday bash was designed to serve as the triumphant capstone of two years of lobbying and networking by Bankman-Fried. Even by the ethically challenged standards of Washington, the 30-year-old billionaire had devoted an unprecedented level of time and money to influencing the regulators and lawmakers responsible for overseeing his business. He established himself as one of the Democratic Party's most generous donors, second only to George Soros.
Now, in the weeks since FTX was forced to declare bankruptcy, there has been much hand-wringing about the financial house of cards that Bankman-Fried built.
"He understood that Washington, in particular, can be wooed through aggressive fundraising and political giving," says Eric Soufer, a partner who leads the crypto and fintech practices for the strategic communications consultant Tusk Strategies."And that opens a ton of doors." When it came to Washington, he already had family connections to draw on. In 2018 his mother, the Stanford law professor Barbara Fried, had founded a political action committee called Mind the Gap, which advises Democratic donors on which candidates and causes to support. To guide its recommendations, the PAC employs what it calls"rigorous research" and"quantifiable metrics" — a mindset that echoes Bankman-Fried's philosophy of effective altruism.
After spending more than $10 million to help elect Joe Biden, SBF became the second-largest donor to Democrats — and landed a meeting in the White House.To hear Bankman-Fried tell it, helping to put Biden in the White House convinced him that politics was a worthwhile investment."My goal," he told Recode not long after Biden took office,"is just to find out how I can do the most good. And I had a long list of things to look at, at least briefly.
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