{"id":147599,"date":"2022-11-29T12:13:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T16:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=147599"},"modified":"2022-11-29T12:17:37","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T16:17:37","slug":"no-red-flags-as-ftx-funded-midterm-elections-and-cftc-new-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=147599","title":{"rendered":"No Red Flags as FTX Funded Midterm Elections and CFTC New Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"

No Red Flags as FTX Funded Midterm Elections and CFTC New Authority \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

by Renee Parsons<\/p>\n

While the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency<\/span><\/a> failure is in its early stage of bankruptcy<\/span><\/a>, the FTX collapse is more complex<\/span><\/a> than just<\/span> extraordinary, remarkable wads of money, as they are accompanied by the mystique of an alleged Boy Genius who was a billionaire (not<\/span><\/a>) by the time he was 30 years old.\u00a0 <\/span>It remains an eternal puzzlement how any adult with half-a-brain could have relied on an overgrown adolescent<\/span><\/a> with a massively exaggerated sense of self to handle more than a C-note, preferably one at a time.\u00a0 <\/span>It defies coherent explanation; except participation of greedy politicians and scheming bureaucrats blinded by the colossal greed from a novice charlatan professing altruistic i<\/span><\/a>nclinations as cover for his Ponzi<\/span><\/a> scheme makes perfect sense. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On November 11<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span>, FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) resigned as CEO after revelations of massive insolvency and political largesse, having achieved the status of a big-time political roller bestowing millions of dollars to predominately Democratic<\/span><\/a> political circles before and during the recent mid term elections.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With the Senate Agriculture Committee<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 <\/span>meeting on December 1<\/span>st<\/sup><\/span> regarding the FTX bankruptcy, it will be of exceptional interest whether Committee members who received campaign funds from either FTX or personally from SBF will announce such receipt and recuse themselves from participation which may, in fact, make for sparse attendance.\u00a0 <\/span>SBF personally donated the maximum allowed campaign donation of $5,800 to Committee Chair Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich) and Ranking Member Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark).\u00a0 <\/span>Both, including Committee Members Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) co-sponsored legislation<\/span><\/a><\/span> to provide the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with new authority to regulate digital commodities and a facile path to regulatory compliance<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span> With an oversight<\/span><\/a> hearing scheduled in December, it will also be of great interest to follow whether the House Financial Services Committee<\/span><\/a> had been similarly compromised. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, SBF made personal $5,800 campaign donations to Committee members Sen. Kirstin Gillibran<\/span><\/a> (D-NY) and Booker (other recipients remain unidentified) as well as $2.5 million to Sen. Mitch McConnell, a member of the Committee and trustee of the Senate Republican Leadership<\/span><\/a> Fund.\u00a0 <\/span>Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R – Alaska) and Sen. Susan Collins (R – Me.) were also recipients of a personal $5,800 maximum donation along with dozens of House<\/span><\/a> candidates as Rep. Kevin McCarthy\u2019s (Calif) Republican House Campaign Fund received a paltry\u00a0 <\/span>$2 million. \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Enter Terry Duffy, CEO<\/span><\/a> of the CME Group who was approached by Boy Wonder in March to entertain a potential business arrangement that Duffy immediately sensed would have been a \u2018biblical disaster<\/i>.\u2019 \u00a0 <\/span>\u201cI knew this was a joke,<\/i>\u201d telling Sam Bankman-Fried that \u201cYou\u2019re a fraud; an absolute fraud<\/i>.\u201d \u00a0 <\/span>Duffy questioned why the Commodities Future Trading Commission appeared to be pushing through FTX\u2019s request to <\/span>ease regulatory<\/span> trading requirements. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On May 12, 2022 Duffy testified before the House Agriculture Committee in opposition<\/span><\/a> to the FTX proposal and walked into an antagonistic vitriolic attack from Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.). \u00a0 <\/span>Daring to know the difference between capital v. market requirements better than Khanna, Duffy was reminded that he was under oath and then accused by Khanna of \u201cmaking false statements\u201d<\/i> to the Congress.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s how Democrats help out their donors.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal also reported that FTX gave $70 million<\/span><\/a> to the Democrats within an 18 month period and that SBF personally donated another $40 M to liberal-leaning PACs and politicians.\u00a0 <\/span>Being of a bi partisan spirit, another $23 M was donated to House Republicans such as Rep. Tom Emmer (Minn) who is a Member of the House Financial Services Committee and just been elected to House leadership as Whip.\u00a0 <\/span>During the 2022 mid term election, as McCarthy\u2019s right hand man, Emmer was known to divert funds away from America First candidates.\u00a0 <\/span>As a result of the FTX collapse, Emmer said \u201cI\u2019m not going to pass judgment until we see the details<\/i>\u201d and he\u2019s \u2018a very likable young man.\u2019<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

In addition \u201cProtect Our Future\u201d PAC which is located in Arizona<\/span><\/a> received $27 million for candidates who will \u2018champion pandemic protection\u2019<\/span><\/a> plus another $1 M from FTX executive Nighad Singh<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>POF lists Dacey Montoya<\/span><\/a> as Treasurer who is associated with Arizona\u2019s McCain\/RINO coalition.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The GMI<\/span><\/a> PAC supports candidates who support an innovative digital blockchain<\/span><\/a> marketplace received $2 million. \u00a0 <\/span>Sen. Schumer\u2019s Democratic Senate Leadership Pac received $3 Million; while Speaker Pelosi\u2019s House Democratic Pac received $6 million.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

FTX Co-CEO\u00a0 <\/span>Ryan Salame<\/span><\/a> gave $15 million to American Dream Federal Action Fund<\/span><\/a> on behalf of Republican candidates while SBF provided $18 million to Covid 19 researchers<\/span><\/a> who were casting doubt on the efficacy<\/span><\/a> of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What has yet to be acknowledged is how a Bitcoin Manipulation Abatement<\/span><\/a>, LLC lawsuit filed against FTX in November, 2019 alleging RICO violations (which are Federal crimes) including blockchain and bitcoin market manipulations, allowed Boy Wonder to continue to conduct business while, at the same time, consult with Federal regulators to draft beneficial regulations. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

First organize in 2019 and headquartered in the Bahamas since 2021, FTX had been valued by private investors at $32 billion<\/span><\/a> earlier this year yet has collapsed faster than the blink of an eye,<\/span> leaving100,000 creditors with liabilities valued at over $10 billion.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span>A substantial amount of assets have <\/i>either been stolen or missing<\/i><\/b>\u201d<\/i> according to FTX bankruptcy counsel James Bromley.\u00a0 <\/span>With restructuring expert<\/span><\/a> John Ray III stepping in, Ray opined that he had \u2018never seen such a complete failure of corporate controls<\/i>\u2019 with \u201ca complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here<\/i><\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Allegedly, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have launched probes into FTX\u2019s downfall and will no doubt provide an explanation of how they missed the warnings signs of the country\u2019s largest cryptocurrency collapse.\u00a0 <\/span>With SBF being a top political donor to the Democratic machine, he appears to have graduated into the lawless class of the politically protected as he remains a free man even with a RICO suit on his resume – which raises the question of <\/span>who is keeping track of how many felony violations SBF has accrued or a detailed analysis of where all the money came from. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly, will any of the political candidates who benefited from FTX election generosity reimburse the campaign donation so that FTX clients may receive some portion of their lost investment? The answer is NO; since to admit receipt of a SBF donation is to question the payback in the form of legislative favors. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Renee Parsons\u00a0served on the once prestigious ACLU\u2019s Florida State Board of Directors and as president of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She has been an elected public official in Colorado, staff in the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, an environmental lobbyist for Friends of the Earth and a staff member of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC. She can be found at\u00a0<\/i><\/b>reneedove3@yahoo.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Red Flags as FTX Funded Midterm Elections and CFTC New Authority \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}