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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried held several meetings with high-ranking White House officials earlier this year, prior to the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange.
These meetings were part of an effort to influence cryptocurrency policy and establish connections in Washington before the collapse of Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire, Bloomberg reports.
According to White House officials cited in the report, Bankman-Fried met with Steve Ricchetti, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, on Sept. 8, 2022.
This meeting was not previously disclosed and was one of several sessions that took place over the course of the year.
White House visitor logs show that Bankman-Fried also had meetings on April 22 and May 12, both with Ricchetti, and one on May 13 with Bruce Reed, another senior Biden aide.
The final meeting, which is recorded in the logs as two back-to-back sessions, was actually a single meeting, according to officials.
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Bankman-Fried’s brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, also participated in one of the meetings and held a separate meeting of his own in March, bringing the total number of meetings involving one or both brothers to at least five.
The meetings with White House officials focused on general topics related to the cryptocurrency industry and exchanges, as well as pandemic prevention efforts by the Guarding Pandemics Foundation, which is run by Gabriel.
Bankman-Fried, who lived in the Bahamas but frequently visited Washington, previously testified before Congress and met with regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
He had advocated for greater regulation in the cryptocurrency sector and positioned himself and his companies as ethical actors within the space.
Bankman-Fried is now facing criminal charges for his role in the collapse of his crypto empire, which has left investors facing billions of dollars in potential losses.
FTX has faced scrutiny due to its ties to Washington, as Bankman-Fried was a major donor to the Democratic Party and his former lieutenant, Ryan Salame, was a significant donor to the Republican Party.
A highly concentrated stake in self-issued FTX FTT/USD tokens, which Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund Alameda Research used as collateral for billions in cryptocurrency loans, accelerated the fall of FTX.
When rival exchange Binance said it would sell its holding in FTT, there was a significant outflow of money.
A few days later, the company filed for bankruptcy.
Next: Sam Bankman-Fried Set To Enter A Plea On Fraud And Embezzlement Charges In FTX Case
Photo via Shutterstock.
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Image and article originally from www.benzinga.com. Read the original article here.