The spectacular downfall of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, continues to have ripple effects throughout the realms of business and American politics.
Bankman-Fried was among the nation’s most prolific Democratic Party donors and led a network of funds that aimed to distribute grant money to a variety of leftist causes and organizations.
An investigation into the circumstances that led to the company’s bankruptcy is ongoing, but it appears that Bankman-Fried attempted to keep FTX afloat by issuing crypto tokens that had no intrinsic value. Many analysts are comparing his effort to a Ponzi scheme.
Meanwhile, groups that had expected to receive a windfall from related organizations are now left with the realization that they are unlikely to ever receive any of the promised funding.
In the wake of FTX’s collapse, its so-called Future Fund released a letter announcing the group’s dissolution amid an inability to meet its outstanding obligations.
“We are so sorry that it has come to this,” the team wrote. “To the extent that the leadership of FTX may have engaged in deception or dishonesty, we condemn that behavior in the strongest possible terms. We believe that being a good actor in the world means striving to act with honesty and integrity.”
As for its philanthropic promises, the letter concluded that the group was “devastated that it looks like there are many committed grants that the Future Fund will be unable to honor.”
One FTX-related grant was supposed to go to online news outlet The Intercept, which reacted to the recent news by calling on readers to help make up for the loss.
So @SBF_FTX gave money to media outlets like Vox & The Intercept. He’s had glowing puff pieces in NYT, Fortune, Forbes, CNBC…
Writing big fat cheques to the Democrats buys a lot of glowing PR
https://t.co/uonYNjZnOK— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) November 16, 2022
Through his Building a Stronger Future Foundation, Bankman-Fried pledged to provide the site with $4 million over the course of two years to fund reports related to “biosafety and pandemic prevention.” At the time of the bankruptcy, only $500,000 had been paid.
Acting Editor-in-Chief Roger Hodge reacted to the fact that the funding is currently “on hold,” pleading with The Intercept’s audience to help fill “a significant hole in our budget.”
The same foundation had also promised grants to other news outlets, including ProPublica, which was set to receive a total of $5 million over two years in support of reports on similar topics.
At least two other outlets — Semafor and Vox — received an undisclosed amount of money from the Building a Stronger Future Foundation.
