By Luis de Jesus
03 Oct 2023, 00:36 AM EDT
Businessman Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX cryptocurrency platform, considered paying $5 billion to former Republican president Donald Trump so that he would not run again for the Presidency of the United States, said the American writer of best sellers Michael Lewis.
In a conversation with journalist Jon Wertheim for the program 60 Minutesbroadcast on CBS News on Sunday, Lewis said that the young man, a millionaire at the time, considered Trump to be an “existential risk” because he undermines the country’s democracy, so he decided to solve that “problem” personally.
Thus, the writer said that Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly met in 2022 with Congressman Mitch McConnell, leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, to express his interest in financing Republican candidates who were against the magnate’s policies. .
Lewis, who publishes his new book this Tuesday Becoming infinite: the rise and fall of a new tycoonstated that the businessman allocated “several million” dollars to support Republican candidates, which he did not mention, and that in 2020 he was among Joe Biden’s “largest donors.”
And as 2024 approached, the writer added, the former millionaire planned to invest more money to prevent the magnate from getting close to the White House again.
Bankman-Fried received a response, but he wasn’t sure if it was directly from Trump. “There was a number that was floating around. And the figure that he was circulating when he was talking to Sam about this was $5 billion dollars. “Sam wasn’t sure that figure came directly from Trump,” Lewis was quoted as saying by CBS News.
Bankman-Fried, in the writer’s voice, doubted that that amount was enough for Trump, and also questioned whether paying him that amount of money in exchange for him not running for president of the United States was legal.
Lewis, finally, said that this alleged payment was not fulfilled because the conversations were taking place when the FTX scandal “exploded.” “So why didn’t it happen? “I no longer had $5,000 million dollars,” said the writer.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in December last year. The American Justice accuses him of seven charges that include fraud and money laundering. Among other things, he is accused of having allegedly diverted billions of dollars from FTX clients for other purposes and to pay for a life of luxury. In August of this year, he pleaded not guilty in a brief hearing before the judge handling his case.
Keep reading:
• Trump attends the civil trial against him, which he calls a “witch hunt”; his empire is at risk
• Supreme Court rejected case that asked to prevent Donald Trump from being a presidential candidate again
• Federal Judge Sent FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried to Prison for Alleged Witness Tampering