White House data just lately made public have revealed that disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried met with senior Biden administration officers within the White House on 4 events over the course of 2022, together with a just-disclosed go to on September 9.
When pressed on the topic throughout a press convention on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted that each one conferences between White House officers and the fallen crypto mogul targeted totally on Bankman-Fried’s nonprofit pandemic preparedness initiatives. She additionally, nonetheless, said that the conversations could have additionally pertained to “normal data” concerning the cryptocurrency trade and crypto exchanges.
“The White House recurrently engages with officers from a variety of industries and sectors together with leaders in enterprise and labor and non-profits,” Jean-Pierre stated in response to a query from Bloomberg White House correspondent Josh Wingrove.
Bankman-Fried met on a number of events with Steve Ricchetti and Bruce Reed, two of President Biden’s senior-most advisors. Both officers occupy places of work simply steps from the Oval Office, an indication of their standing within the administration.
All of Bankman-Fried’s conferences with Ricchetti and Reed passed off within the West Wing.
Bankman-Fried’s brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, additionally met with senior White House officers twice in 2022.
While many of the conferences passed off within the spring, data launched on the finish of December revealed that Bankman-Fried returned to the White House for a fourth assembly in September, simply weeks earlier than the crypto mogul’s $32 billion empire collapsed in historic vogue.
In the early fall, on the time of Bankman-Fried’s remaining go to to the White House, the then-billionaire was lobbying lawmakers to move the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), a framework for crypto regulation that, whereas doubtlessly devastating to some sectors of the crypto trade, would have handled centralized exchanges like FTX far more favorably.
In the wake of FTX’s abrupt demise and Bankman-Fried’s arrest in December for eight prison prices—together with conspiracy to commit fraud, cash laundering, and violation of federal marketing campaign finance legal guidelines—the invoice has since been placed on maintain.
In the months previous Bankman-Fried’s downfall, the crypto government donated some $46.5 million to political causes, together with $5 million to a political motion committee (PAC) that fueled a nationwide pro-Biden advert blitz within the remaining weeks of the 2020 presidential election.
Multiple politicians have since returned these donations or donated equal quantities to charity.
Press Secretary Jean-Pierre, nonetheless, has refused to comment concerning whether or not the President will return any donations made by Bankman-Fried, or thinks some other Democratic politicians ought to.
On Tuesday, Jean-Pierre doubled down on that refusal.
“I don’t have something to share,” she stated.
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