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S.B.F.’s Unsolved Dark-Money Mysteries

Since last November, any exposure to Sam or his money has been like a scarlet letter, forcing nearly all of his political aides to lawyer up and play defense against federal investigations—and FTX itself.
Since last November, any exposure to Sam or his money has been like a scarlet letter, forcing nearly all of his political aides to lawyer up and play defense against federal investigations—and FTX itself. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Theodore Schleifer
February 14, 2023

There used to be a joke I’d hear around Washington, that everyone in town with an ounce of ambition was, in some way or another, on the payroll of Sam Bankman-Fried. And if you hadn’t figured out how to get on the gravy train, well, that was on you. Like all good jokes, there was more than a kernel of truth to all of it: I’ve covered the S.B.F. political machine as closely as anyone over the last few years, and I still encounter new names of lobbyists who were secretly on Sam’s retainer, of data savants who found a way into D.C.’s greatest donor-fueled growth industry, and amazingly, nonprofits that were moving millions of FTX-connected dollars without a scintilla of public knowledge.

Since last November, of course, any exposure to Sam or his money has been more like a scarlet letter, forcing nearly all of his political aides to lawyer up and play defense against federal investigations and by FTX itself. Which is why I was particularly interested when it emerged that FTX—or rather the carcass of FTX, now led by former Enron bankruptcy executive John Ray III—had expressed its intention in a legal filing to subpoena Gabe Bankman-Fried, Sam’s well-connected and once sneakily powerful younger brother. Gabe, as I reported earlier this month, is under pressure by FTX and its attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell to comply with document requests and fork over any information pertaining to his work as a political operative and aide for his brother.