Sam Bankman-Fried Spent Billions Of Dollars Of Customer Money

Sam Bankman-Fried told Bloomberg in April that years down the road, he'd subsist on $100,000 a year — that's it. He'd keep a small percentage of the billions he had generated from his cryptocurrency empire and donate the rest, Lakshmi Varanasi reported recently for Business Insider.

Photo Insert: The Miami-Dade County and Miami HEAT are immediately seeking to terminate their business with FTX.

Bankman-Fried billed himself as an effective altruist, a person who would rack up stacks of money — or coins— to one day put it all toward the betterment of the world. And he donated money to several organizations founded on the principles of so-called effective altruism.

But Bankman-Fried also wrote out big checks to sports teams, property owners, and political leaders. His spending appeared to reflect a desire to buy influence as much as it has reflected his philosophical beliefs.

It all came crashing down in early November, when Bankman-Fried saw the bulk of his net worth drop from $15.6 billion to $1 billion in a single day — after news broke that his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, needed a bailout.

Now, it's come out that as much as $2 billion in customer funds are missing — and questions are arising over just how Bankman-Fried bankrolled his high-end lifestyle, with lawyers now arguing that the former mogul, known as SBF, appeared to have run FTX like a "personal fiefdom."

He spent $300 million to buy houses in the Bahamas, invested millions in Semafor, a news startup launched by former New York Times columnist Ben Smith and former Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith, provided seed money to Trustless Media, a production company at the intersection of Web3 and television production.

Bankman-Fried also donated $5 million to investigative news outlet ProPublica, according to the AP. Bankman-Fried also poured money into several startups through FTX, its research arm Alameda Research, and as an angel investor, according to Crunchbase.

Those include financial technology companies like TrueFi and Chipper Cash, crypto platforms like Liquid Global, and blockchain companies like Faraway, which makes games.

Bankman-Fried also poured money into several startups through FTX, its research arm Alameda Research, and as an angel investor, according to Crunchbase. Those include financial technology companies like TrueFi and Chipper Cash, crypto platforms like Liquid Global, and blockchain companies like Faraway, which makes games.

Bankman-Fried spent more than $10 million backing Joe Biden's presidential campaign, according to Politico. In 2022 alone, he spent more than $40 million on campaigns, according to Federal Election Committee filings reviewed by Politico.

He also gave $1 million to the Senate Majority PAC and $6 million to the House Majority PAC— two super PACs that are dedicated to keeping Congress in the hands of Democrats, according to The Los Angeles Times.

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