FTX Founder Claims Political Retaliation and Points to Missing SEC Communications
Sam Bankman-Fried, the imprisoned founder of the defunct FTX cryptocurrency exchange, has alleged that his 2022 arrest was politically motivated by the Biden administration, claiming it was retaliation for his financial support of Republican lawmakers.
In a recent post shared via GETTR, Bankman-Fried said that his political stance shifted from “center-left” in 2020 to “centrist” by 2022, after witnessing what he described as a “coordinated anti-crypto crackdown” led by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Justice Department.
“I was a centrist, and (privately) donated tens of millions to Republicans. Weeks later, Biden’s anti-crypto SEC/DOJ went after me,” the post read. He added that his arrest came “the night before” he was scheduled to testify before Congress on digital asset regulation — and just weeks before a key crypto bill was set for a vote.
At the time, several House Republicans questioned the timing of the arrest, suggesting it was an attempt to silence Bankman-Fried before his testimony. In his latest remarks, the former executive revived these claims, asserting that former SEC Chair Gary Gensler had “conveniently lost” internal messages from that period.
Last month, the SEC’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) confirmed that the agency’s IT department had accidentally wiped Gensler’s government-issued phone, erasing messages from October 2022 to September 2023. The OIG report said the deletion was caused by an “automated policy” that was poorly understood by SEC staff.
During that same timeframe, the SEC intensified enforcement actions against major crypto firms, including Coinbase and Binance.
“The timing and disappearance of those records raise questions that deserve scrutiny,” said a Washington-based legal analyst familiar with SEC oversight investigations.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas in December 2022 and later convicted on multiple fraud and conspiracy charges for misappropriating billions in customer funds. He is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence but continues to appeal his conviction.
His family has reportedly petitioned President Donald Trump for clemency, arguing that he was “wrongfully convicted amid political pressure.”
The latest claims reignite debate over the intersection of crypto regulation, politics, and accountability in Washington.
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