SBF claims the Biden administration targeted him for political donations: critics were not swayed

Critics are unconvinced by SBF’s latest antics, claiming his story is a well-funded lobbying attempt to recast the collapse of the FTX as political persecution.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX who is now serving a 25-year prison sentence for defrauding clients of billions, has reignited the controversy by labeling his 2022 arrest as politically motivated.

In a recent GETTR post, reportedly shared through a friend, SBF claimed that his shift from center-left to centrist political views and subsequent large donations to Republican causes prompted targeted action from the Biden administration.

The new SBF conspiracy

According to him, these are the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Chairman Gary Gensler and the Department of Justice moved moved quickly to arrest him just weeks before a key vote on the crypto bill and on the eve of his scheduled testimony in Congress.

House Republicans at the time reportedly questioned the timing and had suggested the arrest was strategically designed to silence him. They also requested internal communications from Gensler that were said to have “easily” disappeared. The SEC’s Office of Inspector General later explained that a poorly understood automated IT policy wiped Gensler’s government-issued device, ultimately erasing text messages between October 2022 and September 2023.

Despite his conviction on multiple fraud and conspiracy counts in November 2023, SBF and his family claim he was wrongly prosecuted. His parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, are said to be exploring options for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, who had previously pardoned Silk Road’s Ross Ulbricht.

In interviews after his conviction, SBF has consistently distanced himself from left-wing politics while expressing support for Trump, even granting a prison interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, prompting his crisis manager to resign. He has openly rejected guilt for himself and co-defendants and described the convictions as unfair and politically influenced.

Overfunded lobbying effort behind the spin

However, observers and critics are to stay very skeptical of these claims. Many see this story as a well-funded lobbying effort designed to recast SBF as a victim of partisan politics rather than the architect of one of the largest financial collapses in crypto history.

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Far-right activist and loyal Trump supporter Laura Loomer warned that continued media pressure will continue to portray him as an unfair target of the Biden administration, despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing.