Dupage Policy Journal

A picture of the political influence of scandalized FTX Cryptocurrency exchange CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is emerging showing the alleged scammer, who allegedly stole funds from investors and his crypto market to fuel an out-of-control investment firm with deep ties to the Democrat political machine.

Now that influence has been shown to dip directly into the offices of Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL).

Bankman-Fried, 30, was close to Casten in that his brother Gabe Bankman-Fried, 27, was placed in the offices of Casten from January 2019 to February 2021 as “legislative correspondent.”

According to LegiStorm, Gabe holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from Brown University. Gabe is from Stanford, California.

Gabe never made more than $45,000 per year while working for Casten.

Despite the lowly salary, Gabe spent at least $351,975 on campaign donations from 2021 to 2022, which is very little in comparison to his billionaire brother.

Sam emerged as one of the more moneyed forces in Washington, D.C. when he became one of the largest donors to PACs (political action committees).

Sam’s influence in the 2022 election was pronounced. At $36 million, he was the Democrat’s second-largest donor for the year behind the much maligned George Soros.

He at one time vowed to give $1 billion to candidates.

Sam’s star fell nearly as quickly as it had arisen after FTX buckled under a drop in crypto and then a run on the accounts after rival Binance noted its concern over the true nature of FTX’s accounts.

Sam is allegedly found to have commingled FTX funds and lost between $1-2 billion in client funds on risky trading ventures through his trading company Alameda Research.

That money has disappeared forever, insiders say, in one of the largest financial scams in history, Financial Times reported.

Records indicate in March of 2022 Sam gave several donations to Prairie Political Action Committee, which is the leadership PAC of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).

He also gave separately to the Friends of Dick Durbin Committee. He also notably donated to Chuy Garcia for Congress.

Earlier this year, Illinois' 4th Congressional District Congressmen Jesus “Chuy” Garcia shocked freedom advocates when he and 30 other members of Congress sent a formal demand asking President Joe Biden to negotiate directly with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

He later reversed course and retracted the request after overwhelming criticism both at home and abroad, Chicago City Wire reported.

After stepping away from Casten’s office, Gabe founded Guarding Against Pandemics, which poses itself as “a group of scientific and political experts formed during the COVID-19 pandemic and committed to preventing the next one.”

Gabe’s background is filled out in a since deleted profile.

“Gabe Bankman-Fried is the founder and director of Guarding Against Pandemics. Prior to that, he was a staffer on Capitol Hill and worked for Civis Analytics, where he improved private House forecasting and resource allocation models that advised Democratic Political Action Committees and large donors giving hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2018 midterm elections,” the website reads.

He also became a frontman for Building a Stronger Future, a foundation he and his brother put together, which notably gave $5 million to ProPublica to start a reporting team focused on investigating the pandemic.

Gabe was interviewed by Politico about his brother’s influence in Washington.

“Sam cares about ideas. He cares about ideas that make the world a better place. Now, that sounds trite, but without naming names, I think a lot of large donors don’t. They care about supporting their tribe, whatever it is,” Gabe told Politico. “The skepticism a lot of people feel is the lack of understanding of what truly gets Sam excited and out of bed in the morning.”

Sam was known for his close relationship with his brother during his time with Casten.

“When he lobbies in Washington, D.C., he’ll often crash on his brother’s couch,” Politico wrote in the profile.

Sam was one of a handful of donors to contribute more than $10 million to Biden’s presidential campaign.

“We’ve never seen something like this on this scale,” Bradley Beychok, co-founder of American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic super PAC, said according to Politico. “On our side, there’s a small pool of people who write these kinds of checks and they tend to be the same folks. But Sam, to his credit, came right in with a big splash.”

Now, it appears that capital may have been secured in improper ways and will spawn a conservative generation of candidates criticizing opponents for taking the funds.