News/Commentary

NYT appears set to host big event with disgraced FTX founder and a who’s who list of MAJOR power players

November 17, 2022 | | Print Article

The New York Times is scheduled to host a summit later this month in partnership with the World Economic Forum member Accenture, and one of its featured guests is apparently disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

Indeed, as of Thursday morning, Bankman-Fried was still listed as a guest of the DealBook Summit, despite the earth-shaking scandal surrounding his now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.

Also listed as speakers were a number of other notable figures, including but not limited to the following:

  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
  • Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence
  • Blackrock CEO and Chairman Larry Fink
  • TikTok CEO Shou Chew
  • Amazon President & CEO Andy Jassy
  • New York City Mayor Eric Adams
  • Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
  • Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
  • Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
  • CNN commentator Van Jones

 

The summit is reportedly an annual affair that “features the most consequential business and policymakers of our time.”

“DealBook attendees are high-level executives and emerging leaders from the worlds of financial services, technology, consumer goods, private investment, venture capital, banking, media, public relations, policy, government, academia and more. Our attendees often are CEOs and other senior-level executives, policymakers and entrepreneurs,” according to the Times.

Critics have some questions:

Bankman-Fried’s presence on the list of speakers was first noticed last Thursday by Gawker, which noted in a report that, only hours after Bankman-Fried issued an apology letter for screwing over so many investors, the Times sent out an email confirming the summit was still on:

(Source: Gawker)

“If you, as I did, think this might have been a prank, consider that this information matches the date and lineup info on the DealBook site. The event is indeed on Nov. 30 at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Will Bankman-Fried still be speaking? The DealBook website seems to think so — they still have a dedicated page for him,” according to Gawker.

That the Times apparently plans to allow Bankman-Fried to still attend the event is remarkable, critics say, given how disgraced he’s become.

“It’s been a bad few days for Sam Bankman-Fried, the ex-billionaire founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, whose net worth plunged with historic speed this week after leaked financials sent FTX users on a bank run. In the span of a few days, the exodus drained their liquid assets, forcing Bankman-Fried to suspend withdrawals and ask his rival, Binance, for a bailout that lasted just 24 hours before they looked at their financials and decided to pull out,” Gawker notes.

It does go to show, though, how closely linked the Democrat Party and its allies (i.e., the Times) are to Bankman-Fried.

Indeed, one major bombshell that emerged from the scandal that took down his company is his habit of donating large quantities of money to the Democrat Party.

“Dozens of Congressional candidates — most of them Democrats — received campaign contributions or indirect financial support from Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto tycoon whose company collapsed last week,” according to Axios.

In the Democrats’ defense, they are at least now trying to distance themselves from him.

“It’s unclear where Bankman-Fried’s money came from. Forensic accountants and bankruptcy courts are on the case, but it could take months to untangle FTX’s web of comingled funds,” Axios notes.

“Many of the campaigns, including some of the losing ones, already spent the direct donations. Others have considered returning the direct donations, but don’t want to be seen as helping to fund Bankman-Fried’s legal defense,” according to Axios.

Bankman-Fried also helped funnel a lot of money into the hands of the Ukrainians.

“In March 2022, the Ukrainian government launched a crypto donations website, Aid for Ukraine, with the backing of FTX, to route donated crypto to the National Bank of Ukraine. According to its website, Aid for Ukraine has received more than $60 million in donations including 611 Bitcoin, 10,723 Ethereum, and 15,048,821 USDT,” Newsweek notes.

There’s also been an accusation that Bankman-Fried helped launder U.S. taxpayer money into the hands of the Democrat Party via Ukraine. However, so-called “fact-checkers” say this particular theory is false.

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Vivek Saxena
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