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White House granted meetings between Sam Bankman-Fried and senior Biden aides four times THIS YEAR: report

December 30, 2022 | | Print Article

That disgraced cryptocurrency con Sam Bankman-Fried, aka “SBF,” was cozy in bed with Washington, D.C. prior to the staggering collapse of his FTX exchange and subsequent arrest in the Bahamas just got harder to deny, after a new report reveals he met at least four times with senior White House officials in 2022.

According to Bloomberg, SBF met with a counselor to the president, Steve Ricchetti, considered to be one of President Joe Biden’s senior advisers, as late as September 8.

While the September meeting was previously unreported, White House visitor logs show that SBF and Ricchetti also met on April 22 and May 12.

On May 13, Bankman-Fried met with another senior Biden aide, Bruce Reed. SBF’s brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried — who is recorded in the logs as having a meeting of his own in March — took part in the May 13 meeting, “for a total of at least five this year that involved one or both of the brothers,” Bloomberg reported.

The subject of the meetings centered around general issues within the crypto industry, as well as the prevention of a future pandemic.

It turns out, Gabriel Bankman-Fried runs a foundation called Guarding Against Pandemics, which, according to its website, was “pushing Congress to include a $30 billion investment in the upcoming budget reconciliation bill… to prevent the next pandemic.”

As BizPac Review has previously reported, SBF was picked up by Bahamian authorities on Dec. 12 at the behest of the U.S. Government and is facing charges that include wire fraud, campaign finance violations, and money laundering.

The cagey alleged crook was second only to George Soros in the amount of money he poured into the coffers of Democratic candidates in the 2022 election cycle.

He was released from jail on a $250 million bond and is currently restricted to the Palo Alto, California, home of his parents.

According to Bloomberg, U.S. prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried conspired “with others to use corporate money and shadow donors for political contributions and misusing billions of dollars of customers’ funds lent to FTX’s sister company Alameda Research.”

Following the arrest of SBF, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if President Biden’s campaign would return the roughly $5.2 million in donations it received from Bankman-Fried.

Much to the ire of the press, Jean-Pierre invoked the Hatch Act, which prohibits civil service employees from engaging in political activities or promoting a political campaign.

“[I’m] limited on what I can say and anything that’s connected to political contributions from here, I would have to refer you to the DNC,” she stated.

When further pressed on the president’s opinion on the matter by an AP reporter, Jean-Pierre snapped back, “You asked me two questions: You asked me about will he return donations and then you asked me about his opinion.”

“I’m answering the first part, which is I’m covered by the Hatch Act from here,” she continued. “I’m limited on what I can say. And I just can’t talk to political contributions, or anything related to that. I cannot speak to that from here.”

Melissa Fine
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