Sam Bankman-Fried’s mother, Barbara Fried, a law professor at Stanford University, was a leader for ‘Mind the Gap, a dark money, secret Silicon Valley group that funnels money to Democrats. She has now stepped down from her position. A core strategy of Mind the Gap has been to hide which candidates and groups it is backing until it’s too late for Republicans to react and match funding. Mind the Gap uses a data driven strategy.
The brother of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is a former Legislative Correspondent for Democratic Congressman Sean Casten, who serves on the House Financial Services Committee and its subcommittees involved in “investor protection” and “consumer protection.”
Rep. Casten also participated in a congressional hearing featuring Sam Bankman-Fried, though he failed to ask the CEO of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange platform any questions.
The unearthed affiliation between the brother of the former FTX CEO and Rep. Casten follows Bankman-Fried donating nearly $40 million to Democrats during the 2022 midterm election cycle.
Congressional records reveal that Gabe Bankman-Fried worked in Rep. Casten’s office for a period of two years from January 2019 to February 2021. His LinkedIn profile confirms this employment.
Rep. Casten is a member of the House Financial Services Committee and serves on the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets, the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions, and the Taskforce on Artificial Intelligence.
The Illinois Congressman’s role gives him considerable influence over the House’s approach to cryptocurrency and fintech regulation, with many speculating that the lax regulations for the industry contributed to the fall of FTX.
Excerpt from Brownstone:
…That’s right: there were deep connections between FTX and Covid that have been cultivated for two years. Let’s have a look.
Earlier this year, the New York Times trumpeted a study that showed no benefit at all to the use of Ivermectin. It was supposed to be definitive. The study was funded by FTX. Why? Why was a crypto exchange so interested in the debunking of repurposed drugs in order to drive governments and people into the use of patented pharmaceuticals, even those like Remdesivir that didn’t actually work? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Regardless, the study and especially the conclusions turned out to be bogus. David Henderson and Charles Hooper further point out an interesting fact: “Some of the researchers involved in the TOGETHER trial had performed paid services for Pfizer, Merck, Regeneron, and AstraZeneca, all companies involved in developing COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines that nominally compete with ivermectin.”
For some reason, SBF just knew that he was supposed to oppose repurposed drugs, though he knew nothing about the subject at all. He was glad to fund a poor study to make it true and the New York Times played its assigned role in the whole performance.
It was just the start. A soft-peddling Washington Post investigation found that Sam and his brother Gabe, who ran a hastily founded Covid nonprofit, “have spent at least $70 million since October 2021 on research projects, campaign donations and other initiatives intended to improve biosecurity and prevent the next pandemic.”
Brownstone: https://brownstone.org/articles/covid-crypto-connection-ftx-and-sbf/
Vox: https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/1/6/21046631/mind-the-gap-silicon-valley-democratic-donors-stanford
Daily Caller: https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/16/sbf-mom-resigns-dem-dark-money/
