Maxine Waters praises FTX founder Bankman-Fried for ‘candid’ interviews after billions disappear
The Democrats’ ties to FTX tarnish the oversight effort. FOX Business’ Hillary Vaughn with more on the crypto exchange company’s collapse.
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California praised disgraced financier Sam Bankman-Fried’s “candid” interviews with the press ahead of his hearing before a House committee.
Waters made the comment via social media on Friday. Bankman-Fried is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Dec. 1[ads1]3.
“We appreciate that you have been honest in your discussions about what happened at FTX,” Waters said.
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She added, “Your willingness to speak to the public will help the company’s customers, investors and others. To that end, we would like to participate in our hearing on the 13th.”
Bankman-Fried has appeared for a number of interviews over the past week, discussing the collapse of his crypto trading firm, FTX.
In her series of media engagements, which included a direct discussion with the New York Times, Bankman-Fried has aimed to deflect blame away from FTX management and has denied committing fraud.
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Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California and chair of the House Financial Services Committee, during a hearing in Washington, DC, Wednesday, September 21, 2022. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Overall, in 2021 and 2022, Bankman-Fried donated nearly $38 million to various candidates and PACs, and mainly gives its money to Democratic candidates and left-leaning groups, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
The majority of his political donations went to Protect Our Future PAC, a group founded in January dedicated to empowering candidates committed to preventing future pandemics.
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Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former CEO of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, speaks during an interview on an episode of Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein in New York, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Bankman-Fried is currently facing a number of lawsuits, including a class-action lawsuit by investors who claim he and other high-profile celebrities – such as legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady and NBA star Stephen Curry – violated Florida law and caused consumers to suffer more than $11 billion in damages.
The lawsuit, which names “Sam Bankman-Fried, Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors, Shaquille O’Neal, Udonis Haslem, David Ortiz, William Trevor Lawrence, Shohei Ohtani, Naomi Osaka, Lawrence Gene David, and Kevin O’Leary,” seeks to hold them “responsible for the billions of dollars in damages they caused plaintiffs and the classes and to compel defendants to make them whole.”
FOX Business’ Thomas Catenacci, Houston Keene, Greg Norman and Kristen Altus contributed to this report.
