Joseph Bankman, the father of alleged fraudster and Democratic megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried, advised Democrat-linked dark money consultancy firm Arabella Advisors, according to a Monday court filing.
Bankman, who was a senior advisor to the FTX Foundation, discussed the possibility of Bankman-Fried sending funds for tax purposes through Democrat-linked consultant firm Arabella Advisors, according to a lawsuit filed by FTX against Bankman-Fried’s parents, Bankman and Barbara Fried. The Arabella-managed New Venture Fund, which donates to a variety of left-wing causes, provided a “platform through which FTX.US and its donors could contribute to select charitable causes,” according to the filing, and Bankman allegedly had significant influence over donations.
“Bankman sat on the advisory board of Arabella Advisors, which provided advice on such charitable contributions,” the filing read. Additionally, Bankman “provided an example of discussions about gift taxes in which he was involved, where ‘[w]e considered having funds made available by Sam through Arabella.’”
Arabella Advisors is run by former Bill Clinton official Eric Kessler and manages several nonprofit entities including the Sixteen Thirty Fund, Hopewell Fund, North Fund and New Venture Fund. These nonprofits variously contribute to numerous left-leaning groups, causes and Democratic candidates, according to tax filings and statements on the funds’ and Arabella’s websites.
Sixteen Thirty Fund explicitly donates to Democratic political action committees (PACs) and candidates, while other Arabella affiliates also fund left-leaning and Democrat-linked activist and advocacy groups.
Did not realize that Joe Bankman, Sam’s dad, sat on an advisory board for Arabella Advisors, the progressives philanthropic consulting firm that is targeted by conservatives these days. pic.twitter.com/RVyehptvy3
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) September 19, 2023
Bankman told FTX Foundation’s CEO in 2022 that he and his son had agreed that he would take charge of charitable contributions from FTX, according to the filing.
“I make a decision – depending on nature of the activity, beneficiary etc whether or not to put them under the umbrella of FTX Community,” Bankman said, according to the filing.
Bankman also spoke for Bankman-Fried on donations, once writing, “I know Sam etc is/are on board with it,” according to the filing.
Bankman allegedly got FTX to donate millions to Stanford, where he is a law professor, according to the filing. Bankman also directed FTX to pay his sister $14,000 a month for work with the cryptocurrency exchange.
“Bankman hand-selected recipients of FTX Group charitable contributions,” according to the filing.
The lawsuit also accused Barbara Fried of illegally funding her PAC, Mind the Gap (MTG), which facilitated donations to Democratic candidates.
Fried co-founded and previously ran MTG as president and chairwoman, according to the filing. Because of worries regarding the “optics” of Bankman-Fried donating to MTG, she allegedly advised FTX Director of Engineering Nishad Singh to make contributions to the PAC instead.
Bankman-Fried donated over $39 million to Democrat-aligned causes, and was the second-largest individual contributor to them during the 2022 midterm election cycle, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of Federal Election Commission data.
“New Venture Fund briefly worked with the FTX Foundation to provide fiscal sponsorship services for some of its grantmaking,” a New Venture Fund spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In early 2022, NVF issued grants from a project affiliated with Mr. Bankman and the FTX Foundation, all of which went to carefully vetted charitable organizations addressing environmental challenges and hunger. This is a pending legal matter, and the remaining money will be returned based on resolution of that process.”
Arabella Advisors, FTX, Bankman and Bankman-Fried’s attorney did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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