FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, claimed during court testimony on Tuesday that the alleged fraudster thought he had a chance of winning the presidency, according to The Messenger.
The disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon allegedly estimated he had a 5% chance of becoming president at some point, according to Ellison’s testimony, The Messenger reported. Bankman-Fried allegedly masterminded a scheme to divert billions of dollars from customers’ FTX deposits to fund campaign contributions, donations to charities and real estate acquisitions before its collapse, according to The New York Times. (RELATED: ‘He Directed Me To Commit These Crimes’: Alleged Fraudster’s Ex Blames Him At Trial)
“At one point, he said there was a 5% chance he’d become president someday,” Ellison stated, according to The Messenger.
Ellison: We started sleeping together on and off in the summer of 2020. We dated and broke up.
AUSA: What did the defendant tell you about his ambitions?
Ellison: That he would be President.
AUSA: Of what?
Ellison: The United States.— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) October 10, 2023
Bankman-Fried faces seven charges in total, including defrauding FTX customers and lenders, according to the NYT. He gave over $39 million to back Democrat-aligned causes, and was the second-largest individual contributor to such causes during the 2022 midterm election cycle, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of Federal Election Commission data.
The alleged fraudster used “billions of dollars in stolen funds for a variety of purposes, including … to help fund over a hundred million dollars in campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans to seek to influence cryptocurrency regulation,” according to the superseding indictment against him.
Furthermore, Bankman-Fried looked into the legality of bribing then-President Donald Trump with money to not run for reelection in 2020, according to an excerpt from the new book “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon” by author Michael Lewis. He also planned to give between $15 million and $30 million to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to beat “Trumpier” candidates in 2020 Senate races, according to Lewis.
Bankman-Fried’s attorney did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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