FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Now Serving 110-Year Prison Sentence For Fraud, Says He’s Closer To Republicans Now – And Isn’t A Criminal

Alessio AtriaMarch 11, 2025, 2:21 pmNews >

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX who is serving a 110-year prison sentence for fraud, declared during an interview with Tucker Carlson that he has a closer relationship with Republicans and reiterated that he is not a criminal.

In November 2022, FTX lost billions of dollars and filed for bankruptcy. Subsequent reports showed that Bankman-Fried and his trading firm borrowed and traded billions of dollars from FTX users’ accounts.

In the following year, the cryptocurrency’s founder was named in a class-action lawsuit asserting that FTX’s customers lost nearly $11 billion. On Nov. 2, 2023, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering and sentenced to 110 years in prison.

“In May 2020, I was – I was center-left, and I gave to [Joe Biden‘s] campaign,” he told Carlson. “I was optimistically the sort of solid center-left president.”

“I spent the next few years in DC a lot,” he added. “I made dozens of trips there and was really, really shocked by what I saw – not in a good direction from the administration. By late 2022, I was giving to Republicans privately as much as Democrats, and that started becoming known right around after FTX’s collapse.”

The ex-FTX CEO also mentioned that, in late 2022, he “had this good relationship, probably better with Republicans in D.C. as with Democrats.”

Later on in the interview, Carlson asked Bankman-Fried to be honest and tell him if he thought he was “the biggest criminal in the crypto business.”

“I don’t think as a criminal, so, certainly, the answer to that is no,” he replied. “I mean, I think the DOJ thinks that I may have been, but I don’t share their view.”

“Yeah, you’re in jail,” Carlson noted while laughing in response to Bankman-Fried’s statement. “They definitely – that’s their claim anyway.”