Sam Bankman-Fried, Ever Consider Paying Donald Trump Not To Advance As US President

Sam "SBF" Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, once considered paying Donald Trump (photo: Twitter @maximllangsing)

JAKARTA - Sam "SBF" Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, once considered paying Donald Trump not to run as President of the United States. This was revealed by Michael Lewis, the author of a new book that documents the increase and fall of the SBF.

Michael Lewis, author of the book entitled "Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon," talks about former crypto billionaire and founder of FTX in an interview of 60 Minutes on October 1.

One of the disclosures in the book is that SBF has considered paying Donald Trump not to run as president. "This must surprise you if you don't know Sam," Lewis said, quoted by Cointelegraph.

"Sam thinks that we can pay Donald Trump not to run as president [...] how much is needed?" The figure circulating was 5 billion US dollars (Rp 77.8 trillion)," he added before saying that the SBF was not sure whether the figure came directly from Donald Trump.

The SBF is also considering its legality issues, according to Lewis, adding that "they were still having these conversations when FTX was destroyed." That didn't happen because Bankman-Fried didn't have 5 billion US dollars left," he added.

According to Lewis, SBF sees Trump as an attempt to undermine democracy in the United States, considering it "as one of the existential risks."

Lewis spent more than 70 days in the Bahamas on twelve different trips to visit the SBF in 2022, and the two became close. "I'm going to stay in the backup bedroom, so I have a code for every room, including a shot," he told The Wall Street Journal.

"It's like a scene after Pompeii. Clothes and items stayed behind, frozen in time. Many people went to the airport, leaving the company's car with the key inside on the sidewalk," Lewis said of the impact after the collapse of FTX in November 2022.

Meanwhile, legal representatives for Bankman-Fried and Trump, Mark Botnick, who handled communications for the SBF case, said there was no comment from his legal team.

According to a trial schedule released last week, a caring Bankman-Fried hearing will begin on October 3 with a jury selection. The trial will begin on October 4.

This trial will involve seven cases of fraud against SBF, two substantial charges in which prosecutors must convince the jury that Bankman-Fried committed crimes, and five other charges of conspiracy.