Disgraced crypto-investor Sam Bankman-Fried did not act alone in his fraud and money laundering, legal scholar Jonathan Turley said Tuesday.
Bankman-Fried, who is currently in Bahamian custody awaiting extradition to the United States, has been charged with eight counts ranging from wire fraud to money laundering to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was arrested Monday, a day before he appeared remotely before House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and her panel.
George Washington University law professor Turley told “America Reports” on Fox News It was Bankman-Fried Perhaps this is not the only person involved in the commission of crimes, and the cryptocurrency space is “weird”[ly]”It’s largely devoid of restrictions and control over other asset classes.
“What kind of honor system did we have, you’re scratching your head [for] just billions of dollars?” he asked, later adding, “It’s amazing to see people in this day and age can change billions and billions of dollars with almost no restrictions or controls. ‘weird’.
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Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX, speaks at the Institute of International Finance (IIF) annual membership meeting in Washington.
(Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Turley added that the alleged wrongdoing was not the work of a “one-man wrecking crew” and that there must have been other people involved in facilitating these transactions that put FTX investors in a difficult position.
“So we can expect more charges to come,” he said.
Turley also analyzed some of the allegations against him Bankman-Fried says the final number of conspiracies to violate federal campaign finance laws was noteworthy.
“[That count] It’s really amazing because Bankman-Fried’s mother was involved in some aspect of it. He ran a very large Democratic-type fund for the election. By the way, his father was earning a salary as an employee. They were both in the Bahamas,” he said.
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The 30-year-old girl’s parents are reportedly Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, a law professor at Stanford University in California.
In a later interview with The Story, former New York federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy questioned some of the timing of Bankman-Fried’s arrest by Bahamian authorities, noting that he may have been observed in camera before the Waters committee.
Bankman-Fried’s flight risk was low, McCarthy said, pointing to strong coordination between Nassau and Washington.
“They took their time and presented the case to a grand jury and settled with the Bahamian government. You know, that’s how they got the arrest warrant,” he said.
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House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., will preside over the pending bills.
((AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite))
“If you’ve had that kind of coordination, and you also know that the guy’s on camera testifying to Congress — obviously he’s not going anywhere when he’s on camera. I’m wondering why they thought, you know, we’ve got the obvious stuff, ‘I don’t know, but I wonder if they’re afraid they’re going to run away.”
McCarthy said Bankman-Fried has not been afraid to make public statements about FTX’s collapse, including at a New York Times forum earlier this month via satellite.
The difference between the media and Congress is that the Waters committee would have put him under oath and exposed him to “hostile” inquiry from Republicans on the panel.
He asked why the feds would pass up such an opportunity.
“All they had to do was wait a few hours and let her testify. And then you could open them up right then and there … I think Bankman-Fried was a top Democratic donor and many I’d imagine he gave $40 million to Democrats in the last cycle, behind Soros,” McCarthy said.
“They probably didn’t want to listen to four hours of Republicans arguing that all the money went to politicians.”