Sam Bankman-Fried Wanted to Pay Trump $5 Billion Not To Run in 2024: Report

Disgraced crypto magnate Sam Bankman-Fried considered paying Donald Trump in exchange for his stepping away from the 2024 presidential race, per a new report. According to an excerpt from Michel Lewis’ upcoming book, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, which was published in The Washington Post, Bankman-Fried and his associates attended a backchannel negotiation with the former president to get him to name his price to leave politics.

In an interview with 60 Minutes, Lewis revealed that, according to Bankman-Fried, “there was a number that was kicking around,” regarding Trump’s price: $5 billion.

“Sam was not sure that number came directly from Trump… the question Sam had was […] ‘Was it legal?’” Lewis added. “They were still having these conversations when FTX blew up so ‘why didn’t it happen?’ He didn’t have $5 billion anymore.”

This week, Bankman-Fried will be headed to Manhattan court to stand trial in one of the largest fraud cases in American history. In January, he pleaded not guilty to seven criminal counts including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

But before the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, the loss of his billions, and before being indicted on allegations of defrauding his investors, Bankman-Fried had big plans.

A prolific donor to Democratic candidates and campaigns, according to Lewis, in the months before his arrest Bankman-Fried was preparing to test a new political influence strategy — donating millions to Republican candidates running against Trump-aligned opponents.

Bankman-Fried was reportedly prepared to donate between $15 and $30 million to “friends of” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who would funnel that money to candidates of their choosing. Bankman-Fried told Lewis, as the pair traveled to D.C. on a private jet, that McConnell had “already done the work” of separating out the “people who would actually try to govern versus people who would undermine the government.”

The former crypto tycoon did brag to Lewis about his inroads with the Trump team, and in at least one instance they may have had some minor effects on his public decision-making. Bankman-Fried suggested his team was behind a mystifying episode during the 2022 midterms in which Trump endorsed “ERIC” (last name not specified) in the Missouri Republican Senate primary — a race where both of the leading candidates were named “Eric.”

During his conversation with Lewis, which took place before Trump issued his generic endorsement, Bankman-Fried claimed his team was attempting to communicate the idea to the former president’s team of simply stating that he was “for Eric” without specifying which one. “It’d become a meme,” Bankman-Fried said, explaining that regardless of who won the attention of Trump, it would be a win for the former president.

And while he may have had a hand in one minor Trump episode, his greater plans for the former president fell apart alongside his businesses.

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