SBF Thought Political Donations Got ‘High Returns’

• Caroline Ellison testified on Tuesday in Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial.
• Ellison, the former CEO of his cryptocurrency hedge fund, said SBF believed money could win him political power.
• He thought “you could get very high returns for relatively small amounts of money,” Ellison testified.

Caroline Ellison testified in court Tuesday that her former partner Sam Bankman-Fried believed he could win himself influence by donating “small” amounts of money to politicians. 

Ellison took the witness stand on Tuesday at Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial, where he faces seven criminal counts and has pled not guilty on all counts.

Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried defrauded customers and investors of FTX, his now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange, by siphoning their funds to Alameda Research, his cryptocurrency hedge fund, without their knowledge or permission.

As part of her testimony Tuesday in a downtown Manhattan federal courtroom, Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, said Bankman-Fried donated $10 million to Biden in 2020.

Federal Election Commission records show that Bankman-Fried personally donated $52,800 directly to Biden’s Victory Fund and Biden for President in 2020 — though he’s also accused of donating to politicians under other peoples’ names. 

Campaign finance data show Bankman-Fried also donated millions to states’ democratic committees and other progressive groups in 2020.

Ellison said that the money donated to Biden was a small amount of money for Bankman-Fried. He believed that even this got him important recognition later on.

“He thought it was very effective, that you could get very high returns for relatively small amounts of money,” she said.

Later, Ellison testified that Bankman-Fried also believed there was a chance he could be elected US President one day. 

While putting together a balance sheet for Alameda in 2022, Ellison says she saw a $35 million loan to former FTX executive Ryan Salame. Ellison understood it was for donations to Republican political candidates, per her testimony.

Salame, who was one of Bankman-Fried’s political fixers, said in September 2022 that he donated $13.4 million to that year’s Republican primary races. Last month, Salame pleaded guilty to defrauding the Federal Elections Commission and to illegally making a campaign contribution on behalf of a company. 

“He said he really valued Ryan for his loyalty,” Ellison told the jury. 

In the 2022 campaign cycle alone, Bankman-Fried contributed over $40 million in political donations, and those primarily went to progressive funds, the FEC data shows.

The Protect Our Future PAC, which helped support the campaigns of dozens of Democrats running for Congress, received $27 million from Bankman-Fried, per FEC records.

Ellison pleaded guilty to four criminal counts herself and is testifying as part of a cooperation agreement.

Besides serving as the CEO of Alameda Research, Ellison had an on-and-off relationship with Bankman-Fried from 2019 to 2022. Ellison said in her testimony on Tuesday that they made their relationship official in 2020. 

“The whole time we were dating, he was also my boss, so that created some awkward situations,” Ellison said on Tuesday.

Representatives for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.