SBF tried to buy off Washington, says Congressman Patrick McHenry

• Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was recently arrested by authorities in The Bahamas and has been charged by the US SEC.

• Patrick McHenry revealed that the former FTX chairman tried to buy off Washington.

• FTX’s collapse continues to make headlines in the crypto market.

SBF attempted to buy off Washington

Congressman Patrick McHenry told CNBC in an interview earlier today that the former FTX CEO attempted to buy off Washington. He made this statement when asked about FTX’s influence in Congress.

“Do you think @SBF_FTX bought off Washington?” @andrewrsorkin asks @PatrickMcHenry: pic.twitter.com/WJlqSYWuOA

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) December 13, 2022

SBF was reported to have been a major donor to politicians in the United States. When asked if SBF bought off Washington, McHenry said;

“He tried to buy off Washington. And if you look at his interview with Vox, it shows that he was a manipulator of world-class capacity. He was trying to pull off something that was light-touch regulation for his platform.”
The Congressman said he is looking for a proper balance in the crypto space so that consumers will not fall prey to FTX or some successor of Sam Bankman-Fried. 

SBF was arrested a few hours ago in the Bahamas as he was set to appear before the United States House Committee on Finance Services. When asked about the timing of the arrest, McHenry said;

“In his short career, SBF has shown himself to be a highly unreliable witness. I don’t have high expectations that he was going to expose the world or Congress to some deeper insight. I think it was important to have him and further the process of what happened.”

US SEC charges SBF with defrauding FTX investors

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged SBF with defrauding FTX investors a few hours ago. The charges protect institutional investors that invested in FTX but not the actual customers who had money on the platform. When asked about the contents of the SEC’s charges, McHenry said the lack of clear regulation around cryptocurrencies and digital assets makes it hard for regulators to argue their cases. The regulatory agencies have clear regulations for commodities and equities but none yet for digital assets. He added that;

“Regulators have clearly failed to regulate digital assets. It is now incumbent on Congress to specify the law so that the regulators can regulate. That is going to be my focus as the next chair of the House Finance Services Committee.”

In an interview earlier this month, Michael Saylor, the MicroStrategy executive chairman, said he believes the FTX fiasco was unethical and illegal from the beginning.

Mike Novogratz also said SBF is delusional about what happened with FTX and his role in bringing down the cryptocurrency exchange.