"Prosecutors say they will not pursue second Sam Bankman-Fried trial"

 Story at CNBC. Apparently the prosecutors decided to split the charges against Bankman-Fried into two main groups and pursue separate trials for each. The first trial involved the charges for "wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and against Alameda Research lenders, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors, and conspiracy to commit money laundering," for which he was convicted by a jury in November 2023. 

    The second trial--which DOJ has decided to forego--included the charges for "conspiracy to bribe foreign officials, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and substantive securities fraud and commodities fraud." In other words, the ones that would have dug into what he did with the money, who he bribed, etc.--things that might have reflected poorly on the DNC. Bankman-Fried was a major contributor to the Democratic Party and, as Time Magazine relates, had "been accused of violating campaign finance laws as part of a scheme to illegally funnel millions of dollars to candidates and political action groups ahead of the 2022 midterm elections."

    Bankman-Fried contributed more than $70 million to election campaigns in less than 18 months, placing him among the nation’s top political donors. He personally gave at least $40 million to politicians and political action committees ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, mostly to Democrats and liberal-leaning groups, making him the second overall top donor to Democrats, only behind George Soros, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

    Bankman-Fried also donated a significant amount to fundraising committees and super PACs affiliated with both parties. The biggest single recipient was Protect Our Future, a Democratic-aligned super PAC that claims it was “designed to help elect candidates who will be champions for pandemic prevention.” The group received $27 million from Bankman-Fried, and supports effective altruism, a philanthropic movement premised on the use of reason and data to allocate money, which Bankman-Fried also supports. Beneficiaries of Protect Our Future include Carrick Flynn, who lost a Democratic primary in Oregon’s 6th District, George Rep. Lucy McBath and Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett.

    Bankman-Fried also gave a combined $7 million to the two main super PACs supporting Democratic candidates for Congress in the 2022 elections.

He also donated the maximum individual amount ($5,800) to numerous Congress-critters on both sides of the aisle. Although the donations to Democratic PACs were public record, Bankman-Fried claims (without proof) that he donated about the same amount to Republican groups. 

    Interestingly, about $5.4 billion that Bankman-Fried stole went to investing in various start-up companies, including at least two Israeli startups: StarkWare and Solidus Labs. StarkWare and Solidus Labs are both involved in research and products to monitor and secure crypto trading.