Jailed SBF turns on Biden, aligns with Trump in apparent pardon play

Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former FTX CEO, is changing his political loyalties from Joe Biden to Donald Trump while sitting in a Manhattan detention center.

In his first interview from prison that was released on Thursday, Sam called his trial rigged, accused Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) of political interference, and even said that his 25-year prison sentence was a targeted takedown.

Sam, who once funneled millions into Democratic campaigns, now says he was secretly supporting Republicans too, but his GOP donations were hidden from public view. He claims his prosecution was orchestrated because of his financial ties to conservative politicians, something he says was “starting to come out” just before he was indicted.

“Not being able to just Google something is one of the worst parts of this,” Sam said in his interview.

Sam says his case was political, blames Biden’s DOJ for targeting him

Speaking from inside the Manhattan Detention Center, Sam accused Judge Lewis Kaplan, the man who sentenced him, of bias. He compared his situation to Trump’s legal battles, saying Kaplan was part of a larger network of judges that Trump’s incoming DOJ considers corrupt.

“Trump had a lot of frustrations with Kaplan,” Sam said. “I certainly did as well.”

SBF claimed Kaplan made rulings that directly helped the prosecution, including allowing the DOJ to falsely tell the jury that all of FTX’s customers lost everything, while barring Sam’s defense from arguing the opposite. “The jury was told something that was just not true, and Kaplan blocked us from correcting it,” Sam said.

He also took direct aim at Danielle Sassoon, the lead prosecutor in his case, who later resigned instead of dismissing a separate corruption case involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams. SBF implied that her sudden departure raises questions about how she handled his case.

“My prosecutor has been in the news recently for tussles with Trump’s DOJ,” he said, referring to the growing power struggle between Trump’s legal team and Biden’s remaining prosecutors.

Sam believes his case is a perfect example of political weaponization. He pointed to sentencing disparities, claiming that another FTX executive—a Republican who took a plea deal—got a much harsher punishment than three Democrats who also pleaded guilty.

“There was a lot of explicit politicization going on,” Sam said. “Threats were made. A Republican congressional candidate was told his wife would be indicted if he didn’t play along with Biden’s DOJ.”

Sam claims crypto industry was targeted

While mainstream media reports painted SBF as a Democratic megadonor, he now says that’s only half the story. According to him, he was quietly funneling millions into Republican campaigns and conservative causes, but doing so in secret.

“It’s sometimes framed in the press that I was giving an extraordinary amount to Democrats, and that Republican donations were just an afterthought,” Sam said. “That’s not true. The Republican side was way bigger than people realized.”

Sam says his stance on crypto policy played a major role in his downfall. He spent years lobbying in Washington, working with legislators, regulators, and even the White House. But instead of finding bipartisan allies, he says he became increasingly frustrated with the Biden administration, which he described as being “incredibly destructive” toward crypto.

“The Democratic Party was becoming anti-crypto, and I was trying to stop it,” SBF said. “I spent years in D.C. trying to work across the aisle to prevent draconian measures against the industry. But Biden’s administration was impossible to work with.”

He believes the government wanted a scapegoat, and he became the easiest target.

SBF reiterates that FTX was always solvent, blames bankruptcy lawyers

Sam is still maintaining that FTX wasn’t bankrupt when he was forced out. He blames the collapse on outside intervention, saying his company had enough money to fully repay customers before a group of lawyers took control.

“There were enough assets to pay everyone back in full in November 2022,” Sam said. “If these debtors hadn’t stepped in, customers wouldn’t have waited two and a half years to get their money.”

Sam says the bankruptcy team running FTX misled the public, initially claiming there were only $1 billion in assets, when in reality, they eventually found $15 billion. He says the numbers magically kept increasing over time, proving that the company was never actually insolvent.

“At first, they said there was $1 billion. Then a few months later, they found $5 billion. Then it was $7 billion, then $13 billion, then $15 billion,” SBF said. “They just kept pretending there wasn’t money there.”

Sam believes that instead of letting him fix the liquidity crisis, the government and bankruptcy lawyers froze everything, leaving FTX customers stranded.

“All they had to do was let me run the company for another few weeks,” Sam said. “The money was already there. They chose to sit on their hands for years instead.”

SBF defends his business model, says no fraud took place

Sam once again denied the fact that he stole customer funds, saying FTX’s structure was always based on borrowing and margin trading. He described FTX’s finances as no different from a bank run, where liquidity temporarily dries up, but assets remain intact.

“Most of FTX’s customers traded on margin, which means they borrowed money to buy crypto,” SBF said. “When people do that, the exchange doesn’t hold one-to-one reserves of every deposit. That’s how every trading platform works.”

He says his biggest mistake was giving up control of FTX, rather than fighting back against the bankruptcy takeover.

“The single biggest mistake I made was backing down in November 2022,” Sam said. “I should have never let these lawyers take over. They spent years lying to customers, telling them there was no money left, when they knew that wasn’t true.”

Sam also argued that intent matters in fraud cases, saying that FTX was never in a position where it couldn’t repay customers. He compared it to banks or investment funds that move money around while remaining solvent.

“If a company is totally insolvent—like owes ten times what it has—that’s fraud,” Sam said. “But that wasn’t us. FTX always had more assets than liabilities.”

Despite being behind bars, SBF said he still believes crypto isn’t going anywhere, and he expects more politicians to get involved. When asked about Trump’s recent meme coin, he said he wasn’t surprised.

“Politicians are dipping their toes into crypto,” Sam said. “That’s only going to increase over time.”

Asked whether he had any plans if he were to get out of prison, Sam refused to speculate.

“I try not to think about it too much right now because there’s nothing I can do, I mean right now  I’ve got 20-something years left on my sentence,” he said in the interview.

But despite it all, SBF remains focused on one thing—his appeal.

“We have oral arguments coming up in the next three to six months,” Sam said. “The odds are always stacked against you in federal court, but I’m cautiously optimistic.”

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