This has been a big month for the crypto-criminals. One of their top shills gave the SOTU response for the GOP, raising her profile immensely and, no doubt, making Sam Bankman Fried proud or… wistful. After all he’s sitting in a prison cell, maybe for life and none of the people he bribed, like Senator Britt of Alabama, have been charged with anything. Britt would never have been in the Senate if not for Bankman Fried and his crypto-cronies. Although they couldn’t get her to 50%, they spent millions to help her beat Mo Brooks in the runoff.
No doubt, the crypto-crooks running the show post-Bankman Fried were even more excited by all their electoral victories this month— placing people in Congress who, like Britt, are beholden to them and ready to deliver (lax oversight). They bought Shomani Figures first place in the new blue Alabama district (AL-02) crooked crypto-SuperPAC Protect Progress spent $1.7 million on behalf of Figures, two-thirds of all the spending combined for all 11 candidates!
In Texas their big bet ($961,800) also came from Protect Progress and was on Julie Johnson, a conservative Democrat in the Dallas suburbs (TX-32, Colin Allred’s seat, which he’s giving up to run against Ted Cruz). She nudged just past the 50% mark in a 10 person primary-- which included some very big spenders-- and will not face a runoff. Crypto has another ally in Congress.
Protect Progress has amassed $5,325,000 so far and the other crypto SuperPAC, Fairshake, put together a $91,999.089.09 warchest, some of which they have already spent on some of Congress’ most corrupt members like Tom Emmer (R-MN), Don Davis (D-NC), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Zach Nunn (R-IA), Young Kim (R-CA), Greg Meeks (D-NY), Patrick McHenry (R-NC)… All the folks trying to help crypto evade serious oversight.
L.A. Times reporter Laura Nelson looked into their biggest single investment, defeating Katie Porter. They spent millions on television and social media ads calling her “a fake, an actor and a hypocrite inundated social media platforms and television. Expense reports are still coming in, although Fairshake has spent at least $10 million against her with the the idea of bumping her out of the Senate race. It worked.
“Fairshake,” reported Nelson, “boasted that the Orange County lawmaker’s alliance with mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a vocal skeptic of cryptocurrency, had ‘ended her career in Congress.’ Porter later blamed her loss on ‘an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election,’ a not-too-subtle allusion to the crypto group’s major donors... Fairshake was the largest outside spender in the Senate primary.”
After two years of bad headlines, including the conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Fraud charges, the cryptocurrency industry is back in the political arena, flexing its significant cash reserves in the 2024 election cycle. The California Senate race is one of many in which the industry has signaled that it will boost candidates who support more favorable crypto laws in Washington, and oust those who don’t.
“That amount of money buys you a seat at the political table in Washington, D.C., and that’s their goal,” said Dennis Kelleher, chief executive and co-founder of Better Markets, a financial watchdog group that has been a frequent opponent of the crypto industry in Washington.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has asserted in court that cryptocurrency should be regulated like stocks and bonds, which would require trading firms to follow a wide range of disclosure and investor protection laws. The industry has lobbied for more favorable regulations, including allowing the markets to be regulated by the smaller Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
…Sawyer Hackett, a spokesman for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which backed Porter, said the $10-million ad buy “probably contributed a significant amount” to Porter’s loss. In California’s costly media markets, he said, $10 million doesn’t win or lose a race, but “it’s certainly a major factor, especially when you’re talking about the final weeks of the election when Democratic voters are considering the options in front of them.”
He said he wasn’t surprised to see the crypto industry spending against Porter, who has a “somewhat minor” track record on crypto issues but has proved herself willing to take on major industries to defend consumers. The crypto industry, he said, is “targeting candidates with an overall brand that seems to be focused on antitrust and pro-consumer policy.”
Fairshake’s major donors include venture capital giants Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who have invested in dozens of crypto companies; crypto investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss; and Brian Armstrong, the chief executive of Coinbase.