Sam Bankman-Fried, the jailed founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, has reignited controversy from behind bars by claiming his 2022 arrest was politically driven, accusing the Biden administration of targeting him after he shifted his political donations toward Republicans.
In a recent post shared on the social platform GETTR, Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy, said his political stance evolved from “centre-left in 2020” to “centrist in 2022.”
He explained this shift came after witnessing what he described as aggressive actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under then-Chair Gary Gensler and the Justice Department (DOJ).
He wrote:
“By 2022—having seen Gensler/Biden’s DOJ on crypto—I was a centrist, and (privately) donated tens of millions to Republicans.”
He further alleged,
“Weeks later, Biden’s anti-crypto SEC/DOJ went after me.”
He claimed his arrest was timed just before a key crypto bill he supported was due for a congressional vote — and a day before he was set to testify before Congress.
Source: GETTR
The sequence of events surrounding Bankman-Fried’s arrest has drawn political scrutiny since late 2022.
At the time, House Republicans accused federal agencies of deliberately intervening to block his testimony.
They demanded that Gensler provide internal communications regarding the timing of the charges.
In his latest post, Bankman-Fried revisited those claims, suggesting that Gensler “conveniently lost” the relevant messages.
His comments came amid renewed attention to record-keeping practices at the SEC.
Last month, the SEC’s Office of Inspector General revealed that nearly a year’s worth of text messages from Gensler’s government-issued phone — spanning from October 2022 to September 2023 — had been erased.
The agency attributed the loss to an “enterprise wipe” triggered by a misconfigured IT policy.
The phone was reportedly marked “inactive” for over two months even though it was still functional, raising questions about internal oversight.
That missing period coincided with major enforcement actions by the SEC against top crypto firms including Coinbase and Binance, as well as the collapse of FTX and Bankman-Fried’s arrest in the Bahamas in December 2022.
Coinbase has since accused the SEC of “destruction of evidence,” demanding sanctions over what it described as a breach of transparency.
Meanwhile, House Republicans have opened a formal investigation into the deletion, citing possible violations of federal record-keeping laws.
Bankman-Fried’s claims extend beyond his legal defence, reflecting a broader political undercurrent within the crypto industry.
In previous interviews, he accused the Biden administration of being “incredibly destructive” toward digital assets and said he turned to GOP lawmakers for cooperation on crypto-friendly legislation before his arrest.
He has also criticised what he called “prosecutorial abuse” within the DOJ, arguing that his conviction — led by a Trump-appointed prosecutor — was politically motivated.
His lawyers contend that his prosecution represents the “politicisation of the DOJ,” a charge the Biden administration has not publicly addressed.
Once one of the most influential figures in cryptocurrency and among the largest political donors of his generation, Bankman-Fried is now serving time at FCI Terminal Island prison after being found guilty of diverting billions in customer funds to his hedge fund, Alameda Research, to cover risky trades, property purchases and political contributions.
Coinlive believes Bankman-Fried’s allegations add a new layer to the uneasy intersection between crypto and politics.
If his claims hold truth, they raise troubling questions about whether regulatory enforcement can ever be separated from political agendas.
Yet for many observers, his sudden shift in narrative may appear as a strategic attempt to reframe a personal downfall into a political drama.
The case exposes how deeply entangled power, policy, and money have become in shaping crypto’s future — a reality both Washington and the blockchain world must now confront.
The fraudsters stole $21.6 million from 40,000 investors to fund a lavish lifestyle, including $100,000 on sex workers. Some were sentenced, others acquitted, with investigations ongoing.
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Cointelegraph