Sam Bankman-Fried hires lawyer for Mexican drug lord

The former head of the bankrupt FTX crypto exchange, Sam Benkman-Fried, has hired a lawyer who previously defended Mexican drug cartel head Joaquin Guzman (known as El Chapo), who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of early release. This was reported by Reuters with reference to Bankman-Fried's representative.

Officially, the US authorities have not yet filed any charges against either Bankman-Fried or Alameda Research’s head Caroline Allison, but they are ready to defend their interests in court. According to unofficial information, the FTX founder is still living in his luxury suite in the Bahamas, and Allison is in New York. In addition to the head of the drug cartel, SBF’s lawyer defended the interests of Gislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for assisting in the sexual exploitation of minors.

One of the reasons why the head of the bankrupt company has not yet been imprisoned for stealing about $ 10 billion of investor funds is believed to be bribing US Democrats. This theory was even supported by Elon Musk, who suggested that the real amount of Fried’s sponsorship of the Democratic Party was even more than $ 1 billion. A few days ago, on Twitter, the businessman asked where the money is now, but there is no answer to this question yet.

It should be reminded that Sam Bankman-Fried's and FTX’s donations became known in early November — more than $ 70 million from the exchange to political campaigns during the 2021/2022 US election cycle and $ 40 million from Fried personally to sponsor Democratic campaigns during the 2022 midterm elections.

FTX’s collapse occurred immediately after the midterm elections to the Senate, which raised a number of suspicions about the external financing of political party funds. Federal regulators and law enforcement agencies stated that they «faced a conflict of interest in identifying, investigating, and disrupting the Sam Bankman-Fried fraudulent scheme.»