Sam Bankman-Fried's D.C. charm offensive

IN 2022, IT WAS HARD TO WALK AROUND WASHINGTON without seeing Sam Bankman-Fried's face.

- ANDREW R. CHOW

While the press often praised him for his humility, the founder and CEO of the crypto exchange FTX plastered ads of himself all over the city, and particularly in areas where congressional staffers might walk to work, like Union Station. Although Sam still lived in the Bahamas in order to avoid regulation, he was shuttling from Nassau to Washington, D.C., every week or two to meet with lawmakers and regulators, making a power play for the nation's capital.

After FTX's crash, theories would fly about Sam's larger designs on Washington. Some speculated that he had been angling to move FTX back to U.S. soil and carve out concessions to make it the top crypto company in the country. Others believed he was laying the groundwork for a political career himself. A less charitable theory was that he hoped to pre-emptively seek federal leniency for the illegal activity he knew he was already committing.

Whatever Sam's long-term goals were, he made his short-term aims plenty evident: he stumped for a friendlier regulatory climate for crypto companies in the U.S., so that he could sell more crypto products to Americans. Getting favorable legislation seemed feasible in 2022, given how much national excitement there was about crypto-and how little lawmakers actually understood it.

Sam's approach to Washington was two-pronged. The first was a charm offensive, involving high-profile hearing appearances and closed-door meetings with members of Congress and regulatory officials. The second was a donations blitzkrieg for crypto-friendly candidates, which was led by Sam's younger brother Gabe. Sam's money and sudden omnipresence in Washington sent shock waves through the Democratic Party establishment. "Washington is a place where the power structure is more or less set," says a former member of the Treasury Department. "And Sam disrupted it."