VIDEOS:
CRYPTO - FTX $32 Billion Collapse is Worst in USA History as no Cash, Cryptocurrency or Records
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to2SY2Kf5mQ
In this episode we take a deep dive into Sam Bankman-fried (SBF) and the FTX / Alameda situation.
The FTX Disaster is Deeper Than you Think
DEMS AND SAM
Tucker Carlson: Investors didn't notice this red flag in FTX scandal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaxEK-lDVys
FTX: Worse Than Enron!
JUDICIAL WATCH
Throughout her storied political career, Waters has been embroiled in numerous controversies, including abusing her power to enrich family members, getting a communist dictator to harbor a cop-murdering Black Panther fugitive still wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and accusing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of selling crack cocaine in black neighborhoods.
Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX Cronies Gave $300k to House Committee Members Investigating Him
House Financial Services Committee chair Maxine Waters has dodged questions about crypto titan's donations
Sam Bankman-Fried and executives at his cryptocurrency firm contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to members of the House committee that will hold hearings next month on the company’s collapse.
Bankman-Fried and his co-founders at FTX contributed $300,351 to nine members of the House Financial Services Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records. Some of the largest contributions were to Democrats on the committee’s Digital Assets Working Group, which worked on regulation of the crypto industry. Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), who chairs the committee, announced a probe this week into FTX’s collapse after the company declared bankruptcy, wiping out billions of dollars in customers’ portfolios. The Justice Department and Securities Exchange Commission are reportedly investigating Bankman-Fried for potential misuse of customer funds.
Bankman-Fried’s donations to committee members could raise concerns that the lawmakers will not adequately investigate the crypto kingpin, who spent millions on advertising, lobbying, and philanthropic causes to burnish his company’s image as an ethical crypto company in an industry rife with scam artists. Of the nine committee members who received contributions from Bankman-Fried, only Rep. Chuy Garcia (D., Ill.) has said he would return a $2,900 contribution from the billionaire. While Waters said the committee will investigate FTX’s "collapse," the Democrat has no apparent plans to look into Bankman-Fried’s efforts to buy favor in Washington.
Waters dodged questions this week about whether she is concerned about Bankman-Fried’s political donations. "Well, I don't want to get into that. As a matter of fact, both sides, Democrats and Republicans, have received donations," she told Fox Business.
While Bankman-Fried has donated to Republicans, more than 95 percent of his contributions have gone to Democrats and Democratic committees. Along with top FTX executives, he contributed to seven Democrats and two Republicans on the Financial Services committee. They gave to five members of the committee’s Digital Assets Working Group, which Waters launched last year to "support responsible innovation that protects consumers and investors" and to craft regulations for the industry. To date, the Digital Assets Working Group has not proposed regulations for the industry, which some lawmakers say would have blunted the impact of FTX’s bankruptcy on its customers.
Garcia was the biggest recipient of Bankman-Fried cash. Bankman-Fried’s political action committee, Protect Our Future PAC, spent $199,851 on ads supporting Garcia, who serves on the committee’s Digital Assets Working Group. Bankman-Fried contributed another $2,900 to Garcia’s campaign.
Bankman-Fried and his associates gave to four other members of the Digital Assets Working Group, Reps. Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.), Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.), Jim Himes (D., Conn.), and Sean Casten (D., Ill.).
Bankman-Fried and his brother Gabriel gave $40,300 in all to Torres’s campaign and two of his political committees, the Torres Victory Fund and La Bamba PAC. Bankman-Fried and the head of FTX’s regulatory division gave $16,600 to Gottheimer, while other Bankman-Fried associates contributed $500 to Himes and $9,100 to Casten.
Casten has another link to the embattled crypto titan. Gabriel Bankman-Fried, who directs his brother’s political outreach, worked as a congressional aide for Casten until last year. He visited the White House on March 7 along with an adviser to the Democracy Alliance, the progressive network funded by Democratic billionaire donors.
Bankman-Fried contributed $11,600 to House Financial Services Committee members Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D., Mass.) and $5,000 to the super PAC for Rep. Cindy Axne (D., Iowa), an apparent violation of her self-imposed pledge to reject campaign donations from corporations.
His intensive lobbying campaign appeared to pay off before his company’s demise. He supported legislation proposed by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) and Sen. John Boozman (R., Ark.) that would have subjected the crypto industry to regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not the larger and aggressive Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bankman-Fried donated $5,800 to Stabenow’s campaign in February and $20,800 to her joint fundraising committee in January. Bankman-Fried gave $5,800 to Boozman in January and $5,800 to committee member Sen. John Hoeven (R., N.D.) in June. He gave a combined $31,000 to campaigns and joint fundraising committees tied to Sens. Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Tina Smith (D., Minn.), Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.), who serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
The 30-year-old entrepreneur donated $5 million to a super PAC that supported President Joe Biden in 2020 and $40 million this cycle, largely to Democrats. He contributed $6 million to the House Majority PAC, $1 million to the Senate Majority PAC, and nearly $900,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
The donations secured him White House meetings and appearances earlier this year at Democrats’ annual retreat in Philadelphia. Bankman-Fried visited the White House three times this year with lobbyists from his company, the Washington Free Beacon reported. They met on April 22 and May 12 with Steve Ricchetti, one of Biden’s closest advisers. Bankman-Fried testified before the House Financial Services Committee on Dec. 7, where he said his goal in starting FTX was to "have a positive impact around the world." He appeared on a panel with Waters at the Democratic retreat in Philadelphia in March and was photographed arm-in-arm with the committee chairwoman after the event.
Waters’s office did not respond to questions about Bankman-Fried’s donations to committee members.
Maxine Waters Dodges on Whether Democrats Should Return FTX Donations
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Maxine Waters (D-CA) dodged questions about whether Democrats should return donations from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Waters said that Republicans and Democrats benefitted from FTX donations, saying, “Well, I don’t want to get into that. As a matter of fact, both sides, Democrats and Republicans, have received donations. So thank you.”
Waters added that the committee will hold a hearing in December to “explore exactly what has taken place” with FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried contributed millions to Democrat candidates during the 2022 midterm elections; he reportedly donated roughly $38 million to various candidates and PACs.
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, speaks during the Institute of International Finance (IIF) annual membership meeting in Washington, DC, on Oct. 13, 2022. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Daily Beast noted that many Democrat candidates and politicians had received donations from FTX:
The Daily Beast reached out to more than 25 lawmakers that received money and reported that some said they’ll give the money to charity. Other congressmen said they spent it to boost other Democratic candidates, and some didn’t reply at all.
Names of Democratic candidates that have received political contributions from FTX include Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., and Reps.-elect Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Sydney Kamlager of California, Jonathan Jackson of Illinois, Nikki Budzinski of Illinois, Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Rob Menendez Jr. of New Jersey.
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, spoke about the need to uncover any wrongdoing by the company:
Chairwoman Waters and I are announcing a House Financial Services Committee hearing on the FTX debacle. Oversight is one of Congress’ most critical functions and we must get to the bottom of this for FTX’s customers and the American people. It’s essential that we hold bad actors accountable so responsible players can harness technology to build a more inclusive financial system.
He added, “I appreciate Chairwoman Waters’ working with Republicans to deliver accountability through a bipartisan process.”
Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC), ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
Maxine Waters Pays Daughter Hundreds of Thousands in Campaign Funds
Rep. Maxine Waters's (D., Calif.) campaign paid her daughter hundreds of thousands in campaign funds during the 2020 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Karen Waters received $240,000 from her mother’s campaign for a variety of campaign activities, including soliciting campaign contributions from other candidates in exchange for the congresswoman's endorsement on campaign mailers, Fox News reported.
WATCH: Biden Says He Agrees With Everything Maxine Waters Says. Roll the Tape.
'The hell with the Supreme Court.' 'I will go and take Trump out tonight.'
Thaleigha Rampersad and Andrew Stiles •
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President Joe Biden recognized Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) during a visit to a Los Angeles construction site on Thursday. "Whatever Maxine says I agree with," Biden said.
Fortunately for Biden, the congresswoman was actually in attendance as opposed to being dead. Yet it's unclear if the president realized the implications of his comments, given that Waters is a boisterous radical known for her unhinged rhetoric. Earlier this year, for example, she imperiled democracy by threatening a journalist seeking comment about the time she told a bunch of homeless people to "go home" when they showed up to an event seeking Section 8 housing vouchers.
Fun fact: Waters is even older than Biden. She turned 84 in August.
Published under: Joe Biden, Maxine Waters
Maxine Waters Pays Daughter Hundreds of Thousands in Campaign Funds
Rep. Maxine Waters's (D., Calif.) campaign paid her daughter hundreds of thousands in campaign funds during the 2020 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Karen Waters received $240,000 from her mother’s campaign for a variety of campaign activities, including soliciting campaign contributions from other candidates in exchange for the congresswoman's endorsement on campaign mailers, Fox News reported.
This is not the first time Maxine Waters has used the controversial practice to raise funds for her campaign, and her campaign has paid her daughter for years to help manage the scheme.
From 2006 through 2020, Waters’s campaign shelled out more than $1 million to her daughter—either directly or through Progressive Connections, Karen Waters’s public relations firm—for producing what are known as slate mailers featuring her mother's endorsement of California candidates. Karen Waters raked in more than $200,000 from her mother’s campaign during the 2018 election cycle, the Washington Free Beacon first reported.
Watchdog groups have filed complaints asking the FEC to audit Waters's campaign for using the mailers. The campaign has faced criticism for the mailers since 2010, when one watchdog group first reported that the congresswoman had been paying her daughter to run the operation.
California Democrats including Governor Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Waters’s campaign for the endorsement mailers.
Though the FEC caps individual campaign contributions at $2,800, payments for the slate mailers are considered "reimbursements" for Waters’s endorsement. The commission issued an advisory opinion in 2004 allowing Waters permission to run the operation through her campaign.
Waters was first elected to Congress in 1990 and serves California's 43rd Congressional District.
Maxine Waters Unfit to Chair House Financial Services Committee
Considering her record and documented history of poor ethical and moral fitness, it’s outrageous that Maxine Waters is up for chair of the ultra-powerful House Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over the country’s banking system, economy, housing, and insurance.
With Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives, come January the 14-term California congresswoman is expected to head the committee, which also has jurisdiction over monetary policy, international finance, and efforts to combat terrorist financing.
Throughout her storied political career, Waters has been embroiled in numerous controversies, including abusing her power to enrich family members, getting a communist dictator to harbor a cop-murdering Black Panther fugitive still wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and accusing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of selling crack cocaine in black neighborhoods.
A few months ago, the 80-year-old Democrat from Los Angeles encouraged violence against Trump administration cabinet members. “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they are not welcome anymore, anywhere,” Waters said at a summer rally in Los Angeles. Judicial Watch filed a House ethics complaint against Waters for encouraging violence against Trump Cabinet members.
Among her most corrupt acts as a federal legislator is steering millions of federal bailout dollars to her husband’s failing bank, OneUnited. Waters allocated $12 million to the Massachusetts bank in which she and her board member husband held shares. OneUnited subsequently got shut down by the government and American taxpayers got stiffed for the millions.
Judicial Watch investigated the scandal and obtained documents from the U.S. Treasury related to the controversial bailout. The famously remiss House Ethics Committee, which is charged with investigating and punishing corrupt lawmakers like Waters, found that she committed no wrongdoing. The panel bought Waters’ absurd story that she allocated the money as part of her longtime work to promote opportunity for minority-owned businesses and lending in underserved communities even though her husband’s bank was located thousands of miles away from the south Los Angeles neighborhoods she represents in Congress.
The reality is that without intervention by Waters OneUnited was an extremely unlikely candidate for a government bailout through the disastrous Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The Treasury Department warned that it would only provide bailout funds to healthy banks to jump-start lending and OneUnited clearly didn’t meet that criteria.
Documents uncovered by Judicial Watch detail the deplorable financial condition of OneUnited at the time of the government cash infusion. The records also show that, prior to the bailout, the bank received a “less than satisfactory rating.” Incredibly, after that scandal Waters was chosen by her colleagues to hold a ranking position on the House Financial Services Committee she will soon chair. The only consequence for blowing $12 million on her husband’s failing bank was a slap on the hand to Waters’ chief of staff (her grandson) for violating House standards of conduct to help OneUnited.
Waters, who represents some of Los Angeles’ poorest inner-city neighborhoods, has also helped family members make more than $1 million through business ventures with companies and causes that she has helped, according to her hometown newspaper. While she and her relatives get richer (she lives in a $4.5 million Los Angeles mansion), her constituents get poorer.
The congresswoman was also embroiled in a fundraising scandal for skirting federal election rules with a shady gimmick that allows unlimited donations from certain contributors. Instead of raising most of her campaign funds from individuals or political action committees, Waters sells her endorsement to other politicians and political causes for as much as $45,000 a pop.
It wouldn’t be right to part without also noting some of Waters’ international accolades. She has made worldwide headlines for her frequent trips to communist Cuba to visit her convicted cop-assassin friend, Joanne Chesimard, who appears on the FBI’s most wanted list and is also known by her Black Panther name of Assata Shakur.
Chesimard was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted by a jury of the 1979 murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. With the help of fellow cult members, she escaped from jail and fled to Cuba. Outraged U.S. lawmakers insisted she be extradited but Waters always stood by her side, likening the cop-assassin to civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
In fact, Waters wrote Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro a letter to assure him that she was not part of the group of U.S. legislators who voted for a resolution to extradite the cop murderer. Waters told Castro that she opposed extradition because Chesimard was “politically persecuted” in the U.S. and simply seeking political asylum in Havana, where she still lives.
In the 1980s Waters accused the CIA of selling crack cocaine to blacks in her south-central Los Angeles district to raise millions of dollars to support clandestine operations in Latin America, including a guerrilla army. During the infamous 1992 Los Angeles riots the congresswoman repeatedly excused the violent behavior that ironically destroyed the areas she represents in the House. She dismissed the severe beating of a white truck driver by saying the anger in her district was righteous. She also excused looters who stole from stores by saying they were simply mothers capitalizing on an opportunity to take some milk, bread, and shoes.
Should this ethically and morally challenged individual, who has repeatedly displayed behavior unbecoming of a federal lawmaker, be at the helm of an influential congressional committee that oversees the financial sector?
CLEARLY WE KNOW HOW MUCH BILLARY, HILLARY AND THE OBOMB MADE SERVICING CRIMINAL BANKSTERS. ALL PAID VIA 'SPEECH' FEES AT ABOUT $500k EACH. OBAMA PRIDED HIMSELF IN MAKING SURE NO CRIMINAL BANKSTER EVER WENT TO PRISON. MOST OF HIS BANKSTERS CONTINUE TO THIS DAY TO PLUNDER WITH IMPUNITY!
KAMALA HARRIS WAS WAITING ON THE SIDELINES IN CA AS A.G. SUCKING OFF WELLS FARGO AND 'KING OF FORECLOSURES' STEVEN MNUCHIN.
THE OLD WHORE FEINSTEIN FOUGHT AGAINST ENDING 'CONSULTANT FEES TO FAMILY MEMBERS' BRIBES AS HER PIMP HUSBAND, RICHARD BLUM WAS DOLING OUT BIG MONEY TO BOXER SO SHE WOULD VOTE FOR ANYTHING THAT BENEFITED THE CRIME DUAL OF FEINSTEIN-BLUM.
FEINSTEIN IS A WHORE FOR RED CHINA, HAS SERVED THEM LONG FOR 'DEALS' THAT HER PIMP MADE. FEINSTEIN HAS LONG VOTED IN THE SENATE FOR ANYTHING THAT WOULD BENEFIT RED CHINA.
FEINSTEIN IS ALSO THE BIGGEST WAR PROFITEER IN U.S. HISTORY. SHE'S SO FUCKING CORRUPT SHE QUICKLY ENDORSED JOE BIDEN FOR THE PRESIDENCY, AFTER ALL, HE'S A FEINSTEIN CLONE.
Maxine Waters's paid-mailer racket snowballs
When we last visited Rep. Maxine Waters's hightly questionable 'slate-mailer' money-making racket in 2019, where candidates and causes get Waters's endorsement in exchange for cash, her daughter Karen who runs the thing had just pocketed $50,000.
Well, the operation seems to have gotten bigger, and Karen appears to be richer, all from mama Maxine's simple word of endorsement.
According to Fox News, citing federal election data and a 2018 report from the Washington Free Beacon:
The reelection of U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters to another term in Congress last month proved to be something of a financial windfall for Karen Waters, the California Democrat's daughter, federal election data suggest.
Karen Waters received a total of about $240,000 from her 82-year-old mother’s campaign during the election cycle, Federal Election Commission records show.
The dollar figure appears to mirror what Karen Waters received during her mother’s previous campaign in 2018, when the daughter was paid “more than $200,000,” according to a November 2018 report by the Washington Free Beacon.
Which is nice work if you can get it. Seriously, this person makes $240,000 which is nearly equal to what the mayor of Los Angeles makes, or the average U.S. Senator makes, or Maxine herself makes as a House member at $174,000 a year. It's more than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi makes ($223,500). It's certainly more than California's Gov. Gavin Newsom ($210,000) makes.
All for the little task of assembling a mailer to fill the voters' junk mail takings and then the recycle bins in one part of one county, and collecting cash on the content. Running the country's largest state with the world's seventh largest economy, by contrast, is less important stuff. Karen Waters must be brilliant.
Which raises questions as to why Waters, a far left demogogue, is selling her endorsements for cash, and what the payers of these endorsements, are really getting for their money. We know the Waters machine is strong, but so strong as to merit inflated fees and salaries for Waters and her family? This is known as getting rich while in public office. Waters is the only one who's doing this sleazy machine-politics practice on a national scale, but don't imagine other Democrats aren't also looking to cash in.
Everybody wins when Maxine sells her endorsement, Maxine's family with cash, and others with cash turned into newfound power. The only losers are the voters, who get these misleading junk mail flyers in their mail and vote on arguably false premises.
What a racket this is for people like Waters. Still no sign of any legislation to stop this practice.
Image: Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
Waters Has Shoveled Over $1 Million in Campaign Cash to Daughter
Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) has now dished out more than $1 million in campaign payments to her daughter following the 2020 elections.
Karen Waters has pocketed $1.13 million for providing an array of services for her mother's campaign since 2003. The majority of the cash is for her role in running a controversial slate-mailer operation, in which California politicians gave money to Waters's campaign in exchange for mailers bearing her endorsement.
The mailers have become increasingly lucrative for the younger Waters over the years. During the 2020 cycle, her payments hit a high of $240,000. That's significantly more than the $90,000 her firm, Progressive Connections, took in during the 2006 election cycle. The Federal Election Commission gave Waters the green light for the mailer operation in 2004.
While slate mailers are commonplace in states like California and Oregon, the practice is extremely rare at the federal level. In fact, Waters appears to be the only federal politician to use a slate-mailer operation. As such, the arrangement between her and her daughter has led to complaints from watchdog groups asking the FEC to audit the campaign.
Many prominent California politicians have paid to be featured on the mailers. Vice President Kamala Harris twice shelled out tens of thousands from her campaigns for a spot on the mailers. California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) and former senator Barbara Boxer (D.) have likewise dished out cash for Waters's support.
The practice has received criticism from local media."While some of these mailers reflect the earnest political values of the organizations that put them together, many are pay-to-play money-makers that blur the line between endorsement, paid advertisement and extortion," CalMatters wrote last year.
Waters's campaign did not return a request for comment.
