Former 'cryptocurrency' billionaire once intended to spend money to prevent Mr. Trump from running for re-election

In an excerpt from the book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon published by The Washington Post , author Michael Lewis writes that Sam Bankman-Fried once intended to give $15-30 million to Republican Senator Mitch McConnell to defeat pro-Trump candidates in the Senate race.

Cựu tỉ phủ từng có ý chi tiền để ngăn ông Trump tái tranh cử - Ảnh 1. — Sam Bankman-Fried appears in a New York court in August

“On another front, he explained to me as the plane was landing in Washington that he was exploring the legality of paying Donald Trump not to run for president,” Lewis wrote.

“His team somehow created a secret channel into Mr. Trump's operations and came back with the shocking news that Donald Trump was actually available: $5 million,” according to the excerpt.

The excerpt does not make clear why Bankman-Fried did not proceed with the plan. Speaking to CBS’s 60 Minutes recently, Lewis said the billionaire’s intention was to prevent Trump from running in 2024. However, Lewis said Bankman-Fried would never know whether the figure was actually Trump’s.

In response to the reports, the former president's spokesman Steven Cheung said: "Wasn't Sam Bankman-Fried a liar who was fired as a fraud and a person who could not be trusted?", according to Business Insider .

Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was the biggest name in the cryptocurrency world a few years ago and at one point had a net worth of $26.5 billion, according to Forbes . However, that status quickly collapsed along with his business empire in 2022.

Before his arrest, Bankman-Fried was a major political donor. He contributed $40 million to Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, but he also admitted to being a Republican donor. In a podcast in May 2022, the FTX founder said he planned to donate more than $100 million in the 2024 presidential election, and the cap could rise to $1 billion if Trump ran again, according to NBC News.

Mr Lewis's book is scheduled to be released on October 3, coinciding with Mr Bankman-Fried's trial which begins this week.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of FTX in November 2022. He faces up to 110 years in prison, but the sentence is likely to be lower, Reuters reported.

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