Politicians and liberal media outlets on the receiving end of FTX donations and grants are sitting on "stolen" money, journalist Glenn Greenwald said Tuesday, urging them to return the funds given to them as a result of a "Ponzi scheme" that impacted an estimated one million customers.
"Everyone knows, including these politicians, that it is not their money," Greenwald said on "Tucker Carlson Tonight." "That money was stolen. It was a Ponzi scheme and people are without their money while these politicians keep the money that doesn’t belong to them."
The bankrupt cryptocurrency company this week called on politicians, campaign committees, and super PACs to return the donations from Sam Bankman-Fried by Feb. 28, warning recipients that making a donation to a third-party charity "does not prevent the FTX debtors from seeking recovery from the recipient or any subsequent transferee."
FTX SEEKING RETURN OF SAM BANKMAN-FRIED'S POLITICAL DONATIONS
The 30-year-old FTX CEO became a major player in Washington with his commitment to philanthropy and political donations that made him the second-largest donor to the Democratic Party in the 2022 election cycle, with over $40 million in contributions. One of the largest donations was to Joe Biden's presidential campaign in 2020, for a total of $5.2 million.
Bankman-Fried is also accused of trying to purchase favorable coverage from the press after it was revealed he gave cash to media outlets including The Intercept, Vox, ProPublica and former New York Times media columnist Ben Smith’s new outlet, Semafor.
"The problem is that he was buying out media outlets, so many of them are recipients of huge amounts of money," Greenwald told Fox News host Tucker Carlson when asked why the media is failing to hold Democrat politicians accountable who have yet to return the FTX donations.
FTX FOUNDER SAM BANKMAN-FRIED'S FAMILY BOASTS DEEP TIES TO DEMOCRAT POWER PLAYERS
"It would be like if Bernie Madoff found to be with his tentacles in a bunch of political offices, you would think there would be a story that would go on primetime and I think the reason why they wanted to get rid of this is it is too revealing…this is how D.C. works and this shows that there are politicians who are very liberal who usually would be in favor of regulating a new cryptocurrency who suddenly got adamant that the government should stay out of it. Turns out that they are getting big money from FTX."
Some recipients have already returned the donations or announced their intentions to return the funds.
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The campaign of former Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke returned a $1 million check from Bankman-Fried a week before FTX filed for bankruptcy, according to the Texas Tribune.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cited the Hatch Act in declining to comment on whether President Biden would return Bankman-Fried's donations.
Fox Business' Paul Best contributed to this report.
