According to CBS News, Lewis said Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) wanted to stop Donald Trump's 2024 White House bid because he was concerned that he was a threat to American democracy. Bankman-Fried's ambition failed because he was uncertain about the legality of the proposal and FTX went bankrupt in November 2022.

In the 2022 midterm elections, the FTX boss donated $40 million to the Democratic Party, and he was also revealed to be a major Republican donor. However, an allegation has been made that Bankman-Fried used more than $100 million of client funds to donate to the election.

SBF faces up to life in prison on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried illegally used billions of dollars of client funds to buy real estate and make bets through the Alameda Research cryptocurrency hedge fund. The U.S. government said FTX client cash was transferred to Alameda in two ways, directly into accounts held by Alameda and through a “secret door” operated by FTX.

FTX co-founder Gary Wang has agreed to cooperate with US federal prosecutors and became the first key witness to appear at SBF’s trial on October 3. According to SCMP , Bankman-Fried had planned to defraud investors since FTX was founded in 2019, modifying software to allow Alameda to withdraw unlimited funds from the platform. Gary Wang said the credit line granted to Alameda was gradually increased, eventually reaching a whopping $65 billion.

At the time of FTX’s collapse, Alameda Research owed clients $8 billion and was unable to repay them. Mr. Wang revealed that Bankman-Fried repeatedly asked employees to record client losses on Alameda’s books to hide the transaction from the public and not damage FTX’s image.