On November 18, 2022, it was announced that the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTTP) had been forced to write off a US$95-million investment in FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange which spectacularly collapsed over the initial weeks of November.
The OTTP is one of many institutions to have lost vast sums by placing its faith in Sam Bankman-Fried, the company’s well-connected 30-year-old founder. Typically, a pension fund - particularly one managing the savings of public sector employees - would be averse to investing in such a risky, under-regulated sector as cryptocurrency.
However, the FTX chief came highly recommended by much of the US media, and high-ranking Democratic party politicians. Now, these same voices are rushing to demand official investigations into the crypto industry, and condemn the cult of personality surrounding Bankman-Fried. These same elements predictably refuse to acknowledge their own pivotal role in creating the crisis, and losing everyday citizens and established institutions significant sums of money.
The plot thickens every day. It’s increasingly clear that all Bankman-Fried’s commercial ventures were fundamentally fraudulent. Bloomberg has revealed US prosecutors opened investigations into FTX months before its collapse, and speculation abounds as to whether the company was in reality a crooked means by which to raise funds for Democratic candidates and campaigns.
Yet, the mainstream media has remained almost entirely silent on a newsworthy component of FTX’s recent history. Namely, its central involvement in Aid for Ukraine, an online portal soliciting cryptocurrency donations for Ukraine’s war effort. (more...)
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