SBF Is The Real Thing

All the smartest boys on the internet went to bat for this guy. Some were on the take, some just easy marks.\

FTX once enjoyed a near-mythical status in the media, with splashy cover stories and gushing news articles lauding the crypto powerhouse and Bankman-Fried, its youthful leader. Such coverage rarely emerges organically, and FTX hired an army of public relations firms to burnish its image.

Among them was M Group, a New York-based public relations powerhouse known for its Rolodex of elite journalists. Others under the employ of FTX included TSD Communications and Full Court Press Communications.

The creditor list includes Rational 360, a public relations firm led in part by former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart. Emails obtained by Matt Stoller, the director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project, show that Rational 360 pressured activists and political influencers to speak out in favor of a bill that would move crypto regulatory authority to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. While the Securities and Exchange Commission handles many enforcement actions against crypto firms, the CFTC is seen as more friendly to crypto interests and has fewer disclosure requirements.