FTX book author tipped off about the idea of giving Trump $5 billion for refusing to run for office

Michael Lewis has learned of the FTX chief's idea to give Trump $5 billion for refusing to run for office

The trial against Sam Bankman-Fried starts on the same day as the release of a book about the collapse of his stock exchange from the author of The Downgrade Game

The founder of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX Sam Bankman-Fried considered paying Donald Trump $5 billion for not running for President. Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short and The High-Frequency Wall Street Revolution (Flash Boys), told CBS Television in an interview.

Lewis's new book on the history of FTX will be available on Oct. 3, the same day his trial against Bankman-Fried, whom he has been waiting in prison for months, begins. Lewis said in an interview that he spent about 60 hours talking to the former head of the collapsed exchange.

He said Bankman-Fried was also looking into whether a payment to Trump not to run could be made in a legal way. Representatives for Bankman-Fried have not commented on the book author's statements to reporters.

Before the collapse of FTX, Bankman-Fried was an active political donor. As part of the investigation, the U.S. Attorney's Office is probing his donations to both Democrats and Republican lawmakers. According to prosecutors, he used more than $100 million of exchange customer funds as political campaign donations ahead of the 2022 US midterm elections. According to prosecutors, donations to both parties were made to hide the origin of the money.

The former head of FTX faces a host of charges, including fraud, which together could see him face more than 100 years in prison.

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