Chicago Mayoral candidate Kam Buckner demands accountability from Jesus Garcia and Mayor Lori Lightfoot on FTX controversy ties
Lightfoot Owes Chicago An Explanation About Her Connection to Corrupt Crypto King.Lori Lightfoot welcomed crypto fraud Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX to Chicago this past spring and allowed him to collaborate on the city’s “guaranteed basic income”
U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García isn’t the only candidate in the race for Mayor who welcomed support from corrupt crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried.
Lori Lightfoot literally cut the ribbon this past spring to launch Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange headquarters in Chicago. Bankman-Fried was arrested earlier this week and charged with allegedly defrauding his FTX customers out of billions of dollars to prop up his other ventures.
“Mayor Lightfoot owes this entire city an explanation about her relationship with Bankman-Fried,” said Kam Buckner, candidate for mayor.
“It’s been four years since Mayor Lightfoot campaigned on a false promise to ‘bring in the light’ – maybe she can start by explaining her connection to Bankman-Fried and his involvement in the city’s guaranteed basic income program.”
Standing in the FTX office during the ribbon cutting, Lightfoot was quoted as saying, “this is a mechanism and a tool to bring traditionally underrepresented and ignored populations into the world of crypto so they can take ownership and control of their financial destiny.”
“In addition to collaborating with a highly corrupt individual whose firm is under investigation by the SEC, this shows that Mayor Lightfoot is highly out of touch with Chicago’s underrepresented communities and what we actually need to thrive,” said Buckner, who in his role as state representative successfully helped pass legislation to help close the racial wealth gap.
In addition to his collaborating with the Mayor, Bankman-Fried contributed to a PAC that spent nearly $200,000 on political mailers for García – a member of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee – during his unopposed congressional campaign, ultimately doing García the favor of “introducing” him to his new voters after his district boundaries changed during the remap and before he launched his mayoral campaign.
Just yesterday the Lightfoot campaign released a statement asking García what “Bankman-Fried’s motives were…and what did García promise in return…” The statement also said, “Voters deserve to know the facts when making important decisions about who they can trust. Unfortunately it seems that Chuy García will bring back the old way of doing Chicago-style politics – and we can’t afford that in City Hall.”
“The Mayor’s own campaign statement can be turned back onto Lightfoot,” Buckner said. “Surely she isn’t afraid to answer the very questions she’s asking of García.”
U.S. Prosecutors had Bankman-Fried arrested on Monday, the day before he was slated to testify before García’s House Committee, and allegedly charged him with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering, according to The New York Times.
But even before these new criminal charges and despite multiple media reports, Garcia has long been silent on the issue, ignoring public concern that this clear conflict of interest can influence the decisions he makes in Congress.
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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