Sam Bankman-Fried’s crisis manager has reportedly quit following the FTX founder’s prison interview with Tucker Carlson published unannounced on Thursday, according to Business Insider.
Mark Botnick, who started representing Bankman-Fried following the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November 2022, resigned on Thursday after learning of the interview.
This is the second interview Bankman-Fried has given in recent weeks, after breaking his two-year public silence since being incarcerated. The interviews appear to be part of Bankman-Fried’s alleged attempts at receiving a presidential pardon.
In both interviews, Bankman-Fried praised President Trump, criticized the former Biden administration and argued that he began to take the Republican Party more seriously after failed engagements with Gary Gensler, a former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bankman-Fried, prior to his arrest, was perhaps best known as the billionaire who practiced "effective altruism" and gave massive donations to Democratic politicians.
In the year between the multi-billion collapse of FTX and his court hearing, Bankman-Fried gave countless interviews to the press, sometimes landing himself in trouble. In one instance, he showed a journalist his former girlfriend’s diary, which landed him in jail to prevent potential witness tampering.
Botnick reportedly worked with Bankman-Fried throughout this period. The PR manager was also reportedly caught unaware when Bankman-Fried posted on X about the Trump administration's efforts to fire federal employees.
Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty in 2023 of seven fraud and money-laundering charges related to the $11 billion collapse of FTX.
The Block reached out to Botnick for further comment.
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