Elon Musk mocked over tweet predicting ‘Dem donor’ Sam Bankman-Fried would never be arrested

Twitter owner mocked on his platform after failed prediction from a month ago

Elon Musk was trolled on his platform Twitter for his tweet suggesting Sam Bankman-Fried will never be investigated (REUTERS)

Twitter CEO Elon Musk was mocked on his own platform after several users called him out for alleging cryptocurrency baron Sam Bankman-Fried would never be investigated.

The billionaire businessman’s 13 November tweet alleged Mr Bankman-Fried would not come under scrutiny because he was a donor to the Democratic party.

“SBF was a major Dem donor, so no investigation,” Mr Musk had tweeted, using an acronym for Mr Bankman-Fried, who is at the heart of a crypto scandal worth billions of dollars.

The founder of the now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas at the behest of the US government on Monday, making a stunning fall from grace for the 30-year-old entrepreneur.

Mr Musk also shared a graphic representation that alleged he had personal links with the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler.

Mr Musk’s old tweet became viral again after Mr Bankman-Fried’s arrest, with Twitter users launching scathing attacks at the Tesla and SpaceX CEO and pointing out that his tweet didn’t age well.

Several users said the billionaire fared little better than his infamous prediction in March 2020 that there would be “zero” Covid cases in the US by the end of April and that he “can’t help being wrong about everything, all the time”.

“Say what you want about Elon, but he possesses a special talent for repeatedly being proven wrong within a relatively short period of time,” Twitter user Louie Kahn said.

“And what a surprise. Elon was completely wrong,” said another user.

“You mean the investigation that led to his arrest today?” said user Jodi Jacobson.

“Oh look. He got arrested. Because people who break the law get arrested when Democrats are in charge, no matter who they donate to,” tweeted user Tom Coates.

Several right-wing comentators have accused FTX and Mr Bankman-Fried of laundering money for the Democratic party and painted the company’s bankruptcy as a big blow to their rivals.

But Mr Bankman-Fried, who was the second-largest donor to Democratic politicians in the last election cycle, had himself claimed he donated equally large amounts of money to Republicans.

“All my Republican donations were dark,” he said in an interview to crypto influencer and YouTuber Tiffany Fong, referring to political donations that aren’t publicly disclosed.

“The reason was not for regulatory reasons, it’s because reporters freak the f*** out if you donate to Republicans. They’re all super liberal, and I didn’t want to have that fight.”

With the surprise arrest, however, it is not just Mr Musk whose prediction went wrong.

“I don’t think I will be arrested,” the FTX founder said just hours before his arrest during a Twitter Spaces audio panel on Monday which was attended by more than 19,000 people, according to The New York Post.