Semafor said in a statement Friday it would allow government probes of former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried to determine what happens to his investment in the fledgling news outlet. The decision was announced in a staff-wide memo by CEO Justin Smith, who later released the statement on Twitter, and it came after multiple outlets questioned what the crypto founder’s downfall meant for his various investments in major media orgs. “When we formed Semafor, we set up a series of firewalls to ensure independence from our investors—a structure we believe is essential to our mission of producing independent journalism,” Smith wrote, later adding: “In short, Bankman-Fried, like all of our investors, has no influence over our editorial coverage or operations.” Semafor first disclosed it received a donation from the beleaguered crypto mogul in an October article in Reuters announcing its launch.
