As I have mentioned in previous posts here, Chris Larsen, co-founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Ripple Labs, has risen to the top of the donor leaderboard of Supervisor Joel Engardio’s anti-recall campaign. Engardio is currently staring down the barrel of a recall, which would more aptly be described as grassroots, citizen-based political uprising.
Larsen is Engardio’s largest donor, providing a staggering $200,000 for the embattled Supervisor’s campaign to overcome very long odds to remain in office.
Just a reminder:
1. Chris Larsen ($200,000) — Crypto-bro, CEO of Ripple
2. Jeremy Stoppelman ($175,000) — PayPal Mafia, Tech-bro, CEO of Yelp
3. John Wolthuis ($100,000) — Tech-bro, CEO of Twilio
Larsen’s support for Engardio comes in at just shy of 30% of the total raised by Joel’s anti-recall campaign — $667,000 give or take a few hundred dollars.
Chris, remember what I said last time — stop throwing good money after bad and just put down your shovel and stop digging already.
However, trying to rescue Engardio’s sinking political ship is not Larsen’s first goat-rodeo. Nor is it his most quixotic. Over the last few years Larsen, the Crypto-bro CEO, has funneled at least $4 million into San Francisco politics, much of it through his favorite astroturf Political Action Committees — Neighbors for a Better SF (2024 Larsen donation at least $300,000), Vibrant SF (Larsen, 2024, $250,000) and GrowSF (Larsen, 2024, $150,000).
Larsen backed Proposition K and the closure of The Great Highway. They won that round. But that victory set off The Great Goat Rodeo that Engardio and his Crypto-bro benefactor Larsen are now experiencing. It’s like watching a great cataclysm happening right before your eyes and really, there just isn’t anything one can do but sit back and watch. Or you can do what my friends and neighbors from across The Sunset have chosen to do (and let me join them in), namely organize all of our fellow goats and kick the would-be goat-riders to the curb.
Yes, Chris and Joel, you are the would-be goat-riders in this analogy. Don’t like being called a would-be goat-rider? Then take your Abundant-Gentrification Cult the hell out of The Sunset.
Law & Order?
Larsen likes to think he is all about law enforcement, the law & order philanthropist, that’s what he thinks he is. That is why I read with such great interest this story in Reuters:
March 25, 2024 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking fines and penalties totaling $2 billion in its case against Ripple Labs over sales of the cryptocurrency XRP, the company's chief legal officer said in a social media post on Monday.
The upshot of that case, a New York Federal Judge ruled, is that Ripple Labs violated securities law when they sold XRP to investors but failed to register the cryptocurrency with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was not a small or temporary offense in that Ripple, with Larsen at the helm, sold the unregistered cryptocurrency for more than a decade.
I do not know enough about securities law, yet. I am, however, learning as fast as I can. I know what I know. And that seems quite lawless to me Chris. When they come after you for $2 billion in penalties, well, it usually means you did something wrong.
Oh, and more lawlessness. Larsen invested — yes, I choose to call this brand of philanthropy investment because the monied interests who pour millions into these astroturf groups expect a return on their donation, which makes it more investment than donation… anyway, Larsen invested heavily in San Francisco SAFE, which is the nonprofit organization in close partnership with the San Francisco Police Department.
That fact made this reading from the Phoenix Project Papers all the more intriguing:
Recently, the [San Francisco] Controller’s Office issued a report detailing how the nonprofit [SF—SAFE] billed the San Francisco Police Department for luxury giftboxes, limo rides, and a staff trip to Lake Tahoe… The Phoenix Papers, Volume II, 2024
That sounds quite lawless as well Chris.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more… Henry V, William Shakespeare
After supporting erstwhile San Francisco Mayor London Breed in just about every way a billionaire can support the Mayor of a decent sized American city, Larsen stepped unto the breach once more when the Mayor found herself in hot political and legal water before the San Francisco Ethics Commission.
Breed was fined $22,792 by the city for ethics violations including asking Governor Jerry Brown to release her brother from prison and getting free car repairs from [former San Francisco Department of Public Works Director] Mohammed Nuru… Larsen donated over $42,000 to two separate legal defense funds set up to pay Breed’s fines and attorneys’ fees… The Phoenix Papers, Volume II
By the way, Nuru was convicted of public corruption and is currently incarcerated. Mayor London Bread lost her re-election bid to Mayor Daniel Lurie in November 2024.
Joel, Chris, I am not piling on here. I am saying that you all bet on some very bad horses. I do not expect you to change your ways. But I do hope that the residents of The Sunset as well as all my readers can begin to see you both in the proper light. And I hope both of you are getting your just deserts, or will very soon, like on September 16th when the recall votes are all in and Joel Engardio begins the process of becoming a footnote in San Francisco history.
When I asked a friend and fellow volunteer on the Recall Engardio Campaign about all of this — Larsen’s $200,000 to Engardio, his millions of dollars to astroturf groups and his efforts to bail out Mayor Breed — he summed it up better than I ever could:
He ain’t buyin’ snacks. He’s buying souls…
Recall Engardio Campaign Volunteer
john
Chris Larsen, Crypto-Baron, CEO of Ripple Labs — [photo by Jungho Kim, San Francisco Standard]
Personally, I hate to end with a picture of Chris Larsen so instead, let’s look at the “rain map” of votes on Prop. K (the measure to permanently close The Great Highway to vehicular traffic). Note the color over to the left, that nice purple color representing the fact that about 65% of the voters in The Sunset voted against Prop. K. That is where Chris Larsen is making his $200,000 bet on Supervisor Joel Engardio, the prime instigator of Prop. K.
You know what your problem in Mr. Larsen? You just don’t listen. Same with you Supervisor Engardio.
The Richmond District, just to the north of The Sunset and Golden Gate Park is an even deeper shade of purple (over 70% of voters in the Richmond voted against Prop. K). Perhaps that’s why the Recall Engardio Campaign has so many close friends, supporters and volunteers coming across the park to help out.
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The portrait photo of Larson is a strange one. It’s likely one you picked from those he or his company have published on line.
You can’t see his eyes. It’s a little dehumanizing. Makes him look soulless.
With another flask of noir and a few fedora hats this reporting is out of True Crime Magazine. Except this isn’t pulp fiction.