The Ledger / Jeff Yass
Jeff Yass
◼ Origin
Jeffrey Scott Yass co-founded Susquehanna International Group (SIG) in 1987, applying poker probability theory to derivatives markets. SIG generates approximately one-tenth of all US exchange-traded fund market-making volume. Yass is the wealthiest Pennsylvanian, a registered Libertarian, and a former professional gambler. He built his fortune as a market intermediary — collecting spreads from every trade that passed through his system. The political operation he has built with that fortune is architecturally different from most billionaire political spending: it targets not just elections but judges, school policy, and foreign policy through nested PAC structures designed to minimize his visible footprint.
◼ Inheritance
Yass grew up in Queens, NY to working-class parents. Studied math at SUNY Binghamton. Co-founded Susquehanna International Group in 1987 from scratch as a market-making operation. Forbes self-made score 9/10 — among the highest on the Forbes 400. The charges are about what he built, not what he inherited: a trading firm that used its profits to buy political influence, protect its ByteDance stake, and avoid approximately $1B in federal taxes.
◼ Self-Made Verdict — YES
Yass runs a documented political capture operation across four domains: bought a TikTok policy reversal with $100M+ in donations while holding a $21-34B ByteDance stake; built a self-dealing school voucher loop that funds lawmakers to expand a program from which his own entities extract 27% profit; designed a 3-layer PAC shell chain to fund Pennsylvania judges without his name appearing; bankrolled the think tank that designed Israel's judicial coup and the effort to kill the Iran nuclear deal. All four are legal under current law. None are secret — they are public record. The system was designed to accommodate exactly this kind of activity.
◼ Documented marks
01
Largest individual donor to outside spending groups in 2024 US election cycle
02
SIG holds 15% stake in ByteDance (TikTok parent); Yass holds ~7% personal stake (~$21B)
03
Trump reversed TikTok ban position after meeting with Yass, March 2024
04
Entities associated with Yass collected $30M+ in PA school voucher tax credits (2017-2023)
05
PA school voucher tax credit pays 27% profit: 90% state credit + additional federal/state deductions
06
Funded Kohelet Policy Forum — designed Israels judicial overhaul legislation
07
Registered Libertarian; co-founded Susquehanna International Group (SIG) in 1987
08
$100M+ to protect $21-34B TikTok stake; Trump reversed ban the same month they met
09
27% profit on school voucher loop he funded lawmakers to expand
10
3-layer PAC shell — funds Pennsylvania judges without his name on the money
11
Bankrolled Kohelet Policy Forum — designed Israel's 2023 judicial coup attempt
12
ProPublica, 2022: SIG (Susquehanna International Group), the trading firm Yass co-founded, used partnership structures to avoid approximately $1B in federal taxes from 2013–2018. Profits were disguised as long-term capital gains through option overlay strategies. Senate Finance Committee investigation confirmed the structure. IRS examination ongoing as of 2023.
13
2022–2024: Yass donated $25.3M in 2020 to PACs supporting candidates who voted to overturn the 2020 election results — 47 lawmakers who signed the Texas amicus brief or voted against certifying electoral votes. In 2024, he donated approximately $100M+ to MAGA-aligned PACs and $16M to MAGA Inc. in the first half of 2025 alone.
14
WSJ investigation, September 2023: Yass used his political donations to block TikTok legislation — specifically donating to candidates who opposed national security restrictions on TikTok while simultaneously holding a ~15% stake in ByteDance (TikTok's parent company), worth an estimated $35B. The conflict of interest: Yass donated to lawmakers who killed the bill that would have forced a TikTok sale — protecting the asset from which he would lose billions.
15
2024: $18.5M class action settlement by SIG (Susquehanna) over improper trade execution practices — the firm was accused of front-running and order manipulation against retail customers. The settlement resolved claims but did not require admission of wrongdoing.
◼ List of charges
01
Mass Surveillance for Profit
10 – 25 years
Statute: Non-consensual, persistent collection and commercial exploitation of detailed behavioral, biometric, or personal data at population scale.
Basis: Yass is a major ByteDance shareholder; TikTok harvests behavioral data on 170M American users with sustained regulatory scrutiny over national security implications. Yass used political donations to fund politicians who softened or reversed positions on TikTok bans, protecting his multi-billion-dollar ByteDance stake at the expense of user privacy and national security oversight.
02
×2 countsRegulatory Capture
10 – 20 years per count = 20–40 years
Statute: Systematic use of financial, political, or revolving-door leverage to reduce the enforcement effectiveness of regulatory bodies — including engineering settlements and fines that represent a negligible fraction of revenue from the penalized conduct, thereby institutionalizing impunity.
Basis: Yass serves on the Cato Institute executive advisory council (since 2002) and co-founded Students First PAC ($41.7M, 2010-2022) to advance libertarian deregulation that directly benefits SIG's trading model; SIG settled an $18.5M class action (2009-2012) over improper trade execution by California pension funds and faced a separate spoofing lawsuit (dismissed 2024), indicating a pattern of regulatory friction in options market-making.
03
Corruption of Democracy
25 – life
Statute: Knowing and sustained interference with democratic processes — including manufactured election-fraud claims after losing a free election, fake-electors schemes, pressure on state officials to alter vote counts, incitement of insurrection to obstruct certification, and mass dissemination of falsehoods about election integrity — as documented by court findings, congressional reports, sworn testimony of former officials, and verifiable public-record falsehoods.
Basis: $100M+ in donations to protect $21-34B ByteDance/TikTok stake; Trump met Yass March 2024 and reversed TikTok ban position same month; ban unenforced as of 2025
04
×2 countsDark Money Electoral Interference
5 – 15 years per count = 10–30 years
Statute: Funding political campaigns through non-disclosed intermediary organizations designed to conceal donor identity and circumvent campaign finance law.
Basis: (1) School voucher self-dealing: $41.7M funding lawmakers to expand credits while associated entities collected $30M+ in those same credits at 27% profit. (2) 3-layer PAC shell chain (Students First → Commonwealth Children's Choice Fund → Commonwealth Leaders Fund) funding PA judges without visible Yass connection
05
Material Support for Anti-Democratic Ideology
10 – 25 years
Statute: Sustained documented funding of movements, publications, or organizations explicitly advocating the abolition or subversion of democratic governance.
Basis: $16M+ to pro-Israel/anti-Muslim organizations; $1.5M via QXZ Inc. to kill Iran nuclear deal; documented Kohelet Policy Forum funder — designed Israel's 2023 judicial coup attempt
Total sentence
75–198 years
That is
1.0–2.5 life sentences
(using 78 years as one life)
At $1 million per day
Jeff Yass's fortune would last 162 years
2.1 lifetimes of luxury — before running out.
These are moral charges, not legal ones. The actual legal system has not — and will not — bring them.
◼ Primary accounts
"Mr. Yass has used his extraordinary wealth to reshape American politics while simultaneously shielding his own financial interests from public scrutiny."
— Senator Ron Wyden, U.S. Senate Finance Committee, investigation of SIG tax structures · 2022 · source
"Yass donated $20M to a PAC that supported the 47 Republican House members who signed the Texas brief attempting to overturn Biden's election — while SIG's tax structures were under IRS investigation."
— ProPublica, Investigative report, 2022 · 2022 · source
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