A trio of Democratic Party leaders plan to return more than $1 million in political contributions linked to Sam Bankman-Fried, after the former FTX chief was charged with violating campaign finance laws.
Bankman-Fried is a donor who has given to many Democrats during the 2022 campaign, but recently said he supported Republicans through a dark money group that did not report their donors. gift. Three major Democratic political committees have said they will return more than $1 million in political donations from Sam Bankman-Fried, after the disgraced former FTX executive was accused of violating corporate finance laws. .
The Democratic National Committee plans to return $815,000 in donations to Bankman-Fried, a spokeswoman said. Members of the Senate and House media committees will also set aside a combined $353,000 to restore it after receiving instructions during the legislative process.
Bankman-Fried has been a major political donor during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, spending millions on campaign contributions and her own super PAC. The move to restore the party’s funding followed a rush by individual lawmakers to distance themselves from Bankman-Fried by freezing his donations to charity as news of the crisis in the exchange broke. appears for the first time.
A crypto mogul federal investigator gave $45,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to documents filed by the Federal Election Commission. The committee, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, also received $89,200 from FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame in the 2022 cycle.
Last week, the Justice Department accused Bankman-Fried of altering political donations to make them appear to come from “wealthy conspirators,” when the money actually belonged to FTX customers. and transfer it to the Bankman E fried business office. The former FTX CEO gave about $ 40 million, mainly to Democrats, although recently said that he secretly gave an equal amount to support Republicans from a dark money group that is not disclosed . not their donors.
‘Dirty Money’
“All dirty money was used to serve the desire of Bankman-Fried to buy bipartisan influence and influence the direction of public policy,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, said at a press conference in this week. The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee plans to return $103,000 in donations related to Bankman-Fried, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will return $250,000, according to the Washington Post.
Salame and former head of digital marketing engineering at FTX, Nishad Singh, have also donated millions to political action committees in previous campaigns. Bankman-Fried is being held without bond in a Bahamian jail pending a trial in February. He was charged in two other cases filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. FTX filed for bankruptcy last month after a run on its trademark. The company can use up to $ 3.1 billion to more than 100,000 borrowers, according to financial records.
