Democrats to Channel SBF’s Political Donations to FTX Victims
- SBF contributed up to $5.2 million to Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020, making him the second-largest donor.
- Prior to his arrest and FTX’s downfall, Bankman-Fried revealed his plans to donate up to $1 billion to influence the 2024 elections.
- The former FTX CEO was arrested in the Bahamas and charged with eight counts of financial crimes.
Three popular Democratic organizations have resolved to return over $1 million gotten as political donations to FTX investors who lost their money as a result of mismanagement. This comes days after the arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) for alleged financial crimes.
The businessman was charged with eight counts of financial crimes, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) vowed to repay his political donations.
Speaking about the situation, a DNC spokesperson reportedly said,
Given the allegations around potential campaign finance violations by Bankman-Fried, we are setting aside funds in order to return the $815,000 in contributions since 2020. We will return as soon as we receive proper direction in the legal proceedings.
According to the Washington Post, the other two committees, the DSCC and DCCC, have also promised to allocate $103,000 and $250,000, respectively. The disgraced Bankman-Fried was known to have given significantly to both political parties. He, however, admitted that such “gifts” were simply part of his publicity game plan.
Prior to his arrest and subsequent disgrace, SBF planned to spend up to $1 billion to influence the 2024 presidential race. Surprisingly, the White House, which benefited from the 30-year-old’s donations, has chosen to remain silent on whether it would return SBF’s donations to victims. Reports state that Bankman-Fried committed as much as $5.2 million to Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020, making him the second-largest donor.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for the White House, declined to respond to inquiries on the reimbursement of SBF’s prior contributions to the party. She instead said she was “covered here by the Hatch Act,” which forbids civil service employees, particularly those working for federal agencies, from engaging in certain political activity, when questioned.
In a recent press conference, US Attorney Williams confirmed that Bankman-Fried made donations to Republicans, adding that “all of this dirty money was used in service of Bankman-Fried’s desire to buy bipartisan influence and impact the direction of public policy in Washington.”
Federal prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried with violating campaign finance laws by accepting donations from his affiliated cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research, and falsely representing them as coming from other people. This has led to increased scrutiny of his contributions.
His generosity to Democratic groups over the past two years was only exceeded by that of liberal tycoon George Soros. Bankman-Fried said that he contributed just as much to GOP causes via nonprofit organizations that were exempt from donor disclosure requirements.
The former billionaire donated a significant amount of money to super PACs. These organizations, which allow an unlimited number of individual and corporate donations, must publicly distance themselves from campaigns while they run advertisements or fund other forms of communication endorsing or criticizing candidates.
According to federal campaign reports, Bankman-Fried contributed a total of $7 million to the two major super PACs backing Democratic political candidates in the 2022 elections. He also donated to organizations that promoted political participation.
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