CAMPAIGN FINANCE SCANDAL

Feds Investigating Sam Bankman-Fried’s Major Political Donations

The disgraced crypto fraud and his allies donated tens of millions to political campaigns in the 2020 and 2022 elections to both Democrat and Republican candidates.

Federal prosecutors in New York City are zeroing in on donations disgraced crypto fraud Sam Bankman-Fried made to both Republicans and Democrats, according to The New York Times. In the days since Bankman-Fried’s Monday arrest, prosecutors have reached out to representatives of campaigns and committees that received millions of dollars from the FTX co-founder and his colleagues to determine whether the executives lied in their responses to disclaimers on political committee websites. Bankman-Fried has donated more than $45 million to political campaigns since 2020, with a bulk of the donations going to Democratic candidates. Nishad Singh, one of the executives named, had donated nearly $10 million, mostly to Democrats as well, while former FTX executive Ryan Salame gifted most of his $24 million to Republicans. Some politicians, including new Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries, have either returned their donations or passed the money on to charities in light of the scandal.