Feds Investigating Sam Bankman-Fried’s Major Political Donations
CAMPAIGN FINANCE SCANDAL
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.