Lawmakers Asked To Return Donations to Democrat Megadonor

Lawmakers Asked To Return Donations to Democrat Megadonor]

(UnitedVoice.com) – FTX Trading Ltd. announced that suspected fraudster Samuel Bankman-Fried resigned as the company’s CEO on November 11, 2022. The once powerful cryptocurrency exchange also reported that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections along with roughly 130 affiliated companies. A new media report indicates that FTX is asking lawmakers and political groups to return donations received from the company’s now-disgraced former head.

On February 5, 2023, FTX Trading and its affiliated debtors issued a press release through PR Newswire announcing that it sent “confidential” messages to various lawmakers, political action committees, and other recipients of donations given at the direction of Bankman-Fried or other company officers.

The recipients were given until the end of February to return those funds. The FTX debtors advised them it reserved the right to initiate actions in the bankruptcy court to recover any payments not returned voluntarily, with “interest accruing from the date any action [was] commenced.”

Politicos have long considered Bankman-Fried one of the Democratic Party’s largest mega donors. The Atlantic reported in early December 2022 that he gave more than $36 million to Democratic candidates and progressive groups during the recent midterm election cycle. Additionally, he vowed to donate as much as a billion dollars to help prevent former President Donald Trump’s reelection in 2024.

However, Bankman-Fried admitted to funneling millions of dollars to Republican candidates and causes in a November 2022 interview with crypto content creator Tiffany Fong. “I donated to both parties… about the same amount,” he remarked.

Bankman-Fried said all his “Republican donations were dark,” meaning they weren’t publicly disclosed. He explained that he structured the donations that way to avoid media scrutiny. “Reporters freak the [expletive] out if you donate to Republicans,” he noted, adding that “they are all super liberal,” and he didn’t want to spar with them.

The Justice Department filed an eight-count indictment against Bankman-Fried on December 13 on charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission to commit campaign finance offenses.

Bankman-Fried faces up to 20 years on five of those charges and a maximum of five years on the other three.

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