FTX CEO Donated $300K to Members of Committee Investigating Him

The CEO of FTX reportedly donated $300,000 to Democrat members of the U.S. House committee that is investigating his recently collapsed fraudulent cryptocurrency exchange.

CEO and co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been accused of running a money laundering operation that used cryptocurrency to funnel taxpayer funds into the campaigns and pockets of Democrats.

As Slay News reported, Bankman-Fried admitted that FTX was used as a laundromat for the Ukraine government.

Meanwhile, the company was pumping “clean” money back to Democrats, with Bankman-Fried himself being on record as the Democratic Party’s second-largest donor after George Soros.

Bankman-Fried plowed $40 million into Democrat campaigns in the 2022 midterm election cycle alone.

After FTX recently imploded and details about the company’s fraudulent activity have begun to emerge, U.S. Congress has announced that lawmakers are launching an investigation into the allegations.

However, as Slay News reported, FTX is being investigated by House Financial Services Committee which is chaired by Bankman-Fried-linked Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA).

Waters announced Friday that her Committee will hold hearings on FTX in December, just before Republicans take control of the House.

Major concerns are now being raised about the legitimacy of the investigation due to much of the scandal pointing to Democrats.

Waters herself also has a close relationship with Bankman-Fried.

In December 2021, Bankman-Fried and five other cryptocurrency exchange executives testified before Waters’ House Financial Services Committee.

At the end of the hearing, a video shows Waters blowing a kiss to As Bankman-Fried as he was leaving the room.

WATCH:

Slay the latest News for free!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Now it has emerged that Bankman-Fried has donated over $300K to several Democrat members of Waters’ Committee, the same one that is supposed to be “investigating” him.

According to The Washington Free Beacon, Bankman-Fried and his co-founders at FTX contributed $300,351 to nine members of the House Financial Services Committee.

The donations are all confirmed by Federal Election Commission records.

Some of the largest contributions were to Democrats on the committee’s Digital Assets Working Group, which worked on the regulation of the crypto industry.

FTX’s collapse ended up wiping out billions of dollars in customers’ portfolios after the company declared bankruptcy.

The Justice Department and Securities Exchange Commission are reportedly investigating Bankman-Fried for potential misuse of customer funds.

Bankman-Fried’s donations to committee members could raise concerns that the lawmakers will not adequately investigate the crypto kingpin, who spent millions on advertising, lobbying, and philanthropic causes to burnish his company’s image as an ethical crypto company in an industry rife with scam artists.

Of the nine committee members who received contributions from Bankman-Fried, only Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL) has said he would return a direct $2,900 contribution from the billionaire.

Garcia is not refunding the other benefits he received, however, such as the almost $200k in advertisements for his reelection campaign.

While Waters said the committee will investigate FTX’s “collapse,” the Democrat congresswoman has no apparent plans to look into Bankman-Fried’s efforts to buy favor in Washington.

Waters dodged questions this week about whether she is concerned about Bankman-Fried’s political donations.

“Well, I don’t want to get into that,” she told Fox Business.

“As a matter of fact, both sides, Democrats and Republicans, have received donations.”

This is not entirely true, however.

While some executives at FTX did donate to Republicans and Democrats, Bankman-Fried donated almost exclusively (over 95%) to Democratic Party candidates and causes.

It is Bankman-Fried himself who is the Democrats’ second-largest donor, not FTX.

On Waters’ Financial Services committee, seven Democrats and two Republicans received donations from Bankman-Fried and and other top FTX executives.

They gave to five members of the committee’s Digital Assets Working Group, which Waters launched last year to “support responsible innovation that protects consumers and investors” and to craft regulations for the industry.

To date, the Digital Assets Working Group has not proposed regulations for the industry, which some lawmakers say would have blunted the impact of FTX’s bankruptcy on its customers.

Garcia, who is now running for Chicago mayor, was the biggest recipient of Bankman-Fried cash.

Bankman-Fried’s political action committee, Protect Our Future PAC, spent $199,851 on ads supporting Garcia.

Garcia serves on the committee’s Digital Assets Working Group.

Bankman-Fried contributed another $2,900 to Garcia’s campaign.

Bankman-Fried and his associates gave to four other members of the Digital Assets Working Group:

  • Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY)
  • Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ)
  • Jim Himes (D-CT)
  • Sean Casten (D-IL)

Bankman-Fried and his brother Gabriel gave $40,300 in all to Torres’s campaign and two of his political committees, the Torres Victory Fund and La Bamba PAC.

The head of FTX’s regulatory division and Bankman-Fried gave $16,600 to Gottheimer.

Meanwhile, other Bankman-Fried associates contributed $500 to Himes and $9,100 to Casten.

Casten has another link to the embattled crypto executive.

Gabriel Bankman-Fried, who directs his brother’s political outreach, worked as a congressional aide for Casten until last year.

He visited the White House on March 7 along with an adviser to the Democracy Alliance, the progressive network funded by Democratic billionaire donors.

Bankman-Fried contributed $11,600 to House Financial Services Committee members Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) and $5,000 to the super PAC for Rep. Cindy Axne (D-IA), an apparent violation of her self-imposed pledge to reject campaign donations from corporations.

His intensive lobbying campaign appeared to pay off before his company’s demise.

He supported legislation proposed by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) that would have subjected the crypto industry to regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not the larger and aggressive Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bankman-Fried donated $5,800 to Stabenow’s campaign in February and $20,800 to her joint fundraising committee in January.

Bankman-Fried gave $5,800 to Boozman in January and $5,800 to committee member Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) in June.

He gave a combined $31,000 to campaigns and joint fundraising committees tied to Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tina Smith (D-MN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee.

The 30-year-old entrepreneur donated $5 million to a super PAC that supported President Joe Biden in 2020 and $40 million this cycle, largely to Democrats.

He contributed $6 million to the House Majority PAC, $1 million to the Senate Majority PAC, and nearly $900,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

The donations secured him White House meetings and appearances earlier this year at the Democrats’ annual retreat in Philadelphia.

Bankman-Fried visited the White House three times this year with lobbyists from his company, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

They met on April 22 and May 12 with Steve Ricchetti, one of Biden’s closest advisers.

Bankman-Fried testified before the House Financial Services Committee on Dec. 7, where he said his goal in starting FTX was to “have a positive impact around the world.”

He appeared on a panel with Waters at the Democratic retreat in Philadelphia in March and was photographed arm-in-arm with the committee chairwoman after the event.

READ MORE: FTX Laundered Billions Through Ukraine, Funneled Funds to U.S Democrats

SHARE:
Advertise with Slay News
join telegram

READERS' POLL

Who is the best president?

By completing this poll, you gain access to our free newsletter. Unsubscribe at any time.

By Frank Bergman

Frank Bergman is a political/economic journalist living on the east coast. Aside from news reporting, Bergman also conducts interviews with researchers and material experts and investigates influential individuals and organizations in the sociopolitical world.

Subscribe
Notify of
16
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x