Democrats to Reportedly Return Over $2M in SBF Donations
- Three major Democratic committees have reportedly vowed to return a little more than $1 million in political donations received from Sam Bankman-Fried.
- A super PAC supporting Senate Democrats, that received $1 million in donations from SBF, is also waiting on “proper direction from federal law enforcement” on how to return the funds.
Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, speaking at the Binance Blockchain Week, Singapore, 19 January, 2019. Binance
Democratic groups are rushing to return political donations made by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who earlier this week was charged with eight counts of financial crimes, the Washington Post reported on 16 December.
According to the publication, three major Democratic committees — namely the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) — have vowed to return a large portion of the political donations they received from SBF. The biggest pledge comes from the DNC, which claims to have received $815,000 from SBF since 2020. A spokesperson fro the organization said in a statement:
“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.”
The DSCC and DCCC have also set aside $103,000 and $250,000 respectively, and were just waiting on directions from FTX’s legal proceedings on how to return the funds. Another organization that supports Democrats — the Senate Majority political action committee (PAC) — that received $1 million in donations from SBF, claimed it had set aside money from SBF and one of his associates and was waiting on directions on how to return them.
Sam Bankman-Fried is known to be a prolific political donor since 2020, and according to federal records has donated around $40 million to campaign committees and other groups this political cycle alone. While the majority of his donations were used to support the Democratic Party, a portion also went to Republicans through dark-money groups that do not disclose their donors.
The individual was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government on Monday, and was later charged with eight counts of financial crimes by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- The New York Jurors took 4 fours of deliberating before pronouncing the former FTX CEO guilty of all seven charges of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.
- Bankman-Fried will now have to appear in court on 28 March, 2024, where he will face a potential maximum sentence of 115 years in prison.
Former CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried leaves the Federal Court in New York after pleading not guilty, 3 January, 2022.
lev radin/Shutterstock
- Joseph Pimbley, a member of litigation consulting firm PF2 Securities, will try to rebuff testimonies from Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, and Adam Yedidia.
- During his testimony Pimbley will try to establish a timeline for the FTX-Alameda line of credit, and convince the jury it fluctuated between $1 billion and $3 billion between 2021 and 2022.
- The prosecution tried to paint FTX’s founder as someone who deliberately deceived his customers to get rich, and noted that he directed all activities that led to the failure of the company.
- The defense’s claimed SBF was an entrepreneur whose plans simply “didn’t work out”, and tried to cast the blame for Alameda’s downfall to its former CEO Caroline Ellison.