Bankman Fried & Associates make 300 illegal donations to political parties
Sam Bankman Fried and his associates made more than 300 illegal donations to US political parties, according to new charges filed against the former FTX CEO on February 23 in Manhattan federal court.
According to the indictment, Bankman Fried used one of his groups to represent FTX donations to “center-left” candidates and causes, and used the other to donate to Republican groups.
The donations, amounting to “tens of millions of dollars”, were illegal because they were made under a “fictitious” name or made using corporate funds. Prosecutors said this method often allowed Bankman Fried to evade limits on individual candidates’ contributions.
The grand jury indictment, which replaces the December indictment, charges the former FTX CEO with eight counts of conspiracy to make illegal political donations and four counts of fraud for defrauding the Federal Election Commission.
The new regulations also accused him of conspiracy to run an unlicensed money transfer company.
Bankman Fried was previously accused of eight counts of fraud and money laundering in addition to other charges related to the collapse of the now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, but he denied the charges against him in these two cases.
Prosecutors also added that Bankman Fried used the stolen funds to cover the losses of Alameda Research, the hedge fund of its exchange.
In addition to the above, the aforementioned indictment included: “Exploiting the trust of clients of the collapsed FTX exchange, where Bankman Fried stole FTX clients’ deposits, and used billions of dollars of stolen funds for a number of personal purposes.”
Related Article: $80 Million in Donations from Former FTX CEOs Went to Political Groups in 2022
It is worth noting that prior to the FTX crash in November, the former head of the exchange was an influential political donor in the US, and it was believed at the time that he was doing so in order to speed up cryptocurrency regulation.
