U.S. politicians have been returning or giving away campaign donations from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried came under fire for the $46.5 million he donated to political candidates, especially after his crypto exchange and trading desk, FTX.com and Alameda Research, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
public spreadsheet shared by OpenSecrets.org shows that the vast majority of Bankman-Fried’s donations have gone to Democrats. The $46.5 million total ranks Bankman-Fried second only to Democratic mega donor George Soros. So far, $1.2 million of Bankman-Fried’s political contributions have been returned or re-donated to a charitable organization by the following politicians:
the politicians who received money from Bankman-Fried but either haven’t returned or re-gifted the money (or haven’t said publicly that they did) are: Sens. John Boozman (R-AR) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who co-sponsored the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act; Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who’s been vocal in calling for stronger investor protections after FTX’s collapse; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA); and Mitt Romney (R-UT).
spokesman for Beto O’Rourke’s gubernatorial campaign told The Texas Tribune that he returned a $1 million donation—one of the largest single checks it had received—to Sam Bankman-Fried a week before FTX filed for bankruptcy. O’Rourke also received $100,000 from former FTX head of engineering, Nishad Singh, but hasn’t yet said whether that money has also been returned.
aide for Sen. Dick Durbin told CNBC that the senator has donated $2,900 he received from Bankman-Fried to “an appropriate charity,” after joining Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) earlier this month in calling on the company’s CEO to provide answers to lawmakers about the company’s collapse. OpenSecrets data shows that the former FTX CEO also gave $5,000 to Prairie PAC, a leadership political action committee that raised $240,000 for Durbin in the 2022 cycle.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) told Yahoo Finance
