FTX Wants PACs And Politicians To Return Donations

On Sunday, FTX informed the political world that the bankrupt crypto exchange is seeking the recovery of all its money that had been donated.

Millions of dollars had been donated to action committees and political figures under the direction of former CEO and founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Donations

The newly-appointed chief executive of FTX, John Jay Ray III, is overseeing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process of the company after its downfall in November.

The CEO had previously stated that the donations that were made should be returned. But, the statement on Sunday was a lot firmer.

It said that all donations and other payments should be returned by a deadline of February 28th and also repeated a previous warning that the company would opt for the legal route for funds that are not voluntarily returned.

It said that interest would accrue on the funds from the date they take legal action.

The press release disclosed that FTX debtors were sending confidential messages to political action funds, political funds, and others who had received donations, or any other contributions.

The company also asserted that recipients who had donated the funds they had gotten to third parties, such as charities, would also have to return the money because the company would not back down.

The fiasco

Once having a value of $32 billion, FTX went bankrupt in November 2022 after the exchange’s native token, FTT, saw a steep drop in its price.

This resulted in a bank run on the exchange, eventually revealing that the company did not have enough reserves of customer assets for honoring the withdrawal requests.

Bankman-Fried has been arrested and charged by federal prosecutors with eight financial crimes, including money laundering, securities fraud as well as violations of campaign finance.

He has opted to plead not guilty to the charges and is now on house arrest as he waits for his trial in October.

Accusations against him include misappropriating customer funds worth billions of dollars for purchasing private real estate, fueling activity at his trading company Alameda Research and making political donations.

The donations

Before the implosion of his crypto empire, SBF had been quite vocal in his support of Democratic candidates and had been one of the largest donors of the party in the election cycle of 2020.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House Press Secretary, had been questioned last month about whether President Joe Biden would return the donations he had received as a candidate.

She had refused to comment on the matter. In an interview with Tiffany Wong, the disgraced crypto entrepreneur disclosed that he had also donated to Republican candidates.

In fact, he claimed that he had donated the same amounts to both parties. But, he said that the donations he made to Republicans were dark.

This means that the source of funds is not disclosed. SBF said that he had opted for this route because of journalists who become very annoying when donations are made to Republicans.

OpenSecrets.org maintains a public spreadsheet, which shows that $84 million were donated to political organizations and candidates by SBF, Ryan Salame, and Nishad Singh, all associated with FTX.