These Senate Dems Pledged to Return SBF’s Political Donations. Records Show They Still Haven’t.
Sam Bankman-Fried, a notorious blockchain tycoon, donated the most money to both lawmakers, and both of them promised to return the favor. However, recently released campaign finance statements reveal that the Democrats fell far short of their promises.
Consider the Michigan legislator Debbie Stabenow. The four-term Democrat declared in December that she would give the$ 26,600 Bankman-Fried gave her to a good cause. However, there are no such payments listed in the battle filings, nor are there any refunds to Bankman-Fried or contributions to the government relief fund for those who were the targets of his alleged fraud.
Then there is Sen. Maggie Hassan( D., N. H. ), who announced in January that she would return Bankman-Fried contributions. A victim account established by the U.S. Marshals Service received$ 5,800 from Hassan’s’s battle last month. Hassan, however, seems to have kept the$ 20,800 that Bankman-Fried donated to the Maggie Hasan Victory Fund. The bank supports Granite Values PAC, Hassan’s’s political action committee, and her campaign.
The disclosure comes as lawmakers are under increasing pressure to stop accepting donations from Bankman-Fried, who is facing more than a dozen federal charges for misleading investors about his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, and breaking campaign finance laws.
Prosecutors claim that Bankman-Fried distributed more than$ 40 million to political candidates and committees in an effort to” improve his personal standing” in Washington, D.C., and” curry favor” with candidates who could pass legislation that would benefit FTX. Bankman-Fried gave almost exclusively to Democrats.
The plan was somewhat successful. According to the Washington Free Beacon, Bankman-Fried, who gave$ 5 million in 2020 to a super PAC that backed President Joe Biden, met with senior White House officials at meetings last year.
Additionally, Bankman-Fried-backed legislation was drafted by Stabenow, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, to replace the significantly larger Securities and Exchange Commission with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as the body in charge of regulating the cryptocurrency business.
Stabenow is no stranger to contentious battle donors; she declared in January that she would not run for reelection in 2024. Sen. Bob Menendez’s’s super PAC contributed$ 10,000 to her campaign weeks before the New Jersey lawmaker was put on trial for corruption.
Lawmakers have adopted a range of tactics to deal with the illegal bitcoin benefits. Many lawmakers announced they would advance charitable system contributions shortly after FTX’s’s collapse in November. While some said they would wait for guidance from national lawyers on how to manage the funds, others refunded them to Bankman-Fried.
Federal prosecutors requested in February that the donations be given to the public to be donated to a victim relief fund.
Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen.( D., N. Y. ), another notable victim of Bankman – Fried money, gave his$ 5,800 in charitable campaign contributions. According to a Gillibrand spokesman, she” no longer has” the$ 10,800 donation that Bankman-Fried made to the Griffin Victory Fund.
Requests for comment made to Stabenow and Hassan’s’s rooms went unanswered.
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