How FTX founder SBF and friends quietly donated to political groups

Before FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on multiple criminal securities fraud violations last week, he was considered the crypto “darling” of Washington, helpfully testifying before Congress, meeting with regulators and lavishly spending tens of millions on political campaigns.

U.S. prosecutors say at least some of that money came from Alameda Research, a hedge fund he founded. He and his co-conspirators allegedly diverted billions of dollars in customer funds from FTX to Alameda that were then misused in a variety of ways, including to donate to political candidates and campaigns, federal prosecutors said.

The campaign finance violations detailed in a 14-page indictment are numerous and varied. Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York accuse Bankman-Fried of conspiring with others to make and receive illegal campaign donations, hide those donations, misuse corporate donations and of improperly using a conduit to hide the donations. Bankman-Fried “and others known and unknown” also allegedly gave money under other people’s names and exceeded limits on political contributions, according to the indictment.

While prosecutors don’t name Bankman-Fried’s co-conspirators, they said he worked with “others, known and unknown, (who) knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to defraud the United States” to intentionally skirt campaign finance laws, according to the indictment. Prosecutors are reportedly looking at former FTX director of engineering Nishad Singh, the co-CEO of FTX digital markets Ryan Salame, as well as contributions by Alameda Research and FTX, the New York Times reported. Bankman-Fried, Singh and Salame, combined, contributed at least $70 million toward the 2022 midterms, according to data from nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.

Singh and Salame did not return requests for comment. A spokesman for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.

Bankman-Fried became a prolific political donor in recent years, giving almost $40 million in publicly disclosed contributions to mostly Democrats in the 2022 midterm races. State and federal campaign finance data and nonprofit records show a number of questionable donations now under increased scrutiny that indicate Bankman-Fried could have spent millions more than previously disclosed currying favor with Washington lawmakers.

He’s publicly admitted that he also gave roughly $40 million to Republicans during the campaign cycle, although those payments weren’t publicly disclosed and aren’t counted toward his total donations.

None of the groups, candidates or nonprofits that received donations from Bankman-Fried or his executives have been charged with any crimes, and the indictment notes that just because a group receives a donation later deemed illegal does not mean they…