US authority alleges that SBF donated to politicians using other people’s name

An indictment filed by the Southern District of New York (SDNY) alleged that the arrested FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried made political donations in the name of other persons.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was arrested by the Bahamas authority on Dec. 12 and set to face trials in the U.S. for crimes including money laundering and wired fraud.

According to the filing by SDNY Attorney Damian William, SBF allegedly made donations to politicians using other people’s names, which is a violation of U.S. campaign finance regulations. 

The FTX founder and his unnamed accomplices allegedly donated over $25,000 to U.S. politicians.

The FTX founder had earlier acknowledged in a Nov. 5 tweet that he was a significant donor to the political efforts of many U.S. politicians.

1) I was a significant donor in both D and R primaries.

Supporting constructive candidates across the aisle to prevent pandemics and bring a bipartisan climate to DC.

And working with them to support permissionless finance.

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 5, 2022

SBF added that his donations were to Democrat and Republican politicians alike. However, all his “Republican donations were dark” to avoid media backlash.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire was named as the third-largest donor in the U.S. midterm election.

Journalist at CryptoSlate

Christian is a crypto-curious nerd who loves to investigate how protocols work under the hood. Christian is interested in DeFi protocol research, token economics, and on-chain analytics.