Ex-FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh gave $2 million.
During the midterm elections, SBF was the Democratic Party’s second-largest contributor.
The Democratic Senate Majority PAC plans to return $3 million in contributions from the management of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX due to the negative publicity surrounding the firm. Ex-FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh gave $2 million, while former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) gave $1 million.
According to CNBC, a PAC spokesperson said that the decision to refund the money was made because of “serious allegations against FTX.” The PAC claims it needs “proper direction from federal law enforcement officials based on their legal proceedings” before it can refund the funds.
Tainted Money To Be Returned
Such a move wouldn’t be unprecedented for a Democratic organization. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee both agreed to return FTX donations. Democratic National Committee spokesman Daniel Wessel claimed that the party will repay $815,000 in contributions from SBF going back to 2020.
During the 2022 midterm elections, SBF was the Democratic Party’s second-largest contributor. According to his own account, he also secretly donated to Republican politicians in similar amounts, but this was never made public out of fear of public retribution.
The overall amount of the former billionaire’s charitable contributions were close to $40 million. Despite the fact that Singh’s total was $8 million, he has not been arrested or charged with any wrongdoing.
On the other hand, Alameda Research, FTX’s sibling trading desk, contributed $5 million to Future Forward USA. Bankruptcy attorney for FTX argues that FTX’s assets were mixed in with Alameda’s for margin trading, which resulted in massive losses. It is expected that Bankman-Fried will soon be extradited from the Bahamas to the United States.