Tipsheet

Critics Sound Off After Biden's DOJ Drops This Charge Against Sam Bankman-Fried

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  July 28, 2023 8:30 AM

US prosecutors dropped a campaign contribution charge from their case against disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Wednesday, a move critics on social media blasted. 

The decision came after the Bahamas told the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan that it “did not intent to extradite” the 31-year-old on that charge. 

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, prosecutors said they would not pursue the charge at trial due to U.S. treaty obligations to the Bahamas. 

The now-dropped charge alleged that Bankman-Fried and his cohorts used tens of millions of dollars in FTX funds to illegally make over 300 donations to curry favor with candidates who could pass laws that would help his company. 

Bankman-Fried — who is accused of stealing from customers of his now-defunct FTX cryptocurrency exchange — still faces 12 other charges in the case, though five more of the counts are still in question because they were added after he was extradited.

The Bahamas must also consent to the counts that were added after Bankman-Fried was sent back to the US. A judge ruled last month that trial will proceed in October on the original charges, and a separate proceeding was set for March 2024 on the charges that are up in the air. (New York Post)

SBF donated more than $40 million in the 2022 election cycle, which primarily went to Democratic committees and candidates, though he claimed to have made significant contributions to Republicans but those “were dark.” 

"Reporters freak the f*** out if you donate to a Republican, because they're all super liberal. And I didn't want to have that fight, so I just made all the Republican ones dark," he said in the interview, adding he thought he may have been the "second or third biggest" GOP donor this cycle. 

This quote in particular prompted an FEC complaint from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, which says Bankman-Fried was able to direct millions "to influence federal elections while evading federal laws that require disclosure of the true source of the contributions."

One federal charge levied against Bankman-Fried alleges that he and allies made political donations under other people's names, which would be a campaign finance violation. 

"West Realm Shire Services," listed as the official PAC for FTX, gave $1 million to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund, as well as $750,000 to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's Congressional Leadership Fund. 

"All of this dirty money was used in service of Bankman-Fried's desire to buy bipartisan influence and impact the direction of public policy in Washington," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said at a press conference Tuesday. "These contributions were disguised to look like they were coming from wealthy co-conspirators, when in fact the contributions were funded by Alameda Research with stolen customer money." (CBS)

The former 'crypto king' also donated the second largest amount to Joe Biden's campaign, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

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Critics blasted the latest development.