Democrats Plan on Returning at Least $9.85M in FTX Donations

At least five organizations have signaled their intention of returning FTX political contributions.

One by one, U.S. political groups are announcing they will return the millions Sam Bankman-Fried donated to them.

Sending Back the Money

The U.S. political system is still dealing with the fallout of the FTX fraud.

According to CNBC, the pro-Democratic Senate Majority PAC announced today that it would seek to return $3 million in donations from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and former FTX head of engineering Nishad Singh. Another political action committee, the House Majority PAC, has also declared its intention of returning the $6 million Bankman-Fried donated to it.

The Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced four days ago their intention to return the $815,000 in contributions they have received from Bankman-Fried since 2020.

According to Washington-based non-profit organization OpenSecrets.orgBankman-Fried’s donations in the last two years reached a total of $46.5 million. That number could possibly be higher, if the SDNY’s allegations that he made political contributions under other people’s names turn out to be true.

Bankman-Fried and the FTX group had contributed millions towards other organizations aligned with the Democratic Party. OpenSecrets claims that Protect Our Future received $27 million from the FTX group, while the House Majority PAC got $6 million, Future Forward USA $5 million, America United $1.3 million, and the Senate Majority PAC $1 million. Texan political candidate Beto O’Rourke was given $1 million as well, while the crypto political organization GMI PAC received a $2 million donation. CNBC’s report indicates that the Senate Majority PAC received its extra $2 million from Singh personally.

Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other crypto assets.