The Mysterious Problem With Sam Bankman-Fried's Political Donations

[Celerity]

Among the charges against Sam Bankman-Fried is a strange one that he broke rules surrounding political donations.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-mysterious-problem-with-sam-bankman-frieds-political-donations



When Justice Department prosecutors unsealed an indictment against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday morning, they revealed an array of serious charges against the crypto boy-king for billions of dollars in high-profile financial crimes, but the very last count opens a new mystery—an enigmatic straw donor scheme to violate federal campaign finance laws.

During a press conference unveiling the charges, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams alleged that Bankman-Fried, 30, parlayed “tens of millions of dollars” stolen from his clients into a side career as one of the most prolific political financiers in the country. “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,” Williams said.

While the details of the scheme are still unknown to the public, prosecutors have made some clear allegations in the wake of Bankman-Fried’s arrest earlier this week by Bahamian officials. Specifically, according to the indictment, Bankman-Fried, acting in concert with multiple unnamed co-conspirators, violated “prohibitions applicable to corporate contributions and conduit contributions,” and deprived the Federal Election Commission of its ability to properly disclose donor information to the public in compliance with federal election law.

Those laws require campaigns and political committees to publicly disclose the names of their donors, and they also put caps on how much money individuals can give to a group. Sometimes, however, donors seek to get around those rules by giving money in someone else’s name. Known as a “straw donor” scheme, it’s one of the few campaign finance crimes that can carry prison time.

snip