Citizens for Ethics
According to Sam Bankman-Fried, he contributed “about the same amount to both parties this year,” but made his contributions to Republicans “dark" to hide his giving from the public. That goes against campaign finance law.
Campaign finance complaint filed against Sam Bankman-Fried
December 8, 2022
Sam Bankman-Fried appears to have violated the Federal Election Campaign Act after admitting to making tens of millions of dollars in dark money contributions to hide his giving from the public, according to a complaint filed today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington with the Federal Election Commission.
Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former billionaire head of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is a well-known major Democratic contributor, due in part to disclosures to the FEC. But in a recent interview, he admitted that he gave equal amounts to support Republicans, but did it through dark money contributions to hide them from the public. According to Bankman-Fried, if you counted his hidden donations, he would likely be the second or third largest Republican donor.
“Taking him at his word, Bankman-Fried was able to direct at least $37 million to influence federal elections while evading federal laws that require disclosure of the true source of the contributions,” said CREW Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel Donald Sherman. “The FEC needs to commence an immediate investigation into Sam Bankman-Fried.”
Typically, wealthy donors making secret political contributions are able to evade federal disclosure laws by feigning a lack of intent to influence federal elections. They maintain a plausible deniability that a donation to a nonprofit is made for general purposes and without any knowledge about where those funds will ultimately go. Bankman-Fried’s admission blows up any chance of plausible deniability.
Bankman-Fried admitted he transferred funds “to Republicans” to influence “primaries” because that’s “where the good candidates” are elevated “against bad candidates.” He even admitted that he intentionally structured his donations to evade public reporting. The complaint also calls for an investigation into the unnamed groups used by Bankman-Fried to fund Republicans’ electoral efforts.
“Bankman-Fried said the quiet part out loud,” Sherman said. “He admitted that he violated federal laws designed to ensure Americans have transparency into those funding elections and now needs to be held accountable.”
https://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-action/legal-complaints/campaign-finance-complaint-filed-against-sam-bankman-fried/ |
