According to Fox Business, members of the bankrupt cryptocurrency company FTX – including former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried – have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to many of the very congressional Democrats who will be investigating the company.
This comes as House Financial Services Committee members are preparing to investigate the FTX situation for any wrongdoing.
House hearings are expected to be held in the coming weeks.
But now, it appears we have a serious conflict of interest between the investigators and those to be investigated.
Over $300,000 in donations
New reports indicate that Bankman-Fried and other members of FTX donated $300,351 to nine members of the House Financial Services Committee.
This information comes from Federal Election Commission records. Some of the committee members whom FTX donated to are Reps. Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jim Himes (D-CT), Sean Caster (D-IL), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), and Cindy Axne (D-IA).
The donations were made through a political action committee called Protect Our Future PAC.
It is also being reported that FTX donated to a number of senators, including Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and John Boozman (R-AR), who appear to have returned the favor by pursuing such things as the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, which is a bill that Bankman-Fried has supported.
“I don’t want to get into that”
The head of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Maxine Water (D-CA), was asked about the situation and whether committee members ought to give the money back they received from FTX.
“Well, I don’t want to get into that,” Waters said. “As a matter of fact, both sides, Democrats and Republicans, have received donations. So, thank you.”
What Waters says is technically true: the donations went to both Democrats and Republicans. But, about 95% of the donations went to Republicans. Between 2021 and 2022, for example, Bankman-Fried spent $262,000 on Republicans, whereas he spent some $40 million on Democrats. So, it’s safe to say that Waters is being a bit disingenuous here.
So far, the only Democrat on the committee who has pledged to return the donation that he received from FTX is Rep. Garcia. It appears that the rest are okay with keeping the money they received from the people they’re investigating.