Feds Drop Sam Bankman-Fried’s Campaign Finance Charges
Campaign finance charges against fallen FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be dropped, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Bankman-Fried was slapped with charges including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and campaign finance violations in December after the crumbling of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange. That month, he was extradited to the United States from the Bahamas, where his company was based.
But in a Wednesday court filing, prosecutors said officials in the Bahamas didn’t intend to extradite him on the campaign finance charges.
“In keeping with its treaty obligations to the Bahamas, the government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count,” prosecutors said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Authorities had alleged Bankman-Fried used about $90 million of FTX customer deposits to donate to hundreds of political campaigns and PACs.
Bankman-Fried was a major backer of the Democratic Party, donating $46.5 million in 2022. But he also claimed to be the “second or third biggest” donor to Republicans that year.
“All my Republican donations were dark,” he told YouTuber Tiffany Fong. “The reason was not for regulatory reasons, it’s because reporters freak the fuck out if you donate to Republicans. They’re all super liberal, and I didn’t want to have that fight.”
Prosecutors had alleged that Bankman-Fried had made political contributions in other people’s names in violation of campaign finance laws.
Wednesday’s news was a rare win for Bankman-Fried, who’s been peeving the court and his prosecutors lately with his antics amid a laundry list of serious charges.
Last week, he was accused of paying his legal bills with misappropriated funds and leaking his ex-girlfriend’s diary to The New York Times in an attempt to discredit her as a witness. Prosecutors asked Judge Kaplan to lock him up immediately, saying he had “crossed a line” with the media stunt.
In June, Judge Kaplan slapped down Bankman-Fried’s effort to have most of his criminal charges dropped, calling the arguments “either moot or without merit.” Bankman-Fried had ticked off the judge earlier when he used a VPN to watch the Super Bowl, losing access to the broader internet as a result.
Bankman-Fried is still facing seven charges at his October trial. Prosecutors withdrew five other charges back in June but intend to pursue those in a second trial.
He could face dozens of years in prison.
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