In its superseding indictment, the US charges that SBF and two unnamed FTX executives made 300+ “unlawful” political donations, including using customers' funds
The Bahamas won't like that. https://twitter.com/... Kenneth P. Vogel / @kenvogel : NEW: SBF “selected CC-1” to give a straw donation of “at least $1M to a super PAC” that was “affiliated with pro-LGBTQ issues,” & was supporting a US congressional candidate, according to prosecutors. This appears to be a reference to NISHAD SINGH's $1M donation to @VictoryFund. https://twitter.com/... @spreekaway : interesting https://twitter.com/... Kenneth P. Vogel / @kenvogel : An SBF political consultant asked NISHAD SINGH to make the contribution to @VictoryFund & told him, “in general, you being the center left face of our spending will mean you giving to a lot of woke shit for transactional purposes,” according to prosecutors https://www.documentcloud.org/ ... Tom Hearden / @followtheh : I wish the Feds could/would claw back the SBF political donations and use them to compensate victims now that he's been charged for those crimes. Will Stancil / @whstancil : One sort of funny thing is that it's clear, from campaign finance records and the indictment, that a big chunk of SBF's donations were being fed into the NY State Democratic Party and NY Dem politicians. Which then proceeded to burn the money in a catastrophic midterm https://twitter.com/... Will Stancil / @whstancil : There is no question about what they were doing, an unnamed “political consultant” basically lays out the scheme to SBF directly. https://twitter.com/... Will Stancil / @whstancil : The straw donor scheme included “tens of millions of dollars” of illegal donations. https://twitter.com/... Eamon Javers / @eamonjavers : In 2021 and '22, the indictment says, SBF + 2 FTX “executives who served as straw donors as part of his scheme-CC-I +CC-2-collectively made millions of dollars in contributions, including in ‘hard money’ contributions to federal candidates from both major political parties.” Will Stancil / @whstancil : The indictment focuses heavily on two FTX employees - very obviously Nishad Singh and Ryan Salame - as straw donor co-conspirators. But it's also suggested that others were involved, and frankly, it's MORE important that we know about those people. Chuck Ross / @chuckrossdc : Why Sam Bankman-Fried made all those illegal campaign donations, per DOJ's superseding indictment today. (He gave $5 million to a pro-Biden PAC, and subsequently visited the White House four times) https://twitter.com/... Eleanor Terrett / @eleanorterrett : 🚨NEW: @SBF_FTX's new indictment adds 4 more counts against him which means he now has a total of 12. That's an additional potential 40 years in prison on top of the the 115 he could serve for the first 8 counts. Eek. Steve Reilly / @bystevereilly : The indictment alleges the straw donor scheme was used to mask donations to both campaigns and PACs of both parties. Among the allegations, for instance: one FTX executive acted as a straw donor for a $107K donation to the NY Democratic Committee shortly before the midterms. https://twitter.com/... Andrew Prokop / @awprokop : SBF's straw donations involved “woke shit for transactional purposes” (per one political consultant) and “dark” Republican spending, per new indictment https://twitter.com/... Steve Reilly / @bystevereilly : Superseding indictment just unsealed in the Sam Bankman-Fried case alleges SBF & co-conspirators “made over 300 political contributions, totaling tens of millions of dollars, that were unlawful because they were made in the name of a straw donor or paid for with corporate funds.” https://twitter.com/... Emily Mills / @sf_mills : It was “the preference” of SBF “to keep contributions to Republicans “dark.” In keeping with that preference, CC-2, who publicly aligned himself with conservatives, made contributions to Republican candidates that were directed by Bankman-Fried and funded by Alameda.” https://twitter.com/... @grdecter : BREAKING: Sam Bankman-Fried charged with 4 more crimes. He's now facing 12 felony charges, including wire fraud, money laundering, and unlawful political donations. He could get up to 115 years in prison. https://twitter.com/... Matthew Zeitlin / @mattzeitlin : In light of recent news, re-upping reporting on SBF's political donations @MaggieSeverns and I did: they involved a range of FTX and Alameda employees, were bipartisan, and focused on lawmakers who work on financial regulation https://www.grid.news/... Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : Mega-donors cooperating and advising one another on political donations is not illegal. In fact, it's a huge part of how modern political fundraising works. This, though, could very well be illegal. https://twitter.com/... Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : A political consultant working for BANKMAN-FRIED asked CC-1 to make the contribution and told CC-1, “in general, you being the center left face of our spending will mean you giving to a lot of woke shit for transactional purposes.” https://twitter.com/... Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : NEW DETAILS on the alleged campaign-finance scheme by Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX in a superseding indictment filed this morning from SDNY. SDNY alleges that there are two people that SBF essentially recruited to use as straw donors — one for the left and one for the right. https://twitter.com/... Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : SDNY alleges that the money for these millions of dollars in political donations by these two unidentified individuals came from Alameda in the form of loans. Alameda transferred money to the donors, who then quickly made the dontions in their own names. https://twitter.com/... Jacob Silverman / @silvermanjacob : CC-2 is almost certainly Ryan Salame. https://twitter.com/... Jacob Silverman / @silvermanjacob : Who is the political consultant mentioned here? 👀 I have a guess. https://twitter.com/... Jacob Silverman / @silvermanjacob : Sam used FTX and Alameda funds to turn himself, his company, and two FTX executives into some of the biggest political donors the last election cycle. https://twitter.com/... Jacob Silverman / @silvermanjacob : The fruits of cooperation: a co-conspirator seems to have told the government about expressing concerns to Sam that what they were doing was not on the up and up. Sam allegedly said don't worry about it and then did some fraud. https://twitter.com/...
New York Times
Context & Ripple Effects
Bankman-Fried had continued to argue that FTX’s collapse did not establish his guilt even after former executives pleaded guilty. The superseding indictment turns the alleged use of Alameda money for political giving into a distinct part of the government’s case, rather than merely a consequence of the exchange’s financial failure.
Later coverage sharpened that theory: the DOJ alleged more than $100 million in campaign donations before the 2022 midterms, while Nishad Singh’s testimony about customer-funded spending connected the company’s spending culture to the claimed customer-fund shortfall.
First-order effects
The filing adds four counts, bringing Bankman-Fried’s stated total to 12 felony charges, and formally alleges that two FTX executives acted as straw donors in a coordinated scheme.
Alameda’s alleged transfers to donors as loans, followed by donations in their names, place the entity at the center of the prosecution’s political-finance narrative.
Second-order effects
The alleged $1 million Victory Fund contribution makes the role of political consultants and recipient committees more relevant to establishing who directed and understood the donations, even though the indictment alleges wrongdoing by the donors and organizers.
If the government substantiates the loan-to-donation arrangement, the FTX case would show how alleged customer-fund misuse can be charged alongside campaign-finance concealment, not treated solely as an internal corporate-finance failure.
The trend: The FTX prosecution is developing from a collapse-centered fraud case into a broader account of how control over customer funds allegedly financed corporate spending and political influence.
Reading through SDNY's superseding indictment against SBF, which now includes 12 charges (up from 8). What sticks out right away is that the government lists the FEC as a fraud victim and is explicit about Sam's attempt to purchase political influence. https://storage.courtlisten…
Memo to Sam Bankman-Fried @SBF_FTX: Don't waste your time worrying about the additional criminal charges. I'll give you the same advice my criminal defense attorney gave me, “They can only hang you once.” I hope that helps. #SBF #FTX https://www.reuters.com/...
NEW: The $1.1 million donation labeled as from former FTX head of engineering @Nishad__Singh to the LGBTQ @VictoryFund has been “set aside” and the group “will take appropriate action once we receive guidance from authorities,” their spox tells me. https://www.cnbc.com/...
Like so much about the FTX, striking how brazen and ham-fisted some of these alleged crimes are. Such as putting in writing that you're concerned about “maybe 80m” of “donations/personal/etc that went through my bank [account] and are in my name.” https://www.nbcnews.com/...
This section is about SBF using FTX exec Nishad Singh to donate to left-leaning groups. A consultant who worked with SBF told Singh he'd have to donate to a bunch of “woke shit.” This $1 million contribution was to the LGBTQ Victory Fund https://twitter.com/...
NEW key campaign finance related items within the new charges vs. @SBF_FTX: All indications are that former FTX engineer head @Nishad__Singh is very likely “co-conspirator 1” who worked with Bankman-Fried on alleged straw donor scheme More here: https://www.cnbc.com/...
.@VictoryFund spent $992k supporting @BeccaBalintVT's successful campaign to fill the congressional seat vacated by @PeterWelch, including airing direct mail & this ad. https://twitter.com/...
New indictment of SBF adds 4 charges and a few spicy details clearly showing the misappropriation of FTX customer funds was intentional. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of $150 million in bank accounts held in the name of FTX Digital Markets—The Bahamas won't like that. http…
NEW: SBF “selected CC-1” to give a straw donation of “at least $1M to a super PAC” that was “affiliated with pro-LGBTQ issues,” & was supporting a US congressional candidate, according to prosecutors. This appears to be a reference to NISHAD SINGH's $1M donation to @VictoryFund. …
An SBF political consultant asked NISHAD SINGH to make the contribution to @VictoryFund & told him, “in general, you being the center left face of our spending will mean you giving to a lot of woke shit for transactional purposes,” according to prosecutors https://www.documentclo…
One sort of funny thing is that it's clear, from campaign finance records and the indictment, that a big chunk of SBF's donations were being fed into the NY State Democratic Party and NY Dem politicians. Which then proceeded to burn the money in a catastrophic midterm https://twi…
There is no question about what they were doing, an unnamed “political consultant” basically lays out the scheme to SBF directly. https://twitter.com/...
In 2021 and '22, the indictment says, SBF + 2 FTX “executives who served as straw donors as part of his scheme-CC-I +CC-2-collectively made millions of dollars in contributions, including in ‘hard money’ contributions to federal candidates from both major political parties.”
The indictment focuses heavily on two FTX employees - very obviously Nishad Singh and Ryan Salame - as straw donor co-conspirators. But it's also suggested that others were involved, and frankly, it's MORE important that we know about those people.
Why Sam Bankman-Fried made all those illegal campaign donations, per DOJ's superseding indictment today. (He gave $5 million to a pro-Biden PAC, and subsequently visited the White House four times) https://twitter.com/...
🚨NEW: @SBF_FTX's new indictment adds 4 more counts against him which means he now has a total of 12. That's an additional potential 40 years in prison on top of the the 115 he could serve for the first 8 counts. Eek.
The indictment alleges the straw donor scheme was used to mask donations to both campaigns and PACs of both parties. Among the allegations, for instance: one FTX executive acted as a straw donor for a $107K donation to the NY Democratic Committee shortly before the midterms. http…
SBF's straw donations involved “woke shit for transactional purposes” (per one political consultant) and “dark” Republican spending, per new indictment https://twitter.com/...
Superseding indictment just unsealed in the Sam Bankman-Fried case alleges SBF & co-conspirators “made over 300 political contributions, totaling tens of millions of dollars, that were unlawful because they were made in the name of a straw donor or paid for with corporate funds.”…
It was “the preference” of SBF “to keep contributions to Republicans “dark.” In keeping with that preference, CC-2, who publicly aligned himself with conservatives, made contributions to Republican candidates that were directed by Bankman-Fried and funded by Alameda.” https://twi…
BREAKING: Sam Bankman-Fried charged with 4 more crimes. He's now facing 12 felony charges, including wire fraud, money laundering, and unlawful political donations. He could get up to 115 years in prison. https://twitter.com/...
In light of recent news, re-upping reporting on SBF's political donations @MaggieSeverns and I did: they involved a range of FTX and Alameda employees, were bipartisan, and focused on lawmakers who work on financial regulation https://www.grid.news/...
Mega-donors cooperating and advising one another on political donations is not illegal. In fact, it's a huge part of how modern political fundraising works. This, though, could very well be illegal. https://twitter.com/...
A political consultant working for BANKMAN-FRIED asked CC-1 to make the contribution and told CC-1, “in general, you being the center left face of our spending will mean you giving to a lot of woke shit for transactional purposes.” https://twitter.com/...
NEW DETAILS on the alleged campaign-finance scheme by Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX in a superseding indictment filed this morning from SDNY. SDNY alleges that there are two people that SBF essentially recruited to use as straw donors — one for the left and one for the right. https:/…
SDNY alleges that the money for these millions of dollars in political donations by these two unidentified individuals came from Alameda in the form of loans. Alameda transferred money to the donors, who then quickly made the dontions in their own names. https://twitter.com/...
Sam used FTX and Alameda funds to turn himself, his company, and two FTX executives into some of the biggest political donors the last election cycle. https://twitter.com/...
The fruits of cooperation: a co-conspirator seems to have told the government about expressing concerns to Sam that what they were doing was not on the up and up. Sam allegedly said don't worry about it and then did some fraud. https://twitter.com/...