Former Democratic Texas gubernatorial hopeful Beto O’Rourke returned a $1 million campaign donation from Sam Bankman-Fried, the former FTX CEO embroiled in controversy over the company’s collapse, according to O’Rourke’s campaign.
Lawmakers continue to be under public and legal pressure to return campaign donations from Bankman-Fried, who poured in $40 million this election cycle, mostly to boost Democrats. However, O’Rourke actually returned the $1 million four days before Election Day for a reason unrelated to the scandals linked to Bankman-Fried, his campaign said.
POLITICIANS FACE PUBLIC AND LEGAL PRESSURE TO RETURN BANKMAN-FRIED DONATIONS
“This contribution was unsolicited, and the campaign’s upcoming [Texas Ethics Commission] report will show that it was returned back on Nov. 4, prior to the news stories that would later come out about the donor,” a spokesman for O’Rourke told the Texas Tribune on Tuesday, noting that the $1 million was received on Oct. 11 but returned since it was unsolicited and surprised the campaign.
Bankman-Fried’s $1 million donation made him the top donor to O’Rourke’s campaign between July 1 and Sept. 29, filings show. Another top donor to O’Rourke, overall, was left-wing billionaire and philanthropist George Soros.
Bankman-Fried, 30, was hailed as a cryptocurrency genius prior to the unraveling of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange he founded in 2019. The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are now investigating FTX to see whether it funneled billions of dollars worth of customer money to support Alameda Research, another cryptocurrency company Bankman-Fried founded in 2017.
Two days before O’Rourke’s campaign purportedly returned the donation, on Nov. 2, a report in CoinDesk showed Alameda’s funds were comprised of a coin that FTX issued. This led to heightened scrutiny over the extent to which FTX and Alameda are financially intertwined.
In November, Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO, and FTX filed for bankruptcy.
Bankman-Fried and other FTX co-founders, Ryan Salame and Nishad Singh, have given roughly $300,000 to nine members sitting on the House Financial Services Committee, according to campaign finance records. That committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), said in November that the body plans to hold hearings in December on the collapse of FTX and investigate the situation.
However, when asked by Fox Business whether Democrats should return campaign money they received from Bankman-Fried, Waters dodged the question.
“Well, I don’t want to get into that,” she said. “As a matter of fact, both sides, Democrats and Republicans, have received donations. So thank you.”
FTX’s co-founders have collectively spent almost $71 million this election cycle boosting Democrats and Republicans, the Washington Examiner reported. This spending coincided with a spike in cryptocurrency lobbying of Congress as companies seek to avoid a possible regulatory crackdown.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), who defeated O’Rourke handily in the gubernatorial election, is one of many Republicans calling on candidates to return campaign donations they received from Bankman-Fried.
This guy gave a million dollars to Beto.
This Madoff-Style evaporation of customer’s money should be a crime.
Candidates who received this tainted money should return it so that innocent customers of FTX can get some of their money back. https://t.co/oArdCD14Ql
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 17, 2022
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“This guy gave a million dollars to Beto. This Madoff-Style evaporation of customer’s money should be a crime,” the governor tweeted on Nov. 16. “Candidates who received this tainted money should return it so that innocent customers of FTX can get some of their money back.”
FTX did not respond to a request for comment.
