Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Business Insider
FTX has chased politicians like Nancy Pelosi to return donations given before the crypto giant's collapse. They now have a deadline of February 28 to pay.
By Pete Syme,
2023-02-06
Nancy Pelosi and John Fetterman each received $2,900 from an FTX executive. It is unclear if the pair have given any money back.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images; Drew Angerer/Getty Images
FTX employees donated a total of $90 million to political causes, per the NYT.
The bankrupt crypto exchange previously asked for the money to be returned in December.
Now, they're sending letters to politicians calling for it to be sent back by February 28.
Bankrupt FTX is asking politicians and political action committees to return donations made by company employees by the end of the month.
The bankrupt crypto exchange said Sunday that it is contacting anyone who received payments made by Sam Bankman-Fried, other FTX executives, or any of the affiliated companies that have filed for bankruptcy. In total, FTX employees donated $90 million to politicians, per The New York Times, and the debtors are trying to claim that back to reimburse customers.
After Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX's Bahamas company, Ryan Salame, donated $23 million – making him the 15th top donor in the US, per OpenSecrets. OpenSecrets also shows that Nishad Singh, FTX's former director of engineering, whose 7.8% stake in FTX was worth $572 million last March, donated $7.9 million.
The lawyers handling FTX's bankruptcy first requested the donations be returned in December. But in January, CoinDesk reported that just five of the 196 politicians who received money from FTX said they had successfully returned it.
FTX added that if the payments aren't returned by February 28, the politicians could be taken to the bankruptcy court with interest added on.
Well-known politicians Nancy Pelosi and John Fetterman were among the donor recipients who had not yet returned funds as of mid-January, according to CoinDesk. It was unclear at the time of publication if either had returned any donations.
Insider reached out to these individuals for further comment but did not immediately hear back.
Authorities are also looking into whether Bankman-Fried's younger brother, Gabe, had any role in the alleged campaign finance scheme, The New York Times reported .
Comments / 0