US Politicians Donate Bankman-Fried Cash to Charity

US politicians on both sides of the aisle collectively received millions in dollars from fallen FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

Disgraced FTX founder and former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried was a prolific donor to US politicians. Now, his beneficiaries are grappling with the realities of accepting his money.

Bankman-Fried has personally given more than $13 million to politicians and their campaigns on both sides of the aisle during this year’s election cycle. Ryan Salame, Bankman-Fried’s co-CEO, contributed almost $24 million to Republican campaigns, per The Daily Beast.

Bankman-Fried reportedly gave more than $44,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) this year, while NRCC Chair Tom Emmer received donations from Salame.

An additional $23 million was funneled to Democrats via a Bankman-Fried political action committee (PAC), while one tied to Salame gave more than $12 million to Republicans.

Not to mention, the $5.6 million Bankman-Fried gave to President Joe Biden’s campaign leading up to the 2020 collection, second only to media billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who donated $56 million.

In light of swirling allegations around Bankman-Fried, including that he siphoned billions of dollars in customer funds to fuel risky bets across the crypto ecosystem, Democrats Dick Durbin and Jesús “Chuy” García both told The Daily Beast they would donate the $2,900 they received from Bankman-Fried to undisclosed charities.

The situation is especially sticky given the odds that at least some of Bankman-Fried’s personal fortune came as a result of intentionally misusing user funds, although such allegations are yet to be explicitly proven. 

Republican David Schweikert said he’d also give up his FTX-linked cash, which also amounted to $2,900 by way of Salame. “If the person who made an individual contribution engaged in bad acts, yeah, absolutely,” Schweikert reportedly said.

Ruben Gallego, Democratic representative of Arizona, took a different tack, telling reporters that he’d spent Bankman-Fried’s donation in support of Latina Congress hopeful Andrea Salinas. 

Bankman-Fried had reportedly spent millions to defeat Salinas throughout Oregon’s Democratic primary. “I think I’ve paid it back,” Gallego said.

Democratic representatives Salud Carbajal and Lucy McBath received $5,800 and $2,900 from Bankman-Fried, respectively. McBath didn’t comment, according to the Daily Beast, which reported that her communications director said that she couldn’t answer questions while walking to the House floor.

Carbajal, who represents California’s 24th district, directed reporters to contact his office. A spokesperson later told Blockworks that Carbajal would indeed be donating Bankman-Fried’s money to a local charity “in our area that is aimed at boosting economic opportunity and financial literacy.”

Aside from those detailed above, The Daily Beast contacted 26 current and incoming lawmakers from both parties, all of which declined to comment or did not respond.

In any case, crypto in politics extends far beyond Bankman-Fried. Industry insiders, including venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, have made a point of lobbying lawmakers and sympathetic politicians over the past 18 months.

No doubt, Bankman-Fried has just made their job significantly more difficult leading into the next election.

Article updated to include comments from a Salud Carbajal spokesperson.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Ethena Labs is leaping from its flagship synthetic dollar, USDe, to a full product suite—USDtb, iUSDe, and the Arbitrum-based Converge Chain—designed to marry crypto-native yields with TradFi-grade compliance. Our analysis shows how expanding into CME, ETF options, and tokenized Treasuries could lift protocol revenue from sub-$500 million in a bear case to several billion dollars if favorable regulation and institutional adoption align.

article-image

The L1’s Interwoven Stack is the most opinionated tech stack yet

article-image

Bitcoin is still rising, 11 years after the documentary film The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

article-image

Arch Labs CEO told Blockworks that the team plans to launch a native token, but declined to give details

article-image

CEO Mike Silagadze tells Blockworks that the US is “open for business” and why its DeFi bank offering is the first of many

article-image

Doing one thing well and leaving everything else out is often what disruptive technologies do best