- The two former FTX workers solely gave money to unsuccessful House candidates.
- Donations to Santos don’t seem out of the ordinary coming from Salame.
The crypto sector is still feeling the after-effects of the FTX fiasco with several firms laying off staff trying to cut down expenses. One of the greatest scams in history has allowed the SEC to take a stringent approach toward the crypto sector.
Now according to FEC documents, many high-ranking former employees of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX gave the maximum amount to George Santos (R-NY) during his successful 2022 congressional race.
Within Limit Allowed by Federal Law
In the summer of 2022, FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame, former FTX senior executive Claire Watanabe, and former FTX head of product Ramnik Arora each gave the maximum amount to Santos’ campaign allowed by federal law.
Donations to Santos don’t seem out of the ordinary coming from Salame, a prominent political contributor who gave millions to congressional candidates from both major parties in the 2022 campaign season. In contrast, Watanabe and Arora’s political contributions were much more narrowly focused.
The two former FTX workers solely gave money to unsuccessful House candidates, including Santos’s girlfriend and crypto advocate Michelle Bond and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s favorite so-called effective altruist Carrick Flynn.
Before his arrest last month on eight criminal charges, including fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and campaign finance violations, Bankman-Fried was a chief in the effective altruism movement, which claimed to use rational strategies to maximize the positive impact of philanthropy on as many people as possible. Bankman-Fried is now facing other charges, including that he embezzled money from customers to support his political career in Washington, D.C.
