Illinois lawmakers unload campaign donations from Samuel Bankman-Fried

Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas earlier this week on eight charges over what prosecutors have called  “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”

Before his arrest, Bankman-Fried was a prolific political donor. In the 2022 election cycle, he made more than $40 million in political donations directly to candidates and in independent expenditures through his “Protect Our Future” political action committee. 

Lawmakers who received Bankman-Fried’s donations, including several from Illinois, have been quick to unload the cash anywhere but their own campaign coffers. 

A spokesman for U.S. Rep.-elect Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, confirmed that the campaign donated Bankman-Fried’s $2,900 contribution to charity, with $2,400 going to Fifth Street Renaissance, a Springfield-based social service organization, and $500 to the Elouise Larry Foundation, which provides scholarships for college students. 

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin also plans to donate his $2,900 contribution from Bankman-Fried to “an appropriate charity,” a spokeswoman said. U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Chicago, also plans to donate his $2,900 contribution to charity.  

However, Bankman-Fried’s giving extended beyond donations directly to campaigns. He also spent millions on behalf of candidates through his PAC.

According to campaign finance records, Budzinski was the beneficiary of a $263,453 television ad buy from the Bankman-Fried’s “Protect Our Future” PAC.

The PAC also spent more than $500,000 on advertising benefitting U.S. Rep.-elect Jonathan Jackson, D-Chicago, and nearly $200,000 on Garcia. 

Federal law prohibits coordination between campaigns and political action committees, meaning the former have no control over outside spending. 

The Associated Press contacted more than four dozen current and incoming lawmakers who received campaign contributions from Bankman-Fried this election cycle — a group that included members of both political parties and chambers of Congress, but predominantly House Democrats.

Many of the recipients of Bankman-Fried’s cash were quick to respond, stressing that they had already donated or plan to send the money to charity. Several also stressed that the lawmakers did not solicit the contributions from Bankman-Fried.

The main campaign committees dedicated to electing congressional Democrats also received tens of thousands from Bankman-Fried, while House Majority PAC, a deep-pocketed outside group backing House Democrats, got a $6 million contribution, according to FEC records.

In a statement Friday, DNC spokesman Daniel Wessel said that the group will set aside the $815,000 in contributions it has received from Bankman-Fried since 2020. That total includes donations Bankman-Fried made directly to the DNC as well as the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund and the Biden Victory Fund, which was a joint fundraising committee approved by Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, the DNC and state Democratic parties.

“We will return as soon as we receive proper direction in the legal proceedings,” Wessel said.

Officials at the DSCC and DCCC — the official campaign arms of Senate and House Democrats, respectively — released similar statements.

Then there were the millions given to more obscure political action committees: The Protect Our Future PAC, financed by Bankman-Fried, spent up to $2 million in ads in support of Lucy McBath, who ran a successful campaign in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District against incumbent Rep. Carolyn Bordeaux. Bankman-Fried wired at least $27 million to the PAC in 2022, according to the FEC website.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Bordeaux said the dilemma surrounding Bankman-Fried’s campaign spending isn’t as simple as returning individual donations. In some cases, the money already has been used to affect elections.

“The larger issue at play is the super PACs,” Bordeaux said. “That’s not something they can refund. Here is an example of a billionaire using money he stole and diverted into political contributions — it’s an egregious example of the corruption in our political system.”

“This is a good opportunity to reopen the conversation about campaign finance reform,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.