On Sunday, the bankrupt crypto exchange platform FTX requested back the money that founder Sam Bankman-Fried had allegedly sent to political candidates and action committees during the 2022 midterm election season.
After the collapse of FTX in November, recently hired CEO John J. Ray III was tasked to supervise the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of the exchange. He had warned earlier that donations associated with the business must be repaid.
The statement released Sunday, however, was much more direct in demand. The company wanted all “contributions or other payments” that could reach $93 million, as estimated by the company’s creditors, to be returned by February 28.
👀 FTX debtors are reviewing $93 million in political donations from March 2020 to November 2022
(Slide from the FTX debtor presentation you can find on the Kroll docket https://t.co/YMEq1bZF66) pic.twitter.com/mUhZ7g0mjx
— Stephanie Murray (@stephanie_murr) January 17, 2023
In addition, the company repeated an earlier warning that it would use legal means to get back any funds, along with the interests, that weren’t returned voluntarily.
The company emphasized that even if a receiver donates FTX-related monies to a third party, such as a charity, they are still responsible for repaying the company.
According to a public database maintained by OpenSecrets.org, Bankman-Fried, former FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame and FTX’s former director of engineering, Nishad Singh, donated more than $84 million to political candidates and organizations.
Representative of California Kevin McCarthy and Charles Ellis Schumer, the senior senator from New York, are just two of at least 196 members of Congress who have been linked to payments from the exchange behemoth.
Bankman-Fried’s $5.2 million donation to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign was the second largest among CEOs. He also gave a “significant” amount of money to candidates on both sides of the aisle in the midterm elections in November.
Last month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on whether President Biden would refund campaign donation.
FTX also announced plans to sell $4.6 billion in non-strategic investments, including LedgerX, Embed, FTX Japan and FTX Europe, to pay its creditors.