Tag Archives: Alleged Campaign Finance Violations

“Sam Bankman-Fried will not face second trial on charges including making illegal campaign donations and bribing Chinese officials”

The Daily Mail:

Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted last month of stealing from customers of his now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, will not face a second trial on separate charges in the case, including campaign finance violations. 

In a letter filed on Friday night in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors said the ‘strong public interest’ in a prompt resolution of their case against the 31-year-old former billionaire outweighed the benefits of a second trial. . . . 

According to a superseding indictment, Bankman-Fried ‘misappropriated and embezzled FTX customer deposits,’ including more than $100 million spent ‘in campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans to seek to influence cryptocurrency regulation.’ 

The indictment also alleged that Bankman-Fried concealed the source of campaign donations by making them in the names of various FTX executives, including former engineering director Nishad Singh.

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“Dark Money Group Sought Trump Pardons”

Political Wire flags this story from the Daily Beast.

“Former Trump acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker earned $400,000 last year by helping a conservative dark money group secure pardons from his former boss . . . Neither Whitaker nor the group reported the lobbying activity as required by law.”

“Paul S. Ryan, vice president of litigation at government watchdog Common Cause, pointed out that the laws surrounding lobbying for pardons specifically are fuzzy, and before Trump’s final months relatively untested. But he also noted that a number of Trump lobbyists saw fit to disclose that work.”

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“Prosecutors demanded records of Sidney Powell’s fundraising groups as part of criminal probe”

Washington Post

“Federal prosecutors have demanded the financial records of multiple fundraising organizations launched by attorney Sidney Powell after the 2020 election as part of a criminal investigation, according to a subpoena reviewed by The Washington Post.

The grand jury subpoena, issued in September by the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, sought communications and other records related to fundraising and accounting by groups including Defending the Republic, a Texas-based organization claiming 501(c) 4 nonprofit status, and a PAC by the same name, according to the documents and a person familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the probe.”

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“As its revenue dropped, the NRA took millions of dollars from its charities and funded political groups”

Open Secrets

Anna Massoglia reports on NRA’s financial difficulties at Open Secrets.

“The NRA faces a lawsuit from the New York attorney general to dissolve its main 501(c)(4) lobbying arm following the attorney general’s investigation of corruption charges that unearthed “inappropriate spending,” “self-dealing” and other questionable transactions.”

Meanwhile, the NRA’s charitable foundation is the subject of a separate lawsuit in D.C.–accused of illegally diverting charitable funds to the organization’s lobbying arm.

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