WASHINGTON (Michigan News Source) – The cryptocurrency scandal involving FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his arrest for wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering has caught up with Democratic Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow.
Among the $70 million dollars in illegal political donations that Bankman-Fried contributed to mostly Democratic politicians and PACs, was $20,800 he sent to Stabenow’s victory fund, $5,800 of which was transferred to her campaign for U.S. Senate.
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Michigan Capitol Confidential reports that Stabenow also received an additional $29,000 to her victory fund and Senate campaign in 2022 from employees of FTX including Mark Wetjen, Ryne Miller and Zachary Dexter.
A December 18th article from the Detroit News reported that a spokesperson for Stabenow said that the senator would be donating Bankman-Fried’s contributions to a local charity. No information was given about returning the additional contributions.
Several months after receiving the donations, Stabenow introduced a bill that would give the Commodities Futures Trading Commission a larger role in regulating cryptocurrency, which had been reportedly supported by Bankman-Fried.
Center Square reported the Bankman-Fried lobbied for Stabenow’s Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act and pointed out a tweet by Bankman-Fried from October 18th of this year where he said, “I’m optimistic that the Stabenow-Boozman’s bill will provide customer protection on centralized crypto exchanges without endangering the existence of software, blockchains, validators, DeFi, etc. If I were convinced I was wrong about that, I would not support it.”
Some have called on the recipients of the political donations to hold on to the money so it can be given to the regulators for “restitution” purposes for victims of Bankman-Fried’s alleged fraud. A spokesperson for U.S. Rep Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) says that she is holding on to her donations in case she needs to send it to bankruptcy authorities who could be seeking to reclaim the money.
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In a December 19th press release, FTX says that it will be considering legal avenues to recover all payments and contributions, including political donations made by former CEO, Bankman-Fried and other officers and principals, and they ask all recipients of those payments to contact the FTX Debtors to make arrangements to return the payments. They caution those who receive payments to note give the payments to third parties including charities as it does not “prevent the FTX Debtors from seeking recovery from the recipient or any subsequent transferee.”
