A study by our colleagues at CoinDesk shows that out of the 535 senators and representatives in the U.S. Congress, 196 had received various sums of money from Sam Bankman-Fried and other top execs from FTX. Those who responded to requests for comment said that, in order to avoid any fallout from the current federal investigation into SBF, they either donated the money to charitable causes, or planned to return the donations if they had not already. As it was indicated that the donations were made from SBF’s own money, it was in the hands of the Court to decide whether those political donations had to be returned. But the FTX story has shown us that the disgraced founder used FTX and Alameda as his own personal slush funds.
The elections for Congress happened just days before the Chapter 11 filing of FTX, and days or weeks before news spread of mismanagement of funds and fraud. So most, if not all, the members of Congress involved had probably no idea of the reality at FTX. Rather than helping the crypto industry, his important lobbying will probably provoke the lawmakers into passing stricter regulations on crypto assets. It was rumored that he met last year with none other than Gary Gensler, in order to set the regulatory framework in a way that clearly gave the advantage to FTX.
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