Wyden received Bankman-Fried family money for over a decade
Oregon's senior U.S. Senator was hailed as "major ally" of crypto
A contribution from an alleged fraudster
Democrat Ron Wyden, Oregon’s senior U.S. Senator, was among the politicians who benefited from the largesse of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in the weeks prior to the crypto currency behemoth’s bankruptcy filing last fall. Federal Election Commission records show Sam Bankman-Fried donated $2,900, the legal maximum, to Wyden for Senate, Wyden’s campaign committee, on October 26, 2022.
(All federal campaign fundraising and spending records in this article were obtained via the FEC’s handy, easy to use search tool).
Wyden easily won his fifth full term November 8. FTX filed for bankruptcy November 11. The U.S. Department of Justice charged Bankman-Fried with conspiracy to avoid campaign finance regulations, among other charges, January 3, 2023.
After filing, FTX asked candidates who received donations made “by or at the direction of . . . Bankman-Fried” to return them to help the company pay its allegedly defrauded creditors. As of Wyden for Senate’s most recent FEC report, which covers transactions through December 31, it had not returned or otherwise donated the Bankman-Fried contribution.
I emailed Wyden’s Oregon press contact and called his Washington, DC press office and left a message to ask whether the donation had been returned or otherwise donated. I did not receive a response.
Most of the 59 candidates who received personal donations from Bankman-Fried told NBC News earlier this year they would donate or return the donations. NBC, which contacted all recipients of Bankman-Fried contributions, did not mention Wyden in its story. Thirty-one of the campaigns did not respond to NBC’s inquiry.
Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have each said they would return or donate to charity contributions received from Bankman-Fried and FTX’s ex-head engineer Nishad Singh.
A longtime family political “friend”
Sam is not the only member of the Bankman-Fried family to contribute to Wyden. Gabe Bankman-Fried, Sam’s brother and the subject of the same federal investigation that led to charges against Sam, gave Wyden for Senate $2,900 in April 2022. Sam’s father, subject of federal investigation and Stanford Law School professor Joseph Bankman contributed $2,500 in 2010, by a large margin the elder Bankman’s largest contribution to a federal candidate or committee to that date.
While Wyden appears to have been the first Oregon recipient of Bankman clan campaign cash, he was far from the only one. Nishad Singh, Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged straw man donor, gave $500,000 to the Democratic Party of Oregon’s state political action committee on October 4, 2022.
The same day he gave the federal maximum to Wyden for Senate, Sam Bankman-Fried gave $7,100 to the Democratic Party of Oregon’s federal PAC and $10,000 to the Oregon Victory Fund, another federal PAC that helps fund Democrats, on October 26.
All that money went to the same physical location. Wyden for Senate, the Oregon Victory Fund and both Democratic Party of Oregon PACs share the same address in downtown Portland: 1220 SW Morrison St., Suite 910. Wyden for Senate pays rent to the Democratic Party of Oregon.
Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan says she is investigating potential criminal charges arising from the $500,000 contribution in Singh’s name to the Democratic Party of Oregon. The U.S. Department of Justice is conducting a far-flung criminal investigation into federal donations by both Bankman-Frieds, Joseph Bankman and Nishad Singh.
“Crypto has a major ally on the Hill”
In March of 2022, Wyden earned the reputation as the most pro-crypto Democratic Senator. Wyden’s support was exceedingly important to the industry because he chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which shares oversight responsibility of crypto currency.
The Financial Times reported, ominously in retrospect, that Wyden “urged members of his party to protect crypto innovators despite concerns about fraud and money laundering within the industry.”
After the 2022 election and with the public spotlight training intently on FTX, the Bankman-Fried family and crypto generally, Wyden rather suddenly changed his tune. On November 29 of last year he announced support for “safeguards for customers, corporate governance and financial transparency as the first step toward a new crypto consumer protection agenda,” according to a press release from his office.
I am shocked, shocked that the love child of Tiny Tim and Jar Jar Binks would have such a tin ear ethically
welcome to the morass of financial Never Never Land. where does "money" really come from?