A government agency best known for hunting down federal fugitives has become wildly successful at capturing another kind of target — money from political campaigns.
More than 150 political campaigns and committees — including well-known politicians such as House Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) — have together surrendered to U.S. Marshals upward of $1.35 million in donations from executives of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, according to a Raw Story analysis of Federal Election Commission data.
That’s a nearly 10-fold increase in FTX-related campaign contribution forfeitures since mid-May.
And it represents a striking change in operations for the U.S. Marshals who, until this year, had only once collected money from a political campaign during the past decade.
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That changed after federal prosecutors late last year charged former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried — who along with several FTX associates were prolific political donors — with several financial crimes.
Raw Story first reported in April that the Department of Justice sent a letter about Bankman-Fried allegedly making fraudulent political donations to members of Congress’ campaign committees.
“Based on our office's investigation, we have cause to believe these donations represent the proceeds of Bankman-Fried's crimes and accordingly are forfeitable under applicable provisions of the federal asset forfeiture statutes,” the letter said.
The letter continued, “It is the intent of this office to request any funds forfeited be made available to compensate the victims of Bankman-Fried's crimes pursuant to the Department of Justice's restoration and/or remission regulations."
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More than 30 federal political candidates and party committees had together surrendered at least $160,000 worth of FTX-related contributions as of mid-May, Raw Story reported.
Since then, two prominent Democratic political committees sent six-figure contributions to the U.S. Marshals. Priorities USA Action forwarded $500,000. The super PAC spent nearly $111 million to advocate for Joe Biden or against Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential election, and millions of dollars more on behalf of several Democratic U.S. Senate candidates, according to nonpartisan research organization OpenSecrets.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, meanwhile, forwarded a $250,000 contribution to the U.S. Marshals.
Dave Oney, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals, declined to comment, telling Raw Story via email that the political committees’ disgorgements are “still being handled” by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
When Raw Story reached the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, spokesman Nicholas Biase wrote via email, “I cannot comment at this time.”
Raw Story reached out to various campaigns who received contributions from FTX executives for comment.
The campaigns for Pelosi, Scott, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA) and Rep. Trent Kelly (R-MS) did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, the Democratic Party of Oregon and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is among the more than 150 political candidates and committees to surrender FTX-related campaign cash to federal authorities, according to a Raw Story analysis of federal records. (MSNBC)
Bankman-Fried faces 13 charges in federal court, including fraud, campaign finance violations and violating the Foreign Corrupt Business Practices Act with an alleged $40 million bribe to Chinese authorities.
Bankman-Fried will still face charges related to alleged illegal campaign donations at trial in October — charges that were previously thought to be dropped as they were not part of the extradition agreement between the United States and the Bahamas, New York Magazine reported.
Ryan Salame, FTX’s co-CEO is reportedly in talks for a plea deal, including campaign finance charges, Bloomberg reported. Nishad Singh, FTX’s director of engineering, pleaded guilty in February to charges of wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations, the New York Times reported.
Bankman-Fried reportedly made more than $100 million in political campaign contributions before the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, Salame donated more than $24 million to Republican candidates and causes in 2022, and Singh contributed more than $9.7 million to Democratic politicians and causes, Reuters reported.