More than 30 federal political candidates and party committees have together surrendered at least $160,000 worth of donor dollars to the U.S. Marshals Service in recent weeks, according to a Raw Story analysis of federal campaign records.
It’s an all-but-unprecedented relinquishing of precious campaign cash to a government agency best known for hunting down suspected criminals, and even veteran election officials say they’ve never seen anything quite like it in U.S. politics.
But this isn’t any routine situation: Most of these “disgorgements” stem from contributions made by executives of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, including former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Raw Story’s analysis indicates. And the Department of Justice is urging campaigns to give the money up.
“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,” said a letter sent by the Department of Justice to a member of Congress’ campaign committee, which in turn shared its contents with Raw Story.
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."
Bankman-Fried faces 13 charges in federal court, including fraud, breaking campaign finance laws and violating the Foreign Corrupt Business Practices Act with an alleged $40 million bribe to Chinese authorities. The FBI on Thursday reportedly searched the home of FTX executive Ryan Salame, a frequent political donor. Salame has not been charged with a crime.
The largest amount sent to the U.S. Marshals came from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which received $36,500 from Nishad Singh, FTX’s former director of engineering, who pleaded guilty in February to six conspiracy charges. The DSCC did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.
The Republican National Committee received $25,000 from Salame, according to the FEC filing. The RNC declined to comment.
RELATED ARTICLE: Beto O’Rourke returned $1 million check from FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried
Raw Story’s review of the FEC filings indicated that of the political committees to unload money to the Marshals Service, Salame contributed to 15, Bankman-Fried to six and Singh to five.
It is highly unusual for the Marshals Service to involve itself in electoral politics generally, and it almost never collects money from political campaigns. Federal Election Commission records show it’s happened once during the past decade prior to the flurry of disgorgements during recent weeks. The Marshals Service does, however, list “seizing assets gained by illegal means and providing for the custody, management, and disposal of forfeited assets” among its responsibilities.
Campaigns typically send unwanted donor cash — particularly money from contributors who find themselves in legal jeopardy or public disrepute — to the U.S. Treasury, which generally absorbs it into the nation’s general fund.
Sending money to the Marshals Service is “a way for these political committees to resolve the situation, and then whatever they do with Sam Bankman-Fried, that's a whole other issue,” said Michael Toner, a partner at Wiley Rein and former Republican FEC chairman who served on the commission from 2002 to 2007. “It may be that the authorities have preferred the disgorgements go to the U.S. Marshals Service because obviously that's an arm of the federal government, and it would accomplish the same purpose as a disgorgement" to the U.S. Treasury.
“It appears this is related to the FTX case, and all inquiries are being referred to the USAO in the Southern District of New York,” Dave Oney, a spokesman for the Marshals Service, told Raw Story via email.
The Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York did not respond to Raw Story’s requests for comment.
Emphasizing that she was speculating, Ann Ravel, a Democrat and former FEC chairwoman who served from 2013 to 2017, said, “I've never seen anything like this, and maybe they think because they can't rely on [campaign] people doing what they're supposed to do, that they need more active campaign finance enforcers.”
Raw Story contacted each political committee that disgorged money to the Marshals Service between January, when the phenomenon first began, and late March, when most disgorgements took place. Most committees did not respond to messages.
But the campaign of Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) indicated that Crenshaw didn’t need a push to return the $2,900 Salame contributed to Crenshaw for Congress on Oct. 10, 2022.
“Obviously the campaign didn’t know at the time that FTX was engaged in criminal activity,” said Sue Walden, Crenshaw for Congress’ political director, in a statement to Raw Story. “We were happy to oblige the Justice Department’s request.”
Among the political contributions that federal political committees have sent the U.S. Marshals:
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — $36,500
Republican National Committee — $25,000
Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse — $5,800
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) — $5,800
Former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) Campaign Fund — $5,800
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) — $5,800
Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) — $5,800
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) — $5,800
Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) — $2,900
Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN) — $2,900
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) — $2,900
Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) — $2,900
Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) — $2,900
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) — $2,900
Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) — $2,900
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) — $2,900
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) — $2,900
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) — $2,900
Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL) — $2,900
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH) — $2,900
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) — $2,900
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) — $2,900
Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) — $2,900
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) Presidential Exploratory Committee — $2,900
Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL) — $2,900
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) — $2,900
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) — $2,900
Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) — $2,900
Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) — $2,700
Athena Pac (Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida) — $2,500
Axne PAC (Democratic Rep. Cynthia Axne of Iowa) — $1,618
