One of the crypto events that coincided with the last US presidential election was the donation by SBF To President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. The young founder of FTX exchanges became one of the largest Democratic donors in the US. He single-handedly donated $5.2 million to the Joe Biden campaign.
Popularly called SBF or crypto wunderkind, Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly amassed about $26.5 billion, according to Forbes. He founded Alameda research in 2017, and a year after, he founded FTX exchange. Both firms were fingered in the insider dealings that led to the FTX collapse.
Since the FTX collapse, SBF has been the subject of several headlines. In a similar scenario, he became the headline during the December 13th press briefing at the white house. When asked if the White House would return the donations, Fortune Crypto tweeted that the White House is silent
On the 13th of December, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House Press Secretary, addressed the press. Surprisingly, a reporter questioned her on whether President Joe Biden plans to return the $5.2 million donation. However, Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer the questions on whether the political donations will be returned to SBF.
The Press reporter Zeke Miller asked,
"Will the President return that donation?" Jean-Pierre reported that "Does he call on all politicians who got campaign donations that may have come from customer money to return those funds?"
Furthermore, the US Press Secretary reported that "I am covered here by the Hatch Act; I am limited on what I can say." Significantly, the Hatch Act prohibits executive branch employees from involvement in political campaign activities.
She added that "anything that is connected to political contributions, I would refer you to the DNC." She reiterated that it is the role of the Democratic National Committee, the governing body of the US Democratic Party— to respond to questions about donations.
Experts say such questions are political. More-so, the donations were received like every other donation before President Joe Biden became the President.
In 2020, when SBF donated $5.2 billion to Joe Biden's campaign, he wasn't the largest donor. He came second behind Micheal Bloomberg. Micheal Bloomberg, a media mogul, donated $56 million to the campaign.
Furthermore, in the 2022 mid-term election, SBF became the second-largest Democratic party contributor. The FTX founder contributed $36.8 million to fund the Democratic party's candidates. Similarly, records showed that Sam Bankman-Fried donated $240,000 to the Republican party in the last mid-term elections.
Since the FTX collapse, a series of investigations have begun on how SBF spent customers (deposited) funds. Similarly, experts and industry players say politicians and other entities that might have received donations from SBF may be compelled to return them.
Significantly, report shows that about $73 million were donated by the embattled FTX founder and the bankruptcy proceeding might compel the receivers to return them to the bankruptcy trustee.