CoinDesk reported on Jan. 18 that one in three of US Congressmen received donations from FTX. In particular, the list includes 196 senators from Democratic Party and Republican Party, accounting for nearly 37% of Congress.
Names that stand out from the list are Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Chuck Schumer, New York senior senator, among others. Many of them just joined the governing body last week.
What Was SBF Planning?
CoinDesk further connected to 196 senators to get an insight of how they handle FTX’s donations. Of 53 respondents, 64% reported sending money to nonprofit while the rest decided to send it to the US Department of Justice for FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings.
There is a high possibility that the source of donations were from customers’ funds of the exchange, which was misused.
Speaking with CoinDesk concerning the issue, Anthony Sabio, a bankruptcy expert, warned that the money sent to charitable associations could still be asked to return especially in efforts to recover.
FTX bankruptcy team previously called for donatees to send the money back, instead of charity given the fact that it was originally not FTX s money.
No Money Coming to Justice
The court that is in charge of the FTX case will potentially request a return of donations if a misuse of money is identified. Meanwhile, senators involved are trying to get rid of FTX’s donations.
Frustration, however, is evident among several campaign advisers since FTX’s assets “have been seized.”
Matt Lusty, a general consultant for Sen. Mike Lee’s campaign, said that he was “looking for an appropriate place to make a donation in that amount.”
According to CoinDesk’s report, only 5 senators successfully sent the money back to FTX and the rest are still waiting for further instructions.
It’s noteworthy that donation to parties or any politicl group is not new in the US. The question is how deep is FTX’s interference to the law system.
The purpose of the action is likely to serve the purpose of lobbying for FTX to gain more priority when the US will soon discuss many bills to regulate cryptocurrencies, including a draft consulted by Sam Bankman-Fried.
Pathetic Whatever It Is
The disgraced exchange said earlier this month that it recovered $5.5 billion in cash and cryptocurrencies. The amount consists of $1.7 billion in cash, $3.5 billion in liquid cryptocurrencies, and $300 million in securities, as recently reported by the bankruptcy unit that took over FTX.
The total amount of FTX’s assets remains mysterious. On the bright side, modern technology can help investigators track down the clues of attacks. Specifically, every digital currency today is built on the blockchain. Once stolen, users can track the movement of that money.
In the coming time, FTX will continue to find ways to recover more assets for the exchange. The plan entails the sale of FTX subsidiaries including LedgerX, Embed, FTX Europe and FTX Japan, investments, properties in the Bahamas, and other transactions.
FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried used a significant amount of the company’s money to pay for things unrelated to the business.
The document of the attorney also revealed that one of FTX’s US affiliates purchased nearly $300 million worth of real estate in the Bahamas for senior management.
The collapse of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, sent shockwaves through the investment and startup communities. But the contagion has also spread across other industries and even the political parties.
The incident also has many consequences when hundreds of thousands of investors are not sure when and how to get back billions of dollars in capital. FTX is under asset freeze and investigation on a global scale.
CoinDesk was also the first to reveal the report on Alameda’s balance sheet, which triggered a series of exposures, causing losses to snowball.
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