“Unfortunately, the answer to that question is probably not (let’s prevent that from happening in the future),” the representative said. Jim Hime to Yahoo Finance. “We have a political system in part because of the Supreme Court’s decision to equate handing out money to people like me with First Amendment-protected political speech.”
Himes was referring to 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commissionwhich lifted long-standing campaign finance restrictions and allowed corporations and other entities to spend unlimited funds on elections.
This week it was learned that Bankman-Fried donated more than $40 million during the 2022 election cycleaccording to disclosures.
An analysis of MarketWatch found that Bankman-Fried gave nearly $40 million to Democratic politicians or groupsof which approximately $19 million was given to the PAC Democrat Protect our Future.
MarketWatch discovered that about $200,000 was publicly funneled to the Republicansalthough Bankman-Fried also he said he made additional large donations to Republican candidates but hid them from public view.
And as part of the indictment against Bankman-Fried, federal authorities alleged that he violated campaign finance laws when using embezzled customer funds and falsely reporting contributions “on behalf of other people”.
Himes told Yahoo Finance that he did not “personally” receive money from SBF, but that “many” of his colleagues did.
In addition, he noted that Bankman-Fried “had a regular presence on Capitol Hill“, adding: “if I had received your direct donations, I would be finding a way to pay them back.”
Three Democratic groups said they will return the funds donated by Bankman-Fried. “Given the allegations of possible campaign finance violations by Bankman-Fried, we are setting aside the funds in order to return approximately $815,000 in contributions since 2020,” said the spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.
Bankman-Fried was quickly indicted after the collapse of his crypto empire, but a trial in New York is likely to be more than a year away as prosecutors build their case and both sides argue over the evidence.
The basic indictment against Bankman-Fried, which could be modified with more details and co-defendants as the case progresses, suggests that prosecutors have a long way to go to piece together what they have described as one of the biggest financial frauds in US history. Pretrial litigation can also be a lengthy process, as both sides argue about the admissibility of the evidence, what can and cannot be argued at trial, and whether to dismiss the case.
“A trial will probably take between 14 and 18 months.”said Michael Weinstein, a white-collar criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor.
Source: Ambito
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