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Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was a prolific political donor, about 40 million dollars this cycle alone to campaign committees and other groups, mostly aligned with Democrats, federal records show.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday said Banman-Fried violated campaign finance laws by collecting donations from an associated crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research, and falsely reporting that they came from other people.

Only the liberal financier George Soros has been outdone in the last two years in his prowess for Democratic causes. Bankman-Fried said he just gave to GOP causes, but the nonprofit groups are not required to disclose their donors. Most of Bankman-Fried’s donations went to super PACs. These groups, which can receive unlimited individual and corporate donations, must remain separate from campaigns when running advertisements or supporting other communications. Candidates for or against.

He gave $7 million to two major super PACs supporting Democratic congressional candidates in the 2022 election, federal campaign filings show. It has also given teams focused on voter turnout and, in some cases, shelled out millions for highly selective races.

Bankman-Fried has given 95 percent of its funding to Protect Our Future, a fledgling Democratic-leaning super PAC that supports multiple candidates and causes. The leaders expressed their commitment to a philanthropic approach, which seeks to use data to effectively allocate money, in many cases to long-term risks. Pandemic preparedness is one of the factors supported by protecting our future candidates.

Save Our Future has spent more than $10 million to support an unsuccessful Democratic primary candidate for an open U.S. House seat in Oregon. Candidate Carrick Flynn is said to be a follower of the effective altruism philosophy that led the PAC’s giving. (He lost his primary to state legislator Andrea Salinas, who won the general election.)

Bankman-Fried acknowledged in an interview last week that corporate philanthropy, including his own, is often designed to generate good public relations.

He is notable for the number of politicians who have supported his desire to spread the wealth widely: He has contributed more than 60 federal candidates, including members of both parties from all corners of the country. Unlike his donations to super PACs, Bankman-Fried is subject to limits on these contributions. Federal law says individual donors can give up to $2,900 per election directly to a nominating committee — that’s a maximum of $5,800 once per primary and per cycle.

This analysis counts contributions and refunds from federal political committees as disclosed or received by Bankman-Fried in reports filed with the FEC beginning in 2020. It has been transferred to campaigns and parties. This does not count money donated by other FTX employees, the organization itself, or groups that do not disclose their donors.

Editing by Mike Madden, Kate Rabinowitz and Karly Domb Sadof.

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