Sam Bankman-Fried Is In Prison, But Crypto-Cash Is Still Freely Flowing Into Congress
A new report from Public Citizen out yesterday shows that Cryptocurrency industry super PACs have raised a $102 million war chest to spend on the 2024 congressional elections. Only two other super PACs— the one behind DeSantis and the Democrats’ main Senate PAC— have raised more money so far this cycle. Coinbase ($23.5 million), Ripple Labs ($23 million), Marc Andreessen ($11 million), Ben Howowitz ($11 million), Jump Crypto ($5 million) and the Winklevoss twins ($5 million) are the biggest donors. Rick Claypool, Public Citizen’s research director: “During the 2022 midterm elections, then-FTX CEO and now-convicted felon Sam Bankman-Fried personified the cryptocurrency sector’s attempt to use campaign spending to maximize its political influence. Now a fresh crop of crypto corporations, execs, and their allies are back in the political fray, spending millions to tilt elections toward pro-crypto candidates and against attempts to hold the industry accountable and ensure it follows the law. Just as Big Oil tries to thwart climate regulations and insurance companies try to thwart health care reforms, the crypto sector’s political spending is intended to stop enforcement crackdowns, block regulation that prevents fraud, and defeat candidates who support either.”
Literally, half the donors have either settled or are facing charges by the SEC for violations of securities laws. None, though, are in the prison cell next to Bankman-Fried. All were allowed to pay nominal fines and continue buying up congressmen and beating back regulations, the top stated goal of the top funders. The ads by the crypto sector’s largest super PAC, Fairshake Political Action Committee, from running political ads that make no mention of cryptocurrencies— a cynical sleight-of-hand intended to manipulate voters [exactly the way AIPAC does].
Out of the six 2024 primaries in which crypto super PACs intervened and which are now over, only one crypto-backed candidate has lost. Eleven primary races that include crypto-backed candidates remain. The crypto super PACs have pledged to spend in general election Senate races in the battleground states of Ohio and Montana. Their top goal was to defeat Katie Porter in the California Senate race. They spent $10 smearing her, without ever mention crypto, and… mission accomplished.
Fairshake’s Josh Vlasto, formerly Chuck Schumer’s chief of staff: “We’ll have the resources to affect races and the makeup of institutions at every level. And we’ll leverage those assets strategically to maximize their impact in order to build a sustainable, bipartisan crypto and blockchain coalition... Thank you, Katie Porter, for giving Fairshake credit for your loss.”
They also managed, by spending $2.6 million, to elect a corrupt shill to Congress, Shomani Figures (D), to carry their agenda. Figures stated on his website that he would “embrace the new landscape around digital assets, like cryptocurrency, to stimulate innovation and technological advancement.” They spent $1.2 million to elect another puppet candidate, conservative Democrat Julie Johnson, in Texas, who will be replacing Colin Allred next year. The crypto crooks are also spending big to keep corrupt Republican Young Kim in Congress and their money was decisive in Tim Moore winning the GOP primary in North Carolina, guaranteeing him a seat in the 119th Congress.
Their other puppet candidates are notoriously crooked politicians and incumbents from both parties:
Jim Justice (R-WV)- $3,017,414
Jim Banks (R-IN)- $3,009,467
Dusty Johnson (R-SD)- $124,736
Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)- $122,688
Tom Emmer (R-MN)- $118,034
Steven Horsford (D-NV)- $110,654
Brittany Pettersen (D-CO)- $88,256
Yadira Caraveo (D-CO)- $75,515
Zach Nunn (R-IA)- $71,865
Ritchie Torres (D-NY)- $63,084
Greg Meeks (D-NY)- $46,160
Crypto financed Tom Emmer’s rise to the GOP leadership. He’s the party whip and has every intention of replacing MAGA Mike as party leader next year. Watch this video to see what the crypto-crooks bought as Emmer shows what his idea of “investigating” the crypto industry is all about:
Public Citizen: “Separately, Fairshake donors have given over $512,000 to federal candidates, according to OpenSecrets data. These contributions are relatively evenly split between Democratic and Republican candidates, including about more than $80,000 contributed toward candidates in the Republican presidential primaries who ultimately were defeated by former President Trump.” The top recipient is one of crypto-corruption’s biggest advocates in Congress, Bronx crook Ritchie Torres, whose career is financed by crypto and AIPAC.
The Crypto-PACs are also promising to spend in Senate primaries in Maryland, Michigan and in the general elections in Ohio and Montana. Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Banking Committee and an outspoken foe of corruption, is almost certain to be a major target of the industry. “[C]rypto catastrophes,” he wrote, “have exposed what many of us already knew: digital assets— cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and investment tokens— are speculative products run by reckless companies that put Americans’ hard-earned money at risk. Not surprising from an industry that was created to skirt the rules.” They are widely expected to jump into the race on behalf of corrupt MAGAt Bernie Moreno, a crypto-corruption booster all the way.
Public Citizen noted that “Protecting the public from scams and preventing the misuse of cryptocurrencies to facilitate financial crimes are Brown’s top priorities— and prioritizing safety puts Brown at odds with those who claim loose rules are good for innovation (to say nothing of the sector’s profits). Sen. Tester’s crypto criticism has been even more blunt. ‘It’s all bullshit,’ Tester told Semafor, and later elaborated on Meet the Press, ’[T]he problem is if we regulate it, and I pointed this out to some of the regulators here a week or two ago, if we regulated it, it may give it the ability of people to think it’s real. I think it’s— truth be known, my personal thought, and I’m not a regulator and I’m not a financial person that does regulation, but I see no reason why this stuff should exist. I really don’t.’ In other words, Tester sees a risk in passing new crypto-specific regulations tailored to the sector’s preferences in ways that could exempt the industry from strong, pre-existing financial safeguards.”
Public citizen concluded that “The narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress mean the crypto sector’s outsized influence in a small number of House and Senate races has the potential to tip control of Congress toward one party or the other.”