After the news of FTX's bankruptcy, at least a few politicians have already returned donations from Sam. However, a significant number of them ignored the possibility of returning the money and prefer not to comment on the situation in the White House.

It should be noted that the fact that Sam Bankman-Fried used FTX users’ money for his own interests has previously been confirmed by various US agencies. For example, in mid-December 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against the founder of this cryptocurrency exchange. According to their version, Sam violated federal laws because he borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from Alameda. This money was then used to buy real estate, investments and donations to politicians.

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX

This information was also confirmed by Sam’s former colleagues – an Alameda Research executive and allegedly former Bankman-Fried girlfriend named Caroline Ellison, as well as FTX co-founder Gary Wang. The overall scheme was to create a loophole that would allow unobtrusive withdrawals of FTX users’ funds into Alameda Research accounts. This money would then be accumulated and spent on personal needs. The fact of the donations was also confirmed by former employees.

Confirmation of donations to politicians by Sam Bankman-Fried

Now these sums need to be returned. And the sooner this is done, the sooner former FTX users who were victims of the crypto-exchange collapse will be compensated.

How FTX users will be paid back

The FTX legal team wants to recover all the money handed out to politicians – an official statement to this effect has been recorded in the bankruptcy case file of the exchange. Earlier, new FTX chief lawyer John Ray III also spoke about the prospect of returning the donations, but the initiative is now backed by the relevant documents.

According to Decrypt’s sources, the new statement from FTX’s lawyers has come with a clear timeframe for politicians – funds from their allocated funding need to be returned by February 28, which is the end of the month. The company will seek a refund for funds not voluntarily returned by legal means “with interest accruing from the date of commencement of any action”. Here’s a quote from a press release on the matter.

FTX debtors send confidential messages to politicians, foundations and other recipients of contributions or payments from the exchange.

Ex-CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried

Even if politicians have already spent the money received – for example on charity – this supposedly does not give them protection against refunds. FTX lawyers have made it clear that the fight in court will be for every dollar, so it’s easier to get the money back than to spend even more on unnecessary litigation.

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Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas a few weeks after FTX officially filed for bankruptcy, where he spent some time in a local prison. He was later extradited to the US – where he was charged with eight offences of securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations.

Although Bancman-Fried has not pleaded guilty to all charges, and his trial is scheduled for October 2023, he has already been accused of embezzling billions of dollars in client funds. A significant portion of these funds were going to Alameda Research to support a trading company that may have become financially insolvent long before FTX officially went bankrupt.

According to OpenSecrets.org, at least $46 million was donated by FTX’s senior management to various political candidates and organisations. Several senior FTX employees have at the same time donated to the campaign of Congressman George Santos, who is featured in a high-profile public scandal.

Donation figures

Beto O’Rourke, a member of the US House of Representatives from Texas’ 16th congressional district, returned the largest amount of money during the entire period. Most interestingly, the refunds took place before FTX’s bankruptcy was officially declared.

Other officials, including Senators Dick Durbin and Kirsten Gillibrand, have said they will make donations to charities to match the funds they received from FTX. Representatives of the politicians, however, declined to comment to reporters.

Former FTX executive Sam Bankman-Fried


It should be noted that FTX users' money could have gone to sillier schemes. In particular, a user under the nickname @greg16676935420, which currently has over 402,000 readers, remains popular in the cryptocommunity. So, in March 2022, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried agreed to Greg's offer to buy him a Tesla if the latter could type a hundred words a minute without errors. These negotiations took place on Twitter, so you can study them even now.

In the end, Greg was able to achieve the bar set, and on the seventh of July 2022 he reported receiving the car. It’s worth noting that the gift in question was a Tesla Model S Plaid, that is, an advanced and expensive version of the popular electric car. Here’s the relevant post.

Greg’s tweet about receiving the Tesla from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Given Sam’s previous track record, we can assume that someone else’s money may also have gone to pay for this car. Accordingly, the prosecutor’s office should have checked the incident as well.


We think that such an approach by the FTX lawyers would really help the case and recover the users' money. Obviously, a lot of money was spent by regular users of the crypto exchange on various activities of Sam and his team, which means that now the new representatives of the company should work hard. And the Tesla mentioned in this article as a gift is also worth paying attention to.