WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t say Tuesday whether President Biden would ask his aides to return 2020 campaign contributions from accused cryptocurrency con man Sam Bankman-Fried, whom the Justice Department has charged with swindling investors out of at least $1.8 billion.
Bankman-Fried, 30, was one of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors and even met with Biden’s White House advisers before his FTX currency exchange collapsed in one of the largest alleged frauds in American business history.
Earlier Tuesday, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Bankman-Fried with eight counts, including conspiracy to commit campaign finance violations. Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams claimed the illegal donations from Bankman-Fried amounted to “tens of millions of dollars.”
“The president received campaign donations [from Bankman-Fried]. Will the president return that donation? Does he call on all politicians … to return those funds?” asked Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller.
