A former cryptocurrency business lobbyist was charged with marketing campaign finance fraud on Thursday, the most recent prosecution stemming from FTX crypto exchange crash.
Federal prosecutors in New York have charged former lobbyist Michelle Bond, 45, with violating marketing campaign finance legal guidelines in 2022 when she made an unsuccessful bid for Congress as a Republican in Lengthy Island. In an indictment filed within the Southern District of New York, prosecutors mentioned Ms. Bond acquired a “bogus fee of $400,000” from FTX, which was orchestrated by Ryan Salame, the alternate’s government director and Ms. Bond’s boyfriend Bond.
final 12 months, Mr. Salame pleaded guilty to a separate marketing campaign finance payment. He was convicted seven and a half years in jail.
Practically two years after FTX filed for chapter, the fees towards Ms. Bond present that the authorized fallout from the corporate’s collapse is much from over. When FTX was a high-profile alternate, its executives made tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in political donations — a spending spree that got here below scrutiny from prosecutors after the corporate went bankrupt. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founding father of FTX, was convicted of fraud in November and sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Ms. Bond, who ran a crypto business commerce group, was a longtime supporter of Mr. Bankman-Fried and FTX. Her ties to the corporate strengthened after she met Mr. Salameh. By 2022, they’d begun relationship, in line with the indictment.
That Could, Ms. Bond made a last-minute bid for the Republican nomination for a vacant Home seat on Lengthy Island. Consultants concerned in that race recalled Mr. Salame taking part in an integral strategic position, together with serving to to recruit different crypto business donors, showing at fundraisers with Donald Trump Jr. and placing up $1 million of the cash is in a supportive tremendous PAC that was created by Republican operatives who’ve grown near Mr. Salameh.
In response to prosecutors, Mr. Salame supplied a vital supply of funding for Ms. Bond’s marketing campaign. In his position at FTX, he engineered a consulting settlement for Ms. Bond that got here with a $400,000 signing bonus in addition to an annual fee of $100,000. Ms. Bond “didn’t present any companies to the alternate below the Consulting Settlement,” the indictment says.
As an alternative, Ms. Bond spent the FTX cash on her marketing campaign, the indictment mentioned, and falsely reported the funds as a mortgage from her personal accounts.
The cash “was an unlawful donation from the alternate to the marketing campaign,” prosecutors mentioned.
Ms. Bond misplaced the Republican major in August 2022. Three months later, FTX collapsed after an inflow of deposits uncovered an $8 billion gap in its accounts.
Ms. Bond pleaded not responsible at a listening to in federal court docket in New York on Thursday. She and Mr. Salameh declined to remark.
The case towards Ms. Bond exhibits that prosecutors are nonetheless investigating the political affect operation at FTX.
Federal investigators just lately started trying extra deeply into the world of marketing campaign finance surrounding Mr. Bankman-Fried, mentioned two individuals briefed on the state of affairs, who have been shocked as a result of they thought the matter was closed after Mr. Bankman-Fried’s conviction.
A couple of months in the past, prosecutors in Puerto Rico additionally started interviewing and gathering details about FTX, a darkish cash group on the island, one of many individuals mentioned, for greater than a 12 months after initial inquiries have been made.
A consultant of the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Puerto Rico declined to remark.
The investigation into Ms. Bond additionally turned a consider Mr. Salameh’s case. On Wednesday, he filed a movement to overturn his responsible plea, arguing that prosecutors had breached an “implied enterprise” with him that they might drop their investigation into Ms. Bond in alternate for his confession. Prosecutors denied any deal was made.
