Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to top Biden administration officials Friday morning, demanding information and correspondence regarding the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Hawley wants to know why the illegal scheme was announced AFTER the midterm elections. FTX owner Sam Bankman-Fried was the second largest donor to Democrats in the 2022 midterms behind only George Soros.
Senator Hawley wants communications between Bankman-Fried and AG Merrick Garland, Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commission Chairman Gary Gensler and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Behnam.
As the Gateway Pundit reported earlier, Gary Gensler taught at MIT with Bankman-Fried’s girlfriends father.
Senator Hawley requested the following actions by Friday November 25th, the day after Thanksgiving:
1. Prior to the public revelation of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s scheme to withdraw customer deposits from FTX to offset losses incurred by Alameda, had your respective agencies initiated an investigation into allegations of fraud perpetuated by FTX, Alameda, and their executives? If so, when were the investigations initiated and when were they expected to conclude?
2. Have FTX, Almeda, or any of the executives associated with these companies previously entered into confidential settlements or deferred prosecution agreements with your respective agencies? If so, please provide all materials associated with these settlements and agreements.
3. Please provide all correspondence between your agencies, the Biden Administration, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee regarding FTX, Alameda, and its executives, including Mr. Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison, and Gary Wang.
FOX Business reported:
Hawley, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, penned the letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commission Chairman Gary Gensler and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Behnam. He demanded the three officials disclose whether they had investigated FTX or its sister firm, Alameda Research, and if their respective agencies had entered into settlements with the two companies.
The Missouri Republican also asked whether the Department of Justice, SEC or CFTC had communicated with the Democratic Party apparatus regarding FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried was a prolific donor to Democratic candidates during the midterm election cycle, wiring nearly $40 million to Democratic coffers throughout 2021 and 2022. He also donated about $10 million to help President Biden get elected in 2020.
“The success of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s criminal enterprise briefly made him one of America’s richest men,” Hawley wrote to the officials. “And he deployed his ill-gotten gains in service of the Democratic Party, emerging in recent years as its second largest individual donor behind only George Soros.”
“To be clear, Mr. Bankman-Fried funded his lavish donations to the Democratic Party through rampant fraud,” Hawley continued. “The net result was that billions of dollars were stolen from investors and handed over to Democrats and left-wing organizations.”
He added that the collapse of FTX coming shortly after the midterm election was suspect and raised questions about whether federal regulators and law enforcement “faced conflicts of interest in identifying, investigating, and thwarting the fraudulent scheme.”