Democratic Party of Oregon Agrees to Return $500,000 Contribution Made by Crypto Bro Who Pleaded Guilty to Campaign Fraud

The cash is coming from campaign war chests belonging to Wyden, Merkley, Kotek and other Democrats.

GIVING BACK: Money from Jeff Merkley and Tina Kotek's campaign accounts will be used to refund an FTX donation. (Blake Benard)
By Anthony Effinger

Eight months after getting a $500,000 contribution from an executive at Sam Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt cryptocurrency firm FTX, the Democratic Party of Oregon is surrendering the cash to federal authorities to comply with a request from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The whopper donation has been a headache for the party since it was made on Oct. 4, 2022, in the name of another crypto firm called Prime Trust LLC. Three weeks later, FTX executive Nishad Singh told the DPO that the contribution came from him, not from Prime Trust. The party changed the source in its campaign filings, but not before a seven-day deadline to do so, drawing a penalty from the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office.

In February, Singh pleaded guilty to making campaign contributions under false names to cloak their true source. Bankman-Fried, one of the biggest donors in the 2022 election, is accused of using money from customer accounts to fund such contributions.

“The party has been working together to resolve this issue since Nishad Singh’s guilty plea to federal charges,” DPO chair Rosa Colquitt said in a statement. “This resolution will fully account for these donations by ensuring the funds go where they belong—to federal law enforcement officials working to achieve justice in this case.”

State campaign finance records show that the DPO has just $32,000 in its account. Money to pay the U.S. Marshals Service, which collects such returns, will come from campaign accounts belonging to Gov. Tina Kotek, U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and three Democratic U.S. House members that the DPO didn’t name.

“The DPO thanks these elected officials for coming together in solidarity to achieve this financial resolution that now lets the DPO focus fully on its main priorities throughout Oregon—electing candidates who will fight for Oregonians’ health care, jobs and civil rights,” Colquitt said.

The DPO’s move, delayed for months while others returned FTX cash, comes three weeks after The Oregonian reported that state elections officials had asked the the Oregon Department of Justice to consider criminal charges against Singh for making the contribution under a false name.

In addition to the $500,000 from Singh, the DPO is also returning a $7,100 contribution that Bankman-Fried made to the Oregon Victory Fund political action committee that was later transferred to the DPO, the party said today.

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