Misidentification Exposes FTX Exec As Oregon Democrats’ Big Donor
According to reports, the director of engineering at FTX gave Oregon’s Democratic Party $500,000.
The purported anonymous source of a sizable $500,000 donation to the Democratic Party of the American state of Oregon has been identified as a top FTX official.
Local sources claim that the Oregon Democrats first informed state election authorities that Prime Trust, a crypto-focused fintech in Nevada, was the source of the $500,000 payment.
On Nov. 1, the party director announced that FTX Engineering Director Nishad Singh, who has been the state Democratic Party’s fourth-largest contributor since Nov. 2020, was really the source of the contribution.
Evidently, the identity of the person who made the $500,000 gift was first unclear.
In a statement to OregonLive, the executive director of the state party, Brad Martin, said, “Based on documentation received from our bank” in October, the party “reasonably believed this contribution was, in fact from Prime Trust LLC.”
After local media raised concerns about the amount of the Oct. 4 gift and for many weeks after that, Martin is said to have heard from Singh on Oct. 28 stating that “he had made a personal contribution to the (Democratic Party of Oregon) and that Prime Trust LLC was not the contributor.”
Additionally, a representative for Prime Trust confirmed to OregonLive on November 1 that “this is not Prime Trust contributing money to the PAC. It’s merely Prime Trust effectuating the transfer on behalf of a customer.”
According to sources, the party afterwards changed its state campaign finance disclosure to reflect the real contributor.
For some others, the contribution’s nature won’t come as a surprise. Singh has a history of involvement with political contributions made via Prime Trust, and FTX has previously focused on Oregon politics.
According to FTX, a $14 million donation from Prime Trust to the Protect Our Future PAC, which is supported by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, was made up of $1 million from Singh and the rest from Bankman-Fried, according to a Politico article from April.
When asked at the time why the money were routed via Prime Trust, FTX refused to comment, and a Prime Trust spokeswoman simply described the transaction as “commonplace.”
Additionally, between $8 million and $10 million reportedly went to Carrick Flynn’s campaign, a political rookie and close family friend running in a recently established U.S. House of Representatives district outside of Portland.
According to NGO Open Secrets, Prime Trust and Singh were crucial to those contributions as well.
