FTX’s Political Donations Came From Stolen Customer Funds, Testifies Company Insider Nishad Singh

livemint.com:

FTX made political donations with stolen customer funds using signed blank checks and access to employee bank accounts, former FTX executive Nishad Singh testified in court Monday. Singh told the jury that former FTX executive Ryan Salame, who has pleaded guilty to his role in the campaign-finance scheme, logged into his bank account and entered the details for the money to be sent to political causes. Then Salame would ask Singh to approve the transaction in an encrypted Signal chat, he said.

“My role was to click a button," said Singh. For other donations, he said he gave signed blank checks to a team led by Sam Bankman-Fried’s brother that used them for the contributions. He said he was aware of—and uncomfortable with—being a straw donor, and knew that his donations came from customer funds.

Singh said the contributions, largely to center-left recipients, were made in his name for optics purposes. “It was useful for my name to be associated with some donations, even if the end recipient understood they were really coming from something else," he said. Former FTX engineering director Singh is cooperating with the government, the third member of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle to testify against him since the trial’s early October start.

Prosecutors have previously called as witnesses Gary Wang, FTX chief technology officer, and Caroline Ellison, the former chief executive at FTX’s sister hedge fund, Alameda Research. Ellison is also Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend. Bankman-Fried, 31 years old, faces seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.

Prosecutors have accused him of misusing billions of dollars in FTX customer funds and lying to investors and lenders of the exchange and Alameda. Bankman-Fried has denied wrongdoing. His