Hi HODLers,
The US Congress is composed of more than 535 senators and representatives in the U.S. 1 in 3 received money from FTX crypto Exchange...
Most of these donations were quite small (under $5-10k) and most politicians wanted to give their donation away to charities once it was clear that FTX was a fraud:
Most of the politicians who responded said they handed it over to charities to remove the taint of contributions from executives such as former FTX CEO Bankman-Fried, whose federal fraud charges also include an accusation that he violated campaign-finance laws.
While they surely say they want to give it away, it is not so easy to do it and most were waiting for directions on how to do it:
The current chaos at FTX means giving the money back is easier said than done. Of the recipients who responded to CoinDesk’s inquiries, 38% said they were holding the money and waiting for guidance on how to give it back. Only five politicians said they had already successfully returned the money.
Clawbacks will happen and this whole procedure will take many years. As a note, Victims of Bernie Madoff are still receiving payments 14 years after his arrest.
On a more positive note, it is said that FTX would still hold $5bn of assets (a bit less than half of what they owe). This is much more than I expected. Let's remember though that $1-1.5bn are in $FTT, $SOL and other tokens that will be difficult to liquidate at current value.
Let's hope the current bull run helps out creditors to get a good price!
Stay safe out there,