On Thursday, the FBI raided the Washington D.C. home of ex-FTX executive Ryan Salame as part of their ongoing investigation into the defunct cryptocurrency exchange. The search saw them looking into the $24 million in political donations that Salame made during the midterm elections of last year. These donations formed a large majority of the $90 million contributed by former FTX employees, and was allegedly taken from customer funds. An attorney for Salame declined to comment on the investigation.

As the crypto market boomed, Salame reportedly obtained $87 million in bonuses and loans from sister company Alameda Research. He is implicated in tipping off authorities to FTX's misappropriation of customer funds and covering their losses. Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried is facing life in prison on multiple charges of money laundering, conspiracy and wire fraud.

These allegations bring the issue of corporate election spending, prompted by the Citizens United Supreme Court case, back into public discourse. Bankman-Fried confirmed that he made substantial donations to both Republican and Democratic candidates in order to avoid public scrutiny, particularly with regards to the Republican donations. Furthermore, he explained that it was difficult for anyone to believe that such donations were 'dark', as is usually assumed.

However, with the fallout of FTX's descent into bankruptcy - and the likely ramifications of the investigation into Salame and his co-executives - it appears that the veil of secrecy is beginning to be lifted and the true involved parties held accountability. At its peak, FTX had an estimated valuation of $32 billion and, although no sentencing has occurred as of yet, it seems that the least people can expect is for a sizeable portion of the misappropriated funds to be re-distributed.



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