Former congressional candidate Michelle Bond and her boyfriend, former FTX executive Ryan Salame, are under investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
According to a new Wall Street Journal report, the pair are under investigation for possible campaign finance violations.
The report says an investigation is underway to determine whether the couple violated federal restrictions on contributions to Bond’s campaign for the 2022 Republican primary in New York’s 1st congressional district. The investigators investigate the money Salame gave Bond and the loans she made for her campaign.
The report notes that this investigation is separate from the legal process involving FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). SBF was sued in December for allegedly stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers. He has pleaded not guilty and will face trial in October.
Salame, though not charged in the FTX case at the time of writing, was identified by The Wall Street Journal as a co-conspirator named in SBF’s indictment documents. It is alleged that he was involved in a separate campaign funding scheme unrelated to Bond.
According to prosecutors, Salame made donations to Republican causes and candidates at the behest of SBF using FTX client money.
The investigation into Bond and Salame began in April this year, according to the report.
According to the WSJ, Bond’s three-month congressional campaign was apparently funded largely by Salame, his crypto connections and Bond’s own finances. She managed to raise about $660,000 in total, of which about $54,000 was contributed by Salame. Bond also invested $145,309 of her own money into the campaign and loaned it another $880,000.
According to Sterling Marchand, a campaign finance lawyer who was not involved in the case,
“While a candidate can use their personal funds without limits to support their own campaign, it is against the law for candidates to circumvent campaign finance contribution limits by accepting money from friends and relatives.”
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Featured image: Shutterstock/Yurchanka Siarhei