FTX exec revealed as big donor to Oregon Democrats following misidentification

Published at: Nov. 2, 2022

A senior FTX executive has been revealed as the reported mystery donor behind a massive $500,000 contribution to the Democratic Party of the American state of Oregon.

According to local reports, the Oregon Democrats initially told state election officials that the $500,000 donation was from Prime Trust, a crypto-focused fintech in Nevada.

However, on Nov. 1, the party director revealed the true source behind the donation was FTX Engineering Director Nishad Singh, who has been the state Democratic Party's fourth largest donor since Nov. 2020.

Apparently, there was initial confusion about who was behind the half-a-million-dollar donation.

State party executive director Brad Martin told OregonLive in a statement that "Based upon documentation received from our bank" in October, the party "reasonably believed this contribution was, in fact from Prime Trust LLC.”

Weeks after the Oct. 4 donation, and after local media questioned why a Las Vegas start-up made such a sizeable contribution, Martin reportedly received communication from Singh on Oct. 28 revealing that "he had made a personal contribution to the (Democratic Party of Oregon) and that Prime Trust LLC was not the donor.”

A spokesperson for Prime Trust also further clarified on Nov. 1 to OregonLive that "this is not Prime Trust contributing money to the PAC. It’s merely Prime Trust effectuating the transfer on behalf of a customer.”

The party has since amended its state campaign finance disclose to reflect the true donor, according to reports.

The nature of the contribution may not be a surprise to some. Singh has been tied to political donations through Prime Trust in the past, while Oregon politics has been the object of FTX’s attention before.

An April Politico report found that a $14 million contribution from Prime Trust to the Protect Our Future PAC backed by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was made up of $1 million from Singh with the rest from Bankman-Fried, as confirmed by FTX.

At the time, FTX declined to comment on why the funds were directed through Prime Trust, and a Prime Trust spokesperson only said this type of transaction was “commonplace.”

Bankman-Fried’s Protect Our Future super PAC also allegedly donated between $8 million and $10 million to the campaign of Carrick Flynn — a political novice and family friend running in a newly created U.S. House of representatives district outside Portland.

Prime Trust and Singh were instrumental in those donations as well, according to NGO Open Secrets.

Cointelegraph reached out to the Democratic Party of Oregon and Brad Martin, but did not receive any response by time of publication.