Salame's Girlfriend Finally Arrested
As you probably recall, Trump tried banning crypto-currency while he was in the White House. When the crypto-criminals started a $200 million Republican-friendly PAC— and started defeating progressives— Trump had a change of heart. So much so that Trumpanzee Junior started his own crypto-Telegram channel and, yesterday, Trumpanzee Sr. put this up on his Social Media platform which seems be presaging a “DeFi” (decentralized finance) Trump coin.
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen reacted immediately: “The Scammer-in-Chief is at it again. Donald Trump and his family are promoting a family cryptocurrency project, once again trying to exploit his public profile for personal gain. It’s bad enough that Trump is luring people— primarily his own supporters— into a rip-off, Ponzi-scheme business. It’s pathetic and outrageous that he tries to channel people’s legitimate anger against banks and financial elites into his own personal grift. Worst of all, campaign support from Crypto Bros and, now, an opportunity to scam everyday Americans have led Trump to flip his position on the industry, with dangerous potential consequences if he’s elected.”
NBC News reported that “Trump’s post about the project comes on the heels of a series of actions he’s taken to align himself with the cryptocurrency community, which is highly active online and tight-knit. After referring to cryptocurrency as a ‘scam against the dollar’ in 2021, Trump praised it this summer while speaking at a bitcoin conference as corporations within the crypto sector have dramatically increased their political donations. A Public Citizen report found that the crypto industry has contributed $119 million this year trying to influence federal elections. That figure represents nearly half of all corporate contributions made this year. Trump has made investments in the sector, and now owns more than $1 million in cryptocurrency. He also dabbled in crypto with an NFT project in which people could buy digital, blockchain-linked cartoon drawings of him.”
Meanwhile, Public Citizen “submitted a formal complaint to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) late last week alleging that cryptocurrency company Coinbase violated campaign finance laws. Records show that, while in active negotiations over government contracts, Coinbase made a $25 million donation to the crypto super PAC Fairshake, in apparent violation of laws prohibiting contributions from current or prospective federal government contractors. Coinbase also made a $500,000 contribution to Congressional Leadership Fund, a hybrid PAC dedicated to electing Republicans to the House of Representatives, during the time it was prohibited from contributing. ‘While the cryptocurrency industry's massive spending to influence upcoming elections may, unfortunately, be legal following the Citizens United decision, Coinbase's $25.5 million in campaign contributions made while negotiating contracts with the Department of Justice are not,’ said Molly White, an independent researcher and author of Citation Needed. ‘The industry is spending shocking amounts of money to attempt to buy legitimacy with members of Congress and other politicians, hoping to see legislation that will benefit the companies at the expense of everyone else. Their actions, however, should provide a stark warning to those tempted to grant them such legitimacy: the industry, as always, chooses to act as though well established laws do not apply when it suits them.’”
“Among all big businesses that have aggressively exploited Citizens United since 2010, Coinbase's conduct stands out as especially shocking and egregious,” said Rick Claypool, a Public Citizen research director. “The crypto corporation's eye-popping contributions— made in apparent violation of longstanding pay-to-play prohibitions— demonstrate how lax enforcement emboldens corporate lawbreaking. The FEC must step up.”
In a Twitter thread posted after the complaint was filed, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal argued that Coinbase is not a federal contractor and so has not violated campaign finance law. In response, Public Citizen and White submitted a supplement to their initial complaint on Monday addressing the argument and explaining why Coinbase’s actions violate the law.
And… speaking of crooked conservatives and crypto, remember the female who was hopped up on coke in this photo,the one who isn’t Kimberly Guilfoyle? Her name is Michelle Bond, FTX criminal Ryan Salame’s girlfriend at the time and a long shot GOP congressional candidate for the then-open Suffolk County district that Nick LaLota eventually won. It took long enough, but she was finally arrested yesterday. She has been charged with using some of the stolen FTX funds to finance her absurd campaign. She’s out on a million dollars bond.
According to the charges, Bond and Salame created a “sham consulting agreement” between Bond and FTX, enabling Bond to receive $400,000, shortly after launching her congressional campaign.
According to an indictment, Bond used the funds to illegally finance her campaign. It said Salame wired hundreds of thousands of dollars more to Bond between June and August of 2022.
By the end of the primary, around $2 million in crypto funds were laundered into her campaign. She didn’t do all that well for that huge amount of money spent… and now she’ll be going to prison:
Nick LaLota- 12,368 (47.2%)
Michelle Bond- 7,289 (27.8%)
Anthony Figliola- 6,569 (25.0%)
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