A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., confirmed Thursday that Vermont’s newest member of Congress is “fully cooperating” with federal authorities in the prosecution of disgraced cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried.

In a superseding indictment filed Thursday in federal court, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York outlined new details about an alleged Bankman-Fried scheme to illegally funnel investor funds to political campaigns through associates to mask their source.

The former CEO of the crypto exchange platform FTX did so, prosecutors wrote, “to improve his personal standing in Washington, D.C., increase FTX’s profile, and curry favor with candidates that could help pass legislation favorable to (Bankman-Fried’s) personal agenda,” including crypto regulations.

One donation in particular cited in the indictment appears to mirror the circumstances that led to a million-dollar influx of pro-Balint spending in Vermont’s 2022 congressional primary. Balint is not named in the indictment and has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried and associates “agreed that he and his co-conspirators should contribute at least a million dollars to a super PAC that was supporting a candidate running for a United States Congressional seat and appeared to be affiliated with pro-LGBTQ issues.”

According to prosecutors, an unnamed political consultant working for Bankman-Fried told an unnamed associate of his to make the contribution, saying, “in general, you being the center left face of our spending will mean you giving to a lot of woke shit for transactional purposes.”

The unnamed associate tasked with making the donation was, according to the indictment, uncomfortable with the request to make the contribution in his name but ultimately did, reasoning that there was not anyone “trusted at FTX (who was) bi/gay” who could make the contribution instead.

Balint, who is openly gay, benefited in the closing weeks of her hotly contested primary campaign from a million-dollar advertising blitz carried out by LGBTQ Victory Fund, a hybrid political action committee and super PAC. Only after the primary election was it revealed by Seven Days that FTX executive Nishad Singh had bankrolled the victory fund spending.

Bankman-Fried and Singh also personally donated thousands of dollars to Balint. All told, they and their associates contributed at least $26,100 directly to her campaign, VTDigger reported in December. The Vermont Democratic Party and U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., also benefited from the crypto CEO’s largesse. 

Balint declined a request Thursday for an interview with VTDigger, but her campaign manager, Natalie Silver, confirmed Balint’s cooperation with federal authorities. 

“The campaign is committed to fully cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s investigation of Mr. Bankman-Fried and FTX,” Silver said in a written statement Thursday. “We have been in communication with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and are fully supporting their investigation.”

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