Cryptocurrency

Silk Road

Molly

Cryptocurrency critic Molly White and consumer advocacy group Public Citizen have filed an updated complaint to the Federal Election Commission as it continues to allege Coinbase violated United States campaign finance laws.
The original complaint, filed on Aug. 1, <a href="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/coinbase-fec-complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">claimed</a> Coinbase breached campaign finance laws after it started negotiating the Marshals Service contract in early March.
They claim the cryptocurrency exchange donated $25 million to the pro-crypto advocate Fairshake Super PAC in May breached campaign finance laws as they were a “federal contractor.”
Coinbase denied the allegations, with Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal posting on X that <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-refutes-accusation-campaign-finance-laws" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Coinbase is exempt</a> from certain campaign finance laws because the Marshals Service isn’t paying Coinbase with Congressionally appropriated funds, therefore not making Coinbase a federal contractor.
White and Public Citizen’s updated complaint, <a href="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/CoinbaseFECcomplaint-supplement.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">filed</a> on Aug. 5, has challenged this rebuttal:
<blockquote>
 “Since the Assets Forfeiture Fund is a Congressional appropriation, Coinbase was paid for the performance of a contract from funds appropriated by the Congress, and is thus a federal contractor."
</blockquote>
<figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-08/6a01d50a-e604-4299-8b06-8e81374a6606.png" alt="Crypto critics file updated campaign finance complaint against Coinbase">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="https://x.com/molly0xFFF/status/1820552333413040451" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Molly White</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="coinbase-responds-again">Coinbase responds again</h3>
Grewal has since <a href="https://x.com/iampaulgrewal/status/1820570944043418047" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">responded</a> to White and Public Citizen’s most recent updated complaint, stressing that seized cryptocurrencies are not Congressionally appropriated funds.
The <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/government-court-approval-sam-bankman-fried-private-jets" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">seized assets</a> came from collapsed <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/explained/the-alameda-gap-and-crypto-liquidity-crisis-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">cryptocurrency exchange FTX </a>and the <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/3-4-billion-bitcoin-popcorn-tin-silk-road-hacker/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Silk Road platform.</a> Grewal added:
<blockquote>
 “It’s also worth noting that Coinbase has donated to Dem and GOP super PACs equally with $500K to House and Senate funds for each party, respectively, for 2024.”
</blockquote>
“White and Public Citizen appear to want to report a political bias which does not exist.”
Related:<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/uk-government-seize-crypto-economic-crime-corporate-transparency-act" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> UK authorities will soon have fewer restrictions when seizing crypto</a>
In a separate statement, Rick Claypool, Research Director at Public Citizen <a href="https://www.citizen.org/news/new-complaint-to-fec-alleges-coinbase-violated-campaign-finance-laws/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">slammed</a> Coinbase for “aggressively” exploiting the law laid out in the Citizens United case in 2010.
<blockquote>
 “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.”
</blockquote>
White runs the platforms “Web3 is Going Just Great” — highlighting various hacks, scams and failed promises in the cryptocurrency industry — and “Follow the Crypto” — which tracks cryptocurrency industry spending to influence the upcoming US election.
Magazine:<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/us-enforcement-agencies-turning-up-heat-crypto-related-crime/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> US enforcement agencies are turning up the heat on crypto-related crime</a>

Crypto critics file updated campaign finance complaint against Coinbase

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