“In mild of more moderen allegations that a few of Bankman-Fried’s features might have come from fraudulent actions, it doesn’t appear applicable to maintain these funds,” ProPublica co-chief executives Robin Sparkman and Stephen Engelberg wrote in a memo obtained by The Washington Submit. Axios first reported the nonprofit’s choice to return the cash, which shall be positioned in a separate account till authorities decide the place it must be returned to.
A number of different media corporations that took cash from Bankman-Fried, or extra generally his household basis, have confronted scrutiny since FTX’s abrupt collapse. Bankman-Fried, who resigned as the corporate’s chief govt in November, was arrested within the Bahamas final week and is dealing with extradition to the USA on fees of conspiracy, fraud, cash laundering, violating marketing campaign finance legal guidelines and different monetary crimes.
Vox Media spokeswoman Priyanka Mantha mentioned the digital media firm intends to return practically all of a $200,000 grant from the inspiration that was earmarked for a Vox.com vertical known as Future Excellent — “if and when a restitution fund is created.” She mentioned Vox has already spent $14,000 of the cash, which it obtained in August to assist a reporting challenge on local weather change, international poverty and different societal challenges.
It’s unclear what different beneficiaries plan to do with their funds or how their newsrooms will make up the loss if the cash is returned.
A spokesman for the Intercept mentioned the information group continues to be evaluating what to do with $500,00 it obtained in September, which was a part of a $4 million grant from Bankman-Fried’s basis. “Presently, we’re nonetheless gathering the knowledge we have to make a principled choice in accordance with our mission and values,” spokesman Rodrigo Brandão mentioned Tuesday. (The group despatched a fundraising e-mail final month conveying that the funding’s loss has created “a big gap in our funds.”)
In a Dec. 2 memo to workers, Semafor co-founder Justin Smith didn’t disclose how a lot the media start-up had obtained from Bankman-Fried personally throughout a funding spherical that led to Could, however mentioned, “We accepted this funding within the spirit wherein it was supplied — to assist impartial journalism.” He added: “We’ll await their [investigative authorities’] steering on applicable subsequent steps and don’t anticipate any influence on our enterprise.”
A Semafor spokesman mentioned Tuesday that the corporate has no further remark.
The Regulation & Justice Journalism Mission, a corporation devoted to bettering protection of the legal authorized system, has additionally obtained funding from Bankman-Fried’s basis, according to Nieman Lab.
Bankman-Fried’s grants to newsrooms have been a part of a broader sample of funding, funding and largesse, together with about $40 million in political donations he made this cycle, largely to Democratic-aligned organizations. He gave the money earlier than fraud accusations got here to mild, at a time when FTX was widely viewed as one of many extra accountable corporations within the loosely regulated cryptocurrency business.
On the time media corporations obtained grants, “Nobody appeared to have any doubt that Sam Bankman-Fried had an infinite amount of cash,” mentioned veteran media govt Richard Tofel, who lately wrote a blog post asking, “What in case your donor seems to be a criminal?”
Chris Roush, dean of Quinnipiac College’s college of communications, argued that media corporations ought to nonetheless promptly return any funds obtained by Bankman-Fried or his basis to “keep away from any look of impropriety.” And he mentioned they need to have carried out extra due diligence earlier than taking the cash, contemplating the volatility of the cryptocurrency business and its lack of economic transparency.
“Information organizations, significantly start-ups, should be as vigilant inspecting who’s giving them cash as they’re inspecting data obtained from sources,” Roush mentioned.