The Oregon Department of Justice will not seek criminal charges into a $500,000 political contribution made to the Democratic Party of Oregon.
The state was prompted to take a closer look at the contribution after The Oregonian/OregonLive reported the contribution was not actually from Prime Trust, which is how Democratic Party officials reported it on their campaign finance filings. Instead, Prime Trust was merely a pass-through and the donation really came from Nishad Singh, a former executive at the disgraced cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
The Secretary of State’s office asked the justice department to determine whether Singh knowingly made a contribution under a false name in October of 2022, which is a crime.
The state found insufficient evidence, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s office, and would not be able to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Singh or any other person committed a crime.”
“To support criminal charges in this case, the state would need evidence sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Singh made the contribution in a name other than his own and that he did so knowingly,” said Michael Slauson, the chief counsel who oversaw the investigation. “Evidence that the contribution was made in a false name because of a miscommunication, inadvertence, or negligence would not suffice.”
The Department of Justice also noted they did not discover any evidence to suggest the Democratic Party of Oregon knowingly received a contribution made in a false name.
State election officials issued a $15,000 late filing fee after the party changed the name of the donor on campaign filings.
The state also said it plans to monitor the Democratic Party of Oregon’s financial disclosures to ensure campaign finance laws are being followed in the future.
It’s a felony to make a campaign contribution under a false name. Oregon had no campaign finance limits for state political races and causes at the time, and Singh could have given the $500,000 to the state party in his own name.
FTX, the exchange Singh worked for, came under intense scrutiny and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was convicted of defrauding investors.