Metropolitan Museum of Art To Return $550K In FTX Donations

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has decided to return $550,000 in donations it received from the now-collapsed crypto exchange FTX. This announcement was confirmed by the New York-based museum in a filing to the United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on June 2, which is the same court where FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings took place.

The Met expressed its intention to repay the funds to FTX debtors, stating that the decision resulted from intense and fair negotiations conducted with the debtors. The museum stated, “The Met wishes to return the Donations to the FTX Debtors, and the FTX Debtors and the Met have engaged in good faith, arm’s length negotiations concerning the return of the Donations.”

The $550,000 donation was made in two separate instalments. The Met received the first instalment of $300,000 in March 2022, followed by an additional $250,000 in May. West Realm Shires Services, the company responsible for operating FTX.US, facilitated these donations.

FTX’s management has been actively seeking to recover its donations from politicians and other organisations since December, shortly after filing for bankruptcy in Delaware. Court documents indicate that FTX distributed $93 million in donations between March 2020 and November 2022.

Despite these efforts, only 19 out of approximately 180 U.S. politicians who received funds from FTX have returned the donations or expressed their intention to do so, according to data from Unusual Whales. The largest recipient of FTX donations, receiving around $27 million, was the “Protect our Future PAC,” as reported by Market Watch.

BREAKING: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is charged with more than 300 illegal political donations.

He has given $42 million to Democrats & “dark money” to Republicans.

But there hasn’t been a full list of the politicians.

Until now.

Click here to see: https://t.co/araVgIsCG3 pic.twitter.com/CezXTKq7cQ

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) February 23, 2023