$500k Crypto for Kotek Scheme Forced State Scrutiny of Dems

Oregon — Nearly four years ago, as Tina Kotek (D) was embroiled in a neck-and-neck governor’s race with Christine Drazan (R), the Democratic Party of Oregon received a massive windfall: a $500,000 contribution from someone within the crypto currency firm FTX. A month later, FTX was bankrupt and the subject of a federal investigation that eventualy led to convictions of company executives, including CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, for campaign finance fraud, and the DPO was under scrutiny by the Oregon Secretary of State for having misreported the source of the funds as a crypto bank, rather than FTX.

By the time law enforcement and regulators caught up with FTX and the DPO, however, the DPO had been spent the $500,000 helping Kotek best Drazan by a 3.5% margin. The Secretary of State later fined the DPO $15,000 and required the party to report on its efforts to improve its reporting processes, and to subject some contributions to increased scrutiny.

With Kotek and Drazan squaring off for a 2026 rematch, Oregon Roundup Foundation has obtained via public records request state records shedding light on the Secretary of State’s efforts to cajole the party that rules Oregon into reporting accurately the source of the contributions that fuel its dominance.

The records, like the FTX contribution scandal generally, shed light on a party at times struggling to identify contributors as required by Oregon law, and that sought to continue to rely on the methods it said led it to misidentify the source of its largest-ever contribution.

“I will keep my mouth shut for sure.”

A month before the hotly contested 2022 gubernatorial general election, DPO staffers expected a record-breaking $500,000 contribution to come from FTX founder and now-felon Bankman-Fried or an affiliated Super PAC. The incoming donation was earmarked for the DPO’s Coordinated Campaign, the party’s biennial get-out-the-vote operation designed to leverage the fundraising prowess of Oregon’s congressional delegation, led by U.S. Senator and powerful then-Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, to help Democrats win governor and state legislature races.

News of the incoming cash infusion first reached the DPO via Wyden fundraising consultant Diana Rogalle, according to a DOJ report arising from an early 2024 interview with Aisling Coghlan, who in 2022 ran the Coordinated Campaign for DPO. “There was mutual knowledge amongst members of the DPO that a large donation was incoming,” according to the report. The news was surely welcome; Democrat Tina Kotek was trailing Republican Christine Drazan in polling at the time. The unthinkable – a Republican becoming governor of Oregon – seemed a very real possibility.

Based upon those early communications, Coghlan “thought the donation was coming from Protect Our Future PAC.” Protect Our Future PAC was founded to help candidates interested in issues like pandemic prevention, which were important to the PAC’s two largest funders: FTX’s Bankman-Fried and Singh.

DPO executive director Brad Martin “was led to believe that Protect our Future and Bankman-Fried would be making a large donation to the DPO. Specifically, the DPO was previously aware of Protect Our Future PAC and Sam Bankman-Fried, and his ‘family constellation’ of related donors in Democratic donor world,” according to DOJ’s report of its interview with Martin.

Protect our Future had made waves months earlier in the Democratic primary for Oregon’s new 6th Congressional District, in which the PAC spent $11 million in an attempt to nominate political newcomer Carrick Flynn. The spending from a mysterious PAC got attention from Flynn’s Democratic opponents, including now-Congresswoman Andrea Salinas, who jointly condemned Protect our Future’s and the House Democratic leadership PAC supporting Flynn.

The $500,000 pre-election lifeline went from rumor to reality quickly, with Wyden fundraising consultant Rogalle serving as go-between for DPO and FTX. FTX political staff arranged the wire from Singh to DPO using the internal approval process FTX had arranged to push millions of campaign contributions out the door in the run-up to the November election.

DPO received the $500,000 wire on October 4, 2022. The wire confirmation showed Prime Trust as the “originator” of the transfer and described Singh as the “Originator to Ben[ificiary].” Having expected the contribution to come from Bankman-Fried’s “family constellation” of donors, DPO then sought to determine who it should report to the Oregon Secretary of State as the donor of record for the contribution.

It did so on two tracks. First, DPO staff inquired with Wyden’s contract fundraiser Rogalle who in turn learned, infamously, from an FTX consultant that “Nishad prefers Prime Trust (though not strongly) so go w[ith] that.” DPO, up against a reporting deadline, reported the donor of record to be Prime Trust on October 9.

Prior to reporting the source of the funds, DPO pursued a second verification track that showed the contribution was not, in fact, from Prime Trust. Coordinated Campaign boss Coghlan asked DPO researcher Christa Buckland to look into Prime Trust. On October 5, the day after DPO received the wire, and four days before it reported Prime Trust as the donor of record, Buckland emailed Coghlan a summary and link to a Politico story from April 19, 2022, reporting that Protect Our Future PAC had falsely reported Prime Trust LLC as the donor of record for a $14 million cash infusion, and was forced to amend its reporting to show the funds were actually from Bankman-Fried and fellow FTX executive Nishad Singh.

In response, Coghlan asked Buckland to check contributions made by Tom Pageler, the CEO of Prime Trust. Buckland replied that she found nothing on Pageler, but she continued to argue, correctly, that Prime Trust was not the donor of record for the $500,000 contribution.

It looks like the contribution referred to in the NYT article [I believe she meant Politico] that was initially reported with Prime Trust LLC as the contributor has now been changed to Bankman-Fried.

The contribution was facilitated by Prime Trust LLC but the company and it’s [sic] CEO are likely not the donor.

I believe the only way to know who the contribution is from would be to contact Prime Trust and ask who they facilitated the transaction for. My bet would be they’ll say it’s from Bankman-Fried, but it’s possible it came from someone else . . .

Buckland was right, but no one at DPO checked with Prime Trust as she suggested. The contribution was made by Singh, not Bankman-Fried, because FTX’s contribution machine and the Bankman-Fried “family constellation of donors” had determined that Singh would donate to left-leaning causes. Protect Our Future PAC executive director Michael Sadowsky put it artfully in a July 5, 2022, online chat with Singh:

but, in general, you being the center left face of our spending will mean you giving to a lot of woke sh[*]t

for transactional purposes

FTX preferred using Singh as the face of donations to left-leaning causes because donations funneled through Singh brought less Republican attention and requests for matching contributions, than donations from the better-known Bankman-Fried and Protect Our Future, according to an online chat between Singh, Bankman-Fried, Sadowsky, and Gabe Bankman-Fried, Sam’s brother.

But Coghlan was adamant in response to Buckland: “I think in this case the contribution is from Prime Trust LLC but Amelia [Manlove, DPO’s compliance director] has asked them to clarify.” It is unclear why Coghlan believed, or wanted to believe, that the contribution she expected to come from Protect our Future or elsewhere in FTX world should be attributed instead to Prime Trust. Buckland had told her otherwise, and even the tepid “Nishad prefers Prime Trust (though not strongly)” had not yet been issued or received.

Coghlan did forward the Politico summary and link to Tim Leahy, Senator Wyden’s political director and member of the Coordinated Campaign’s table of advisors, with the note, “This is what was interesting to me[.]” She forwarded the rest of Buckland’s findings about Prime Trust to DPO executive director Brad Martin, but omitted the the Politico story and link that Buckland believed, correctly, strongly indicated the $500,000 contribution was not from the Prime Trust.

Despite Buckland’s findings, known at least to the person in charge of the DPO’s Coordinated Campaign fundraising effort as well as Wyden’s top political staffer, DPO made the fateful decision to report on October 9 that Prime Trust was the donor of record for the mega-contribution that would soon jostle the close governor race.

On October 28, The Oregonian published a story about the biggest donors in the 2022 election cycle, including the $500,000 contribution then attributed to Prime Trust. Buckland noticed the story, and raised her concerns with DPO compliance director Manlove in an online chat:

Christa Buckland Oct 28, 10:56 AM

Aisling [Coghlan, DPO Coordinated Campaign director] had me look into that Prime Trust LLC contribution, and I gathered that it was not from Prime Trust directly but they were acting as a custodian of the funds. Did you hear back from them? There is an article out today that references the contribution. Which Brad [Martin, DPO executive director] just asked me not to circulate but I am thinking they might be inaccurate in their reporting.

Amelia Manlove Oct 28, 11:00 AM

No, it WAS from Prime Trust LLC. If it were from someone else, we would not have been able to accept it because that would be a contribution in a false name, which is illegal to make and illegal to accept—not that you should circulate any of this information either.

Christa Buckland Oct 28, 11:04 AM

I will keep my mouth shut for sure. I am just so surprised. Their name turned up in [Federal Election Commission] reporting before and they wound up clarifying they were not the donor and had only facilitated the transaction on behalf of Sam Bankman Fried, and the owner or Prime Trust LLC has only ever made one small contribution to a candidate he went to school with.

The FEC reporting has since been corrected to reflect Bankman Fried as the contributor.

(Emphasis by italics added)

Coghlan and Buckland no longer work for the DPO. Manlove remains its compliance director. Coghlan serves as Chief of Staff for Portland mayor Keith Wilson.

Democrats put $500,000 to use electing Tina Kotek, others

The DPO received the record-breaking contribution from FTX world October 4, just a month prior to the general election. The contribution came the same day respected national pollster Emerson College published a poll showing Republican Christine Drazan leading Democrat Tina Kotek within the margin of error, 36% – 34%. A flurry of local and national polls around the same time showing essentially a tied race sent shockwaves through Oregon politics. Could Oregon elect a Republican governor?

As it turns out, no. Upon receipt of the $500,000 crypto contribution, the DPO put it to work to bolster Kotek’s chances. It disclosed Prime Trust LLC, which the DPO was still reporting as the source of the contribution, as one of its biggest donors in a mailer attacking Drazan, as reported by The Oregonian.

A month later, Kotek beat Drazan by 3.5% and Democrats retained strong majorities in both houses of the legislature. On November 1, just a week before election day, The Oregonian first reported on the contribution and the Democratic Party of Oregon’s amendment to show FTX executive Nishad Singh, rather than the bank Prime Trust, as the source of the contribution.

By then, the contribution had its impact on Oregon politics, helping to ensure Democrats retained the governorship. But the DPO’s amendment of its reporting on the contribution, apparently spurred by The Oregonian’s inquiry, was outside the Secretary of State deadline, triggering enforcement action by the state against the party that rules it.

Democrats working for the state cut deal with Democrats not currently working for the state

The duty to enforce Oregon’s campaign finance laws falls, initially, on the Oregon Secretary of State, a position and an office that experienced significant scandal and controversy around the time the $500,000 crypto donation fell in its lap.

When FTX made its record-breaking contribution to Oregon Democrats, the Secretary of State was a seemingly ascending Oregon Democrat, Shemia Fagan. Fagan appointed former Democratic Party of Oregon employee Molly Woon to oversee the Elections Division, which is supposed to enforce election laws. Fagan ordered an investigation into the contribution following The Oregonian’s going to press about it. She resigned under pressure in May 2023 over having taken a $10,000 per month consulting position with scandal-exuding cannabis firm La Mota while conducting an audit of cannabis regulations as the putatively full-time Secretary of State.

Kotek installed Deputy Secretary of State Cheryl Myers as interim Secretary of State from May 8, 2023 – June 30, 2023, at which time Kotek named former City of Portland auditor and novelist LaVonne Griffin-Valade as Fagan’s longterm replacement. Former State Treasurer Tobias Read (D) won the Secretary of State position in 2024, and continues to serve in that role. Woon left the Secretary of State’s office in January 2025, with reports that Read had made clear she would no longer serve as Elections Director.

Woon’s Elections Division proposed fining the DPO $35,000 for filing late its amendment to show Singh as the source of the $500,000 contribution. But just prior to the hearing on the fine, which the DPO, oddly as it turns out, contested, the DPO and the Elections Division reached a settlement that reduced the fine to $15,000, committed the DPO to a temporary period of enhanced review of contribution reporting and had the Elections Division drop any criminal investigation. The Settlement Agreement is dated May 11, 2023, when Woon continued to serve as Elections Director and Myers was interim Secretary of State.

The agreement required the DPO to submit to the Elections Division an outline of its policies and practices “associated with confirming the true identity of contributors and reporting accurate campaign finance contributions through the 2024 election cycle.” It also required the DPO to submit quarterly reports beginning September 2023 and concluding December 2024 detailing the steps the party had taken the preceding quarter to comply with the agreement and resulting Secretary of State order. The agreement permitted the Elections Division to identify 25 contributions per quarter for “enhanced review” and required the DPO to provide all documentation to the Elections Division regarding the process for complying with the agreement and order.

Finally, the DPO was to amend, again, its reporting for the $500,000 contribution if the DPO was “later informed by federal or state law enforcement officials of the correct identity of the $500,000 contributor[.]”

Oregon Roundup Foundation requested via public records request and received earlier this month voluminous documents from the Secretary of State’s office reflecting the DPO’s submissions as required by agreement and the order. What follows is ORF’s exclusive reporting on the aftermath of what may be the most consequential political contribution in Oregon’s history.

A glimpse of the inner workings of the DPO

The voluminous records obtained by ORF show an extensive back and forth between the DPO and the Elections Division regarding the DPO’s reporting practices. The bulk of communications involved Deputy Elections Director Alma Whalen and Washington, D.C. attorney Niel Reiff representing the DPO. The DPO reported paying Reiff’s firm $7,500 on December 22, 2022 and another $7,500 on January 6, 2023, some nine months before Reiff took a lead role in assisting the DPO with complying with the settlement agreement between September 2022 and December 31, 2024. The DPO reported no payments to the firm during or after that enhanced reporting period.

The records generally constitute the submissions required of the DPO by the settlement agreement and Elections Division questions and recommendations regarding the same. The DPO’s far-ranging fundraising efforts resulted, during the enhanced scrutiny period, in exchanges concerning a $15,000 in-kind contribution from Google co-founder Eric Schmidt for data services to at least one request for a deadline extension for DPO reporting and an explanation in response to an Elections Division question that a check from March 2024 was deposited in August of that year because DPO Executive Director “Brad Martin and [DPO Development Director] Claire Hoobler-Lewis were out of the office at the time [the March dated check arrived in August] due to COVID isolation following the Democratic National Convention” held in Chicago eight months after the federal government stopped recommending isolation.

In its first report required by the settlement agreement, submitted September 1, 2023, the DPO told the Elections Division its practice was to presume the contributor for a wire transfer “is presumed to be the originator listed in the Originator field found to the left of the wire amount.” The DPO had reported Prime Trust as the contributor of the $500,000 from FTX world based on the same, in that case admittedly incorrect, presumption. The Elections Division, perhaps incredulously, suggested stopping the practice that had caused the DPO to misreport the identity of the $500,000 donor.

DPO, free from enhanced enforcement, ramps up to help Kotek again this year

Having completed its reporting required by the settlement agreement in late 2024 and early 2025, the DPO is once again free from enhanced scrutiny by the Elections Division, heading into the 2026 general election. The DPO is “ramping up the 2026 Coordinated Campaign,” according to the organization’s LinkedIn page. It was the 2022 coordinated campaign that led to Wyden’s facilitating the $500,000 contribution from FTX world.

This cycle, the DPO’s fundraising prowess will once again aid Tina Kotek as she campaigns to keep the job the $500,000 contribution helped her win in 2022.

This article was written by Jeff Eager at the Oregon Roundup. Reposted with permission from Oregon Roundup. Oregon Roundup Foundation created this article. ORF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation dedicated to covering Oregon political and government news.