Maxwell Alejandro Frost compared to New York fraud Rep. George Santos

Freshman Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost is being compared to New York fraud Rep. George Santos after his campaign benefited from dirty money provided by cryptocurrency crook Samuel Bankman-Fried, then the 25-year-old politician lied about giving the con-artist's cash to a local Florida charity.

Maxwell Alejandro Frost says he gave away Samuel Bankman-Fried's money but that is a lie. His FEC report shows that he passed on only half of the $5800 he got from the crypto-crook.

Frost also admitted that his campaign for Florida's 10th Congressional District was also supported by cash from Bankman-Fried via Protect Our Future, a progressive PAC to which Bankman-Fried gave nearly $30 million.

"I’m donating his contribution to [Zebra Coalition] which helps serve LGBTQ+ youth facing homelessness, bullying, isolation from their families, and physical, sexual and drug abuse with individualized programs to guide them to recovery and stability," Frost announced shortly after the collapse of the 30-year-old Bankman-Fried's multibillion dollar cryptocurrency firm FTX.

The lawmaker claimed that he is not responsible for expenditures from the super PAC called Protect Our Future, which spent about $1 million in the Florida district supporting Frost's campaign for the Democratic nomination.

Frost earned national attention by becoming the first member of Generation Z to get elected to Congress, after his super-PAC-funded campaign capsized former U.S. Representatives Alan Grayson, state Senator Randolph Bracy, among others.

Frost's official campaign fund raised more than $3 million, more than the total $2.1 million expended by all his competitors combined.

Alan Grayson spent $897,143.84; Randolph Bracy spent $545,956.89; Terence Gray spent $334,265.25; Corrine Brown spent $133,438.23; Natalie Jackson spent $110,805.47; Jeffrey Boone spent $48,817.62; Teresa Tachon spent $10,681.84; and Jack Achenbach spent $5,860.99.

Regardless, Maxwell Alejandro Frost is now in Congress, and like Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican who fabricated a large portion of his biography, the Generation Z freshman cannot escape his situation.

He said he is against corporate money in politics, but Frost raised and spent almost four times as much as his closest competitor even before counting the influx of dirty money provided by cryptocurrency crook's super-PAC.

During his campaign, Frost was accused of being dishonest but his financial advantage prevented challengers from making a case against him.

An August 15, 2022 comment on Twitter said, "Frost lied about being near a shooting. Frost lied about being beaten by police. Frost's plans to defund the police are dishonest and irresponsible. Frost lied about his motivations for running and he accepted corporate cash from crypto-billionaire @SBF."

Education Watchdogs on Twitter: "Frost lied about being near a shooting. Frost lied about being beaten by police. Frost's plans to defund the police are dishonest and irresponsible. Frost lied about his motivations for running and he accepted corporate cash from crypto-billionaire @SBF https://t.co/9hbsI5BLKI" / Twitter

Bankman-Fried was hit with new criminal charges in an expanded indictment accusing the founder of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange of conspiring to make more than 300 illegal political donations.

The FTX founder is accused of "flooding the political system with tens of millions of dollars in illegal contributions," according to a new indictment.

The indictment accuses Bankman-Fried of having directed at least 300 illegal campaign donations, totaling up to $100 million, to both Democrats and Republicans through two other unnamed FTX executives who acted as “straw donors” to hide the true source of the funds.

The scheme was used, prosecutors allege, to evade federal contribution limits, hide the illegal source of some of the money and protect Bankman-Fried’s reputation by keeping his name off of donations to political candidates and causes that did not align with his center-left public image.

The new indictment said Bankman-Fried conspired to donate tens of millions of dollars in order to influence lawmakers to pass legislation favorable to his company.

"All my Republican donations were dark," said Bankman-Fried during an interview with Tiffany Fong, in which he admitted that he had steered money to candidates in a way that is difficult to track. "And the reason was not for regulatory reasons. It's because reporters freak the f*** out if you donate to a Republican. They're all super liberal, and I didn't want to have that fight. So, I made all the Republican ones dark."

Those donations were illegal because they were made with "straw" donors or corporate funds, enabling Bankman-Fried - one of the largest donors to Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections - to evade contribution limits, prosecutors said.

Bankman-Fried allegedly directed one executive to primarily donate to liberal candidates and organizations and the other to conservatives, with many donations funded by Alameda and including FTX customer funds.

Federal Election Commission records show that Nishad Singh, FTX's former engineering chief, contributed $1.1 million on July 7, 2022 to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a national organization dedicated to electing openly LGBTQ people.

Caroline Ellison, Alameda's former chief executive, and former FTX technology chief Gary Wang pleaded guilty to fraud charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Bankman-Fried now faces 12 criminal charges, including four for fraud and eight for conspiracy, up from eight charges in an earlier indictment, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bond while he awaits trial over the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange, which a U.S. prosecutor called a "fraud of epic proportions."

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused the FTX founder of stealing billions of dollars in customer funds to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, and funnel into the political influence-buying scheme that connected him to Frost.

Maxwell Alejandro Frost is being compared to Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican who fabricated a large portion of his biography, the Generation Z freshman cannot escape his situation. Bankman-Fried's trial is slated for October. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the case, extended a temporary ban on Bankman-Fried's contacting FTX and Alameda employees.