Oregon’s new elections director will not recuse herself from the investigation into a $500,000 donation the Democratic Party of Oregon received from an FTX executive last year even though she previously worked as a top employee of the party.
Ben Morris, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, confirmed this week that elections director Molly Woon will continue to oversee the high-profile investigation.
“I have every confidence and faith in Molly’s professionalism, integrity and commitment to fair application of election law and rules,” Fagan said in a statement Tuesday.
In early October, the Democratic Party of Oregon accepted its largest ever donation on record in the state’s campaign finance database: $500,000, which the party claimed was from a Las Vegas cryptocurrency company Prime Trust. But Prime Trust was not the actual donor. After The Oregonian/OregonLive contacted Prime Trust and learned it was not the donor, the state Democratic Party revealed that Nishad Singh, the director of engineering for the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, had in fact donated the money.
Under Oregon statute, it is a Class C felony to make a campaign contribution under a “false name” and state elections employees are deciding whether the case should be forwarded to Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, for prosecution of anyone involved.
By the time Oregon Democrats accepted the donation on Oct. 4, news reports had documented other instances of Prime Trust being incorrectly reported as the donor for large contributions that actually came from FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Singh. Politico reported in April that a federal super PAC that supported Oregon Democratic congressional candidate Carrick Flynn incorrectly told the Federal Elections Commission that it received $14 million from Prime Trust, when in fact the money came from Bankman-Fried and Singh.
Fagan, a Democrat, appointed Woon as permanent elections director last week, after initially tapping her for the job on an interim basis in December. Fagan forced out the previous elections director Deborah Scroggin, who had spent nearly a decade overseeing elections in the Portland City Auditor’s Office before taking the job with the state in 2021.
Woon had worked as Fagan’s strategic projects director and senior adviser since Fagan took office in 2021. Before that, Woon was communications director and deputy director of the Democratic Party of Oregon for three years.
Morris wrote in an email that “Molly has not worked at the (Democratic Party of Oregon) for more than two years, and she had no involvement in the DPO when this donation was made, when it was reported to the Elections Division, or any DPO matters during the 2022 election cycle. As such, she has no conflict of interest. Molly is fully capable of being objective and fair with regards to the DPO in her new role.”
The Democratic Party of Oregon appears to have used some portion of the FTX executive’s donation to pay for several campaign mailers attacking Republican candidate for governor Christine Drazan, according to disclosures on those mailers that listed Prime Trust as a donor who contributed to them. The party has not returned the donation to Singh.
In December, the U.S. charged Bankman-Fried with defrauding customers and investors by diverting their money to pay expenses and debts at his cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research, and to purchase real estate and make large political donations. FTX said in December that it would try to claw back political donations made by Bankman-Fried.
FTX’s bankruptcy filings have revealed that Singh received a $543 million loan from Alameda Research. In January, Singh met with federal prosecutors in an effort to get a deal for cooperating in the case, Bloomberg reported.
In Oregon, Fagan cited The Oregonian/OregonLive’s reporting of the misreported donation and directed her staff to launch an investigation of the transaction.
Staff in the Elections Division’s investigations unit “manage the process and make the determinations,” Morris wrote in an email. “Alma Whalen, the principal staff person working on investigations, will consult with the DOJ, our chief legal and risk counsel and her manager, Molly Woon, throughout the course of her work. That’s the extent of Molly’s involvement in the process.”
Fagan received more than $424,000 in donations from the Democratic Party of Oregon when she was running for state legislative seats and secretary of state, according to campaign finance records. Fagan also has given $190,000 to the party since 2011. Rosenblum has contributed more than $111,000 to the Democratic Party of Oregon but did not receive donations from the party.
— Hillary Borrud; hborrud@oregonian.com
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