High finance and low politics led nowhere good for Bond or Santos
GOP candidate Michelle Bond, thanks supporters at Napper Tandy’s in Smithtown on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. after losing in the Congress 1st District Republican race to Nicholas J. Lalota. Credit: James Carbone
Political players whose separate fates will lead them to be charged with grifting sometimes find each other along the way and team up. If the alleged grift lies in the zone between politics and business, allies with access to money and contacts can look indispensable.
Nothing would better explain the dubious one-time linkage between former candidates Michelle Bond and George Santos.
Last week, an indictment was unsealed against Bond, who ran two years ago in a Republican primary for the 1st Congressional District seat in Suffolk County. Bond, 45, allegedly conspired to arrange unlawful contributions from corporate coffers to that failed campaign.
During that “red wave” election year in Suffolk, Bond was identified as a “crypto advocate” heading the Association for Digital Asset Markets. She filed for her candidacy from an address in Port Jefferson, but has resided for years in Potomac, Maryland.
More saliently, prosecutors identify her as the romantic partner of Ryan Salame, who was a co-chief executive at a Bahamas-based subsidiary of defunct crypto exchange FTX — founded by the notorious Sam Bankman-Fried, now serving a 25-year prison sentence.
Salame has already pleaded guilty to campaign finance and money-transmitting crimes. He’s been sentenced to more than 7 years in prison. Now Salame is asking the court to void that plea, claiming part of the deal was that Bond, reportedly the mother of his young child, wouldn’t be prosecuted.
News of Bond’s indictment came just three days after Santos, the former CD3 representative, pleaded guilty to felony counts of fraud and identity theft in connection with his own 2022 campaign.
During that election cycle, Republicans Santos and Bond became known allies. As Newsday reported in February of last year, Santos served as a link between Bond and right-tilting activists who became vocal supporters of hers.
Other signs of a Bond-Santos bond came from campaign finance filings. Salame contributed $5,800 to a Santos committee — as did both his parents — in June 2022. So did individuals who were business associates of Salame and Bankman-Fried.
Lobbyist Anthony Figliola, who ran that year against Bond in CD1’s GOP primary, was quoted as saying: “This was a pure power play by the crypto industry looking to get a seat at the table on Wall Street.”
As candidates, Santos and Bond had a few things in common. Both jumped at the opportunity of “open” congressional seats. Tom Suozzi was leaving CD3 to run for governor as a Democrat and Lee Zeldin was leaving CD1 to run for governor as a Republican.
Neither Bond nor Santos had clear ties to their districts. She said she was raised in Miller Place but hadn’t lived on Long Island for a long time. Nobody seemed to know where Santos lived, even after he was elected.
The trajectory of their lives was never parallel. Alongside Salame, Bond resided for a while atop a huge new red-hot industry. Santos’ wealth was a lie, like his educational, family and business backgrounds. And it’s still a mystery as to how he will pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams’ statement on the Bond case was predictable and boilerplate. But it rang true: “Misconduct by those campaigning for public office undermines public trust in American elections and in representative government more broadly.”
n COLUMNIST DAN JANISON’S opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
