WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are looking for data from Democrats and Republicans about donations from the disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried and two former executives on the firms he co-founded.

Within the days after Mr. Bankman-Fried was arrested on Monday and charged with violations together with a significant marketing campaign finance scheme, the prosecutors reached out to representatives for campaigns and committees that had acquired tens of millions of {dollars} from Mr. Bankman-Fried, his colleagues and their firms.

A legislation agency representing a few of the most necessary Democratic political organizations — together with the celebration’s official marketing campaign arms, its largest tremendous PACs and the campaigns of high-profile politicians akin to Consultant Hakeem Jeffries — acquired an e mail from a prosecutor in the US lawyer’s workplace for the Southern District of New York. The e-mail sought details about donations from Mr. Bankman-Fried, his colleagues and corporations, in line with individuals conversant in the request, who insisted on anonymity to debate an ongoing legislation enforcement matter.

The prosecutors have reached out to representatives of different Democratic campaigns that acquired cash linked to the cryptocurrency alternate FTX, which Mr. Bankman-Fried co-founded, in line with two different individuals conversant in the matter. Prosecutors are additionally investigating donations to Republican campaigns and committees by one other FTX government who was a prime financier on the precise, in line with an individual conversant in the scenario.

To date, Mr. Bankman-Fried is the one government to face costs. Since rising as a number one political megadonor within the months earlier than the 2020 election, he has donated practically $45 million, primarily to Democratic campaigns and committees that are actually scrambling to distance themselves.

There has not been any suggestion that political campaigns and teams engaged in wrongdoing associated to the donations they acquired. The Justice Division’s inquiries look like an effort to collect proof towards Mr. Bankman-Fried and different former FTX executives, slightly than towards their political beneficiaries.

However the prosecutors’ requests widen what has rapidly turn out to be one of many largest marketing campaign finance scandals in years, as each Democrats and Republicans grapple with questions on their eagerness to faucet right into a stream of money from a murky and largely unregulated business that emerged all of a sudden as a strong political participant.

The fallout has been swift and is simply rising, as lawmakers, operatives for political motion committees and their legal professionals attempt to reduce the harm.

Some politicians — together with Mr. Jeffries, the incoming Democratic chief within the Home, and Consultant-elect Aaron Bean, a Republican from Florida — both returned donations linked to FTX or gave the cash to charity after the corporate turned embroiled in scandal. Different teams say they’re setting the money apart for doable restitution to victims of the alleged scheme.

Prosecutors stated FTX was a “home of playing cards” by way of which Mr. Bankman-Fried and others diverted buyer cash to purchase costly actual property within the Bahamas, put money into different cryptocurrency corporations, present themselves with private loans and make political contributions of tens of tens of millions of {dollars} supposed to affect coverage choices on cryptocurrency and different points.

The indictment of Mr. Bankman-Fried accuses him of conspiring with unnamed others to violate marketing campaign finance legal guidelines that prohibit company donations to candidates’ campaigns and bar donations “within the names of different individuals,” generally often called straw donations. He’s additionally charged with wire fraud, cash laundering and securities fraud associated to his administration of FTX and one other firm he co-founded, Alameda Analysis.

At a information convention on Tuesday, Damian Williams, the US lawyer for the Southern District of New York, referred to as on “any individual, entity or political marketing campaign that has acquired stolen buyer cash” to “work with us to return that cash to harmless victims.”

Federal Election Fee laws require political campaigns and committees to offer again donations which are later decided to be unlawful, even when the funds have already been spent and new cash must be raised to pay for the refunds.

The thought behind the legislation “is to primarily get tainted cash out of the system, even when the committees that accepted it aren’t at fault,” stated Sean J. Cooksey, an F.E.C. commissioner.

However that may very well be tough for some political campaigns and committees, as a result of the donations have been amongst their largest and since such teams usually spend virtually all of their money within the run-up to main elections.

Extra revelations are anticipated as beforehand undisclosed donations linked to Mr. Bankman-Fried, FTX and Alameda are uncovered. For example, a Biden-allied nonprofit group referred to as Future Ahead USA Motion, which is registered below a piece of the tax code that doesn’t require it to reveal its donors, acquired $1.65 million that was linked to FTX, in line with an individual conversant in the funding.

The group’s PAC arm, which is required to report its donors, beforehand disclosed that in 2020, it acquired $5 million from Mr. Bankman-Fried and $1 million from one other former FTX government, Nishad Singh, out of a complete of greater than $150 million raised forward of that 12 months’s election.

Critics of the outsize function of huge cash in politics, in addition to skeptics of cryptocurrency, have seized on the donations as additional proof that the marketing campaign finance regulatory panorama is riddled with loopholes that create what is basically a pay-to-play system with solely the veneer of transparency.

“It exhibits elementary weak spot in our marketing campaign finance legal guidelines,” stated Craig Holman, an official on the watchdog group Public Citizen who focuses on ethics, lobbying and marketing campaign finance guidelines. “And on the receiving finish, you’ve bought candidates and officeholders who ought to have been suspicious of the sudden inflow of funds from the crypto business.”

The prosecutors are looking for data associated to donations to dozens of campaigns and political committees, not simply from Mr. Bankman-Fried but in addition from FTX and Alameda, in addition to from Mr. Singh and Ryan Salame, one other former FTX government, in line with the individuals conversant in the request.

The e-mail was despatched to the Elias Legislation Group, a agency began final 12 months by one of many Democratic Celebration’s prime legal professionals, Marc E. Elias, that has rapidly emerged because the main political legislation agency on the left.

Mr. Elias’s agency didn’t reply to requests for remark.

The e-mail asks for information that may very well be used to find out whether or not the FTX executives lied of their responses to disclaimers generally featured on political committee web sites. The disclaimers ask donors to attest that the cash they’re giving is their very own, and that they aren’t being reimbursed by a company or one other individual, which might be unlawful.

The FTX executives had given few donations earlier than they burst onto the big-money political scene within the weeks earlier than the 2020 election, as their firm was increasing. Since then, Mr. Bankman-Fried’s donations went primarily to Democratic campaigns and committees, whereas Mr. Singh gave practically $9.7 million, principally to the celebration’s candidates and teams.

Mr. Salame donated $24 million, primarily to Republican candidates and committees.

Whilst a bunch linked to Mr. Salame promoted him as a “budding Republican megadonor” this 12 months, he instructed an activist who raised cash from the cryptocurrency business that he was not significantly fascinated about politics and prompt that his donations had been inspired by others at FTX, the activist stated.

Different individuals who labored with FTX executives had privately expressed concern in an encrypted group chat, pictures of which have been reviewed by The New York Instances, about whether or not donations from Mr. Bankman-Fried and Mr. Singh have been made in compliance with marketing campaign finance guidelines.

Mr. Salame and his lawyer didn’t reply to requests for remark. Neither did Mr. Singh nor a spokesman for Mr. Bankman-Fried.

Teams funded by Mr. Bankman-Fried or his associates donated to at the very least one nonprofit group centered on decreasing the function of cash in politics and rising its transparency. That group, the Marketing campaign Authorized Middle, acquired a complete of $2.5 million final 12 months from teams linked to Mr. Bankman-Fried. The middle’s board voted on Friday to place the cash right into a separate account “till directions are acquired from chapter courts,” Brendan R. Quinn, a spokesman for the middle, stated in an announcement.

Mr. Quinn stated the middle had accepted the funding “after cautious vetting,” together with conferring with different nonprofit organizations that “vouched for his obvious legitimacy on the time,” however he added that the allegations towards Mr. Bankman-Fried “betray C.L.C.’s mission.”

The political teams represented by Mr. Elias’s agency that acquired funding from FTX executives embody the Democratic Nationwide Committee, which acquired lots of of hundreds of {dollars} from Mr. Bankman-Fried; the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee, which acquired $250,000 from him; and the Democratic Senatorial Marketing campaign Committee, which acquired greater than $100,000 from him and Mr. Singh.

The D.N.C. and D.S.C.C. stated in separate statements that they have been setting apart the cash and supposed to return it “as quickly as we obtain correct course within the authorized proceedings.”

Returning the cash may very well be simpler stated than completed for a few of the teams that acquired bigger donations from FTX officers. For example, Home Majority PAC, a number one tremendous PAC that helps Democratic Home candidates and is represented by the Elias Legislation Group, acquired $6 million from Mr. Bankman-Fried, however the group ended final month with lower than $500,000 within the financial institution.

In an announcement, the group, which spent upward of $180 million on this 12 months’s elections, stated it was “watching and ready for steering from the federal government within the ongoing authorized proceedings, and maintains our fullest dedication to complying with the legislation.”

Precedent for the present marketing campaign finance controversy are restricted.

A a lot smaller-scale instance occurred when, from 2002 to 2014, the corporate Most cancers Therapy Facilities of America reimbursed its executives for political contributions totaling about $700,000 to greater than 30 campaigns. Regardless that the F.E.C. discovered no proof that the recipient committees knew of the scheme, they have been nonetheless required to surrender the cash after the corporate acknowledged the violations in 2017 and paid a civil penalty of $288,000. It took a number of years for all of the committees that acquired the unlawful money to eliminate it.

Karl J. Sandstrom, a former member of the F.E.C., stated the FTX case had the potential to be “the most important company conduit case we now have had.”

Mr. Sandstrom, who advises Democratic campaigns and committees for the legislation agency Perkins Coie, the place Mr. Elias was beforehand a associate, stated he was advising shoppers to place cash in escrow matching the quantities they acquired from Mr. Bankman-Fried.

Mr. Sandstrom stated he had not acquired any inquiries from the Justice Division “but.”

Kenneth P. Vogel reported from Washington, and Ken Bensinger from Los Angeles.