Australian political parties received donations from Finder

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—by Protos Staff
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One Finder related Australian entity made $27,540 in donations in the 2021-2022 cycle according to Annual Returns published by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

The Hive Empire PTY LTD entity, ultimately owned by Finder, made a series of political donations.

To the Liberal Party of Australia, NSW Division, it donated:

  • $12,000 on December 12, 2021.
  • $5,760 on March 17, 2022.
  • $880 on March 30, 2022.

To the Australian Labor Party, NSW Branch, it donated:

  • $3,000 on April 5, 2022.
  • $1,500 on April 19, 2022.
  • $2,000 on June 2, 2022.

To the Australian Labor Party, it donated:

  • $2,400 on April 15, 2022.

Read more: Australian regulators investigated FTX before collapse

Four months before Hive Empire began making these donations, co-founder of Finder Fred Schebesta submitted his recommendation to the Australian ‘Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre’ that the Australian government should provide deposit insurance for cryptocurrencies, including those being deployed for yield.

Finder Wallet sued by Australian regulators for unlicensed Earn product

Finder is being sued by Australian regulators for their ‘Finder Earn’ product which offered depositors a way to earn yield on cryptocurrency.  Schebesta stepped down as co-CEO of Finder a few days before the lawsuit.  

Update February 14th 2023: A previous version of this article claimed that FTX had made the donations using HiveEx.  HiveEx was actually run through the Hive Empire Trading PTY LTD entity, not the Hive Empire PTY LTD entity used for the donations.  Finder is the ultimate owner of Hive Empire PTY LTD, not FTX.  We regret the error. 

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