A Bend lawyer has asked Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to open a criminal investigation into whether the Democratic Party of Oregon knowingly reported false information about who gave a campaign contribution. State elections staff in the Oregon Secretary of State’s office have been gathering facts for to determine whether to refer the case to the Oregon Department of Justice. But attorney Jeff Eager said in his complaint Thursday that Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum should open her own investigation into the Democratic Party of Oregon’s false campaign finance report because the party’s political action committee donated a significant amount of money to Secretary of State Shemia Fagan when she ran for legislative seats and her current office. In total, Fagan received more than $424,000 in donations from Democratic Party of Oregon, according to state records. Both Fagan and Rosenblum are Democrats. Eager, who is a former mayor of Bend, asked Rosenblum to then refer the investigation to Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson because Rosenblum also has a history of transactions with the Democratic Party of Oregon, albeit as a donor rather than a recipient of money. Oregon allows people to file complaints about possible election law violations with the attorney general when the complaint involves a person or political action committee that supports the secretary of state. Eager noted that Fagan has declared her intention to in 2024. Rosenblum is also eligible to run again but has not said whether she will do so. Michael Kron, special counsel to the attorney general, confirmed Friday that the Department of Justice received Eager’s complaint and is reviewing it but he did not answer questions about whether Rosenblum would open an investigation nor whether she could refer the case to the Marion County district attorney. Both the Democratic Party of Oregon which accepted the $500,000 donation at issue, and the former FTX executive Nishad Singh, whom the party belatedly identified as the actual donor, are under scrutiny regarding whether they knowingly reported false information to the state that identified a Las Vegas cryptocurrency payment processor as the donor. The Oct. 4 campaign contribution was the largest the Democratic Party of Oregon reported receiving in the 15-year time frame covered by the state campaign finance database. Nonetheless, party director Brad Martin told The Oregonian/OregonLive in early November that the party’s political action committee accepted the money without knowing much about the source. The Democratic Party of Oregon PAC originally reported that the money came from Prime Trust, a Las Vegas-based cryptocurrency payment processor. Only after The Oregonian/OregonLive contacted Prime Trust and the Democratic Party did the party disclose that the true donor was Nishad Singh, the director of engineering for cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The Democratic Party PAC used at least some of the money to pay for campaign mailers attacking Republican candidate for governor Christine Drazan, according to disclosures on the mailers. On Wednesday, state elections officials in the Secretary of State’s office fined the Democratic Party of Oregon $35,000 for disclosing Singh as the donor 14 business days after the reporting deadline. The party and its lawyer asserted that it was Singh’s fault that the party reported false donor information. Cash from FTX executives poured into Oregon elections in 2022, most prominently in the primary for an open congressional seat. In that race, Prime Trust was also incorrectly reported as a donor for money that was ultimately to Singh and FTX’ chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried. The U. S. Bankman-Fried in December 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. “In my experience having worked in and around politics for decades, it is unusual for a political committee to receive a donation as large as $500,000 … without some prior communication with the donor,” Eager wrote in his complaint. “Absent a full investigation, it is impossible to know what communications occurred between” the Democratic Party of Oregon, Singh, Prime Trust, Bankman-Fried or other FTX officials. — Hillary Borrud;.