Dina Titus: Threatened Azerbaijan with sanctions, then faced scrutiny over donations Trails lead to Bob Menendez

The American news outlet The Nevada Globe has published an article alleging financial dealings involving Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus. The report scrutinises $17,900 in campaign contributions linked to convicted fraudster Nishad Singh, disgraced financier Norman Hsu and former Senator Bob Menendez’s political operation. The article questions whether the money was ever returned and accuses Titus of facing an uncomfortable ethics contradiction given her outspoken criticism of political misconduct. Caliber.Az republishes the article in full.

“Democrat Dina Titus has spent years lecturing Nevadans about ethics and accountability. Her own donor ledger tells a much uglier story.

Campaign-finance records show Titus accepted at least $17,900 from three sources that later became synonymous with federal criminal cases: convicted FTX fraudster Nishad Singh, Ponzi kingpin Norman Hsu and a political action committee controlled by disgraced former Sen. Bob Menendez.

Singh gave Titus for Congress $2,900 on Oct. 24, 2022, days before FTX collapsed. Four months later, Singh pleaded guiltyto six criminal counts, including wire fraud, money-laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to violate federal campaign-finance laws. Prosecutors said Singh helped route political contributions through straw donors at the direction of Sam Bankman-Fried and others.

Titus’s campaign told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in February 2023 that it was identifying and setting aside donations from FTX executives while the legal process played out. But a March 2024 federal forfeiture exhibit listed Singh’s contribution to Titus without a notation that it had been returned to the government.

Where did the money go?

Titus’s campaign still owes Nevadans a straight answer.

The trail extends far beyond the crypto collapse.

Titus’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign accepted $5,000 from Hsu. He was later sentenced to 292 months in federal prison after prosecutors said he operated an $80 million Ponzi scheme and committed campaign-finance fraud using straw donors. The donation came before Hsu’s crimes became a national scandal, but no clear public record reviewed for this story showed the campaign returning it.

Then there is Menendez.

As The Globe previously reported, New Millennium PAC, Menendez’s political committee, gave Titus $10,000 in 2011. Menendez was later convicted of bribery, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction after federal agents found cash and gold bars in his home. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Add it up: $2,900 from Singh, $5,000 from Hsu and $10,000 from Menendez’s machine. Total: $17,900.

NRCC spokesman Christian Martinez put it bluntly on X, calling Titus a 'career swamp creature' who has 'the absolute nerve to lecture anyone about ethics.'

Titus can keep performing outrage from Washington. Her donor history tells Nevadans everything they need to know: the ethics lecture is coming from the wrong person,” the article reads.

For our part, we note that Congresswoman Dina Titus works closely with the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and has advocated for the introduction of sanctions against Azerbaijan.