FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried paid bribes worth 10sof millions to at most one Chinese government official. This was the Justice Department’s latest indictment against the disgraced CEO of crypto.
The federal government claims that after bank accounts held by Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, were frozen by Chinese police around November 2021, he and others “directed and caused the transfer” of at least $40 million in cryptocurrency “intended for the benefit of one or more Chinese government officials in order to influence and induce them” to unfreeze the accounts, CNBC reported.
The indictment also charges that Bankman-Fried and his associates tried “numerous methods” to get the Chinese to unfreeze the accounts, which contained about $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency, CNBC said. The prosecutors claimed they then turned to a scheme of bribery, after failing with their previous attempts.
Alameda continued to use the funds to finance its losses-generating trades. This fraud was persisted upon customers and investors for another one year until the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and Alameda crashed in November, after investors withdrew their cash from the exchange.
Bankman-Fried now faces 13 federal charges for the new count. It falls under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He has pleaded guilty to all 12 of the charges and will be brought before a judge on Thursday to face the second count. His previous charges could have resulted in him spending up to 120 years behind bars.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment. A request for additional information was not answered by the Department of Justice.
Bankman-Fried was forced to resign on November 11th and the company applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Disgraced CEO says his $20 billion fortune has been wiped out. The disgraced CEO is currently being held on $20 million bail while he awaits trial.
The first charges against the former crypto mogul were brought in December, accusing him of stealing billion of dollars of FTX customers’ money, along with misleading investors and banks that backed FTX.
This new accusation follows Monday’s efforts by the prosecutors to increase bail restrictions for Bankman-Fried. The Wall Street Journal published the following report. U.S. District judge Lewis Kaplan was asked by the court to accept a settlement he had negotiated with his attorneys to restrict his internet access. This is to keep him from contacting former FTX employees.
Bankman Fried would have the option of a basic, low-function laptop and a new phone that has no internet capabilities. But he’d be prohibited from using any electronic communication device. Reuters reported.
Monitoring software will be used to monitor how the laptop is being used. His phone will be monitored to ensure that he can make and receive calls, as well as send texts. Other messaging apps would not be permitted.