US charges FTX’s Bankman-Fried with paying $40 mln Chinese bribe
NEW YORK听–听US聽prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a new indictment against Sam听叠补苍办尘补苍–Fried, accusing the founder of the聽聽cryptocurrency exchange of听辫补测颈苍驳听a $40 million听产谤颈产别听to听颁丑颈苍别蝉别听officials so they would unfreeze his hedge fund’s accounts.
罢丑别听聽adds to the pressure on聽, who now faces a 13-count indictment over the聽.
Mr. Bankman–贵谤颈别诲听is expected to be arraigned on the new indictment on Thursday before US聽District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court. He intends to plead not guilty, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors had previously accused Mr. Bankman–贵谤颈别诲听of stealing billions of dollars in customer funds to plug losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund, and聽 an illegal campaign donation scheme to buy influence in Washington, DC.
Lawyers for Mr. Bankman–贵谤颈别诲听did not respond to a request for comment.
Separately on Tuesday, Mr. Kaplan approved modifications to Mr. Bankman–Fried‘s $250 million聽聽that are designed to prevent the defendant from tampering with witnesses.
The new indictment said Mr. Bankman–贵谤颈别诲听ordered the $40 million cryptocurrency payment to a private wallet from Alameda’s main trading account, to persuade听颁丑颈苍别蝉别听government authorities to unfreeze Alameda accounts with more than $1 billion of cryptocurrency.
Prosecutors said the Alameda accounts had been frozen as part of an investigation into an unnamed Alameda counterparty, and Mr. Bankman–Fried‘s prior efforts to lobby听颁丑颈苍别蝉别听officials to lift the freeze were听耻苍蝉uccessful.
They also said Mr. Bankman–贵谤颈别诲听around November 2021 authorized a transfer of tens of millions of dollars of additional cryptocurrency to “complete” the听产谤颈产别.
China’s foreign ministry could not immediately be reached for comment after business ho耻谤蝉听in Beijing. The听颁丑颈苍别蝉别听embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Bankman–贵谤颈别诲听has pleaded not guilty to eight of the 13 counts he faces, and not yet been arraigned on the campaign finance or听产谤颈产别ry conspiracy听肠丑补谤驳别蝉.
He has acknowledged inadequate risk management at FTX, but has denied stealing money.
Three onetime members of聽聽– former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, former FTX technology chief Zixiao “Gary” Wang, and former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh – have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
CRYPTO CRACKDOWN
Mr. Bankman–Fried‘s case is part of an escalating crackdown on alleged abuses at digital asset exchanges by US聽prosecutors and regulators, following last year’s plunge in the val耻别蝉听of Bitcoin and other tokens as central banks raised interest rates.
Last Thursday, Do Kwon, whose Terraform Labs developed the TerraUSD and Luna coins that crashed last May, was聽聽while carrying alleged bogus travel documents, as a Manhattan grand jury indicted him on fraud听肠丑补谤驳别蝉.
And on Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission聽, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, and its founder Changpeng Zhao for executing unauthorized transactions. Zhao called the complaint “unexpected and disappointing.”
The US聽Securities and Exchange Commission has separately聽 Coinbase Global Inc.聽over that crypto exchange’s products.
Prosecutors’ newest charge accuses听叠补苍办尘补苍–贵谤颈别诲听of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal for听鲍.厂. citizens to听产谤颈产别听foreign government officials to win business.
Mr. Bankman–贵谤颈别诲听颈蝉听聽to his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, ahead of h颈蝉听.
H颈蝉听聽prevent him from using most electronics, apart from a phone with no internet capability and a basic laptop with limited functions. The laptop will have monitoring software to track user activity.
Concerns that Mr. Bankman–贵谤颈别诲听尘颈驳丑迟听聽prompted Kaplan to threaten jailing him unless tighter restrictions could be worked out.
Lawyers for Mr. Bankman–贵谤颈别诲听have said their client contacted current FTX executives to offer help, not to interfere, but nonetheless agreed to restrictions on his use of electronics. – Reuters
