Topline
Prosecutors filed a new indictment against disgraced FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried on Monday, charging him with fraud for allegedly stealing $100 million dollars of customer funds to make campaign donations ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, making good on prosecutors’ promises to press charges over the disgraced crypto billionaire’s alleged illegal campaign finance scheme.
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrives at a Manhattan Federal Court in New York City Friday. (Photo … [+]
Key Facts
Monday’s charges includes seven counts of conspiracy and fraud, alleging that Bankman-Fried secretly directed customers’ money from FTX’s sister trading firm, Alameda Research, to company executives’ personal bank accounts where those executives made political contributions in their own names in an effort to “maximize FTX’s political influence.”
Bankman-Fried then “leveraged this influence, in turn, to lobby Congress and regulatory agencies to support legislation and regulation he believed would make it easier for FTX to continue to accept customer deposits and grow,” the indictment alleges.
Prosecutors had previously charged him with campaign finance law violation charges, but dropped those charges after The Bahamas told the U.S. that the charge was not part of the agreement under which the country extradited Bankman-Fried in December—this indictment marks a workaround of that diplomacy issue.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/08/14/sam-bankman-fried-accused-of-using-100-million-in-stolen-funds-on-political-donations/