The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a new indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried charging him of bribery. In this allegation, the DOJ stated the founder and former CEO of fallen cryptocurrency exchange FTX, bribed Chinese officials whose number could be one or more. Bribery is the latest in a long list of charges against SBF since his arrest.
In the indictment filed Tuesday, as reported, the prosecutor accused Bankman-Fried of directing at least $40 million for a bribe. Allegedly, the bribe was given to officials of the Chinese government to unfreeze the accounts linked to SBF’s trading firm Alameda Research.
The indictment noted that Chinese authorities were after Alameda Research during November 2021, per CNBC.
Allegedly, the bribery was discovered when SBF and his associates took different approaches to unfreeze the holding account with crypto assets worth $1 billion. When they failed to unfreeze that account, disgraced former FTX CEO tried to bribe the officials with “tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.”
According to CNBC, the assets belonging to Alameda were used to fund trades of the hedge fund that were making continued losses. The government treated the activity as fraud with customers and investors.
Revised Bail Conditions for SBF
Meanwhile, it was also reported that Sam Bankman-Fried and federal prosecutors have revised the bail conditions of the former. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said they reached an agreement on Monday with prosecutors.
Reuters reported that the new proposed bail conditions would allow Sam Bankman-Fried to use a phone without internet and a laptop with limited functionalities. The non-smartphone mobile will not have applications other than text messages and voice calls. The laptop will be tracking the user activity via monitoring software and SBF will be restricted to make any changes in the specifications to go around those limitations. It was said to have “configured to allow access” to only YouTube, Wikipedia, and Netflix like websites.
Sam Bankman-Fried founded FTX, once a leading crypto exchange, filed for bankruptcy in November, 2022, along with the sibling firm, Alameda Research. Later in December, Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamian authorities and later extradited to the United States.
US financial regulators including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed initial charges against SBF in the Southern District of New York.
Initial charges against Bankman-Fried included wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering. Around the time of his bailout on a $250 million bond, the prosecutors brought four additional charges of money laundering and modified campaign finance, etc.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/03/29/sam-bankman-fried-bribed-40mn-usd-to-chinese-officials-says-doj/