key takeaways
- Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly bribed Chinese officials to unfreeze Alameda’s funds on Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Prosecutors say he wired at least $40 million to unlock funds.
- Bankman-Fried now faces 13 criminal charges.
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US prosecutors believe Sam Bankman-Fried used bribery to unfreeze more than $1 billion in Alameda Research crypto funds from Chinese exchanges in 2021.
$40 million bribe
The case of Sam Bankman-Fried gets worse and worse.
US prosecutors today sleepless a new charge against the former CEO of FTX. Bankman-Fried is being accused of giving Chinese government officials at least $40 million in bribes in 2021.
According to the indictment, the purpose of the bribe was to influence Chinese officials to unfreeze two Alameda Research business accounts containing more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency. The filing indicates that the trading accounts were hosted on two of China’s largest crypto exchanges, though the exchanges themselves are not named. The funds were reportedly frozen due to an investigation into an Alameda counterparty.
Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried attempted to unfreeze the funds through a variety of means, including lobbying, direct communication with exchanges, and fraudulently opening new accounts on these exchanges using the personal information of individuals not associated with FTX or Alameda and then trying to move. the frozen funds to these new accounts. Bankman-Fried ultimately ordered the transfer of $40 million worth of cryptocurrency to a private wallet, in multiple installments. Almost at the same time, the Alameda funds were unfrozen.
Bankman-Fried is now being charged with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He is already being charged with 12 other counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud, commodity fraud, bank fraud, operating an unlicensed money transmitter and conspiracy to make illegal political contributions.
Three of Bankman-Fried’s closest associates — FTX co-founder Gary Wang, Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh — have already pleaded guilty to various fraud charges. and are reportedly cooperating with law enforcement.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this article owned BTC, ETH, and various other crypto assets.
