Disgraced Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried has been charged with a new count by federal prosecutors.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors revealed Bankman-Fried allegedly directed a $40 million cryptocurrency bribe to one or more Chinese government officials to unfreeze assets held there. According to reports from Fox Business, the disgraced FTX founder held funds through an affiliated crypto trading hedge fund, Alameda Research.
“In or about 2021, Samuel Bankman-Fried, a/k/a/ “SBF,” the defendant, authorized and directed a bribe of at least $40 million to one or more Chinese government officials,” the indictment reads. “The purpose of this bribe was to influence and induce one or more Chinese government officials to unfreeze certain Alameda trading accounts containing over $1 billion in cryptocurrency, which had been frozen by Chinese authorities.
“Bankman-Fried and others sought to regain access to the assets to fund additional Alameda trading activity, in order to assist Bankman-Fried and Alameda in obtaining and retaining business,” it added.
The new indictment from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York brings the total charges against the failed ex-CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange to 13. The new charge is a conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. (RELATED: What the FTX Collapse Tells Us About Regulators and ESG)
The indictment states that after the Alameda accounts were frozen by Chinese authorities “as part of an ongoing investigation of a particular Alameda trading counterparty,” Bankman-Fried and others operating at his discretion tried numerous methods to unfreeze the accounts and regain access to the cryptocurrency.
Bankman-Frield reportedly deployed numerous tactics including “retaining attorneys to lobby or otherwise advocate in China for Alameda's funds to be unfrozen; communicating with the Chinese Exchanges; and opening new accounts on the Chinese Exchanges using the personal identifying information of several individuals affiliated with FTX or Alameda (the ‘Fraudulent Accounts') and attempting to transfer the cryptocurrency from the frozen Accounts to the Fraudulent Accounts to circumvent the Chinese authorities' freeze orders,” the indictment alleges.
The indictment noted that after months of unsuccessful attempts to unfreeze the accounts Bankman-Fried agreed to a multi-million-dollar bribe to release the funds.
Federal prosecutors say cryptocurrency payment instructions for “at least a portion of the bribe” were then sent by one Alameda employee to others, including one worker based in the U.S.
“As a result, in our about November 2021, Bankman-Fried caused a bribe payment of cryptocurrency then worth approximately $40 million to be transferred from Alameda's main trading account to a private cryptocurrency wallet,” the indictment says. “At or around the time of the $40 million bribe payment, the Accounts were unfrozen.”
Bankman-Fried is facing a dozen other federal charges related to the collapse of FTX, accusing him of securities fraud and looting the platform for personal gain.
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