Key points to remember
- Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly bribed Chinese officials to unblock Alameda funds on Chinese crypto exchanges.
- Prosecutors say he transferred at least $40 million to unlock funds.
- Bankman-Fried is already charged with twelve other counts.
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US prosecutors believe Sam Bankman-Fried used bribery to unlock more than $1 billion in Alameda Research crypto funds from Chinese exchanges in 2021.
$40 million bribe
Sam Bankman-Fried’s case keeps getting worse.
Today, US prosecutors unveiled a new accusation against the former CEO of FTX. Bankman-Fried is accused of paying Chinese government officials at least $40 million in bribes in 2021.
According to the indictment, the purpose of the bribe was to influence Chinese authorities to unfreeze two Alameda Research trading accounts that contained more than $1 billion in cryptocurrencies. The filing says the trading accounts were hosted on two of China’s largest crypto exchanges, although the exchanges themselves are not named. The funds were reportedly frozen due to an investigation into an Alameda counterparty.
Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried attempted to release the funds through a variety of means, including lobbying, communicating directly with exchanges, and fraudulently opening new accounts on those exchanges using the personal information of people not associated with FTX or Alameda, then trying to move. frozen funds to these new accounts. Bankman-Fried eventually ordered the transfer of $40 million in cryptocurrency to a private wallet, in installments. Around the same time, Alameda’s funds were unfrozen.
Bankman-Fried is now charged with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He is already charged with 12 other counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities 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 charges. of fraud and allegedly cooperated with law enforcement.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this article, the author of this article owned BTC, ETH, and several other crypto assets.