Federal prosecutors have unveiled a third round of charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, focusing on bribery of a foreign government.
FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) pleaded not guilty to the latest New York federal court charges.
SBF's attorney, Mark Cohen, plans to have the charges dismissed. The defense team will argue that Bankman-Fried can only be prosecuted for the violations for which he was deported from the Bahamas.
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The charges were unveiled in a superseding indictment unsealed on March 28th. The focus of this indictment is the alleged bribery of a foreign government. According to prosecutors, Sam Bankman-Fried paid at least $40 million to Chinese officials.
Prosecutors claim that the bribe was used to encourage officials to unfreeze accounts belonging to Alameda Research. SBF and his associates tried numerous options to access the accounts holding $1 billion in crypto. Eventually, they resorted to bribes when everything else failed.
The bribe worked, and Alameda Research continued to use the once-frozen funds to make trades for another year. Its actions triggered a chain reaction that eventually caused the crypto exchange FTX to collapse.
The indictment also contains charges of bank fraud, money laundering, running an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and making illegal political donations. The indictment includes 13 counts and provides details of hundreds of political contributions.
Three of SBF's former business associates have pleaded guilty to numerous charges. Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison, and Nishad Singh are working closely with investigators. If FTX co-founder is convicted, Sam Bankman-Fried could face over 155 years in prison.
The SBF trial will begin in October 2023. Bankman-Fried is also facing federal indictment and civil lawsuits from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
