From the cover of Forbes to bribing China with $40 million, FTX’s former CEO has done it all.
The AP reported earlier today on an additional charge against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX).
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with directing $40 million in bribes to one or more Chinese officials to unfreeze assets relating to his cryptocurrency business in a newly rewritten indictment unsealed Tuesday.
The charge of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act raises to 13 the number of charges Bankman-Fried faces after he was arrested in the Bahamas in December and brought to the United States soon afterward. The indictment was returned on Monday.
FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run. He has remained free on a $250 million personal recognizance bond that lets him stay with his parents in Palo Alto, California.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated investors out of billions of dollars before his business collapsed.
SBF still stays at home on home arrest with his parents near the Stanford campus where they live. The Clinton judge allowed SBF to stay at home after he was accused of one of the largest money frauds in US history.
TGP reported previously that FTX was involved in transactions in Ukraine.
Democrats’ “Newest Megadonor” Loses Billions As Crypto Exchange Fails — “Dot-Com Bust Level Event”
Bankman-Fried was, of course, arrested and extradited from the Bahamas after the FTX scandal. The former crypto-CEO was the second largest donator to the Democratic Party while his associate was one of the strongest for the GOP. Elon Musk at one pointed tweeted “His actual support of the Dem elections is probably over $1B. The money went somewhere, so where did it go?”
FTX looked like a large money laundering operation for some time. Maybe China wanted their piece.
