Sam Bankman-Fried Charged With Bribing Chinese Officials

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with bribing Chinese officials in a revised indictment.

(Bloomberg) — FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with bribing Chinese officials in a revised indictment.

The new charge was added Monday by a federal grand jury in Manhattan. Bankman-Fried was accused of authorized the transfer of $40 million in cryptocurrency intended for the benefit of one or more Chinese government officials in order to get them to unfreeze accounts at Alameda Research holding more than $1 billion in crypto.

Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried and others sought to regain access to the assets held in Alameda accounts in 2021 to fund additional trading activity, according to the indictment.

With the charge of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Bankman-Fried now faces 13 criminal counts. He is already facing several fraud charges for allegedly funneling money from now-bankrupt FTX to Alameda.

(Updates with information from indictment)

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