Sam Bankman-Fried accused of bribing a Chinese official

The founder потерпевшей крах FTX Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been charged with bribery of at least one Chinese official in the amount of $40 million. This is говорится in court documents.

The number of charges against him has risen to 13. U.S. prosecutors say that SBF tried to unfreeze certain Alameda Research accounts.

According to the indictment, in early 2021 Chinese authorities blocked the company’s accounts on the “two largest cryptocurrency exchanges” in the country. SBF knew about this and attempted to resolve the situation by various means.

“Bankman-Fried and others agreed to pay cryptocurrency to one or more officials in China to influence them and induce them to unfreeze the accounts,” the document states.

However, it does not specify which exchanges are involved. In September 2021 China tightened regulation of the crypto industry.

At the end of 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice charged the head of FTX with eight criminal counts. He was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States, where he was released on bail of $250 million.

In February 2023 prosecutors increased the number of charges against Bankman-Fried to twelve. He pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Earlier former Alameda Research chief Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang took a deal with prosecutors. Later their example was followed by CTO Nishad Singh, CTO of the fallen exchange.

In March, SBF’s lawyers reached an agreement with U.S. prosecutors on new bail terms.