Former head of a collapsed FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), has been charged with new criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud. The Block.
The number of charges against him has risen from eight to twelve. The court’s amended indictment also adds conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
Regarding bank fraud, the indictment states that SBF “willfully and knowingly” informed a financial institution that the account was intended for trading and market making. In reality, it was used to receive and transfer the exchange’s customers’ funds.
Together with the foregoing counts, Bankman-Fried faces up to 115 years in prison.
In December 2022, the court said that SBF was charged with, among other things:
- conspiring with partners to defraud, misappropriating customer funds from the trading platform and using them to pay Alameda Research’s expenses and debts;
- money laundering;
- violating U.S. campaign finance laws.
The expansion of the charges followed Bloomberg’s report that former FTX chief technology officer Nishad Singh would plead guilty to fraud.
The platform’s chief technology officer participated in channeling political donations in the United States. Since 2020 Singh has transferred more than $9.3 million to Democratic candidates. He also secured hundreds of millions of dollars in credit from Alameda.
The new indictment states that Bankman-Fried made certain political contributions on behalf of two other FTX executives. SBF sought to conceal interactions with Republican candidates, as he was known as a supporter of left-leaning views.
In December 2022, two other associates of Bankman-Fried — former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and the exchange’s co-founder Gary Wang — admitted guilt in charges related to the collapse of FTX. SBF did not strike a deal with prosecutors.
In February 2023, the court did not rule out Bankman-Fried’s return to prison.
Earlier prosecutors sought to modify the terms of the former FTX CEO’s house arrest. Law enforcement suspected SBF of using the Signal messaging app to send encrypted messages to a witness. Subsequently, he was accused of using a VPN.
As reported, Bankman-Fried was arrested on December 12, 2022, in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government. The court released him on bail of $250 million.