Bankman-Fried Attempted to Bribe a Chinese Official
- Bankman-Fried’s bail terms were recently revised to grant him supervised access to a computer.
- The 31-year-old has been accused of ordering an employee to bribe a Chinese government official to unfreeze Alameda accounts held in Chinese exchanges.
- Bankman-Fried faces the possibility of a lengthy sentence if found guilty.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s fortune seems to have taken a turn for the worse following a new charge of attempting to bribe a Chinese official. In an indictment that was unsealed on Tuesday, prosecutors accused the former FTX boss of bribing a Chinese government official with a $40 million payment made in 2021.
31-year-old Bankman-Fried is currently out on a $250 million bond and, despite surprising evidence, has maintained his not-guilty plea to eight criminal counts of fraud and conspiracy. However, the recent charge against Bankman-Fried will be another heavy blow to his quest for freedom.
The indictment claims that the payment was made after Chinese officials froze several Alameda accounts held in two Chinese exchanges totaling more than $1 billion. Bankman-Fried was said to have instructed an employee to bribe a government official in China to unfreeze the accounts.
Bankman-Fried allegedly approved the transfer of tens of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency to finalize the bribe after the accounts were unfrozen.
Prosecutors claim that the alleged bribe was a last-ditch effort. According to the indictment, Bankman-Fried initially attempted a number of other strategies to unfreeze the funds. These strategies included employing lawyers to represent him in China and creating accounts on those Chinese exchanges using the private data of a number of unidentified users who were not connected to his companies.
“After months of failed attempts to unfreeze the accounts, Samuel Bankman-Fried discussed with others and ultimately agreed to and directed a multi-million-dollar bribe to seek to unfreeze the accounts,” the filing notes.
Bankman-Fried’s case has been tagged as one of the largest financial frauds in US history. The crypto guru was said to have orchestrated a smart plan to mask the shady activities driving his companies. Prosecutors claim that Bankman-Fried stole deposits from FTX users, made illegal political donations, and lived a luxurious life in the Bahamas alongside his close associates.
Bankman-Fried’s FTX also competed with the likes of Binance as one of the leading crypto exchanges before filing for bankruptcy in November 2022. However, Bankman-Fried has been fingered as the mastermind behind the company’s downfall. He previously admitted to mismanaging his company, but he denies defrauding anyone. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the US and extradited from the Bahamas to face prosecution.
In what would be a big blow to the former FTX CEO, former FTX and Alameda executives and Bankman-Fried’s close friends Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison, and Nishad Singh have pleaded guilty to charges and are cooperating with prosecutors against their former boss.
Lawrence has covered some exciting stories in his career as a journalist, he finds blockchain-related stories very intriguing. He believes Web3 will change the world and wants everyone to be a part of it.
