FTX Founder Bankman-Fried Bribed Chinese Officials With $40 Million in Crypto: DOJ

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, bribed Chinese government officials with $40 million in cryptocurrency, the Department of Justice alleged in a new 13-count indictment (pdf). Federal prosecutors stated that accounts belonging to Bankman-Fried and others "directed and caused the transfer" of at least $40 million in crypto "intended for the benefit of one or more Chinese government officials in order to influence and induce them" to unfreeze some of the accounts. In November 2021, accounts for Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's hedge fund, were frozen by Chinese authorities. The Chinese government has been cracking down on cryptocurrency since 2017, banning digital currencies in September 2021. Bankman-Fried and his colleagues employed "numerous" legal and personal methods to unfreeze the accounts that contained approximately $1 billion worth of crypto, according to prosecutors. “After months of failed attempts to unfreeze the accounts, Samuel Bankman-Fried discussed with others and ultimately agreed to and directed a multimillion-dollar bribe to seek to unfreeze the accounts,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. Once the funds were released, the money was utilized to fund his hedge fund's loss-generating trades.