FTT/USD: Sam Bankman Fried Charged With $40m Bribe Paid to Chinese Officials
- SBF has been accused of bribing Chinese officials in order to unfreeze the accounts of Alameda Research.
- The account contained over $1bn and was reportedly unfrozen around the time of the bribe.
- Creator of Terra, Do Kwon, was also arrested in Montenegro last week. Both the US and South Korea are seeking extradition.
The founder and ex-CEO of the now-collapsed crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried will have to wait until October before his trial. Several of his ex inner circle have already plead guilty to their charges, and have alleged SBF’s complicity in manipulating the company's financial accounts. He’s been accused of money laundering, wire fraud and misuse of customer funds amongst other accusations. This week however, a new charge has been brought against him which will see him in court once again today.
What now?
On Tuesday, SBF was accused by US prosecutors of paying a bribe of $40m to Chinese officials, so that the account of Alameda Labs (FTX’s sister company) would be unfrozen. The account reportedly contains over $1bn worth of cryptocurrency, and Chinese officials have yet to release a statement on the allegations. Bankman-Fried is also in hot water for allegedly illegally funneling over $40m in political campaign donations to the Democrats over the course of 2022. If found guilty of all charges, Bankman-Fried faces a maximum of 155 years of prison time.
The year of accountability
SBF is not the only ex-crypto billionaire who’s facing the fallout of a crypto collapse this year. Just last week, the creator of the Terra ecosystem – which collapsed spectacularly in May 2022 and caused a meltdown of the crypto market – was arrested in Montenegro whilst attempting to board a flight. Do Kwon had been insistent since the collapse that he was not on the run, but officials had been unable to find him until now. Both the US and South Korea have formally requested his extradition, but he will reportedly have to finish his prison sentence in Montenegro before either request will be possible.