Prosecutors in the United States have put forward a new indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing the founder of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange of conspiring to bribe Chinese government officials with $40m worth of payments.
Bankman-Fried was accused by US prosecutors in Manhattan of ordering the payment to be made in order to defrost accounts that belonged to his hedge fund, Alameda Research, that the Chinese government had frozen. US officials said the accounts included more than $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies.
According to the fresh indictment on Tuesday, the accounts were unfrozen after the bribe cash was transferred in the late fall of 2021 from Alameda’s primary trading account to a personal cryptocurrency wallet.
Bankman-Fried authorised the transfer of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of more bitcoin to complete the bribe when the accounts were unfrozen, according to the prosecution.
The new charge increases the pressure on the 31-year-old former billionaire, who had previously pleaded not guilty to eight counts over the collapse of FTX. Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried stole billions of dollars in customer funds to plug losses at Alameda.
Lawyers for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bankman-Fried has acknowledged inadequate risk management at FTX, but has denied stealing money.
China’s foreign ministry could not immediately be reached for comment after normal business hours in Beijing.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan scheduled a court hearing for Thursday after prosecutors asked for Bankman-Fried to be arraigned on the new, 13-count indictment.
Prosecutors last month unveiled four new counts against Bankman-Fried, accusing him of orchestrating an illegal campaign donation scheme to buy influence in Washington, DC. He has not yet been arraigned on the new charges.
The new count accuses Bankman-Fried of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which makes it illegal for US citizens to bribe foreign government officials to win business.
Bankman-Fried is currently confined to his parents’ Palo Alto, California home on $250m bond ahead of his October 2 trial.
On Monday, his lawyers and prosecutors reached a new agreement on revised bail conditions, after Kaplan raised the prospect of sending Bankman-Fried to jail pending trial. That came after prosecutors raised concerns he may have been tampering with witnesses.