Bankman-Fried’s allegations have been expanded in the latest indictment brought by federal prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors have announced a new indictment of Sam Bankman-Fried with four additional criminal charges.
The document outlining the new allegations begins with the statement that “At least in or about 2019, up to and including November 2022, Samuel Bankman-Fried, a/k/a ‘SBF,’ the defendant, undermined the operations of the company founded and controlled cryptocurrency.
In addition to the original counts facing SBF, prosecutors said they were also guilty of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter. Previously, SBF was charged with all of the following counts by the United States Southern District Court in New York, including:
- Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on a customer
- wire fraud on customers
- Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on a creditor
- Wire fraud on lenders
- Conspiracy to commit commodity fraud
- Conspiracy to commit securities fraud
- Conspiracy to commit money laundering
- And conspiracy to defraud the United States and to violate the Campaign Finance Law.
The charges follow an arrest in December in the Bahamas, following the failure of the FTX exchange empire. The industry is still reeling from both the business impact as well as examining the regulations that have followed since.
“Contrary to Bankman-Fried’s promises to FTX customers that the exchange would protect their interests and segregate assets, Bankman-Fried routinely tapped FTX customers’ assets to provide interest-free capital for their own and Alameda’s personal expenditures, and in the process exposed FTX customers to unknown risk,” the document said in new allegations. “Additionally, while Bankman-Fried publicly claimed that FTX operated independently of Alameda’s digital currency trading and investments in other companies, by design, the reality was otherwise.”
In addition to the functional problems with FTX, the alleged illegal donations are now being detailed, with the indictment examining how SBF is used by others to contribute to political movements that they do not want themselves or business entities to be tied to.
“Bankman-Fried made substantial contributions in support of candidates of major political parties and across the political spectrum,” the document said. “Bankman-Fried, however, did not want to be known as a left-wing partisan, or to have a public name attached to a Republican candidate. In those cases when he wanted to disguise his connection with a certain contribution, Bankman-Fried and others formed a conspiracy and had these contributions under his name [FTX executives] CC-1 and CC-2.
As part of this plan, contributions were coordinated to be made in the name of two trusted donors FTX for candidates they do not have to support or know. These straw donations were instead made for the purpose of furthering the SBF’s political agenda while providing them with the ability to disassociate themselves from certain contributions, and to hide the fact that the source of the donation was actually Alameda.
The highly anticipated Bankman-Fried trial is set for October 2023.