The FTX founder Sam Altman reportedly bribed Chinese officials into unfreezing company accounts. The account holds $1 billion in cryptocurrency.
Sam Bankman Fried, the founder of the FTX exchange, has been charged with another crime, bribery.
Bankman understood that Chinese authorities had taken action as a part of an ongoing proof of a specific Alameda trading counterparty.
On Tuesday, in a report, the department of Justice claimed Bankman Fried “authorized and directed a bribe of at least $40 million to one or more Chinese government officials”.
Sam Bankman offered a bribe to Chinese officials to unfreeze the accounts associated with FTX’s sister company. Alameda is FTX’s sister company, containing over $1 billion in cryptocurrency.
FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov 11, when the company ran out of money after the equivalent of a bank run on the global cryptocurrency exchange. Bankman-Fried reminded free on a $250 million personal recognizance bond. This allowed him to stay with his parents in Palo Alto, California.
According to the DOJ, all of this happened in November 2021. That was when Bankman Fried wanted access to the funds to have a complete hold on Alameda.
The aim was to “obtain and retain business.” Though, the indictment states that Bankman-Fried exhausted “numerous methods” when he wanted to unfreeze the funds before committing a bribe that would eventually result in unlocking funds.
As per the indictment, “after confirmation that the accounts were unfrozen, Bankman Fried authorized the transfer of tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to complete the bribe.”
Moreover, “Alameda used the unfrozen cryptocurrency to fund additional Alameda trading activity.”
As per the indictment, Bankman-Fried opened a new fraudulent account on the Chinese exchanges using the personal identifying information of several individuals unaffiliated with FTX or Alameda.
In addition, the crypto founder’s new bail conditions forbid Bankman-Fried from using a smartphone. In addition, to this most recent charge of bribery. His new non-smartphone won’t have internet or signal access, which Bankman-
Fried reportedly used to reach out to his co-workers while on bond.
Bankman-Fried wants access to his existing laptop, which “will be configured to allow access ” only to specific websites such as YouTube, Netflix, and Wikipedia.
Last December, Bankman-Fried was arrested and charged with money laundering and fraud.
Although, Bankman-Fried, owner of FTX exchange, got released on a $250 million bail. In February, federal prosecutors brought four additional charges against him with different claims.
According to the reports, the claims included new bank fraud, money laundering counts, and modified campaign finance charges.
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