29 Mar 2023

Sam Bankman-Fried accused of bribing Chinese official

1:26 pm on 29 March 2023
(FILES) In this file photo taken on February 09, 2022, Samuel Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX, testifies during a Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry hearing about "Examining Digital Assets: Risks, Regulation, and Innovation," on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. - Crisis-struck cryptocurrency platform FTX has gone bankrupt in the USs and its CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned, it said on November 11, 2022, the latest blow in a saga that has reverberated across the digital currency landscape. FTX Group announced in a statement Friday that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, adding it has begun an "orderly process to review and monetize assets for the benefit of all global stakeholders." (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

Samuel Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX Photo: AFP

Founder of failed crypto firm FTX Sam Bankman-Fried has been accused of bribing at least one Chinese official.

In new charges unveiled in the US, officials accuse the entrepreneur of authorising a bribe of "at least US$40m" to try to gain access to trading accounts frozen by Chinese authorities.

The allegations add to the fraud case filed last year after FTX's collapse.

Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to those claims earlier this year.

He is currently under house arrest at his parents' home in California while awaiting trial.

The updated indictment says Bankman-Fried authorised the bribe after Chinese authorities froze accounts holding roughly US$1 billion ($1.6b) worth of cryptocurrency that belonged to his trading firm, Alameda Research.

The accounts were released after the transfer, which went to a private cryptocurrency wallet, according to the filing.

The alleged bribe followed months of other efforts to access the funds, which Bankman-Fried believed were frozen as part of an investigation into another trading firm, it said.

The incident happened before FTX's dramatic collapse last year, when reports about the company's finances led to a rush of withdrawals, pushing the firm into bankruptcy.

In the wake of the collapse, which left many people unable to access their funds, the US filed criminal charges against Bankman-Fried, accusing him of improperly using customer deposits at FTX to fund his other firm, Alameda Research, buy property and make millions in political donations.

The episode cast a dark cloud over the crypto industry, which was already suffering from big falls in the values of Bitcoin and other assets.

It was also a sharp fall from grace for Bankman-Fried, who had been one of the most high-profile figures in the sector, leading an exchange which had more than one million users and ranked as the world's third largest trading platform by some measures.

Bankman-Fried has acknowledged lapses in management, but denied fraud.

Three of his closest colleagues have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with investigators.

He faces more than 100 years in prison if convicted.

-BBC